School

School has definitely taken me by storm again and totally wrecked my good intentions on blogging. Should I have anyone left reading, I should hopefully be up and blogging again this week (Hebrew has taken my attention). My most interesting class (aside from Hebrew, which I am enjoying though it is definitely not coming as naturally as Greek did to me) is an independent study Im doing with Professor Mike Gurney on Realism, Idealism, and anti-Realism and its relationship to theological discourse. I have only had a little bit of direct reading in the area before, so Im beginning to immerse myself in the somewhat strange debates of realism and anti-realism. Here is the list of books I have decided to go with (keeping in mind its only a two credit class). If there are any books/essays on the topic anyone has found helpful, though I would love recommendations.

Overcoming Onto-Theology: Toward a Postmodern Christian Faith by Merold Westphal (I am almost finished with this book, Westphal is a first rate communicator and can convey complex ideas in a simple manner. However I am slightly disappointed with the book so far, with about 80 pages to go, because I feel that it is essentially making one point over and over again. I appreciate the number of different philosophers he utilizes to make the point--Derrida, Foucault, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Hegel, Nietzsche, but there are only so many times I need to hear that I cant have direct, objective, neutral non-tradition mediated access to reality)

Genealogy of Nihilism: Philosophies of Nothing and the Difference of Theology by Conor Cunningham (I'm five chapters in and I am finding this book fascinating and incredibly difficult.)

Realism and Anti-Realism Edited by William P. Alston

Philosophy After Objectivity: Making Sense in Perspective by Paul K. Moser

Reality & Evangelical Theology: The Realism of Christian Revelation by T.F. Torrance

Transcendence and Phenomenology edited by Peter Chandler and Conor Cunningham (Ive read the essays by Milbank, Cunningham, and Nate Kerr so far and am intrigued by this symposium. Im finding these essays incredibly difficult as well, especially Milbanks quite lengthy "The Thomistic Telescope," which made my brain explode at several points).

A Scientific Theology by Alister McGrath (Im hoping to read most of volume 1 and all of volume two, which deals specifically with realism in theology).

The class requires an essay, and right now Im thinking of possibly writing a comparative analysis of T.F. Torrance, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and John Milbank on the subject, though I might have to revise it as that might be a bit too ambitious. Anyway, Ill continue the Myth of Religious Violence posts this week as well, sorry for the delays!