After Heidegger: Transubstantiation

Recent debate over transubstantiation (especially Jean‐Luc Marion's defence of it) has concentrated either on transubstantiation as a kind of embarrassment in consequence of modern physics, or on the extent to which it is both a doctrine elaborated in the light of metaphysics and recoverable in consequence of metaphysics having been overcome. In this sense the tension between Aquinas' apparently metaphysical formulation of the doctrine and the less overtly metaphysical formula adopted by the Council of Trent (in its refusal to speak of ‘accidents’) has indicated a way of ‘rescuing’ or ‘recovering’ the doctrine. This article argues that such a recovery is a false trail. Pope Paul VI was right to be wary of relativising the Eucharistic event to the believing community in any doctrine of transignification. Alternatively, attempts like Chauvet's and Macquarrie's to restate Eucharistic event in terms of Heidegger's Geviert presuppose Heidegger has succeeded in destroying the metaphysics of presence, so that they can use the fruits of his researches. What is actually at issue in thinking through transubstantiation is how the doctrine relates to conceptions of the physical: Aristotelian, what comes to be Newtonian, or postmodern conceptions which appear to eschew physics altogether. Heidegger's contribution to the debate would better point to how knowing anything means being included in and (self‐) disclosed by what I know. A re‐investigation of transubstantiation might therefore take into account the extraordinary reappearance of the term ‘transubstantiation’ in current non‐theological investigations of performativity (especially in the work of Judith Butler). Here transubstantiation would include not the maximal meaning of bread and wine as signs constituted in das Geviert, ‘after’ substance has been critiqued, but their minimality, in enacting a change in (our) substance (self‐realising). This would confirm the divinising meaning of the Eucharistic event, which stresses how we are caught up into the divine. Thus, whereas in transignification the Eucharistic event occurs in consequence of the will of the community of believers, in transubstantiation it is the enactment of the community as community that is at issue, an enactment in consequence of no act of will of its own. In terms of the postmodern and non‐theological appropriation of the word transubstantiation, this means that I who participate in the Eucharistic am re‐ordered, or re‐materialised, or ‘trans‐substantiated’ in the Eucharistic event.     

Theological Pragmatism: A Critical Evaluation

Theological pragmatists like Daly, Kaufman, McFague and Reuther claim that the God we should believe in and the kind of images we should use to express our religious faith should be evaluated primarily on the basis of the consequences they have for the maintenance of certain political or moral values. These views are presented and critically evaluated. One difficulty is that their pragmatism seems to clash with our intuition and experience that there is no automatic fit between our moral aspirations and political visions, on the one hand, and how the world is actually structured, on the other. Their strong emphasis on political and moral considerations is, therefore, questionable and only plausible under certain specific circumstances.     

Omniscience And Pantheism

This article argues that theism entails a species of pantheism on the grounds that there is simply no discernible difference between the God's knowledge of the world and the world that God knows. The case against this thesis begins with the traditional theory of distinctions. But since God is necessarily omniscient there is not even the possibility that these might be considered apart and thus distinguished in that way. But neither is it possible to do this by means of Leibnitz's law, that is, by finding some feature possessed by the one but not the other. Three potential areas of difference are considered but rejected, first, that knowledge unlike the world is representational, and second, that knowledge unlike the world is phenomenal – there is something that it is like to have. Both of these features, though able to distinguish ordinary knowledge from its objects, cease to provide the difference we require when extended to the case of divine knowledge. A final area of potential difference lies in the transcendent nature of God over the world, especially with respect to time, finitude and possibility. But this, in the end, is found no more able to distinguish God's knowledge from its object than the previous two suggestions.     

Book Reviews

James Campbell, Understanding John Dewey: Nature and Cooperative Intelligence
Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Pragmatism and Feminism: Reweaving the Social Fabric     

All quiet on the postmodern front?

This paper explores the question of the purpose of education within the context of Lyotardȁ9s framing of the postmodern condition. It points to some of the continuities and discontinuities in the framing of the current condition as postmodern and the recurrent problematics of truth-telling which is the mark of this condition. It suggests that educationally the postmodern condition is marked by lifelong learning, a constant apprenticeship rather than mastery, where in language stutters.     

