Relational Ontology

How is the person constituted? Is there a transcendent cause of existence? Starting from these questions, Christos Yannaras explores what we know about ourselves as willing, thinking, sexual beings, and suggests how we can overcome the predeterminations of nature to enter into a different mode of existence, a mode that enables us ultimately to share in the personal otherness of divine being. This book builds on the notion of the human person that Yannaras has already established in his previous works and develops it further in exciting new ways. "Christos Yannaras has been, for several decades, one of the most prolific, original, and contemporary Orthodox writers in Greece. He is perhaps one of the most significant Christian philosophers in Europe, and it is wonderful to be able to welcome this sustained enterprise in making him accessible to English-speaking audiences." - Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury "In this recent work, Christos Yannaras confronts the reductionist claims advanced by some neuroscientists, and in dialogue with Jacques Lac an reflects on the relevance of relation with the Other to the constitution of the human person. Everything in us manifests itself as a form of the desire for life-as-relation. It is this relational dynamic that shapes our mode of being, going beyond the determinism of nature and opening us up to the experience of freedom, sacrifice, love, and beauty. In the light of the originally relational constitution of human existence, Yannaras presents a suggestive rereading of the Christian faith - particularly of the doctrine of original sin - and offers a fascinating new approach to the problems of evil and death. This stimulating book is a most welcome addition to Holy Cross Orthodox Press's Yannaras series." - Basilio Petra, Professor of Moral Theology at the Faculty of Theology of Central Italy (Florence) Contents 1. Relation in Our Linguistic Code p. 1 2. Methodological Boundary Markers p. 4 3. "Something More" than the Mode of Nature p. 10 4. The Difference between Desire and Urge p. 18 5. Libido and Sexuality p. 23 6. The Ideological Basis of Naturalism p. 26 7. The Erotic Derivation of Rationality p. 31 8. Brain, Consciousness, Subject p. 37 9. Again the Semiology of Relation p. 46 10. The Causal Mode of Freedom p. 49 11. The Limits of Ontological Realism p. 56 12. The Non-sense of Comparative Religion p. 60 13. Beauty as Invitation-to-Relation p. 68 14. Nonbeauty, or the Problem of Evil p. 73 15. Intermezzo on Natural Religion p. 80 16. Uncertainty about Evil p. 88 17. The "Fall" and the "Reputable Opinions" of Different Ages p. 93 18. Hypostatic Rationality and Ontic Indeterminacy p. 101 19. Is Evil an Expression of Rationality or Freedom? p. 107 20. In What Circumstances the Signifier Relational Ontology Is Literally True p. 112 Notes p. 121 Bibliography p. 139 Index p. 145 Product Description Paperback: 148 Pages Publisher: Holy Cross Orthodox Press ISBN: 978-1-935317-19-7 Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 Author: Christos Yannaras Publication Year: 2011