In this important volume, French philosopher and poet J.L. Chrétien boldly and subtly applies his vast experience in phenomenology to poetry and literature - showing indeed how to bridge the boundary with philosophy. His real aim is implicit and brave: to show that spiritual authors from Augustine to Claudel surpass Bergson in their philosophical grasp of intuition and joy. He thus claims new turf for spiritual authors in the context of examining an important human constellation of emotions. The approach is exquisitely multi-disciplinary and makes a vital contribution to our understanding of the phenomenology of religious experience. Available in English for the first time, his work will be of immediate interest to philosophers, theologians, literary critics, psychologists, art historians and sociologists.
Autorentext
By J.L. Chretien - Translated by Anne Ashley Davenport
Inhalt
Translator's Note
Introduction: Spaciousness, Joy, and the Legacy of the Word Dilation
Chapter One: St. Augustine and the Wide Offshore of Desire
Chapter Two: St. Gregory the Great: Amplitude Within a Narrow Confinement
Chapter Three: The Dilated Runners of Psalm 118, from Henri Michaux to St. Teresa
Chapter Four: Mystical Dilations
Chapter Five: Bossuet on the Open Roads
Chapter Six: Amiel and the Pathology of Dilation
Chapter Seven: Return to Eden with Thomas Traherne
Chapter Eight: Whitman, Voyager Without Limits
Chapter Nine: Paul Claudel's Cosmic Respiration
Further Reading