Abstract
The chapters in this volume began life as papers at a 2014 conference in Notre Dame under the same title. The aim of this particular book is to explore ‘the encounter between the presuppositions and claims of modern intellectual culture and the Christian confession that the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ is the power and wisdom of God and is lord of history and of his Church’ (p. xiii).
The first two chapters concern 19th-century figures. David Walsh proposes that Kierkegaard, who ‘not only called our attention to the personal dimension of all thought but realized that it is the personal that is the horizon of thought’ (p. 19) represents the culmination of modern philosophy. Then David Bentley Hart offers a typically idiosyncratic and creative contribution by inhabiting the persona of Charles Baudelaire, who from the grave laments and then prays since ‘there is only one who can create for us, in our broken solitude, that star-strewn way of return—and he seems so remote in this age that sometimes it is as if we only dreamed him.’
The problematic space of Christian faith in modernity has clearly been described by the end of these two chapters and the subsequent seven chapters deal with Christian wisdom in the light of leading 20th-century intellectual figures. These essays are all rich but in this reviewer’s assessment, Kenneth Oakes’ examination of Barth’s view of modernity, through his engagement with Nietzsche, is a stand-out contribution along with Adrian Reimers’ proposal that the theology of the body should be the interpretive key for readings of Pope John Paul II. This is a compelling argument that integrates the Pope’s three roles – theologian, philosopher and priest – to conclude that his work taken as a whole is preoccupied with the task of teaching ‘what love is, why love is exclusive to persons and how we can attain love’ (p. 147).
In the final three chapters, dogmatic themes are considered for their contemporary relevance. Hence, creation ex nihilo, imagination, and the place of Hellenistic philosophy are investigated by Aaron Riches, Mátyás Szalay and Balázs Mezei respectively.
Taken together, these essays present a remarkable picture of how Christian wisdom both informs and is informed by the modern continental tradition and will be indispensable for those interested in the discussion about how contemporary theology, animated by ancient sources, continues to offer essential insight in our age.