Philosophical Anthropology of the Cross

Brian Gregor is a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Fordham University. He is editor (with Jens Zimmerman) of Bonhoeffer and Continental Thought: Cruciform Philosophy (IUP, 2009) and Being Human, Becoming Human: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Social Thought.

• AcknowledgmentsList of Abbreviations 1. Philosophy, the Cross, and Human BeingPart 12. The Hermeneutics of the Self3. Faith, Substance, and the Cross4. The Incurved Self5. The Anthropological QuestionPart 26. The Concreteness and Continuity of Faith7. The Capable Human Being as a Penultimate Good8. The Call to Responsibility9. Reflexivity, Intentionality, and Self-understanding10. Religion within the Limits of the Penultimate?NotesSelect BibliographyIndex

In the end, A Philosophical Anthropology of the Cross represents one of the first major Lutheran engagements with continental philosophy, and an excellent one at that. While the book is certainly not accessible to the layperson, it is accessible to pastors and teachers, and gives a helpful overview of the connections between major figures in continental philosophy and the trajectory of Bonhoeffer's philosophical and theological project. Most importantly, it is a valuable contribution at an important time that begins a conversation of depth about both philosophy that is engaged with the scandal of the cross as well as a robust Lutheran vocabulary of sanctification.(Dialog) Gregor's work is impressive along two important lines. One the one hand, he offers the uniformed or porrly informed philospher a clear and often quite detailed presentation of Bonhoeffer's systematic thought, with attention to its conscious relation not only to Lutheran theology but also to modern philosophy. On the other hand, he also threads that presentation into the contemporary philosophical context by marking important points of contact with work by such convivial thinkers as Ricoeur, Marcel, and Charles Taylor, but also Nietzsche and Heidegger, with whom discussion would be considerably more antagonistic.Sept. 2014(International Philosophical Quarterly) Gregor has been true to his undertaking to investigate the implications of Paul's insight into the tension between philosophy and Christian faith.(Heythrop Journal)