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The Givenness of Desire

Concrete Subjectivity and the Natural Desire to See God

Randall S Rosenberg author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Toronto Press

Published:11th Sep '18

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The Givenness of Desire cover

In The Givenness of Desire, Randall S. Rosenberg examines the human desire for God through the lens of Lonergan’s "concrete subjectivity." Rosenberg engages and integrates two major scholarly developments: the tension between Neo-Thomists and scholars of Henri de Lubac over our natural desire to see God and the theological appropriation of the mimetic theory of René Girard, with an emphasis on the saints as models of desire. With Lonergan as an integrating thread, the author engages a variety of thinkers, including Hans Urs von Balthasar, Jean-Luc Marion, René Girard, James Alison, Lawrence Feingold, and John Milbank, among others. The theme of concrete subjectivity helps to resist the tendency of equating too easily the natural desire for being with the natural desire for God without at the same time acknowledging the widespread distortion of desire found in the consumer culture that infects contemporary life. The Givenness of Desire investigates our paradoxical desire for God that is rooted in both the natural and supernatural.

‘This volume is a valuable resource for any scholar interested in the desire for self-transcendence and the natural desire for God.’

-- J.M. Meinert * Choice Magazine vol 55:05:2018 *

"Rosenberg has achieved something rare: a genuine and sympathetic conversation among neo-Scholastics, Lonergan, Girard, and la nouvelle théologie. The result is a valuable and immensely stimulating book, funded by terrific insight, for a theologically sophisticated readership."

-- Jeremy D. Wilkins * Horizons: The Journal of the College of Theological Society

ISBN: 9781487523671

Dimensions: 229mm x 153mm x 17mm

Weight: 460g

286 pages