What does the cross, both as a historical event and a symbol of religious discourse, tell us about human beings? In this provocative book, Brian Gregor draws together a hermeneutics of the self-through Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Taylor-and a theology of the cross-through Luther, Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and Jungel-to envision a phenomenology of the cruciform self. The result is a bold and original view of what philosophical anthropology could look like if it took the scandal of the cross seriously instead of reducing it into general philosophical concepts.

What it means to be human in philosophical and theological terms

About the Author

Brian Gregor is a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Fordham University. He is editor (with Jens Zimmerman) of Bonhoeffer and Continental Thought: Cruciform Philosophy (IUP, 2009) and Being Human, Becoming Human: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Social Thought.

Reviews

In the end, A Philosophical Anthropology of the Cross represents one of the first major Lutheran engagements with continental philosophy, and an excellent one at that. While the book is certainly not accessible to the layperson, it is accessible to pastors and teachers, and gives a helpful overview of the connections between major figures in continental philosophy and the trajectory of Bonhoeffer's philosophical and theological project. Most importantly, it is a valuable contribution at an important time that begins a conversation of depth about both philosophy that is engaged with the scandal of the cross as well as a robust Lutheran vocabulary of sanctification.

* Dialog *

Gregor's work is impressive along two important lines. One the one hand, he offers the uniformed or porrly informed philospher a clear and often quite detailed presentation of Bonhoeffer's systematic thought, with attention to its conscious relation not only to Lutheran theology but also to modern philosophy. On the other hand, he also threads that presentation into the contemporary philosophical context by marking important points of contact with work by such convivial thinkers as Ricoeur, Marcel, and Charles Taylor, but also Nietzsche and Heidegger, with whom discussion would be considerably more antagonistic.Sept. 2014

* International Philosophical Quarterly *

Gregor has been true to his undertaking to investigate the implications of Paul's insight into the tension between philosophy and Christian faith.

* Heythrop Journal *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253006721
Author Brian Gregor
Format Paperback
Page Count 278
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 408g