Relationality and Commitment: Ethics and Ontology in Heidegger's Aristotle

This article discusses the tension between social relationality and self-relationality central to Heidegger's ontology of Dasein and the possible ways of reconciling this tension. Arguing that this is a tension between communicability and existential commitments, the article poses the question: How are existential commitments responsive to communication? After problematizing the quasi-Kantian and communitarian ways of settling the tension, the article uses Heidegger's early reading of Aristotle to develop a third hermeneutic model of ethical relationality according to which existential commitments are shareable in communication, since ethos – the existential posture towards the good – arises out of pathos that exposes Dasein to coexistence. The account of ethical relationality found in Heidegger's interpretation of Aristotle thus takes the world to be a shared and dynamic ontological condition and emphasize that the world constitutes selfhood in a way that is constantly at stake in ethical communication.     

The ontological reappropriation of phronēsis

Ontology has been traditionally guided by sophia, a form of knowledge directed toward that which is eternal, permanent, necessary. This tradition finds an important early expression in the philosophical ontology of Aristotle. Yet in the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle's intense concern to do justice to the world of finite contingency leads him to develop a mode of knowledge, phronsis, that implicitly challenges the hegemony of sophia and the economy of values on which it depends. Following in the tradition of the early Heidegger's recognition of the ontological significance of Aristotle's Ethics and of Gadamer's appropriation of phronsis for hermeneutics, this article argues that an ontology guided by phronsis is preferable to one governed by sophia. Specifically, it suggests that by taking sophia as its paradigm, traditional philosophical ontology has historically been determined by a kind of knowledge that is incapable of critically considering the concrete historico-ethico-political conditions of its own deployment. This critique of sophia is accomplished by uncovering the economy of values that led Aristotle to privilege sophia over phronsis. It is intended to open up the possibility of developing an ontology of finite contingency based on phronsis. Such an ontology, because it is guided by and must remain responsible to the concrete individual with which it is engaged, would be ethical at its very core.     

Book Reviews

Scruton, Roger Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey
Fraser, Nancy and Bartky, Sandra Lee (eds) Revaluing French Feminisms: Critical Essays on Difference, Agency and Culture
Friedman, Marilyn What are Friends For? Feminist Perspectives on Personal Relationships and Moral Theory     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Casement, Ann (ed.)., Post-Jungians Today: Key Papers in Contemporary Analytical Psychology.
Frankel, Richard., The Adolescent Psyche: Jungian and Winnicottian Perspectives.
Hillman, James., The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling.
Raphael-Leff, Joan & Jozef Perelberg, Rosine (eds.)., Female Experience: Three Generations of British Women Psychoanalysts on Work with Women.
Haynes, Jane & Shearer, Ann (eds.)., When a Princess Dies: Reflections from Jungian Analysts.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Christopher Mabey, Denise Skinner and Timothy Clark Experiencing Human Resource Management Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter The Truth about Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It K.W. De Dreu and Evert Van De Vliert Using Conflict in Organizations Richard Jeanneret and Rob Silzer Individual Psychological Assessment: Predicting Behavior in Organizational Settings     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar, Going Negative. How PoliticalAdvertisements Shrink & Polarize the Electorate Ann M. Crigler (ed.), The Psychology of Political Communication Thomas M. Holbrook, Do Campaigns Matter? Robert Huckfeldt and John Sprague, Citizens, Politics, and Social Communication. Information and Influence in an Election Campaign Warren Christopher, In the Stream of History: Shaping Foreign Policy for a New Era Roberta S. Sigel, Ambition and Accommodation: How Women View Gender Relations Daniel Archibugi, David Held, and Martin Köhler (eds), Re-imaging Political Community: Studies in Cosmopolitan Democracy     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
William James, A Review of the Reviews of The Varieties of Religious Experience
Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions
Rowan Williams, On Christian Theology
James R. Nieman and Thomas G. Rogers, Preaching to Every Pew: Cross–Cultural Strategies     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
James Burtness, Consequences: Morality, Ethics, and the Future
Heup Young Kim, Wang Yang–Ming and Karl Barth: A Confucian–Christian Dialogue     

