Paul Ricoeur between Theology and Philosophy Detour and Return [Paperback]

Paul Ricoeur (19132005) remains one of philosophy of religion's most distinctive voices. Ricoeur was a philosopher first, and while his religious reflections are very relevant to theology, Boyd Blundell argues that his philosophy is even more relevant. Using Ricoeur's own philosophical hermeneutics, Blundell shows that there is a way for explicitly Christian theology to maintain both its integrity and overall relevance. He demonstrates how the dominant pattern of detour and return found throughout Ricoeurs work provides a path to understanding the relationship between philosophy and theology. By putting Ricoeur in dialogue with current, fundamental, and longstanding debates about the role of philosophy in theology, Blundell offers a hermeneutically sensitive engagement with Ricoeur's thought from a theological perspective.

Blundell's book is a valuable addition to the literature on Ricoeur. It will be of interest to theologians concerned with the methods of theology, philosophical hermeneutics, or the place of theology in the academy.The terms of engagement of theology and philosophy in the contemporary academy are of considerable interest, along with the figure of Ricoeur and the subject of hermeneutics generally. . . . Highly engaging, well-structured, lucid.Blundell impressively weaves together three lines of inquiry while ably engaging a diverse number of interdisciplinary conversation partners. First, the book offers a convincing and appropriately limited account of the relationship between philosophy and theology that moves the conversation forward in helpful ways. Second, it adds to recent work about the debate between theological revisionists and postliberals. Finally, it provides an account of Ricoeur's thought that should be of interest to anyone who wants an intermediate level presentation of Ricoeur's philosophical hermeneutics. The three lines are put together in a textured, careful, smart, elegantly written, and theologically suggestive argumenlã"