Description:
The authors examine implications of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory of discourse for the understanding of theological language. Topics include self, desire, post-structuralism, the unconscious, the father's rule, dwelling (in Heidegger's sense), Anselm, ontological argument, alterity, utopia, signifiers/signifieds, God, reason, and text.
Brief description: David Crownfield is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Northern Iowa. He is co-editor of Lacan and Theological Discourse, also published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"This book will confirm the contemporary magisterium of the French in critical theory, as it will confirm their widest possible cultural fruition--in America. I admire the boldness and rigor with which the authors take up 'motifs' in Lacan's discourse that hold the potential certainly for re-marking, and perhaps for re-making, theology in a deconstructionist context." -- Ray L. Hart
"The topic is extremely significant. A Lacanian approach is central at this time to rescue scholarly interest in Christian theology, and to revive the philosophy of religion. These essays explain why religion is important in a psychoanalytic framework. The topic is important in itself, and it is crucial to both the philosophy and the psychology of religion. This is an outstanding effort (and I'm rarely this enthusiastic). The older logical, epistemological, existential treatments of Christian theology are dead. This is one of the very few ways that the subject can be kept exciting." -- Robert Ackermann
"Talk about Lacan's 'goddess' or the ontological argument in this frame comes with the force of a revelation. (Wyschogrod's essay is a tour de force.)" -- Darrell Taylor