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3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Melancholy and the Otherness of God: A Study of the Hermeneutics of Depression

Melancholy and the Otherness of God: A Study of the Hermeneutics of Depression

Hardcover

PhilosophyMental Health

ISBN10: 0739166034
ISBN13: 9780739166031
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: Nov 25 2011
Pages: 240
Weight: 1.15
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
An impressive study that prompts the reader toward philosophical reflection on the hermeneutics of melancholy in its relation to maturing theological understanding and cultivation of a profound self-consciousness. Melancholy has been interpreted as a deadly sin or demonic temptation to non-being, yet its history of interpretation reveals a progressive coming to terms with the dark mood that ultimately unveils it as the self's own ground and a trace of the abysmal nature of God. The book advances two provocative claims: that far from being a contingent condition, melancholy has been progressively acknowledged as constitutive of subjectivity as such, a trace of divine otherness and pathos, and that the effort to transcend melancholy-like Perseus vanquishing Medusa-is a necessary labor of maturing self-consciousness. Reductive attempts to eliminate it, besides being dangerously utopian, risk overcoming the labor of the soul that makes us human. This study sets forth a rigorous scholarly argument that spans several disciplines, including philosophy, theology, psychology, and literary studies.

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Philosophy