RT Article
T1 ‘And the Nothing That Is’: Stevens and Kearney on Apophatic Affirmation
JF Journal for continental philosophy of religion
VO 5
IS 1
SP 72
OP 97
A1 Putt, B. Keith
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1841238244
AB Richard Kearney has always insisted that his anatheistic approach to a phenomenology of the sacred stipulates a close connection with aesthetics. He supports this contention throughout his work by constantly referencing important artists, poets, novelists, and film makers. Indeed, this connection between aesthetics and his philosophy of religion has even motivated an anthology of articles entitled The Art of Anatheism. Consequently, in this essay I wish to expand that connection by examining the relationship between Kearney’s anatheism and the ‘supreme fiction’ of the American poet Wallace Stevens. To accomplish this expansion, I inspect several topics shared by the two authors, including God, faith, imagination, and ‘negative certainty’. This last topic forms something of the central focus of the essay, since I argue that the affirmative humility of faith professed by both never avoids the ‘void’ inherent in human existence that disallows every claim to the ‘innocence of an absolute’.
K1 Apophatic
K1 Poetics
K1 Fiction
K1 Imagination
K1 Faith
K1 God
DO 10.1163/25889613-bja10043