The Symmetry of God - Softcover

Bomford, Rodney; Rodney, Bomford

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1853434388 ISBN 13: 9781853434389

Publisher: Free Association Books, 1999

Synopsis

Why does the age-long quest for the eternal express itself always in paradox? Eternity is both an attribute of God and a characteristic of the Freudian unconscious. Recent developments in psychoanalytic theory have discovered an irrational logic at work in the unconscious process. This symmetric logic (in the mathematical sense of symmetry) produces paradoxes incomprehensible to asymmetric classic logic. The path of the mystic is an approach to an aspect of God analogous to the human unconscious, and is expressed through paradoxes of symmetric logic; whereas the god who reveals himself in history is a god who, by the same analogy, also exercises consciousness and is, at least partially, subject to classical logic. Christian faith holds to both the concept of an eternal god beyond time and of a god who acts in time. This involves both logics, and explains the paradoxical, symbolic and mythical nature of theological propositions. It also throws light on the conflict between realist and non-realist views of God and allows an understanding of orthodox Christianity which transcends both. This book will be of interest to theologians, psychoanalysts, philosophers and their students.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Association Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1853434388
• ISBN 13: 9781853434389
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 165