On Thinking the Human : Resolutions of Difficult Notions

ROBERT W. JENSON

ISBN 10: 0802821146 / ISBN 13: 9780802821140

Published by Eerdmans Pub Co July 2003, 2003

About this Item

Of the human, Robert Jenson begins by thinking death. He then moves to consciousness, freedom, reality, wickedness and love. A theologian, preacher and Senior Scholar at the Center of Theological Inquiry (Princeton, New Jersey), Jenson is repeatedly struck with how hard it is to get certain notions into his head, never mind out of his mouth or onto a piece of paper. In terms of death, how do we think, or think about, consciousness' termination? What about the givenness of consciousness itself -- who gives it and how do we, by accepting the gift, participate with the giver? Here, and in relationship to all of the difficult notions, Jenson points out the inherence of perspective. Perspective reveals the community to which one belongs, and all communities have their origin in the divine Community of the manifold Trinity. Like a favorite song on repeat, each of Jenson's queries finds itself unmistakably rising from the relationship of Father, Son and Spirit. The pleasure in this ''little'' book comes in following each of the confounding notions Jensen sets before us to the creative energy of its origin: God's love. As new appearance, age-tanned text free of marks.

Seller Inventory # 252498

Bibliographic Details

• Title: On Thinking the Human : Resolutions of Difficult Notions
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co July 2003
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802821146
• ISBN 13: 9780802821140
• Binding: Paper Back
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Philosophy & Linguistics

About this title

Synopsis

Since Socrates, the effort to understand ourselves precisely as human has been the central occupation of Western thought. In this short, profound book Robert W. Jenson argues that not only are all philosophical attempts to accurately think the self doomed to failure, but also that the category "human" is unthinkable without reference to God. Under chapter titles that reflect the problem's different facets — "Thinking Death," "Thinking Consciousness," "Thinking Freedom," "Thinking Reality," "Thinking Wickedness," and "Thinking Love" — Jenson limns the difficulty inherent in each concept and then shows how the unthinkable becomes thinkable in light of the triune God of Scripture. As Jenson says at the outset of the book, "our anthropological endeavors are at once impelled and checked by an epistemic quirk or set of quirks: notions we need to use and do use when we talk about ourselves as human resist being thought." On Thinking the Human, which tackles this problem theologically while also giving a nod to philosophic heavyweights like Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, is a concise attempt to explain why this is so. v

About the Author

Robert W. Jenson (1930–2017) was a senior scholar for research at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. He was also cofounder and associate director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology and cofounder and coeditor of the journal Pro Ecclesia. He was renowned for his work on ecumenical, systematic, and Trinitarian theology.