Böcker av Christina M. Gschwandtner

Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur: Between Fragility and Hope creates a dialogue between Ricur's hermeneutic philosophy and the interpretation of human ritual practices, especially as such practices are manifested within the context of Christian liturgy. In the first part of the book, Christina M. Gschwandtner shows that Ricur's account of religion would be deepened if it were to take into account not only the biblical texts but also forms of liturgical expression and ritual actions. She challenges Ricur's early reading of the symbol and second navete, broadens his interpretation of biblical texts and faith to consider religious actions more fully, and suggests that ritual can enhance human capacities. The second part of the book employs Ricur's hermeneutics in order to shed light on the analysis of liturgy, demonstrating that his accounts of truth, of the world of the text, of religious language, of the imagination, and of the formation of identity are all eminently applicable to liturgical experience. Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur shows that one of the most significant themes in Ricur's workthe tension between fragility and hopeis especially helpful for understanding what liturgy does and how it functions. Seeing how liturgy and ritual configure fragility and hope also enriches Ricur's account of the role and function of religion in human experience.

The philosophical work of Jean-Luc Marion has opened new ways of speaking about religious convictions and experiences. In this exploration of Marion's philosophy and theology, Christina M. Gschwandtner presents a comprehensive and critical analysis of the ideas of saturated phenomena and the phenomenology of givenness. She claims that these phenomena do not always appear in the excessive mode that Marion describes and suggests instead that we consider degrees of saturation. Gschwandtner covers major themes in Marion's work-the historical event, art, nature, love, gift and sacrifice, prayer, and the Eucharist. She works within the phenomenology of givenness, but suggests that Marion himself has not considered important aspects of his philosophy.

Welcoming Finitude provides a philosophical (i.e., phenomenological) examination of the experience of liturgy, based on the example of Orthodox Christian liturgy, as it manifests in terms of time, space, corporeality, senses, affect, and the interaction with other people. It thus uncovers some of the basic structures of religious ritual experience.

Postmodern Apologetics provides an introduction to contemporary French thinkers who argue for the coherence and viability of Christian faith and religious experience with phenomenological and hermeneutical tools. It treats both French philosophers and appropriations of their thought in the North American context.

The work of French philosopher and theologian Jean-Luc Marion has been recognized as among the most suggestive and productive in the philosophy of religion today. This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to Marion's large and conceptually dense corpus. It gives particular attention to Marion's early work on Descartes.