New Christology Book

My friend and colleague Jan-Olav Henriksen has just published a new book:

"Desire, Gift and Recognition: Christology and Postmodern Philosophy"

Here is what I say about it on the back cover:

"This book by Jan-Olav Henriksen fills a significant lacuna in contemporary discourse. It focuses concretely on the explicit relation between postmodern philosophical insights and core theological intuitions about the identity and work of Jesus Christ. The reader is invited to attend to and be opened up by the ‘excess' of the ‘surplus of creation,' the ‘impossible' gift of recognition, and the transformation of desire revealed in the whole life of Christ. Henriksen engages and critically appropriates several of the most interesting postmodern philosophers, including Derrida, Levinas, and Marion, and squarely faces the central challenges in articulating Christology today, developing a new interpretation of the cross and resurrection of Jesus from different angles. All of this makes his book disturbing — in the best and most delightful sense of that word!"

Available at Amazon.com.

Available at Eerdmans.com

Comments

[Tony Mills]

Thanks for the info, LeRon. I have started to venture somewhat into Christology (now reading Pannenberg's Jesus-God and Man) and look forward to what Jan-Olav has to say, especially about the connection to desire.

One of the things I appreciate about David Hart's book The Beauty of the Infinite, which also attends to several postmodern philosophers, is his insistence on the beauty of the Christian narrative, if you will. I wonder if Jan-Olav says something similar; i.e. that for post/late modern people, coming to Jesus is largely a matter of aesthetic wooing, the opening of desire. Can you give a brief response to that before I buy it?

[LeRon]

Hi Tony,

I think I'll let Jan-Olav answer that in detail if he likes. He does deal with the idea of the "opening" of desire, but does not treat Hart's book.

LeRon

[Tony Mills]

Sounds good, LeRon, hopefully he'll chime in. Jan-Olav, are you out there?? Anyway, the point of mentioning Hart was simply for reference or comparison for me.