Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Format of Original
10 p.
Publication Date
2004
Publisher
Philosophy Documentation Center
Source Publication
Philosophy & Theology
Source ISSN
0890-2461
Original Item ID
doi: 10.5840/philtheol20041617
Abstract
John Milbank’s and Phillip Blond’s narratives of modernity’s descent to nihilism identify the “metaphysics of the sublime” as a feature of modernity, assimilated from Kant’s critical project, that is particularly problematic for the robust post-modern Christian theology proposed in Radical Orthodoxy. This essay argues that the sublime is not the concept most fundamental to their account of Kant’s role in modernity. Far more important is the “phenomenon/noumenon” distinction, which Milbank and Blond read as a “two-world” distinction—an understanding that, despite a long history in Kant interpretation, is not Kant’s. It is less important, however, that constructive dialogue between Radical Orthodoxy and Catholic theology correct this misreading of Kant. More important will be efforts to understand the metaphor of the “immense depth of things,” which Radical Orthodox offers in contrast to the “metaphysics of the sublime,” particularly in relation to the concepts of participation and the analogy of attribution that emerge from Radical Orthodoxy’s reading of Aquinas.
Recommended Citation
Rossi, Philip J., "The Metaphysics of the Sublime: Old Wine, New Wineskin?" (2004). Theology Faculty Research and Publications. 7.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theo_fac/7
Comments
Accepted version. Philosophy & Theology. Vol. 16, No. 1 (2004): 101-111. DOI. © 2004 Philosophy Documentation Center. Used with permission.