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36Hermeneutics at the Crossroads (edited book)Indiana University Press. 2006.In this multi-faceted volume, Christian and other religiously committed theorists find themselves at an uneasy point in history—between premodernity, modernity, and postmodernity—where disciplines and methods, cultural and linguistic traditions, and religious commitments tangle and cross. Here, leading theorists explore the state of the art of the contemporary hermeneutical terrain. As they address the work of Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Derrida, the essays collected in this wide-ranging work engage k…Read more
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2The Dance That Transforms: Gadamer on Morality, Music, and ReligionIn Sam McAuliffe (ed.), Gadamer, Music, and Philosophical Hermeneutics, Springer Verlag. pp. 51-62. 2023.The reason why Gadamer’s Truth and Method opens with a discussion of ‘humanistic’ concepts—Bildung, judgment, sensus communis, tact, and taste—is that these ‘ways of knowing’ are basic to human knowledge and understanding. In this paper, I consider the role that religion (defined in a broad sense) played in helping human beings develop a common sense of understanding. Specifically, I examine some instances of religion in the form of song and dance—forms of religion that appear to date back to ma…Read more
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25Jurisdictional Choice in International Trade: Implications for Lex CybernatoriaJournal des Economistes Et des Etudes Humaines 10 (1): 3-32. 2000.Lémergence des marchés en Europe de lEst, en Asie et celle du cyber-espace ne se fait pas avec la rapidité que beaucoup dobservateurs voudraient. La lenteur de ce développement provient de lenvironnement institutionnel : les systèmes législatifs ne soutiennent pas les droits de propriété privée et ne font pas plus respecter les contrats. Ainsi, beaucoup soutiennent que les Etats doivent intensifier leurs efforts pour établir un droit commercial. En réalité, il faut réclamer un désengagement …Read more
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3IntroductionIn Bruce Ellis Benson & Norman Wirzba (eds.), Words of Life: New Theological Turns in French Phenomenology, Fordham University Press. pp. 1-12. 2010.
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26Resisting “Forgiveness Oppression”Philosophy Today 65 (4): 863-879. 2021.Victims of abuse and violence are often pressured to forgive their perpetrators. The idea of unconditional forgiveness—forgiveness granted regardless of apology, remorse, or change of behavior—has become a norm for many in the west and those who refuse to forgive are often seen as resentful and bitter. Yet those imploring forgiveness are often the powerful and those asked to forgive are often minorities who have comparatively little power. Since forgiveness in western culture derives from Jesus’…Read more
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120Lambert Zuidervaart, Artistic Truth: Aesthetics, Discourse, and Imaginative Disclosure (review)Philosophical Review 116 (1): 118-121. 2007.
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49. How Continental Philosophy of Religion Came into Being and Where It Is GoingIn Gregory P. Floyd & Stephanie Rumpza (eds.), The Catholic Reception of Continental Philosophy in North America, University of Toronto Press. pp. 220-244. 2020.
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274In the Self's Place: The Approach of Saint Augustine (review)Comparative and Continental Philosophy 6 (1): 84-89. 2014.In the Self's Place: The Approach of Saint Augustine presents Jean-Luc Marion's rethinking of the modern notion of the self by way of an original reading of Saint Augustine through the lens of a phenomenology of givenness. Here he tests the hermeneutic validity of concepts forged in his previous works. His goal is to show that the Confessiones are inscribed within the confessio, that love is an underlying epistemic condition of truth, and that God's call and our response to God are both gifts. U…Read more
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8The Kingdom of Heaven as Endless Hermeneutic: A Phenomenology of the WaySophia 56 (1): 59-67. 2017.In this essay, I attempt to think along with Kevin Hart, though improvising on his text in my own way, by suggesting that ‘the way’ is one that calls anyone who wishes to follow, that it is, at heart, all about doing battle with oneself, and that this battle is best thought of as an endless hermeneutic, one inaugurated by Jesus yet also with classical precedents.
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1Evil, Fallenness, and Finitude (edited book)Palgrave-Macmillan. 2017.This collection addresses the perennial philosophical and theological issues of human finitude and the potentiality for evil. The contributors approach these issues from perspectives in Continental philosophy relating to phenomenology, philosophical hermeneutics, rabbinical traditions, drawing upon the work of Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, and Paul Ricoeur. While centering on the traditional theme of theodicy, this volume is also oriented to the phenomenology of religion, with contributions …Read more
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14The Kingdom of Heaven as Endless Hermeneutic: A Phenomenology of the WaySophia 56 (1): 59-67. 2017.In this essay, I attempt to think along with Kevin Hart, though improvising on his text in my own way, by suggesting that ‘the way’ is one that calls anyone who wishes to follow, that it is, at heart, all about doing battle with oneself, and that this battle is best thought of as an endless hermeneutic, one inaugurated by Jesus yet also with classical precedents.
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16The Development Of Criminal Law Ans Its Enforcement: Public Interest Or Political Transfers?Journal des Economistes Et des Etudes Humaines 3 (1): 79-108. 1992.
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85Guns for protection, and other private sector responses to the Government's failure to control crimeJournal of Libertarian Studies 8 (1): 92-95. 1986.
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72Enforcement of private property rights in primitive societies: law without governmentJournal of Libertarian Studies 9 (1): 1-26. 1989.
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156Customary law with private means of resolving disputes and dispensing justice: a description of a modern system of law and order without state coercionJournal of Libertarian Studies 9 (2): 25-42. 1990.
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261Reciprocal exchange as the basis for recognition of law: Examples from American historyJournal of Libertarian Studies 10 (3): 53-82. 1991.
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26Nietzsche's Musical Askesis for Resisting DecadenceJournal of Nietzsche Studies 34 (1): 28-46. 2007.
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34The Fundamental Heteronomy of Jazz ImprovisationRevue Internationale de Philosophie 4 (4): 453-467. 2006.
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Appropriating Westphal appropriating Nietzsche : Merold Westphal as a theological resourceIn B. Keith Putt (ed.), Gazing Through a Prism Darkly: Reflections on Merold Westphal's Hermeneutical Epistemology, Fordham University Press. 2009.
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40The “Thinking-After” of MetanoiaPhilosophy and Theology 16 (2): 217-228. 2004.Although Breton barely mentions the term “metanoia,” it well describes the radical change that takes place for anyone who adopts the logic of the cross. In effect, that logic results in a self that is radically de-centered. Moreover, to embrace that logic is to give up the demand for both reasons and signs. Arguing for a radicalconception of kenosis, Breton insists that it is a true emptying that remains powerless and senseless in light of any worldly logos and, as such, can only appear to be fo…Read more
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7Notes onIn Theodore Gracyk & Andrew Kania (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music, Routledge. 2011.
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6Graven 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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11Transforming 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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95The 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