Christian philosophy and philosophy of religion tend to be dominated by analytic approaches, which have brought a valuable logical rigor to the discussion of matters of belief. However, the perspectives of continental philosophy-in particular, the continental emphasis on embodied forms of knowing-still have much to offer to the conversation and our understanding of what it means to be both rational and faithful in a postmodern world. The Nicene Option represents the full sweep of James K. A. Smith's work in continental philosophy of religion over the past twenty years. Animated by the conviction that a philosophy of religion needs to be philosophical reflection on the practice of religion, as a "form of life" (as Wittgenstein would say), this book makes the case for the distinct contribution that phenomenology-as a philosophy of experience-can make to philosophy of religion and Christian philosophy. Engaging a range of philosophers in this tradition, including Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Luc Marion, Richard Rorty, and Charles Taylor, Smith's constructive proposal coheres around what he describes as "the logic of incarnation," a "Nicene option" in contemporary philosophy of religion. By grounding philosophy of religion in the doctrinal heart of Christian confession, Smith gestures toward a uniquely robust Christian philosophy. Besides issuing a clarion call for the renaissance of continental philosophy of religion, The Nicene Option also offers a glimpse behind the scholarly curtain for a wider audience of readers familiar with Smith's popular works such as Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?, Desiring the Kingdom, Imagining the Kingdom, and You Are What You Love-all of which are tacitly informed by the phenomenological approach articulated in this book. As an extended footnote to those works-which for many readers have been gateways to philosophy- The Nicene Option presents an invitation to a new depth of reflection.
James K.A. Smith is Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University and serves as editor in chief of Image, a literary quarterly at the intersection of art, faith, and mystery. He is the award-winning author of more than twenty books, including Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?, How (Not) to Be Secular, You Are What You Love, and On the Road with Saint Augustine.
Introduction: God on the Left Bank? Prospects for a Continental Philosophy of Religion I Outline of an Incarnational Continental Philosophy of Religion 1 The Philosophy of Religion Takes Practice: A Methodological Manifesto 2 Secular Liturgies: Prospects for a "Post-Secular" Study of Religion 3 Continental Philosophy of Religion: Prescriptions for a Healthy Subdiscipline 4 A Logic of Incarnation: The Nicene Option in Continental Philosophy of Religion II Derrida, Marion, and the Possibility of a Christian Phenomenology 5 Determined Violence: Derrida's Structural Religion 6 Re-Kanting Postmodernism? Derrida's Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone 7 Determined Hope: A Phenomenology of Christian Expectation 8 Beyond Epistemology: Derrida and the Limits of the "Limits of Knowledge" 9 A Principle of Incarnation in Derrida's (Theologische?) Jugendschriften: Towards a Confessional Theology 10 Deconstruction--an Augustinian Science? 11 Picturing Revelation: Idolatry and the Aesthetic in Marion and Rosenzweig 12 The Call as Gift: The Subject's Donation in Marion and Levinas Afterword: An Incarnational Phenomenology
James K.A. Smith's The Nicene Option: An Incarnational Phenomenology offers a compelling philosophical theology rooted within the 'continental' tradition as a deliberate and favorable alternative to the 'analytic' approaches which tend to dominate Anglophone Christian scholarly spheres. --Joel Mayward "Reading Religion" The legacy of deconstruction continues to loom large, not least in the field of continental philosophy of religion. Smith's recent volume, The Nicene Option: An Incarnational Phenomenology, gathers work from over two decades of scholarship to offer a thoughtful and thoroughgoing reckoning with this legacy, which Smith deepens and even radicalizes. --Jared Highlen "Journal for Continental Philosophy of Religion" ...The Nicene Option is a must-read for any person interested in the future of Christian thought within the realm of continental philosophy. --Ben Van Haitsma "Theophron Journal of Christian Studies"
