Transcendence and Self-Transcendence: On God and the Soul

The question of the transcendence of God has traditionally been thought
in terms of the difference between pantheism, which affirms that God is wholly
"within" the world, and theism, which affirms that God is both
"within" and "outside" the world, both immanent and
transcendent. Against Heidegger's critique of onto-theology and the general
postmodern concern for respecting and preserving the difference of the other, Merold
Westphal seeks to rethink divine transcendence in relation to modes of human
self-transcendence. Touching upon Spinoza, Hegel, Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius,
Aquinas, Barth, Kierkegaard, Levinas, Derrida, and Marion, Westphal's work centers
around a critique of onto-theology, the importance of alterity, the decentered self,
and the autonomous transcendental ego. Westphal's phenomenology of faith sets this
book into the main currents of Continental philosophy of religion today.