鈥淚 still haven鈥檛 found what I鈥檓 looking for鈥�, sang Bono in the 1980鈥檚.
At times we鈥檝e all had the feeling that, even though we have experienced success, pleasure, and happiness 鈥� something, somehow, remains missing. Is this restlessness that we feel, but cannot quite articulate, universal? Some see this restlessness as an 鈥榓nomalous鈥� reality. Some go as far as attaching to it the adjective 鈥榞od-hole鈥� 鈥� a space that is presumably reserved for the transcendent and that can only be fully satisfied by 鈥渢ranscendence鈥�. But what would God 鈥� the transcendent 鈥� mean in this context? And what does it mean when we say that one has 鈥渁 desire for God鈥�? In what way/s is this kind of desire expressed? And is the propensity of such a desire natural (i.e. innate and universal to all humans) or is it subjective and primarily rooted in certain relative criteria (i.e. such as the environment, culture, character, etc.)?
The aim of this Unit is to critically explore certain desires which we, as human beings, are persistently faced by, as well as some of the implications that follow from them. Such realities range from, 1. the burden of human suffering, imperfection, and finitude, 2. the archetypical desire that humans have for 鈥渢he symbolic鈥� (i.e. for 鈥渞eligion鈥� and 鈥渕yth鈥�), and 3., the pedagogical capacity of desire to act both as a guide to self-flouring and also as a guide to discovering the divine.
Main Reading List
- The Apologetics of Joy: A Case for the Existence of God from C.S. Lewis's Argument from Desire, Joe Puckett (James Clarke & Co Ltd, United Kingdom, 2012).
- Immortal Longings, Fergus Kerr, (Notre Dame, Ind, University of Notre Dame Press, 1997).
- Grenz, Stanley J. The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei. London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.
- Simmons, J. Aaron. 鈥淕od in Recent French Phenomenology.鈥� Philosophy
- Compass 3, no. 5 (2008): 910鈥�932. doi: 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2008.00171.
Supplementary Reading List
- Considering Transcendence: Elements of a Philosophical Theology, Martin J. De Nys. (Indiana University Press, Bloomington).
- Masterson, Patrick. Approaching God. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.
- Gilson, 脡tienne. God and Philosophy. London: Yale University Press, 2002.
