Selfless Love and Human Flourishing in Paul Tillich and Iris Murdoch

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Theology, Philosophy
Cover of the book Selfless Love and Human Flourishing in Paul Tillich and Iris Murdoch by Julia T. Meszaros, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Julia T. Meszaros ISBN: 9780191078361
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: March 3, 2016
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: Julia T. Meszaros
ISBN: 9780191078361
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: March 3, 2016
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

In an age of self-affirmation and self-assertion, 'selfless love' can appear as a threat to the lover's personal well-being. This perception jars with the Biblical promise that we gain our life through losing it and therefore calls for a theological response. In conversation with the Protestant theologian Paul Tillich and the atheistic moral philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch, Selfless Love and Human Flourishing in Paul Tillich and Iris Murdoch enquires into the anthropological grounds on which selfless love can be said to build up, rather than undermine, the lover's self. It proposes that while the implausibility of selfless love was furthered by the modern deconstruction of the self, both Tillich and Murdoch utilize this very deconstruction towards explicating and restoring the link between selfless love and human flourishing. Julia T. Meszaros shows that they use the modern diagnosis of the human being's lack of a stable and independent self as manifest in Sartre's existentialism in support of an understanding of the self as relational and fallen. This leads them to view a loving orientation away from self and a surrender to the other as critical to the full flourishing of human selfhood. In arguing that Tillich and Murdoch defend the link between selfless love and human flourishing through reference to the human being's ontological selflessness, Meszaros closely engages Søren Kierkegaard's earlier attempt to keep selfless love and human flourishing in a productive, dialectical tension. She also examines the breakdown of this tension in the later figures of Anders Nygren, Simone Weil, and Jean-Paul Sartre, and addresses the pitfalls of this breakdown. Her examination concludes by arguing that the link between selfless love and human flourishing would be strengthened by a more resolute endorsement of a personal God, and of the reciprocal nature of selfless love.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In an age of self-affirmation and self-assertion, 'selfless love' can appear as a threat to the lover's personal well-being. This perception jars with the Biblical promise that we gain our life through losing it and therefore calls for a theological response. In conversation with the Protestant theologian Paul Tillich and the atheistic moral philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch, Selfless Love and Human Flourishing in Paul Tillich and Iris Murdoch enquires into the anthropological grounds on which selfless love can be said to build up, rather than undermine, the lover's self. It proposes that while the implausibility of selfless love was furthered by the modern deconstruction of the self, both Tillich and Murdoch utilize this very deconstruction towards explicating and restoring the link between selfless love and human flourishing. Julia T. Meszaros shows that they use the modern diagnosis of the human being's lack of a stable and independent self as manifest in Sartre's existentialism in support of an understanding of the self as relational and fallen. This leads them to view a loving orientation away from self and a surrender to the other as critical to the full flourishing of human selfhood. In arguing that Tillich and Murdoch defend the link between selfless love and human flourishing through reference to the human being's ontological selflessness, Meszaros closely engages Søren Kierkegaard's earlier attempt to keep selfless love and human flourishing in a productive, dialectical tension. She also examines the breakdown of this tension in the later figures of Anders Nygren, Simone Weil, and Jean-Paul Sartre, and addresses the pitfalls of this breakdown. Her examination concludes by arguing that the link between selfless love and human flourishing would be strengthened by a more resolute endorsement of a personal God, and of the reciprocal nature of selfless love.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book Corporate Boards in Law and Practice by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book This Man's Pill by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Phineas Redux by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Stability with Growth by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Confronting the Shadow State by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Jane Austen by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Epilepsy in Women by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Emotions and Personhood by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Waves: A Very Short Introduction by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Mapping and Measuring Deliberation by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Oxford Case Histories in Cardiology by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary British and Irish Poetry by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Recognition and Religion by Julia T. Meszaros
Cover of the book Big Questions in Ecology and Evolution by Julia T. Meszaros
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy