A Post-Metaphysical Turn: Contingency and Givenness in the Early Work of Dan Flavin (1959–1964)

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 20-56
Author(s):  
Adi Louria-Hayon

Abstract Dan Flavin’s fluorescent light installations have long served art historians by marking the turn from the late modernist illusionist space of painting to the new immanence of specific objects. In the narration of this genealogy, the crux of minimalism, as Hal Foster calls it, rests on a nominal approach that proclaims metaphysical relations as an obstacle and calls out to evade any notion of meaning. By contrast, this essay asserts the primacy of metaphysics in Flavin’s [en]lighted work. By tracing the artist’s scholastic education, his contemporary theo-political stance, and his rejection of objecthood, I argue that Flavin was continuously preoccupied with Catholic theology and that his work is imbued with Christian iconography. Thinking alongside the fourteenth-century philosopher William of Ockham and the twentieth-century post-Husserlian phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion, the evolution of Flavin’s light constructions proves relevant to the quandary of metaphysics and the role of theology in radical immanence. To bracket his metaphysics is to ignore the full implications of his art.

2017 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 930-959 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward P. Hahnenberg

Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, was the driving force behind the 1967 Land O’Lakes Statement—a watershed document that affirmed both the distinctive identity of Catholic universities and the “true autonomy and academic freedom” they needed to excel. This article explores the prominent role of theology in the Land O’Lakes Statement by means of an examination of Hesburgh’s specifically theological commitments. Attending first to the status of Catholic theology in the early twentieth century, the article considers Hesburgh’s neo-Scholastic formation, his early work on the theology of the laity, and the evolution of his thinking as president of the University of Notre Dame. It concludes that the category of mediation, present in Hesburgh’s earliest work, would come to ground the dialogical role he thought theology had to play to ensure the nature and mission of the contemporary Catholic university.


1999 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 309-324
Author(s):  
John Bossy

Somewhere about 1970 Gordon Leff changed his mind about William of Ockham. Earlier, in the article The fourteenth century and the decline of scholasticism’ and the survey Medieval Thought, Ockham had appeared in the conventional role of demolisher of the scholastic synthesis of reason and revelation; apologist of pure will in God and man; lock-picker of the Pandora’s box of moral and theological bugs in which the teaching of his successors consisted. Sceptic and/or fideist, he might be credited with clearing the way for natural science, and indeed for Renaissance and Reformation; but in himself he was an apostle of negation, carrying a whiff of the diabolic. Leff made public his change of heart in the massive exposition of Ockham of 1975 and the essay, The Dissolution of the Medieval Outlook, which came out the following year. Ockham was still the author of a ‘metamorphosis of scholastic discourse’ because he had excluded all but empirical knowledge of individual things and had refused to accept that rational proof could be found for more than marginal items of revealed truth. But he had, it seems, believed that ‘nature’ and ‘right reason’ were terms which might be properly used of the physical and moral worlds; random incursions of God’s potentia absoluta (what God might do) into the system of salvation constructed by his potentia ordinata (what God had actually done) were no longer to be anticipated; and Ockham was not responsible for the aberrations of some followers.


2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-338
Author(s):  
Gabriel Flynn

This article considers the nature and genesis of the ressourcement movement and argues that its leading exponents inspired a renaissance in twentieth-century Catholic theology that culminated in the reforms of Vatican II. It attempts to shed light on the complex question of terminology, the interpretation of which still engenders controversy in analyses of ressourcement and nouvelle théologie. It offers insights into the role of the ressourcement theologians in the struggle against Nazism and asserts that the movement possesses an enduring relevance for the Christian Churches and for modern society.


2013 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 89-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dermot Moran

AbstractIn recent years there have been attempts to integrate first-person phenomenology into naturalistic science. Traditionally, however, Husserlian phenomenology has been resolutely anti-naturalist. Husserl identified naturalism as the dominant tendency of twentieth-century science and philosophy and he regarded it as an essentially self-refuting doctrine. Naturalism is a point of view or attitude (a reification of the natural attitude into thenaturalistic attitude) that does not know that it is an attitude. For phenomenology, naturalism is objectivism. But phenomenology maintains that objectivity is constituted through the intentional activity of cooperating subjects. Understanding the role of cooperating subjects in producing the experience of the one, shared, objective world keeps phenomenology committed to a resolutely anti-naturalist (or ‘transcendental’) philosophy.


2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muzaffar Iqbal

This article attempts to present a comparative study of the role of two twentieth-century English translations of the Qur'an: cAbdullah Yūsuf cAlī's The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ān and Muḥammad Asad's The Message of the Qur'ān. No two men could have been more different in their background, social and political milieu and life experiences than Yūsuf cAlī and Asad. Yūsuf 'Alī was born and raised in British India and had a brilliant but traditional middle-class academic career. Asad traversed a vast cultural and geographical terrain: from a highly-disciplined childhood in Europe to the deserts of Arabia. Both men lived ‘intensely’ and with deep spiritual yearning. At some time in each of their lives they decided to embark upon the translation of the Qur'an. Their efforts have provided us with two incredibly rich monumental works, which both reflect their own unique approaches and the effects of the times and circumstances in which they lived. A comparative study of these two translations can provide rich insights into the exegesis and the phenomenon of human understanding of the divine text.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Joseph Acquisto

This essay examines a polemic between two Baudelaire critics of the 1930s, Jean Cassou and Benjamin Fondane, which centered on the relationship of poetry to progressive politics and metaphysics. I argue that a return to Baudelaire's poetry can yield insight into what seems like an impasse in Cassou and Fondane. Baudelaire provides the possibility of realigning metaphysics and politics so that poetry has the potential to become the space in which we can begin to think the two of them together, as opposed to seeing them in unresolvable tension. Or rather, the tension that Baudelaire animates between the two allows us a new way of thinking about the role of esthetics in moments of political crisis. We can in some ways see Baudelaire as responding, avant la lettre, to two of his early twentieth-century readers who correctly perceived his work as the space that breathes a new urgency into the questions of how modern poetry relates to the world from which it springs and in which it intervenes.


