Copies of the following have arrived today in the post: from Eerdmans published with the Centre of Theology and Philosophy as a part of the INTERVENTIONS series:

Words of Christ

by Michel Henry
translated by Christina M. Gschwandtner
with a foreword by Jean-Yves Lacoste
and an introduction by Karl Hefty

[Purchase US | Purchase UK]

In Words of Christ (Paroles du Christ) — here translated into English for the first time — Michel Henry asks how Christ can be both human and divine. He considers, further, how we as humans can experience Christ’s humanity and divinity through his words. Are we able to recognize this speech as divine, and if so, then how? What can testify to the divine nature of these words? What makes them intelligible? Startling possibilities — and further questions — emerge as Henry systematically explores these enigmas. For example, how does the phenomenology of life bring to light the God of which scripture speaks? Might this new region of phenomenality broaden or transform the discipline of phenomenology itself, or theology?

Henry approaches these questions starting from the angle of material phenomenology, but his study has far-reaching implications for other disciplines too. Intended for a wide audience, his work is a uniquely philosophical approach to the question of Christ and to the place of this question in human experience. This highly original, interdisciplinary perspective on Christ’s words was Henry’s last work, published shortly after his death in 2002.

Metaphysics:
The Creation of Hierarchy

by Adrian Pabst

[Purchase US | Purchase UK | Purchase through Alban Books, Eerdman’s UK distributor]

“This book does nothing less than to set new standards in combining philosophical with political theology. Pabst’s argument about rationality has the potential to change debates in philosophy, politics, and religion.” (from the foreword by John Milbank)

This comprehensive and detailed study of individuation reveals the theological nature of metaphysics. Adrian Pabst argues that ancient and modern conceptions of “being” – or individual substance – fail to account for the ontological relations that bind beings to each other and to God, their source. On the basis of a genealogical account of rival theories of creation and individuation from Plato to `postmodernism,’ Pabst proposes that the Christian Neo-Platonic fusion of biblical revelation with Greco-Roman philosophy fulfills and surpasses all other ontologies and conceptions of individuality.