In this book, Dr Desbruslais investigates some of the disturbing questions about God and Religious Experiences, from different quarters, and brings to light the liberating aspect of religion with the running theme: “Idols must die so that symbols can live.” His comprehensive research work is scholarly and nuanced, based on the hermeneutic phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur, one of the most distinguished Western philosophers of the 20th century. True to his central concern, Dr Desbrusla challenges some of our wrong and unhealthy notions of God in order to enable us to have an authentic encounter with the Divine. Though his doctoral thesis is being published in book form after four decades of completion of his research, the genuine concerns raised in this work remain relevant to our multi-religious milieu in India – all the more so in our times when India is grappling with serious problems of religious fundamentalism and fanaticism.

Contents

Foreword
General Introduction

Part I: On Interpretation

1. Natural Hermeneutics

1.1. The Hermeneutical Animal
1.2. Human Transcendence
1.3. The Rationalist Stance
1.4. The Pre-rational Moment
1.5. Fides Quaerens Intellectum (Faith Seeking Understanding)
1.6. Asking the Right Question
1.7. Levels of Meaning
1.8. Perennial Philosophy
1.9. Healthy Hermeneutical Attitudes
1.10. The Three Canons of a Healthy Natural Hermeneutics

2. Technical Hermeneutics

2.1. From Dilletantism to Symbol
2.2. Hermeneutic of Texts or of Reality?
2.3. The Dynamism of Interpretation – Sharing
2.4. The Lessons of Technical Hermeneutics

Conclusion

Part II: On Transcendence

3. The Phenomenon of Transcendence

3.1. The Meaning of Transcendence
3.2. Two Possibilities
3.3. The Metaphysical Roots of Human Subjective Transcendence
3.4. A “Proof” for God’s Existence
3.5. The Search for Meaning
3.6. The Experience of Contingency
3.7. The Responsibility to Listen
3.8. The Fear of Transcendence
3.9. Silence
3.10. Homo Secularis

Conclusion

Part III: On Interpretations of Transcendence

4. The Symbolics of Religious Language

4.1. In Search of an Appropriate Language
4.2. The Symbol
4.3. The Myth

5. The Symbolics of Religious Rites

5.1. Secular Rites
5.2. Religious Rites

6. The Symbolics of Contemporary Religious Thought

6.1. Bonhoeffer’s Interpretation
6.2. Man’s Ambivalence
6.3. The Symbolics of Travel-Imagery
6.4. Ricoeur and the Nietzsche-Marx-Freud Triad
6.5. Nietzsche’s Contribution
6.6. The Contribution of Marx
6.7. The Contribution of Freud
6.8. The Contribution of Spontaneity
6.9. Hermeneutics and Idols

General Conclusion
Bibliography

Dr. Cyril Desbruslais SJ was a popular professor at JD, Pune, for nearly 40 years. An excellent teacher, youth animator, playwright and spiritual guide, and above all a wonderful human person, he was known for effectively blending his teaching with his active ministries. Of all the varied subjects he taught at JD, the ones that remained ever dear to him were Philosophy of God and Philosophy of Religion. This was because of his lived experience in the religious diversity of India and the intriguing and gripping questions about God posed by hundreds of his students as well as his Pune based inter-religious youth group (popularly known as SSU). All these played a vital role in choosing “Interpretations of Transcendence” for his research. This book is the fruit of his long search for an authentic experience of God.

Sathya Balan Arockiasamy belongs to the Jesuit Chennai Province. As a student at JD, Pune, he has attended many courses of Dr. Cyril Desbruslais SJ, including Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Liberation. He had his theological formation at the Jesuit Faculty, Centre Sèvres, in Paris, France after which he completed his Licentiate in Philosophy from JD, Pune. He is a faculty member at the Jesuit Philosophate, Satya Nilayam, in Chennai, teaching Hermeneutics & Deconstruction and Philosophy of Science & Cosmology. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He can be contacted at sathyabalansj@gmail.com.