Author(s):  
باي زكوب عبد العالي ◽  
سوهيرين محمد صوليحين

الملخّصيعدّ عبد الحميد بن باديس أحد العلماء الجزائريين المبرزين بالإصلاح الاجتماعي والدّيني والسّياسي والتربوي، عاش خمسين سنة في القرن العشرين الميلادي، حيث كانت ولادته سنة 1889م، وكانت وفاته سنة 1940م، ولقد فرض الواقع الجزائري إبّان فترة الاحتلال الفرنسي الذي كان يسعى إلى طمس ثوابت الأمّة الجزائرية، وخرق تاريخها، وهُويّتها، وثقافتها، ووحدتها الدينيّة، واللّغوية على ابن باديس أن يسلك نهج التربية والتعليم، قاصداً بذلك مواجهة الاحتلال الفرنسي الغاشم من خلال عدّة جبهات ومجالات كمثل مجال الصحافة، ومجال التربية والتعليم، ومجال الجمعيات، ومجال السياسة وغير ذلك، يهدف هذا البحث إلى إبراز دور عبد الحميد بن باديس في النّهوض بالأمّة الجزائريّة نحو تربيّة أفضل، وحياة أسعد، فيبدأ أوّلاً وبشكل موجز، بالتعرّف على الفترة الصعبة التي عايشها ابن باديس والمتمثلة في فترة الاحتلال الفرنسي الغاشم، وآثاره السلبية على الصعيد السياسي والاقتصادي والاجتماعي والثقافي والديني الجزائري وقتذاك، ثم يقوم ثانياً بتسليط الضّوء على حياة ابن باديس وتكوينه العلمي ورحلاته الداخلية وأسفاره الخارجية؛ ثم يسعى ثالثاً وبتعمّق، التعرّف على أعمال ابن باديس الاجتماعيّة وجهوده التربويّة التي أخذت حظّاً وافراً من حياته اليومية، والتي تركّزت على منبرين رئيسين، هما: منبر الصّحافة، ومنبر التربيّة والتعليم.الكلمات المفتاحيّة: الإمام عبد الحميد بن باديس، الاحتلال الفرنسي، التربية، الجزائر، الإصلاح.             AbstractImÉm ‘Abd al-×amÊd ibn BÉdÊs is an Algerian scientist, and eminent social, religious, political and educational reformer. He lived fifty years in the twentieth century. He was born in 1889 and died in 1940, and lived during the French occupation that attempted to distort and undermine the foundations of the Algerian nation by destroying its history, identity, culture, and religious and linguistic unity. Ibn BÉdÊs pursued an educational approach to face the brutal French occupation on several fronts, including journalism, education, civil associations, politics, etc. This paper highlights the role of ‘Abd al-×amÊd ibn BÉdÊs in the advancement of the Algerian nation toward better education and a happier life. The paper begins with a brief canvas of the difficult times in which Ibn BÉdÊs lived, and the negative effects of the brutal French occupation from political, economic, social, cultural and religious angles, besides highlighting the life of Ibn BÉdÊs, his education and his local and international travels. The focus of this research is an in-depth examination of Ibn BÉdÊs’ social and educational efforts that consumed much of his daily routine: journalism, and education.Keywords: ImÉm ‘Abd al-×amÊd ibn BÉdÊs, the French Occupation, Education, Algeria, Reform.


Author(s):  
Marius Daraškevičius

The article discusses the causes of emergence and spreading of a still room (Lith. vaistinėlė, Pol. apteczka), the purpose of the room, the location in the house planning structure, relations to other premises, its equipment, as well as the role of a still room in everyday culture. An examination of the case of a single room, the still room, in a noblemen’s home is also aimed at illustrating the changes in home planning in the late eighteenth – early twentieth century: how they adapted to the changing hygiene standards, perception of personal space, involvement of the manor owners in community treatment, and changes in dining and hospitality culture. Keywords: still room, household medicine cabinet, manor house, interior, sczlachta culture, education, dining culture, modernisation, Lithuania.


2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Hermansen

This article provides an overview of the history and current situation of the academic study of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) at American universities. It examines Sufism’s place within the broader curriculum of Islamic studies as well as some of the main themes and approaches employed by American scholars. In addition, it explains both the academic context in which Sufi studies are located and the role of contemporary positions in Islamic and western thought in shaping its academic study.1 Topics and issues of particular interest to a Muslim audience, as well as strictly academic observations, will be raised. In comparison to its role at academic institutions in the traditional Muslim world,2 Sufi studies has played a larger role within the western academic study of Islam during the twentieth century, especially the later decades. I will discuss the numerous reasons for this in the sections on the institutional, intellectual, and pedagogical contexts.


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