Trials: Of Antigone and Jesus (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)

What does it mean to be called "human"? How does this nomination affect or effect what it means to be called "divine"? This book responds to these related questions in intertwined explorations of the passionate trials-examinations, tests, and ordeals-of Antigone and Jesus. Impelled by her love of the impossible, Antigone crosses uncrossable boundaries, transgresses norms of kinship and mortality, confounds distinctions of nature and culture, and, in the process, unearths and critiques the sexism implicit in humanism. Antigone thus disrupts humanist traditions stretching from Sophocles to Martin Heidegger-traditions that would render her subhuman or inhuman. She survives these exclusions and engenders a new mode of humanity, one that destabilizes classic oppositions of life and death and affirms mortal finitude in the face of the future's unforeseeability. This new mode of humanity offers a new way of considering Jesus, whom Christianity identifies as human and divine. Building on his reading of Antigone , the author, through a close reading of Mark's gospel focused on Jesus' cry of abandonment from the cross, shows that to refigure humanity is also to refigure divinity and their relation. In the first extended treatment of Jean-Luc Nancy's Corpus in English, the author draws on the theoretical insights of Jacques Derrida and Nancy to propose an innovative account of Jesus' humanity and divinity-one that can contribute to religious understandings of embodiment and prayer and can open avenues of inquiry into tragedy, sexual difference, posthumanism, and politics. By pairing Antigone and Jesus and engaging the work of Judith Butler, Simone Weil, Jean-Louis Chrtien, and Dominique Janicaud, this book constructively participates in interdisciplinary conversations at the nexus of religious, philosophical, literary, and gender studies. Trials: Of Antigone and Jesus......Page 6 Contents......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 12 Invocation......Page 16 1 Impossible Love......Page 21 Loving Nature......Page 23 The Impossible......Page 26 Impossibly Passionate......Page 28 Impossible Death......Page 30 Impossibly Dead......Page 32 2 Between Nature and Culture......Page 35 Necro-philia......Page 37 Natural Dialectic / Dialectical Nature......Page 38 The Far Side of the Symbolic......Page 41 Antigone’s Differance......Page 42 Supplemental Spacing......Page 44 Living Tekhnē......Page 46 Living Together......Page 48 3 Surviving, Forever Foreign......Page 51 Human Being-in-Question......Page 52 Sophoclean Sexism......Page 55 Antigone, Animal, Monster......Page 57 Reviving Humanity......Page 59 Living Corpse......Page 63 Living On......Page 65 4 Cryptic Crossing......Page 69 Tragic Questions......Page 70 Divine Distance......Page 77 Suffering Affliction......Page 79 Waiting Attentively for a Future to Come......Page 82 5 Touching Transcendence, in the Flesh......Page 86 Corporeal Ex-istence......Page 87 Skin Events......Page 90 Touching Jesus......Page 93 Proximity and Distance......Page 97 Divine Address......Page 100 6 The Tragedy of Christianity......Page 103 Hoc Est Corpus Meum......Page 105 Abandon......Page 108 Passion......Page 110 Touching Tragedy......Page 113 Impossible Opening......Page 115 Opening......Page 118 Invocation......Page 122 1. Impossible Love......Page 123 2. Between Nature and Culture......Page 129 3. Surviving, Forever Foreign......Page 134 4. Cryptic Crossing......Page 143 5. Touching Transcendence, in the Flesh......Page 148 6. The Tragedy of Christianity......Page 153 Opening......Page 157 Index......Page 160 Back Matter......Page 168 Trials: Of Antigone and Jesus 6 Contents 10 Acknowledgments 12 Invocation 16 1 Impossible Love 21 Loving Nature 23 The Impossible 26 Impossibly Passionate 28 Impossible Death 30 Impossibly Dead 32 2 Between Nature and Culture 35 Necro-philia 37 Natural Dialectic / Dialectical Nature 38 The Far Side of the Symbolic 41 Antigone鈥檚 Differance 42 Supplemental Spacing 44 Living Tekhn膿 46 Living Together 48 3 Surviving, Forever Foreign 51 Human Being-in-Question 52 Sophoclean Sexism 55 Antigone, Animal, Monster 57 Reviving Humanity 59 Living Corpse 63 Living On 65 4 Cryptic Crossing 69 Tragic Questions 70 Divine Distance 77 Suffering Affliction 79 Waiting Attentively for a Future to Come 82 5 Touching Transcendence, in the Flesh 86 Corporeal Ex-istence 87 Skin Events 90 Touching Jesus 93 Proximity and Distance 97 Divine Address 100 6 The Tragedy of Christianity 103 Hoc Est Corpus Meum 105 Abandon 108 Passion 110 Touching Tragedy 113 Impossible Opening 115 Opening 118 Notes 122 Invocation 122 1. Impossible Love 123 2. Between Nature and Culture 129 3. Surviving, Forever Foreign 134 4. Cryptic Crossing 143 5. Touching Transcendence, in the Flesh 148 6. The Tragedy of Christianity 153 Opening 157 Index 160 Back Matter 168 Impossible Love -- Between Nature And Culture -- Surviving, Forever Foreign -- Cryptic Crossing -- Touching Transcendence, In The Flesh -- The Tragedy Of Christianity. William Robert. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.