McDonnell, Cyril (2018) Book Review: William Desmond and Contemporary Theology. Edited by Christopher Ben Simpson and Brendan Thomas Sammon. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2017. Pp. 301 + vii. Price $50.00 (hbk). ISBN 9780268102210. Irish Theological Quarterly, 83 (4). pp. 367-369. ISSN 0021-1400

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Abstract

William Desmond and Contemporary Theology is a book containing the reflections of 11 thinkers, in ten chapters (one of which is co-written), who elaborate on the relevance of William Desmond’s thought for contemporary theology, with theology understood as the philosophical study of God and as an acknowledgement of the word of God as the begin- ning of all things that are, as documented in and through the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Desmond, nonetheless, is well aware of the effect of Kant’s embargo on such traditional metaphysics and the dominance of Hegel’s dialectical manner of thinking, however vehemently extolled or viciously opposed, within contemporary philosophy of religion and theology. If Joseph K. Gordon and D. Stephen Long are correct to see in Hegel ‘the protestant Thomas Aquinas’ (p. 155), then this leaves open the position for someone, Desmond, to be the catholic Thomas Aquinas, given Aquinas pre-dates the Reformation. This is the overall merit of this book, for it draws attention to the radical post-Kantian engagement that Desmond has initiated and that could only unfold after Kant and Hegel in light of what went before and in such thinkers as Aquinas, Anselm, and Augustine, and many more.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	William Desmond; Contemporary Theology; Christopher Ben Simpson; Brendan Thomas Sammon; University of Notre Dame; ISBN 9780268102210;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > Philosophy
Item ID:	10348
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1177/0021140018798064a
Depositing User:	Dr Cyril McDonnell
Date Deposited:	03 Jan 2019 15:04
Journal or Publication Title:	Irish Theological Quarterly
Publisher:	Sage
Refereed:	No
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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