If Creation Is a Gift

Mark Manolopoulos

Description

What if our world were considered a gift? Extending postmodern gift theory to ecological and ecotheological concerns, Mark Manolopoulos explores how "creation"—the what-is—can be seen as a gift. Creation, when viewed in a radically egalitarian way, is the matrix of all material things—human, otherwise-than-human, or humanly manufactured. Utilizing and critiquing the work of Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion, Manolopoulos argues that the gift is an irresolvable paradox marked by the contradictory elements of excess (gratuity, linearity) and exchange (gratitude, return). Philosophical and theological reflections on the gift become entangled in its paradoxical tension, but ultimately both aspects must be respected and reflected. When it comes to the creation-gift, we should vacillate between responses like letting-be, enjoyment, utility, and return. Elegantly written and thought-provoking, If Creation Is a Gift both contributes to the ongoing debate on the gift and provides a fresh philosophical and theological consideration of the environmental crisis.
Thanksgivings

What If?

1. Creation-Gift-Aporia

2. A Brief History of Gifts

3. Unwrapping Marion’s Gift

4. Oscillation

5. Toward an Oscillational Eco-Ethos

After Thought

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie du langage
• Philosophie de la religion
• Theology
• Philosophy of religion
• Philosophie de la langue

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 13 février 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791494028
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

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If Creation is a Gift

SUNY series in Theology and Continental Thought Douglas L. Donkel, editor

If Creation is a Gift

Mark Manolopoulos

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2009 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Dana Foote Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Manolopoulos, Mark, 1968– If creation is a gift / Mark Manolopoulos. p. cm. (SUNY series in theology and Continental thought) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780791493939 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Human ecology—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Gifts—Religious aspects—Christianity. 3. Creation. I. Title. BT695.5.M365 2009 261.8′8—dc22 2008017297

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Yiannis Margaritoudis (1928–1945), and for all the violated —human and otherwise

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CONTENTS

Thanksgivings ix

What If? 1

1 CreationGiftAporia 9

2 A Brief History of Gifts 31

3 Unwrapping Marion’s Gift 63

4 Oscillation 89

5 Toward an Oscillational EcoEthos 107

After Thought 147

Notes 149

Bibliography 173

Index 183

vii

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