The Postmodern Saints of France

Refiguring 'the Holy' in Contemporary French Philosophy

Colby Dickinson

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780567483348
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Teología

From the mid to the late 20th century various French thinkers have at times toyed wth the label of 'the saint', applying it to friends, colleagues, the revered nd even the worshipped such as Genet, Sartre, Camus or Foucault. Despite this profaning of the term, however, here are many subtle truths which emerge from its usage among such writers. This volume is devoted to exploring certain varied notions of 'the saint' in recent French philosophical and literary thought from within a theological context, offering insights and valuable contributions toward how we understand sainthood in cultural, philosophical and religious terms. Each essay focuses on the convergence of a particular author's work and their various (re)formulations of 'saintliness' in their writings, whether this concept is directly expressed in their writings or not. In general, the aim of the volume is to develop a critical engagement between each authors' philosophical worldview and historical notions of sainthood, such that we are capable of providing new understandings of what a 'saint' could be said to be in our world today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• HalfTitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Jean Genet versus Saint Genet: Searching for Redemption among the ‘Unredeemable’
• 2 To Accept in Order to Create: Albert Camus
• 3 Levinas: Of God: Who Comes to Mind?
• 4 St Maurice de la Passion du Dehors
• 5 Of Michel Foucault (Who May Yet Become St Paul)
• 6 St Gilles between the Divine and the Demonic
• 7 À Saint Jacques
• 8 Divine Dissipation: Criminal Sanctity and the Atheological Abrupt in Georges Bataille1
• 9 St Lyotard on the Differend/Difference Love Can Make
• 10 Paul Ricoeur and the Symbolism of Sainthood: From Imitation to Innovation
• 11 Saint versus Hero: Girard’s Undoing of Romantic Hagiology
• 12 Holy Mary, Holy Desire: Luce Irigaray and Saintly Daughters
• 13 A (W)holy Human Subject?: Saintliness and Antiphilosophy in the Work of Alain Badiou
• 14 La Nouvelle Philosophie . . .: On the Philosophical Significance of Sanctity in Jean-Yves Lacoste’s Experience and the Absol
• 15 The Night of Living Flesh and Sainthood in Michel Henry
• 16 The Unknown Saint: Reflections on Jean-Luc Marion’s Understanding of Holiness
• 17 Laruelle and the Messiah Before the Saints
• INDEX