Essays in Phenomenological Theology ed. by Steven W. Laycock and James G. Hart

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 727 is what is added to the performance. It has a presentational quality-a kind of epiphany of meaning. The moral character of the act cannot lie in the intention or in the consequences. The author rejects the distinctions of act, intention, and circumstance as separable components of the phenomenon of moral acts. He opts for an interrelationship in such a way that intention is only intention when actualized. Intention cannot really be separated from actions. Performance actualizes intentions and actions characterize the performer. These make their marks on the world. The author believes that his approach establishes what he calls the moral category which is concerned with presentation since it establishes a relationship between agents and target. A moral theory based on the category of choice is utilitarian or consequential; one based on judgment is deontological. Because neither concentrates on the moral action itself, they are both incomplete. With his theory, the author believes he provides the answer to the ambiguities of moral actions, thus eliminating the need for theories that permit evil effects in order to achieve the good, such as the principle of double effect and the theory of ontic evil of Fuchs, J ansens, and Keane. He applies his analysis of choice and theory of moral categoriality to an analysis of the virtues, and the being of human agents. This work is challenging and novel. It breaks new ground in phenomenological studies and overcomes polarities and dichotomies which characterized older and more venerable moral theories. These theories have tried with difficulty to reconcile anomalies of freedom and necessity, good and evil, and means and ends in problematic instances. Robert Sokolowski offers a new way of looking at moral actions which will have a profound effect in academia and pastoral practice. St. Jerome's College Waterloo, Ontario Canada WALTER BILDSTEIN Essays in Phenomenological Theology. Edited by STEVEN W. LAYCOCK and JAMES G. HART. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986. Pp. 219. $12.95, paper; $39.50, cloth. Readers of this volume will find a collection of essays that represent a spectrum of approaches to phenomenology and to phenomenological theology and that draw inspiration from thinkers as varied as Confucius, 7~8 BOOK REVIEWS Plotinus, Aquinas, Dumery, Hegel, Ricoeur, and Derrida, as well as from Edmund Husserl. Those readers who are unfamiliar with phenomenological theology will most likely expect the collection to answer the question, What is phenomenological theology, and what is the relationship between phenomenology and phenomenological theology~ Some of the contributors do attempt to address this question, but their answers vary, from the modest claim that phenomenology can provide descriptive guidelines to the theological task to the more ambitious claim that phenomenology can provide an ontological/phenomenological proof for the existence of God and synthetic a priori statements concerning his nature. Iso Kern, in "Trinity: Theological Reflections of a Phenomenologist ", makes fairly mod.est claims for phenomenology as far as its ability to make theological statements is concerned. He states that phenomenology is not theology, because it describes and does not postulate. Nevertheless, he believes that "metaphysical postulates can be raised" on the basis of its description (p. 36). Phenomenological description for Kern takes the form of a delineation of three dimensions of human experience-nature, sociality and self. He correlates these dimensions of human experience with the Chinese awareness of their cultural tradition as determined through "The Three Doctrines", Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. He also correlates these dimensions with the Christian concept of the Trinity. According to Kern, metaphysical philosophies and religions, in their attempts to articulate a non-transitory, unconditioned metaphysical cause for human existence, must be cognizant of these three irreducible dimensions of human reality and reflect this triad or else risk being distorted and one-sided. Thus phenomenology can prepare the way for true theology by clearing away the false gods which are created through absolutizing relativities, such as would be the case if any one of the three dimensions of human existence were to be absolutized. Charles Courtney's discussion of "Henry Dumery's Phenomenology of Transcending " makes similar claims for phenomenology and phenomenollogical theology. According to Dumery and Courtney, phenomenology cannot make judgments concerning reality or...