Rhythm: A Theological Category argues that, as a pervasive dimension of human existence with theological implications, rhythm ought to be considered a category of theological significance. Philosophers and theologians have drawn on the category of rhythm--patterned movements of repetition and variation-to describe reality, however, the ways in which rhythm is used and understood differ based on a variety of metaphysical commitments with varying theological implications. Lexi Eikelboom brings those implications into the open through using resources from phenomenology, prosody, and the social sciences to analyse and evaluate uses of rhythm in metaphysical and theological accounts of reality. The analysis relies on a distinction from prosody between a synchronic approach to rhythm, which observes the whole at once and considers how various dimensions of a rhythm hold together harmoniously, and a diachronic approach, which focuses on the ways in which time unfolds as the subject
experiences it. Based on an engagement with the twentieth-century Jesuit theologian Erich Przywara alongside thinkers as diverse as Augustine and the contemporary philosopher Giorgio Agamben, Eikelboom proposes an approach to rhythm that serves the concerns of theological conversation. It then demonstrates the difference that including rhythm in such theological conversation makes to how we think about questions such as "what is creation" and "what is the nature of the God-creature relationship?" from the perspective of rhythm. As a theoretical category, capable of expressing metaphysical commitments, yet shaped by the cultural rhythms in which those expressing such commitments are embedded, rhythm is particularly significant for theology as a phenomenon through which culture and embodied experience influence doctrine.

lgli/Rhythm - Lexi Eikelboom;.pdf

lgrsnf/Rhythm - Lexi Eikelboom;.pdf

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

German Historical Institute London

OUP Oxford

Oxford theology and religion monographs, First edition, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2018

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

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Cover
Rhythm: A Theological Category
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PASCAL MICHON AND THE HISTORY OF A HAUNTING
THIS TEXT AMID THE WAVE
Outline of the Book
Part I: Experience
1: A Phenomenology of Rhythm
RHYTHM IN POETRY
The Synchronic Perspective
The Diachronic Perspective
Interruption
Poetic Rhythm
RHYTHM IN THE EVERYDAY
Rhythm and Language
Rhythm in Social Cohesion and Subversion
Part II: Philosophy
2: Synchronicity I: Rhythm as the Whole
BENVENISTIAN RHYTHM AND HERACLITEAN (ANTI)METAPHYSICS
Gilles Deleuze
Friedrich Nietzsche
Martin Heidegger
THEOLOGICAL RESPONSES
Catherine Keller
Erich Przywara
3: Diachronicity: Rhythm as Interruption
INTERRUPTIVE RHYTHM AND THE EXPERIENCE OF THE SUBJECT
Giorgio Agamben
Julia Kristeva
THEOLOGICAL RESPONSES
Connor Cunningham and John Milbank
Jean-Luc Marion
Erich Przywara
Part III: Theology
4: Synchronicity II: Rhythm as Hierarchy
AUGUSTINIAN RHYTHM AND THE HIERARCHY OF THE WHOLE
De Musica
Interpretations
THEOLOGICAL RESPONSES
John Milbank, Simon Oliver, and Adrian Pabst
Erich Przywara
5: Harmony and Interruption: Rhythm as Analogy
THE ANALOGIA ENTIS AS RHYTHM
Steven A. Long
Erich Przywara
THEOLOGICAL RESPONSES
Synchronic and Diachronic
Rhythmic Theology
Part IV: Reality
6: Rhythms of Creation
THE SYNCHRONIC: THE GENESIS 1 CREATION ACCOUNT
Theological
Intra-creaturely
THE DIACHRONIC: NATURE AND CULTURE
Keller and Augustine
A Rhythmic Doctrine of Creation
7: Rhythms of Salvation
THE SYNCHRONIC: HARMONY AND INTERRUPTION
Jenson and Congdon
The Ordinary and the Deformed
THE DIACHRONIC: CHURCH AND WORLD
Intra-Ecclesial Oscillations
Church and World
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

This innovative study argues that, as a pervasive dimension of human existence with theological implications, rhythm ought to be considered a category of theological significance.

2023-11-01