The Phenomenology of Prayer (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)

This collection of ground-breaking essays considers the many dimensions of prayer: how prayer relates us to the divine; prayer's ability to reveal what is essential about our humanity; the power of prayer to transform human desire and action; and the relation of prayer to cognition. It takes up the meaning of prayer from within a uniquely phenomenological point of view, demonstrating that the phenomenology of prayer is as much about the character and boundaries of phenomenological analysis as it is about the heart of religious life.The contributors: Michael F. Andrews, Bruce Ellis Benson, Mark Cauchi, Benjamin Crowe, Mark Gedney, Philip Goodchild, Christina M. Gschwandtner, Lissa McCullough, Cleo McNelly Kearns, Edward F. Mooney, B. Keith Putt, Jill Robbins, Brian Treanor, Merold Westphal, Norman Wirzba, Terence Wright and Terence and James R. Mensch. Bruce Ellis Benson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College. He is the author of Graven Ideologies: Nietzsche, Derrida, and Marion on Modern Idolatry and The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue: A Phenomenology of Music. Norman Wirzba is Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Georgetown College, Kentucky. He is the author of The Paradise of God and editor of The Essential Agrarian Reader. Content: Prayer as the posture of the decentered self / Merold Westphal -- Who prays? Levinas on irremissible responsibility / Jill Robbins -- Becoming what we pray: passion's gentler resolutions / Edward F. Mooney -- Prayer as kenosis / James R. Mensch -- The prayers and tears of Friedrich Nietzsche / Bruce Ellis Benson -- Attention and responsibility: the work of prayer / Norman Wirzba -- Irigaray's Between East and West: breath, pranayama, and the phenomenology of prayer / Cleo McNelly Kearns -- Heidegger and the prospect of a phenomenology of prayer / Benjamin Crowe -- Edith Stein: prayer and interiority / Terrence C. Wright -- "Too deep for words": the conspiracy of a divine "soliloquy" / B. Keith Putt -- Plus de secret: the paradox of prayer / Brian Treanor -- Praise--pure and personal? Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenologies of prayer / Christina M. Gschwandtner -- The saving or sanitizing of prayer: the problem of the sans in Derrida's account of prayer / Mark Gedney -- How (not) to find God in all things: Derrida, Levinas, and St. Ignatius of Loyola on learning how to pray for the impossible / Michael F. Andrews -- Prayer and incarnation: a homiletical reflection / Lissa McCullough -- The infinite supplicant: on a limit and a prayer / Mark Cauchi -- Proslogion / Philip Goodchild. This collection of ground-breaking essays considers the many dimensions of prayer: how prayer relates us to the divine; prayer's ability to reveal what is essential about our humanity; the power of prayer to transform human desire and action; and the relation of prayer to cognition. It takes up the meaning of prayer from within a uniquely phenomenological point of view, demonstrating that the phenomenology of prayer is as much about the character and boundaries of phenomenological analysis as it is about the heart of religious life. The contributors: Michael F. Andrews, Bruce Ellis Benson, Mark Cauchi, Benjamin Crowe, Mark Gedney, Philip Goodchild, Christina M. Gschwandtner, Lissa McCullough, Cleo McNelly Kearns, Edward F. Mooney, B. Keith Putt, Jill Robbins, Brian Treanor, Merold Westphal, Norman Wirzba, Terence Wright and Terence and James R. Mensch. Bruce Ellis Benson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College. He is the author of Graven Ideologies: Nietzsche, Derrida, and Marion on Modern Idolatry and The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue: A Phenomenology of Music. Norman Wirzba is Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Georgetown College, Kentucky. He is the author of The Paradise of God and editor of The Essential Agrarian Reader.