Philosophy

This proposed book is an attempt to place theology and philosophyin an entirely new sort of relationship. Instead of regardingphilosophy as a prolegomenon to theology, I suggest that theenterprises should rather run in interlinked parallel and that if aphilosophical critique of theology is possible, then so is thereverse. This is what this book seeks to carry out. It builds upon the new historiography of philosophy in recentyears which shows that the turn to a recognisable'modern' philosophy occurred around the year 1300 andnot with Kant. One implication of this is that this turn was itselfhighly theological and therefore that modern philosophy is groundedin a certain kind of theology. If that theology can be called intoquestion on theological grounds, then so, also, in certainrespects, can almost the entirety of modern philosophy in itsdominant currents.The book also builds upon a related new non-Kantian return tometaphysics in early 21st century philosophy, which often takes theform of a quest for a pure immanence. While upholding the return tometaphysics I criticise this quest, and reveal its inherentproblems, especially the way it tends to re-engender virulent formsof dualism. Instead I contend that, perhaps surprisingly, onlyphilosophies of transcendence linked with a Christian theology canovercome these dualities and in particular sustain a mediatingbalance between 'life' and 'truth'.