Phenomenology: A Basic Introduction in the Light of Jesus Christ

by Donald Wallenfang

What is phenomenology? That is precisely the question this book seeks to answer. In an age of information overload, complex topics must be simplified to make them accessible to a wider audience. Phenomenology: A Basic Introduction in the Light of Jesus Christ not only presents the basic building blocks of phenomenology, it also gives body to voice by putting abstract ideas in contact with the Word made flesh, Jesus of Nazareth. In five manageable chapters, Donald Wallenfang introduces major themes such as the natural attitude, givenness, interpretation, paradox, and ethics. Each subject is considered in how it applies to daily life and relates to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Several biblical scenes are tapped to harvest their sweet nectars of meaning through phenomenology. At its limit, philosophy gives way to the revelatory rationality of theology as expressed by Jesus the phenomenologist.


"Donald Wallenfang's book presents key insights from Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenology--givenness, saturated phenomena, the possibility of impossibility, paradox--and, with welcome clarity and many striking and accessible examples, shows us how to use them in the investigation of our human experience. At the same time, in a surprising and yet deeply sensible manner, Wallenfang explores how the practice of this phenomenological method of thinking can open us to the 'impossible possibility' that everyday life experience always and everywhere would become a theater for encounter with Jesus Christ. This is a bold and eloquent witness to nothing less than the complementarity of theology and philosophy in human experience."

--Stephen E. Lewis, Franciscan University of Steubenville


Donald Wallenfang, Emmanuel Mary of the Cross, is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and professor of theology and philosophy at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. He is the author of Metaphysics: A Basic Introduction in a Christian Key (Cascade, 2019); Phenomenology: A Basic Introduction in the Light of Jesus Christ (Cacade, 2019); Dialectical Anatomy of the Eucharist: An Etude in Phenomenology (Cascade, 2017); Human and Divine Being: A Study on the Theological Anthropology of Edith Stein (Cascade, 2017); and coeditor (with John C. Cavadini) of Evangelization as Interreligious Dialogue (Pickwick, 2019) and Pope Francis and the Event of Encounter (Pickwick, 2018).

Genres: Philosophy

Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2019

Reviews

[Mason Fraley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly named because it’s not a “basic introduction” to phenomenology. Tedious wading through the author’s flights of incoherent babbling ecstasy. I get that the medium is the message, and that the phenomenological method is communicated in some way in that mode, but it’s tiresome and tempts the reader to resent the subject. Meant to be profound and contemplative and mostly comes off as pretentious and obscurantist. Inside baseball. Took some nuggets away but would not recommend. “(es gibt)”…iykyk

[graceofgod · Rating 3 out of 5]

An introduction to a very Levinasian-esque phenomenology from a conservative, continental Catholic philosophy standpoint. Despite all this, an enjoyable read.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had previously read Donald Wallenfang's excellent book, in the same series, on metaphysics. At the end of that, he asserted that, as wondrous and valuable as they are, the assertions and abstractions of metaphysics are only part of the story until we also take into account phenomenology.

"Since metaphysics is unable to describe the experiential givenness and signification of love [so vital to the revelation of the divine / God], we must turn to phenomenology to do so."

Here's where the rubber meets the road for us as experiencing, meaning-making beings. Here's where things come to life.

Phenomenology as a way of being, or mode of interpretation, involves receptivity, it attends to givenness, and Wallenfang positions this (in his poetic, storied, language-aware way) in terms of contemplation.

"For phenomenology, life unfolds as a dramatics of gift, a hermeneutics of gift, because it gives. Phenomenology is contemplation of what gives, and there is no limit to this contemplation because in the beginning, givenness, and in the end, givenness."

The world of incoming 'data' and how we process it. Being receptive to a reality that gives. Being open to the outflow of the everyday generosity of existence, an influx, a surfeit, a saturating superabundance, suspending the automatic assumptions that seek to classify as quickly as possible, and be open to possibility, even beyond the seemingly impossible and thereby open to the wonderful givingness of such things as paradox.

I'm new to phenomenology but I like the sound of it. I love Gaston Bachelard, and he had something to do with phenomenology. As always, there is plenty to explore. Wonderful isn't it, how life is like that? Not many names are mentioned in this book (though names like Husserl, Heidegger, Marion and Levinas do get a brief mention). Wallenfang tells us he's done that intentionally - refrained from referencing. The rationale is that referencing and naming gets in the way for a reader new to the subject. I think the opposite. Naming and referencing in books have long been the start of exploration for me. So I feel a bit frustrated in that regard. But it's ok.

I read this book at the same time as Jake Caputo's 'What Would Jesus Deconstruct?' I sense there are points of connection, but I feel like I would need to attend a lecture on that, or a tutorial. I see something online about Derrida (deconstructionism) critiquing phenomenology. Anyway, just at a basic level they both function in the realms of philosophy, springing up from the same general milieu, so there are bound to be interconnections in terminology and such. (Actually, reading the two books over time at the same time occasionally got confusing as to which I was reading where.)

But in terms of modus operandi, both books do something similar. They use their field of interest (Caputo - deconstruction, Wallenfang - phenomenology) as a hermeneutic (a lens) by which to engage with themes of Christianity.

Actually, the word 'play' might be more apt than something stolid-sounding like 'hermeneutics' - especially in the case of Caputo, but often in Wallenfang as well. (By this, I don't mean to say at all that it isn't important work.) And it's a joy.

Actually, I've got a confession to make... when I was thinking about these intelligent guys playing like this with such wonderfully responsive and interactive material (ie theology, the Bible, the divine) and enjoying so much what they were doing, the thought spontaneously arose, 'God is good.' It wasn't an observation or statement - it was an emotion.

At the end of this book, we find the vice versa of the end of his book on metaphysics - the two methods have their limits and should be twinned together, not as a synthesis but as a dialectic. And for your interest, and mine, a quick name-check of a few who have: Edith Stein, Hedwig Conrad-Martius, Erich Przywara, Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Paul Ricoeur and Karol Wojtyła.

Here's a go.