Overview
Theology after Postmodernity is a ground-breaking study that has the capacity to transform the relationship between psychoanalytic theory and Christian theology. Reading the theology of Thomas Aquinas in close engagement with the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, Tina Beattie shows how Thomism exerted a formative influence on Lacan, and she also shows how a Lacanian approach can bring rich new insights to Thomas's theology. A growing number of English-speaking scholars now recognize the extent to which twentieth century French theorists and philosophers were influenced by medieval theology, and there have been several studies of Jacques Lacan's Thomism. However, this is the first study published in English to bring a Lacanian feminist perspective to bear on the theology of Thomas Aquinas. Focusing on the centrality of desire in Thomas's theology and Lacan's psychoanalytic theory, Beattie follows Lacan along an overgrown and often hidden path through the changing configurations of desire, gender, and knowledge from their Aristotelian formation in the medieval universities to their fragmentation in the collapse of modernity's visions and values. Beattie offers a penetrating critique of Thomas's Aristotelianism, but she also excavates the mystical treasures within his theology. This enables her to show how Thomas's God remains an unconscious but potent influence in the shaping of modern western thought, and to ask what transformations might be needed in order to bring about a Thomism for our times. Probing beneath the surface of Thomas's Summa Theologiae and other writings, she brings to light the Other of Thomas's One God - an incarnate, maternal Trinity who emerges when Thomas's Aristotelian ontotheology is suspended and the more neglected aspects of his doctrinal and theological insights are allowed to emerge. Lacan makes possible a renewed Thomism which offers a rich theology of creation, incarnation, and redemption capable of responding to some of the most urgent and far-reaching challenges that questions of gender, nature, and God pose to Christian theological language in its classical and postmodern formations.
Full Product Details
Author: Tina Beattie (Professor of Catholic Studies, University of Roehampton)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.80cm
, Height: 2.40cm
, Length: 23.60cm
Weight: 0.664kg
ISBN: 9780198745020
ISBN 10: 0198745028
Pages: 440
Publication Date: 08 October 2015
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
Beatties arguments about Thomas are unexpected, creative, and often beautiful. * Rachel J. Smith, Marginalia * Tina Beattle is a - or perhaps the - leading feminist theologian of her generation, but she is never easily pigeonholed. If this is a challenging book, often involving, as she says at one point, 'thinking on the edge of the thinkable', it is also rewarding in the way that her work usually is: by turns elusive, provocative and illuminating, but always adventurous and never falling into easily predicted patterns. * Karen Kilby, The Tablet *
Tina Beattle is a - or perhaps the - leading feminist theologian of her generation, but she is never easily pigeonholed. If this is a challenging book, often involving, as she says at one point, 'thinking on the edge of the thinkable', it is also rewarding in the way that her work usually is: by turns elusive, provocative and illuminating, but always adventurous and never falling into easily predicted patterns. Karen Kilby, The Tablet Beatties arguments about Thomas are unexpected, creative, and often beautiful. Rachel J. Smith, Marginalia
Author Information
Tina Beattie is Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Roehampton in London. She is widely known for her academic publications and also for her more popular writings, lectures, and broadcasts. Her main areas of interest include Catholic theology, critical theory, and issues of gender; the Virgin Mary in theology and art; Christian mysticism, and theology and human rights. She began her academic studies as a mature student at the University of Bristol when the youngest of her four children started school, and she went on to do her PhD there on Marian theology and symbolism. In addition to her academic work, Tina is involved in a range of activities to do with theological education and awareness-raising in parishes, schools, and other communities.
