Rethinking God as Gift

Robyn Horner is Professor of Religion and Theology at Monash University in Australia.

"At once rigorous, insightful, and accessible, Horner's book pushes phenomenology to its limits in order there to show how the phenomenological paradoxes of an unconditional gift might shed productive new light on the theological paradoxes of a self-giving God. Elucidating the essential background in Husserl, Heidegger, and Levinas, Horner goes on to offer the most thorough study yet available on the phenomenological treatment of God as gift in Marion and Derrida. Invaluable reading for those concerned with the theological promise of contemporary Continental philosophy, Rethinking God as Gift is sure to generate lively and productive debate." - Thomas A. Carlson, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara "This wonderfully ambitious book addresses one of the most daunting problems in recent philosophical thought, namely the notion of the gift. Not limiting herself to anthropological and philosophical analysis, Robyn Horner presses on into the radically theological considerations involved. However unsettling the questions raised here, theologians will be immensely grateful for this book. Even as theology is recalled to its primary task, its practitioners will be richly instructed by the brilliant criticism, the finely nuanced survey of the contemporary European context, and the remarkable range of philosophical and theological reference. Indeed, I feel sure this work will be acclaimed by scholars of many disciplines." - Tony Kelly, Australian Catholic University "Never before has anyone written so sharply and so judiciously about the debate between Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion over whether a gift is possible. Never has anyone written so incisively about Marion's analysis of givenness. It is only by passing through phenomenology, Horner argues, that we can develop a theology that makes rigorous sense of the call, forgiveness, grace, revelation and sacrifice. Rethinking God as Gift is a brilliant contribution to the 'theological turn' in phenomenology: a clarification of its ways, an extension of its concerns, and a recognition of its limits." - Kevin Hart, author of The Trespass of the Sign: Deconstruction, Theology, and Philosophy.