In Deference to the Other: Lonergan and Contemporary Continental Thought

In Deference to the Other brings contemporary continental though into conversation with that of Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984), the Jesuit philosopher and theologian. This is an opportune moment to open such a dialogue: philosophers and theologians indebted to Lonergan have increasingly found themselves challenged by the insights of thinkers typically dubbed "postmodern," while postmodernists, most notably Jacques Derrida, have begun to ask the "God question." While Lonergan was not a continental philosopher, neither was he an analytic philosopher. Concerned with both epistemology and cognition, his systematic and hermeneutic-like proposals resonate with the concerns of philosophers such as Derrida, Foucault, Levinas, and Kristeva. Contributors to this volume find insight and affiliation between Longergan's thought and contemporary continental though in a wide-ranging work that engages the philosophical problems of authenticity, self-appropriation, ethics, and the human subject.