Immediacy and Meaning : J. K. Huysmans and the Immemorial Origin of Metaphysics

__Immediacy and Meaning__ seeks to approach the odd uneasiness at root in all metaphysical meaning; that the human knower attempts to mediate what cannot be mediated; that there is a pre-cognitive immemorial immediacy to Being that renders its participants irreducible, incommunicable and personal. The dilemma of metaphysics rests on the relationship between the spectator and the player, both as essential responses to the immediacy of Being. __Immediacy and Meaning__ is an attempt to pause, but without retreat, to be a spectator within the game, to gain access into this immediate Presence, for a moment only perhaps, before the signatory failure into metaphysical language returns us to the mediated. J. K. Huysman's semi-autobiographical tetralogy anchors this book as a meditation, neither purely poetic nor only philosophical; it claims a unique territory when attempting to speak what cannot be spoken. The unnerving merits of nominalism, the difficulties of an honest appraisal of efficacious prayer, the mad sanity of the muse, the relationship between the uncreated and the created, and an originary ethics of antagonism, each serves to clarify the formation of a new epistemology. Machine Generated Contents Note: Grunewald's Crucifixion: The Emerging Immemorial Act -- The Relief From Concentrated Thinking -- 1. St. Thomas And The Paradox Of Mediation And Intentionality -- Et In Arcadia Ego -- Where Everything Is A Here And Nothing Is A Now -- The Veil Of Oblivion -- The Ethical Foreground Of The Immediate: On The Outside Looking In -- The Long Goodbye -- The Lost Horizon Of The Non-mediated Here -- Evil, Temporality, And The Unformed: The Grassy Pampas Of The Soul -- Here's That Rainy Day -- And Then My Heart Stood Still: The Immediate And The Intuition Of Being -- Potentiality, Temporality, And The Non-mediated -- Nominalism: If Only For A Moment -- 2. Re-approaching Immediacy -- The Unitive And The Differentiating -- Hegel: The Spiritual Meaning Of The Universals -- The Idealist Sublation Of The Non-mediated -- The Unnerving Merit Of Pantheism -- Eckhart's Silent Middle: In A Desert Place -- No Cabin In The Sky -- These Foolish Things -- An Engodded Metaphysics -- 3. Efficacious Prayer, Suffering, And Self-presence -- From En Route To The Cathedral: Recovering The Role Of Impetration -- Strangers On A Train -- A Prayer Before Dying: The Uncreated Presence And The Paradoxes Of Impetration -- Nor All Your Tears: The Appointment In Samarra -- Processing God: Watch On The Rhine -- Unanswered Prayers -- All Things Bright And Beautiful -- Efficacious Prayer And The Uncreated Mode Of Freedom -- Uneasy Consolation -- The Potency Of Prayer: From Mechanics To Living Praxis -- The Non-mediated Ethics Of Antagonism -- The Inconsolability Of Prayer: Where All Lost Time Is Restored -- Rope -- Prayer And The Suffering Of Christ -- Entheotic Epistemology: Immediacy And The Antagonism Of The Particular -- Epilogue: Heaven: They Do Things Differently There -- The Death Of Heaven: The Anatomy Of A Murder -- The Mask Of Transiency -- My Blue Heaven. Caitlin Smith Gilson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover Contents Preface: Stating the Problem of Metaphysics Acknowledgments Prologue: En Route to Memory Grünewald’s Crucifixion: The emerging immemorial act The relief from concentrated thinking 1 St. Thomas and the Paradox of Mediation and Intentionality Et in arcadia ego Where everything is a here and nothing is a “now” The veil of oblivion The ethical foreground of the immediate: On the outside looking in The long goodbye The lost horizon of the non-mediated here Evil, temporality, and the unformed: The grassy pampas of the soul Here’s that rainy day And then my heart stood still: The immediate and the intuition of being Potentiality, temporality, and the non-mediated Nominalism: If only for a moment 2 Re-Approaching Immediacy The unitive and the differentiating Hegel: The spiritual meaning of the universals The idealist sublation of the non-mediated The unnerving merit of pantheism Eckhart’s silent middle: In a desert place No cabin in the sky These foolish things An engodded metaphysics 3 Efficacious Prayer, Suffering, and Self-Presence From En Route to The Cathedral: Recovering the role of impetration Strangers on a train A prayer before dying: The uncreated presence and the paradoxes of impetration Nor all your tears: The appointment in Samarra Processing God: Watch on the Rhine Unanswered prayers All things bright and beautiful Efficacious prayer and the uncreated mode of freedom Uneasy consolation The potency of prayer: From mechanics to living Praxis The non-mediated ethics of antagonism The inconsolability of prayer: Where all lost time is restored Rope Prayer and the suffering of Christ Entheotic epistemology: Immediacy and the antagonism of the particular Epilogue: Heaven: They do Things Differently There The death of heaven: The anatomy of a murder The mask of transiency My blue heaven Bibliography Index "Immediacy and Meaning seeks to approach the odd uneasiness at root in all metaphysical meaning; that the human knower attempts to mediate what cannot be mediated; that there is a pre-cognitive immemorial immediacy to Being that renders its participants irreducible, incommunicable and personal. The dilemma of metaphysics rests on the relationship between the spectator and the player, both as essential responses to the immediacy of Being. Immediacy and Meaning is an attempt to pause, but without retreat, to be a spectator within the game, to gain access into this immediate Presence, for a moment only perhaps, before the signatory failure into metaphysical language returns us to the mediated. J.K. Huysman's semi-autobiographical tetralogy anchors this book as a meditation, neither purely poetic nor only philosophical; it claims a unique territory when attempting to speak what cannot be spoken. The unnerving merits of nominalism, the difficulties of an honest appraisal of efficacious prayer, the mad sanity of the muse, the relationship between the uncreated and the created, and an originary ethics of antagonism, each serves to clarify the formation of a new epistemology."--Bloomsbury Publishing.