D. G. Leahy

NOVITAS MUNDI

Perception of the History of Being

by D.G. Leahy

SUNY

$19.95, 422 pages , notes, index

0-7914-2138-4

hardcover

FOUNDATION

Matter the Body Itself

by D.G. Leahy

SUNY

$24.95, paper; 696 pages, notes, bibliography, index

0-7914-2022-1

hardcover:

The phoenix has arisen anew from the ashes of the death of God theology and its apocalyptic flight blazes across the sky in these epochal works of D.G. Leahy. His mentor, Thomas J. Altizer, the famous death of God theologian has claimed that NOVITAS MUNDI "is quite simply the most important work of philosophical theology published in our century."

The "Prolegomena" sets out the fundamental perception of the history of being now operative in consciousness. The center of the book is comprised of a two-part "Reflection on the History of Being": Part I is an examination of the impact made on the shape of scientific philosophy by the fact of Christian faith. Aristotle, the sacra doctrina of Thomas Aquinas, and their relationship with the modern thinkers, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard are examined in this section.

In Part II the history of the conception of time becomes the measure of a prospective analysis of the limits essential to the modern enterprise. Augustine, Leibniz, Husserl, and Heidegger become the major figures here, and there is a specific delineation of the relationship of the phenomenologists to Kierkegaard and Hegel.

Contents:

Preface

Prolegomena in Comprehension of the History of Being

Reflection on the History of Being

Precis

A Retrospect: Faith and Self-consciousness

Aristotle: The Paradox of Good Sense

Thomas Aquinas: A New Reality

Descartes: A New Thought

The Infinite Practical. I: Kant

The Infinite Practical. II: Hegel

Kierkegaard and Lessing: The Leap of Faith

The Prospect: Introductory Presentations In The Essential History of Thought

Augustine: The Knowledge of Existence

Leibniz: The Ideal of The History of Being

Hegel: The Absolute Truth

Clarification of The Absolute. I: Kierkegaard

Clarification of The Absolute. II: Husserl

Clarification of The Absolute. III: Heidegger

Epilogue: The Essential Anticipation of the Finality of the Fact

Appendix alpha : The Reality of Transcendental Historical Thinking

Appendix beta : The Now Existing Thought of Faith

Appendix gamma : Missa Jubilaea: The Celebration of The Infinite Passover

Index

FOUNDATION manages to be the single most significant work of philosophical theology to be written in many decades. The epochal excellence of these books is the consummate vehemence and earnestness of practically every utterance. Leahy is an innovative thinker who writes to demonstrate the thinking he is trying to create anew. It is practically as demanding to read these works as it would be to write one's own. They require intense concentration and repeated rereadings to follow the argument, much less extract the implicit propositions and wild assumptions that underpin this effort. Novitas Mundi provides an original account of the history of being, in many ways more subtle and finely attuned than Heidegger's views of history. In Foundations, Leachy continues his critique but with a magnificent constructive and demonstrative metaphysics that is likely to be closely studied and controversially explored for decades to come. Novitas Mundi is a sort of prolegomena to this enterprise. It ordains the fundamental conception of the history of being that is now operative in consciousness, basically a culmination of past constructions and a relativizing of current ones, in other words, the problem of existence and of change. The core of Novitas Mundi is composed of a two-part "Reflection on the History of Being": Part I is an analysis of the effect made on the form of scientific philosophy by the event of Christian faith. Aristotle, the sacra doctrina of Thomas Aquinas, and their relationship with the modern thinkers, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard are examined in this section. In Part II the history of the idea of time befits the scale of a prospective analysis of the limits essential to the modern enterprise. Augustine, Leibniz, Husserl, and Heidegger become the major figures dealt with here, and there is an explicit depiction of the relationship of the phenomenologists to Kierkegaard and Hegel. With this summary critique of being and time, Leahy takes on the form of future thinking, a thinking without self in Foundation. He manages this remarkable feat by critiquing binary logics of Boole and Pierce, proposing a ternary logic where no term is an absolute nothing. This move is with great precision and logical sophistication drawn out for us. In many ways this work reinvigorates the theological idea and necessity of the Trinity. It also provokes important parallel ideas from classic Buddhist thought, generally the debates between the yogacarains, who defined a threefold logic in order the account for selfless consciousness and to refute the imputed extremism of the madhyamika, classically based upon the twofold dialectic of Nagarjuna. Though these connections with nonwestern thought are not recognized. Leahy's threefold logic has zero, not as nothing but as place holder, unuum, as possible being and one as actual being. This move provides a profound reinvention of the geometra of late antique neopythagorean and Jewish Kabbalah number and letter theory, in that the symbolic intervention of the signs themselves offer valid commentary upon the structure of absolute consciousness, that is selfless consciousness. However Leahy takes pains to remove himself from these traditional formulations, yet his own evidence reconfirms many of the traditional procedures and insights. Leahy invents a somewhat selfless thinking by taking the absolute seriously and effectively in a way that no philosopher has done since Hegel. This philosophical theology, Robert C. Neville says "is wild, but extraordinarily competent...truly brilliant work. Here we have a thinker who has used the resources of the Western tradition to think genuinely new and profound thoughts."

Contents for FOUNDATION

Preface

Critique of Absolute Contingency

Critique of Absolute World-Consciousness

1. Thought beyond Nietzsche: Foundation Itself

2. Ex nihilo the Angelic Word Totality Itself

3. Metanomy: The Quality of Being Itself

4. Revolutionary Metanoesis: Foundation of Society Itself

The Unity of the New World Order

1. The Law of Absolute Unity

2. Six Theorems Concerning the New Logic and Mathematics that Provide the Logical base for the Nothingless Fibonacci Sequence, the Geometric and Arithmetic Series, and Fermat's Last Theorem

3. The Geometry of the Infinitely Flat Structure of the Universe: The Logic of Rigid Structures

4. The Infinite Logical Lattice: The Direct Predictor of Rigidity in Grids

5. Transformation of World Consciousness: The New Atonement

6. Theorem Concerning the Natural Numbers, 1,784, and 82944, Factors of (9!/45)"superscript 2"

7. Theorem Concerning the Sets of Twenty-Two and Eight Natural Numbers whose Integral Products Equal Unit and Multi-Unit Fractions of Themselves the Denominators of which are Primary Digits of the Number System

Absolute Perception

1. American Thought and the New World Order

2. The Beginning of the Absolutely Unconditioned Body

The New Beginning

1. America after Death: The Universality of God's Body

2. To Create the Absolute Edge

3. The New Beginning: Beyond the Post-Modern Nothingness

Appendix: The De Trinitate of Augustine and the Logic

Index

 

 

Faith and Philosophy: The Historical Impact by D. G. Leahy

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