Words Fail

Colby Dickinson is Assistant Professor of Theology at Loyola University Chicago.

• Introduction 1. The logic of the 'as if' and the (non)existence of God: An inquiry into the nature of belief 2. Aesthetics among the metaphysical ruins: The poetry of Paul Celan seen through the works of Jacques Derrida and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe 3. On language and its profanation: Beyond representation in the poetic theory of Giorgio Agamben Conclusion: The Spiritual and Creative Failures of Representation, or On the Art of Writing Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

"Colby Dickinson provides us with a compelling meditation on the complex relationship between poetry, philosophy, and religion. He not only illuminates Derrida and Agamben's engagement with poetry but allows poetry to talk back to philosophy-and invites the reader to reconsider what is at stake every time we sit down to write." -- -Adam Kotsko Shimer College