David Bentley Hart

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David Bentley Hart is an Eastern Orthodox theologian, philosopher, writer, and cultural commentator. He has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), Duke Divinity School, and Loyola College in Maryland. He is currently a visiting professor at Providence College, having previously held the Robert J. Randall Chair in Christian Culture there.

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[edit] Works

Hart's work exhibits an enormous knowledge of the Western philosophical tradition, from classical antiquity to postmodernity, as well as a broad knowledge of world literature, art, history, and culture. His own theology and philosophy are deeply informed by the writings of the Church Fathers, and are deeply engaged in many of the central themes of continental philosophy, classical and modern. He enjoys a reputation for considerable intellectual sophistication and subtlety, and for being a formidable debater and speaker. Among many theologians in America and Europe, he is regarded as one of the most significant theologians of his generation. Rowan Williams, John Milbank, Geoffrey Wainwright, Robert Jenson, Janet Martin Soskice, Reinhard Hütter, and others have praised his work, often quite lavishly. Many of the large themes of his work in philosophical theology are summarized in his essay "The Offering of Names" (see bibliography below). The fullest exposition of his theological vision, however, is his long, intricate, multivalent, and provocative The Beauty of the Infinite (which, to this point, can be called his magnum opus).

In recent years, Hart has also written extensively on evil and suffering. Many of these texts are haunted by an obvious horror at the suffering of children, and at times there are hints of what one might call ascetic with some reproaches to Gnosticism . These writings, such as the brief but surprisingly complex and intense The Doors of the Sea, are perhaps "Christian Platonist" in their metaphysics of evil, but they also contain certain very daring formulations on the nature of created freedom that seem to be nourished by other sources.

[edit] Patristics

As a patristics scholar, he is especially concerned with the Greek tradition, with a particular emphasis on Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor. His writings on such figures are distinctive in that they are not cast in the mold of typical patristics scholarship; Hart is quite willing, for instance, to use Maximus as a "corrective" to Heidegger's "history of Being." The emphasis is very much on ideas and "deep readings," which seek to wrest from ancient texts insights that might fruitfully be brought into living contact with contemporary questions.

His work is controversial in some respects, and he has his critics, particularly among Protestant thinkers in the Reformed tradition. His defense of the classical doctrine of divine apatheia, of the analogia entis, and other aspects of Christian tradition are all worked out very cogently within the web of his own thought, but they still elicit extensive debate. Recent issues of The Scottish Journal of Theology and New Blackfriars have devoted special space to his work, and conferences at various venues have been convened on his thought. Nevertheless, his intellectual project is still in an early phase and many developments no doubt lie ahead.

As a cultural critic, he appears "conservative" in many respects, but his politics are difficult to define. On a number of occasions he has called himself an "anarchist monarchist," which is obviously an evasion, but also perhaps an honest confession of perplexity. He is as suspicious of classical liberal capitalism as of centralized state socialism, and so his criticisms of modern culture are largely free from any conspicuous partisan allegiances. However, he is probably read and appreciated primarily by Catholic and Orthodox traditionalists.

Hart's writings are notable not only for their robust theology, intellectual passion, and bracing rhetoric, but also for their incisive wit, acrobatic prose, lyric fluency, and the frequently playful deployment of Hart's prodigious vocabulary.

Hart is a relative of early-20th century baseball player Jack Bentley

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Books

  • In the Aftermath: Provocations and Laments. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 2008.
  • The Story of Christianity: An Illustrated History of 2000 Years of the Christian Faith. London: Quercus: 2007.
  • The Doors of the Sea. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 2005.
  • The Beauty of the Infinite : The Aesthetics of Christian Truth. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 2003.

[edit] Articles

  • Response to critiques of The Beauty of the Infinite by Francesca Murphy and John A. McGuckin, Scottish Journal of Theology 60 (February 2007): 95-101.
  • "Daniel Dennett Hunts the Snark", First Things 169 (January 2007).
  • Contribution to Theology as Knowledge: A Symposium, First Things 163 (May 2006): 21-27.
  • "The Lively God of Robert Jenson", First Things 156 (October 2005): 28-34.
  • "The Anti-Theology of the Body", The New Atlantis 9 (Summer 2005): 65-73.
  • "The Soul of a Controversy", The Wall Street Journal (April 1, 2005).
  • "Tsunami and Theodicy", First Things 151 (March 2005): 6-9.
  • "The Laughter of the Philosophers", First Things 149 (January 2005): 31-38. A review loosely structured around The Humor of Kierkegaard by Thomas C. Oden, containing a long excursus on Johann Georg Hamann.
  • "God or Nothingness" in I Am the Lord Your God: Christian Reflections on the Ten Commandments Carl E. Braaten and Christopher Seitz, eds. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005: 55-76.
  • "The Offering of Names: Metaphysics, Nihilism, and Analogy" in Reason and the Reasons of Faith. Reinhard Hütter and Paul J. Griffiths, eds. London: T. & T. Clark, 2005: 55-76.
  • "Tremors of Doubt", The Wall Street Journal (December 31, 2004). This article was the seed for the book The Doors of the Sea.
  • "Ecumenical Councils of War", Touchstone (November 2004).
  • "The Pornography Culture", The New Atlantis 6 (Summer 2004): 82-89.
  • "Freedom and Decency", First Things 144 (June/July 2004): 35-41.
  • "An Orthodox Easter", The Wall Street Journal (April 9, 2004) (in "Houses of Worship").
  • "Religion in America: Ancient & Modern", The New Criterion (March 2004).
  • "A Most Partial Historian", First Things 138 (December 2003): 34-41. A review of Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England Volume III: Accommodations by Maurice Cowling.
  • "Christ and Nothing", First Things 136 (October 2003): 47-57.
  • "The Bright Morning of the Soul: John of the Cross on Theosis", Pro Ecclesia (Summer 2003): 324-45.
  • "Thine Own of Thine Own: the Orthodox Understanding of Eucharistic Sacrifice" in Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Considerations Roch A. Kereszty, ed. (Paulist Press, 2003): 142-169.
  • "A Gift Exceeding Every Debt: An Eastern Orthodox Appreciation of Anselm's Cur Deus Homo", Pro Ecclesia 7.3: 333-348.
  • "The Mirror of the Infinite: Gregory of Nyssa on the Vestigia Trinitatis", Modern Theology 18.4 (October 2002): 542-56
  • "No Shadow of Turning: On Divine Impassibility", Pro Ecclesia (Spring 2002): 184-206.
  • Contribution to The Future of the Papacy: A Symposium, First Things 111 (March 2001): 28-36.
  • "The 'Whole Humanity': Gregory of Nyssa's Critique of Slavery in Light of His Eschatology", Scottish Journal of Theology 54.1 (2001): 51-69.
  • "Analogy" in Elsevier Concise Encyclopaedia of Religion and Language (Elsevier Press, 2001).
  • "The Writing of the Kingdom: Thirty-Seven Aphorisms towards an Eschatology of the Text", Modern Theology (Spring 2000): 181-202.
  • "Matter, Monism, and Narrative: An Essay on the Metaphysics of Paradise Lost" Milton Quarterly (Winter 1996): 16-27.

[edit] Book reviews

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