Beginning from the notion of finite life, Another Finitude takes this staple subject from post-Heideggerian philosophy and opposes it to the onto-theological concept of infinity, represented by an eternal absolute. Although critical of Heidegger and his definition of finitude as ‘being-towards-death’, this book does not revert to the ontological idea of infinity secured in the sacred image of immortality. But it also does not want to give up on infinity altogether; the infinite is transposed, so it can become a necessary moment of the finite life. A theological framework for the new elaboration of the concept of finitude is crucial; but instead of following the Lutheran formula, Agata Bielik-Robson turns to the sources of Judaism. Taking inspiration from the Jewish idea of torat hayim, the principle of finite life, which found the best expression in the biblical sentence: love strong as death; love emerges as the alternative marker of finitude, allowing to us redefine it in an affirmative way. By tracing the avatars of love in the group of 20th-century thinkers, or ‘messianic vitalists’–Benjamin, Rosenzweig, Arendt, Derrida, and (deeply revised) Freud–the book attempts to demonstrate the possibility of such affirmation. Love becomes the new ‘infinite-in-the-finite’; love in all its forms, from the original libidinal endowment of the human psyche to the last metamorphoses of agape, the Greco-Christian divine love.
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Preface: Finitum Capax Infiniti List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction: Life Before Death, an Outline Part 1 Love Strong as Death: Polemics Chapter 1. Falling - in Love: Rosenzweig versus Heidegger Chapter 2. Being-towards-Birth: Arendt and the Finitude of Origins Part 2 Erros, The Drive in the Desert Chapter 3. Derrida’s Torat Hayim, or the Religion of the Finite Life Chapter 4. Another Infinity: Towards Messianic Psychoanalysis Notes References Index of Names Index of Terms
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Another Finitude invites conversation with many other traditions and schools of life ... This ongoing imaginary symposium is keeping my own thinking and practice fresh and lively. I do warmly recommend this book and am looking forward to the next.
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Inspired by Jewish theology, this book argues for a radical form of affirmative finitude relating to birth and love, instead of in the classic Heideggerian sense of death and fear.
Draws together the late-moderns' discourses of finite life, coming from philosophy, theology, Jewish Studies, literary theory and the psychoanalytic tradition
This series explores the past, present, and future of political theology. it seeks to provide a forum for new research on the theologico-political nexus including cutting-edge monographs, edited collections and translations of classic works. By privileging creative, interdisciplinary, and experimental work that resists easy categorization, this series not only re-asserts the timeliness of political theology in our epoch but seeks to extend political theological reflection into new territory: law, economics, finance, technology, media, film and art. In Political Theologies, we seek to rethink the ancient problem of political theology for the 21st century.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781350094079
Publisert
2019-05-30
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloomsbury Academic
Vekt
617 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
312

Biographical note

Agata Bielik-Robson is Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK and at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. She is the author of Jewish Cryptotheologies of Late Modernity: Philosophical Marranos (2014).