A Theology Of Reading: The Hermeneutics Of LoveIf the whole of the Christian life is to be governed by the “law of love”—the twofold love of God and one's neighbor—what might it mean to read lovingly? That is the question that drives this unique book. Jacobs pursues this challenging task by alternating largely theoretical, theological chapters—drawing above all on Augustine and Mikhail Bakhtin—with interludes that investigate particular readers (some real, some fictional) in the act of reading. Among the authors considered are Shakespeare, Cervantes, Nabakov, Nicholson Baker, George Eliot, W.H. Auden, and Dickens. The theoretical framework is elaborated in the main chapters, while various counterfeits of or substitutes for genuinely charitable interpretation are considered in the interludes, which progressively close in on that rare creature, the loving reader. Through this doubled method of investigation, Jacobs tries to show how difficult it is to read charitably—even should one wish to, which, of course, few of us do. And precisely because the prospect of reading in such a manner is so offputting, one of the covert goals of the book is to make it seem both more plausible and more attractive. |
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Page 43
... knowledge that are accessible to us when and only when we experience certain emotions , for example , love . As we have heard Adam Bede say , " The more knowledge a man has the better he'll do ' s work ; and feeling's a sort o ' knowledge ...
... knowledge that are accessible to us when and only when we experience certain emotions , for example , love . As we have heard Adam Bede say , " The more knowledge a man has the better he'll do ' s work ; and feeling's a sort o ' knowledge ...
Page 44
... knowledge is also the theme of Plato's Symposium , but that work , too , is a debate about the form of love that produces knowledge . This is the subject of Nussbaum's brilliant analysis in her book The Fragility of Goodness ( ch . 6 ) ...
... knowledge is also the theme of Plato's Symposium , but that work , too , is a debate about the form of love that produces knowledge . This is the subject of Nussbaum's brilliant analysis in her book The Fragility of Goodness ( ch . 6 ) ...
Page 46
... knowledge . If she is right , then Gadamer is to be faulted for his failure to recognize this relationship : He ... Knowledge that I quoted in my Prelude , Nussbaum uses a footnote to refer us to her Fragility of Goodness , im- plying ...
... knowledge . If she is right , then Gadamer is to be faulted for his failure to recognize this relationship : He ... Knowledge that I quoted in my Prelude , Nussbaum uses a footnote to refer us to her Fragility of Goodness , im- plying ...
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achieve Adam Bede agape Alasdair MacIntyre Alcibiades argument Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's attention Auden Augustine Augustine's Augustinian Baker Bakhtin Buffalo Bill C. S. Lewis calls Cartesian Chapter character charitable reading charity Christ Christian circus claim Claudio and Don context course criticism cultural Derrida Dickens Dickens's Dickinson Dinah Dinah Morris discernment discourse distinction Don Pedro essay ethical eudaimonia friendship Gadamer genuine George Eliot gift Gradgrind hermeneutics hermeneutics of love Hero human I-for-myself interpretation Iris Murdoch Jacques Derrida Jesus justice kenosis Kierkegaard Kinbote kind knowledge language literary live magnanimous means Milbank moral narrator neighbor Nietzsche Nietzsche's notion Nussbaum one's oneself pagan Pale Fire passage perhaps person philia pleasure poem political precisely question Quixotic quoted reader Rich Scripture sense Shade simply Sleary Sleary's spirit theology things thought tion Tompkins tradition truth understanding Updike Vereker virtue W. H. Auden words writes Zarathustra