Book Reviews

Aronson, Ronald After Marxism
Chambliss, William J. and Zatz, Marjorie S. (Eds) Making Law: The State, the Law, and Structural Contradictions
Kirschner, Don S. Cold War Exile: The Unclosed Case of Maurice Halperin
Earle, Robert L. and Wirth, John D. (Eds) Identities in North America: The Search for Community
Dunn, Susan The Deaths of Louis XVI; Regicide and the French Political Imagination
Brothers, Barbara Jo Peace, War and Mental Health
Singer, Margaret Thaler with Lalich, Janja Cults in Out Midst
Smith, Craig Allen and Smith, Kathy B. The White House Speaks: Presidential Leadership as Persuasion
Renshon, Stanley A. High Hopes: The Clinton Presidency and the Politics of Ambition     

Book Reviews

Distorted interpretations and abusive uses of the Ham–Noah curse tale abound. This essay explores five common interpretations. Cohen's overly‐imaginative interpretation links wine, genitalia, and reproduction to accent Noah's potency and Ham's presumed designs on that potency. Nineteenth‐century slave owners used the text to undergird dangerous fantasies of white superiority. Fundamentalists, thinking Ham sodomised his father, inappropriately use the text to condemn modern homoeroticism. Some see Ham as uncontrolled libido. Intra‐biblical connections may suggest that Ham's act was maternal incest. The danger of getting stuck in ancient mythostories calls for a creative critique. Perryman puts Ham on trial in an effort to dismantle racist uses of the text, suggesting that a carnivalesque biblical hermeneutic that mocks the injustices perpetuated by this text may be the most effective way to counter textual abuse.     

Book Reviews

This study examined various factors affecting attitude towards seeking professional psychological help (ATSPPH) in Arabs living in the UK: causal beliefs, shame-focused attitudes, confidentiality concerns, ethnic identity and demographic variables. Participants completed an online questionnaire and results indicated that Arabs showed significantly less positive ATSPPH and had stronger causal beliefs in supernatural and non-Western physiology than British Caucasians. Confidentiality concerns, but not shame-focused attitudes were significant predictors of ATSPPH; confidentiality concerns were more significant for Arabs than for British Caucasians. Implications are drawn from the results.     

Book Reviews

Sudhir Kakar, The Colors of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion, and Conflict
Paul Kivel Uprooting Racism Benjamin P. Bowser and Raymond G. Hunt (eds.), Impacts of Racism on White Americans, Second Edition
Michael S. Lund, Preventing Violent Conflicts: A Strategy for Preventive Diplomacy
Marc Howard Ross, The Management of Conflict: Interpretations and Interests in Comparative Perspective
Amos Kiewe (ed.), The Modern Presidency and Crisis Rhetoric
Sarah Sanderson King and Donald P. Cushman (eds.), Political Communication: Engineering Visions of Order in the Socialist World
Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
George E. Marcus, W. Russell Newman, and Michael MacKuen, Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment
Micha Popper, Hypnotic Leadership:Leaders, Followers, and the Loss of Self
James W. Davis, Jr., Threats and Promises: The Pursuit of International Influence
Mark R. Warren, Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy
Tali Mendelberg, The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality     

Book Reviews

Abstract

Some children survive experiences of racism, urban decay and emotional rot. For those who need help there is inadequate support. Current child mental health services have to change in order to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children. The clinics of Hampstead have to face a new reality.     

Book Reviews

Luc Boltanski, Distant Suffering: Morality, Media and Politics
Stephen Frosh, The Politics of Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to Freudian and Post-Freudian Theory
Dennis Chong, Rational Lives: Norms and Values in Politics and Society
Zsolt Enyedi and Ferenc Erös, Authoritarianism and Prejudice: Central European Perspectives
Stephanie Riger, Transforming Psychology: Gender in Theory and Practice
V. M. Bekhterev, Suggestion and Its Role in Social Life
Ian Glynn, An Anatomy of Thought: The Origins and Machinery of the Mind
David O. Sears, Jim Sidanius, and Lawrence Bobo (eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate About Racism in America
Philip A. Klinkner with Rogers M. Smith, The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America