No Orthopathy without Orthoaesthesis: On the Necessity of Negative Effort
Theologians have become increasingly attentive to the role emotion and experience must play in theological reflection. Several thinkers have recently done so by appropriating and developing Jon Sobrino’s understanding of orthopathy, or "right affect." A close examination of these efforts,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Harvard theological review
Year: 2024, Volume: 117, Issue: 2, Pages: 317-341 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Sobrino, Jon 1938-
/ James, William 1842-1910
/ Weil, Simone 1909-1943
/ Murdoch, Iris 1919-1999
/ Emotion
/ Perception
/ Theological anthropology
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| RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism CB Christian life; spirituality KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history NBE Anthropology |
| Further subjects: | B
Spiritual Exercises
B Iris Murdoch B William James B negative effort B Orthopathy B Simone Weil B orthoaesthesis |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Theologians have become increasingly attentive to the role emotion and experience must play in theological reflection. Several thinkers have recently done so by appropriating and developing Jon Sobrino’s understanding of orthopathy, or "right affect." A close examination of these efforts, however, reveals inconsistencies in the way the category is understood and deployed. This article redresses these inconsistencies by complementing orthopathy with orthoaesthesis, or "right perception." The article opens by considering various appeals to orthopathy before suggesting how William James’s theory of emotion might provide the category with clarifying content. The second stage engages Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch as practitioners of orthoaesthesis. Special attention is given to Murdoch’s "techniques" aimed at transforming how practitioners perceive reality. With Murdoch’s guidance, the article contends that orthopathy is ineluctably bound to and not possible without orthoaesthesis. The article concludes with a constructive proposal to show how orthoaesthesis-orthopathy contributes to a Christian theological anthropology. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4517 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0017816024000117 |
