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9Graven Ideologies: Nietzsche, Derrida & Marion on Modern IdolatryInterVarsity Press. 2002.What do the philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion have in common with Christianity? Surprisingly, they are all concerned about idolatry, about the tendency we have to create God in our own image and about what we can do about it. Can we faithfully speak of God at all without interposing ourselves? If so, how? Bruce Ellis Benson explores this common concern by clearly laying out the thought of each of these postmodern thinkers against the background of modern philo…Read more
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17Transforming Philosophy and Religion: Love's Wisdom (edited book)Indiana University Press. 2008.Norman Wirzba, Bruce Ellis Benson, and an international group of philosophers and theologians describe how various expressions of philosophy are transformed by the discipline of love. What is at stake is how philosophy colors and shapes the way we receive and engage each other, our world, and God. Focusing primarily on the Continental tradition of philosophy of religion, the work presented in this volume engages thinkers such as St. Paul, Meister Eckhart, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger, Ricoeur…Read more
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103The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue: A Phenomenology of MusicCambridge University Press. 2003.This book is an important contribution to the philosophy of music. Whereas most books in this field focus on the creation and reproduction of music, Bruce Benson's concern is the phenomenology of music making as an activity. He offers the radical thesis that it is improvisation that is primary in the moment of music making. Succinct and lucid, the book brings together a wide range of musical examples from classical music, jazz, early music and other genres. It offers a rich tapestry incorporatin…Read more
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49Kierkegaard and Nietzsche on the Best Way of Life: A New Method of EthicsNew Nietzsche Studies 9 (3): 229-229. 2015.
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5Chrétien on the call that woundsIn Bruce Ellis Benson & Norman Wirzba (eds.), Words of life: new theological turns in French phenomenology, Fordham University Press. pp. 208-221. 2010.
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36The Two-Fold Task of Christian Philosophy of ReligionFaith and Philosophy 32 (4): 371-390. 2015.
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28Pious Nietzsche: Decadence and Dionysian FaithIndiana University Press. 2007.Bruce Ellis Benson puts forward the surprising idea that Nietzsche was never a godless nihilist, but was instead deeply religious. But how does Nietzsche affirm life and faith in the midst of decadence and decay? Benson looks carefully at Nietzsche's life history and views of three decadents, Socrates, Wagner, and Paul, to come to grips with his pietistic turn. Key to this understanding is Benson's interpretation of the powerful effect that Nietzsche thinks music has on the human spirit. Benson …Read more
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64Heidegger's philosophy of religion: From God to the GodsResearch in Phenomenology 38 (3): 447-454. 2008.
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4The prayers and tears of Friedrich NietzscheIn Bruce Ellis Benson & Norman Wirzba (eds.), The phenomenology of prayer, Fordham University Press. pp. 73-87. 2005.
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16Liturgy as a Way of Life: Embodying the Arts in Christian WorshipBaker Academic. 2013.How do the arts inform and cultivate our service to God? In this addition to an award-winning series, distinguished philosopher Bruce Ellis Benson rethinks what it means to be artistic. Rather than viewing art as practiced by the few, he recovers the ancient Christian idea of presenting ourselves to God as works of art, reenvisioning art as the very core of our being: God calls us to improvise as living works of art. Benson also examines the nature of liturgy and connects art and liturgy in a ne…Read more
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16Words of life: new theological turns in French phenomenology (edited book)Fordham University Press. 2010.Words of Life is the sequel and companion to Phenomenology and the "Theological Turn," edited by Dominique Janicaud, Jean-Francois Courtine, Jean-Louis Chrétien, Michel Henry, Jean-Luc Marion, and Paul Ricoeur. In that volume, Janicaud accuses Levinas, Henry, Marion, and Chrétien of "veering" from phenomenological neutrality to a theologically inflected phenomenology. By contrast, the contributors to this collection interrogate whether phenomenology's proper starting point is agnostic or atheist…Read more
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Stealing licks : recording and identity in jazzIn Mine Doğantan (ed.), Recorded music: philosophical and critical reflections, Middlesex University Press. 2008.
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34Ingarden and the problem of jazzTijdschrift Voor Filosofie 55 (4). 1993.Rather than being concerned with questions of aesthetic standards, Ingarden focuses on the question of where a musical work exists. Thus he attempts to draw clear distinctions between musical works, scores, and performances. Yet, while these distinctions seem questionable even from the standpoint of classical music, in jazz, which operates under a paradigm in which improvisation is primary, they prove far more problematic. A crucial assumption behind Ingarden's view of music is that musical perf…Read more
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58A Response to Smith’s “Continental Philosophy of ReligionFaith and Philosophy 26 (4): 449-456. 2009.All of us working in continental philosophy of religion can be grateful to James K. A. Smith for his call to consider which practices will best further the “health” of the burgeoning subdiscipline of continental philosophy of religion. Given that he offers his suggestions “in the spirit of ‘conversation starters,’” my response is designed to continue what I hope will be an ongoing conversation. With that goal in mind, I respond to Smith by considering not only the practicality of each suggestion…Read more
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128The phenomenology of prayer (edited book)Fordham University Press. 2005.This collection of ground-breaking essays considers the many dimensions of prayer: how prayer relates us to the divine; prayer's ability to reveal what is essential about our humanity; the power of prayer to transform human desire and action; and the relation of prayer to cognition. It takes up the meaning of prayer from within a uniquely phenomenological point of view, demonstrating that the phenomenology of prayer is as much about the character and boundaries of phenomenological analysis as it…Read more