Expressing the inexpressible in Lyotard and Pseduo-Dionysius [Pseudo-Dionysius] : bearing witness as spiritual exercise

The 2012 Republican nomination process went on longer than most pundits predicted early on. While Mitt Romney began the season as the prohibitive favorite, he was tested repeatedly by what was seemingly the Republican flavor of the week (including Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum). The sheer number of candidates who were viewed as legitimate contenders demonstrate the fundamental concern facing Republicans moving forward: a fractured party. The pro-business, Tea Party, and evangelical Christian wings disagreed in 2010 on who would provide the best alternative to Democratic President Barack Obama and as a result created a crippling nomination period. By the time Romney was able to claim victory, he was severely wounded after countless attacks from his fellow Republicans. To this internal discontent, we can also add the changing national demographics that could lead to electoral problems for Republicans in their own right. Consider that Mitt Romney did better with older, white male voters than John McCain had. Unfortunately, the share of the national vote for this demographic decreased from 2008 to 2012. As Rand Paul stated recently, the time has come for Republicans to reach out to individuals who do not fit the stereotyped Republican image if they have any hope of being successful. In this volume, we assess how the 2012 GOP nomination cycle is indicative of just how the Republican Party has become, in the words of pundit Cuck Warren, a “Mad Men Party in a Modern Family World.” If The 2012 Nomination Process Taught The Republican Party Anything, It Is That There Are Internal Fractures Within The Gop That Need To Be Worked Out Prior To The 2016 Presidential Election. When Coupled With Changing National Demographics That Are Less Than Favorable, Republican Candidates Must Determine A Way To Bring Together The Pro-business, Tea Party, And Evangelical Wings Of Their Party Together If They Hope For Victory. Preface -- The 2012 Republican Nomination Season : A Clown Car Or Feuding Conservatives? / William J. Miller -- The Impact Of Rules Changes On The 2012 Republican Presidential Primary Process / Joshua T. Putnam -- White Knights To The Rescue! : The Non-candidates Of 2012 / William Cunion -- The Curious Candidacy Of Jon Huntsman / David F. Damore And Kenneth J. Retzl -- Early To Rise, Early To Fall : The Short Lived Hope Of Michele Bachmann / Jason Rich And Brandy A. Kennedy -- The Hermanator : Anti-elitism And The Rise Of Herman Cain / Andrew L. Pieper -- Rick Perry : The Quickly Fading Star Of Texas / Brian Arbour -- Newt Gingrich : It Takes More Than Ideas To Win A Nomination / Joshua P. Stockley -- Ron Paul : Establishment Outsider Or Radical Insider? / Jeremy D. Walling -- Of Sweater Vests And Broken Dreams : Santorum's Almost Win / Daniel J. Coffey And Terrence M. O'sullivan -- Mitt Romney--the Republican Of Choice : Inevitability, Electability, And Lack Of Enthusiasm / Sean D. Foreman -- The Victor's Reward And The Future Of The Gop / William J. Miller -- About The Editor -- About The Contributors -- Index. Edited By William J. Miller. Includes Bibliographic References And Index. Testimony demands the witness to demonstrate her knowledge—that knowledge that she must have by the fact of being a witness to something, even if this something exceeds the possibility of expression by any means amenable to verification. Expressing the Inexpressible in Lyotard and Pseudo-Dionysius: Bearing Witness as Spiritual Exercise rigorously studies the inexpressible expression provoked by two illustrative examples: the silenced testimony of the Holocaust survivor, in Jean-François Lyotard’s The Differend, and the religious faithful, in Pseudo-Dionysius’ The Divine Names. Though coming from vastly different philosophical moments, the methods used by Lyotard and Dionysius prove to dissolve the apparent heterogeneity of postmodernism and Neoplatonist Christian mysticism and open radical new lines of dialogue. Mélanie Victoria Walton critically evaluates each thinker and tradition, rethinks witnessing, testimony, sublimity, and apophaticism, and then engages them together to forge a new reading of silence and eros. The resulting insights will be especially valuable to students and scholars of Continental philosophy, philosophy of religion, theology and religious studies, medieval studies, and Holocaust studies. Rigorously studying the inexpressible expression provoked by the silenced testimony of the Holocaust survivor, in Jean-François Lyotard's The Differend, and the religious faithful, in Pseudo-Dionysius' The Divine Names, proves to dissolve the apparent heterogeneity of postmodernism and Neoplatonist Christian mysticism and open radical new lines of dialogue. Expressing the Inexpressible critically evaluates each thinker AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: What is the Inexpressible Expression?Chapter One: Witness and TestimonyChapter Two: Contextualizing Jean-Francois LyotardChapter Three: Bearing Witness in The DifferendChapter Four: Contextualizing Pseudo-DionysiusChapter Five: Bearing Witness in The Divine NamesChapter Six: Silence and ErosConclusion: The Expression of the InexpressibleBibliographyIndexAbout the Author