Papers by Jeffrey Fisher
The Journal of Religion, 2001
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A Companion to Jean Gerson, 2006
https://jeffreyfisher.substack.com/i/135946190/work-on-jean-gerson ... In an attempt to both take... more https://jeffreyfisher.substack.com/i/135946190/work-on-jean-gerson ... In an attempt to both take André Combes seriously and to update him, I argue for the development over time of Gerson's mystical theology in broadly three periods, with hinges at the Council of Constance and in 1425 (mainly the letter on Ubertino), but I maintain that Gerson's emphases after 1425 are consistent with a development reaching culmination rather than a transformative "mystical experience." Gerson's late mystical works are characterized by a rejection of his own former views of the relative roles of intellect and affect in mystical theology.
Heythrop Journal, 2016
https://jeffreyfisher.substack.com/p/published-papers-and-things Gregory of Nyssa's use of decept... more https://jeffreyfisher.substack.com/p/published-papers-and-things Gregory of Nyssa's use of deception in his story of salvation comes in for harsh modern criticism. We argue not only that wiliness is a virtue in the ancient and late antique world, but also that God's deception of Satan is in actuality mainly self-deception on Satan's part. Much more interesting than simply exonerating God of charges of deception, or Gregory of charges that he casts God in the role of deceiver, are the implications for Gregory's soteriology of taking seriously Satan's self-deception. Satan becomes an important foil for human salvation.
Commitments to Medieval Mystics in Contemporary Contexts, 2017
This essay is a bit of a mish-mash, but I'm trying to figure out the nature of postmodern religio... more This essay is a bit of a mish-mash, but I'm trying to figure out the nature of postmodern religiosity and atheism, which seem to share a ground in Enlightenment anti-religiosity. From the beginning of the paper:
It is worth considering that aspects of medieval mystical writing, mystical theorizing, mystical attitudes toward God, the world, and religiosity itself are well suited for postmodern (or late modern) religious consciousness. In fact, medieval mystical discourse provides a vast resource not only for postmodern religiosity, construed narrowly, but for ways of refiguring the self and its relationship to the world. Ironically, it will turn out that a certain kind of atheism, perhaps more than one kind, necessitates this return of and to the medieval. I will rely heavily on a reading of the work of the Catholic philosopher (and, arguably, theologian) Louis Dupré, whose analysis of the reification of a dichotomy between nature and grace resulting in a kind of death of symbols dovetails with the sociological work of Danièle Hervieu-Léger, for whom tradition, the heart of religiosity, perpetuates itself through adap- tation and reinterpretation. To see how this analysis of the postmodern religious condition plays out, I will consider all too briefly the recent “non-conversation” between Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank, in which an atheistic “materialist theologian” who might properly call himself an “unbeliever” debates with the foremost theologian of Radical Orthodoxy over the place of Meister Eckhart in a contemporary understanding of what it means to be truly Christian. Here we will see the importance for both the atheist and the (Anglo-)Catholic of a proper reading of Eckhart to an accurate diagnosis and prescription of the problems arising out of the Enlightenment instrumentalization of rationality. While Žižek and Milbank frame their confrontation in terms of the demise of Enlighten- ment rationality back to Immanuel Kant, I will emphasize a more recent philosophical terminus of modernity, logical positivism, which despite its implosion continues to tacitly govern the everyday understanding of the world of moderns. Wherever we lay the stress, however, there seems to be agreement among philosophers, theologians, critics, and even sociological anthropologists that the Western world (at least) has deprived itself of symbolic language in the name of reason understood primarily as science (in the modern sense of this term). Significant consensus also points to the medieval mystics, and particularly the outliers – the heretical, heterodox, or at best marginal mystics – as the most promising way out of the ideological corner we have painted ourselves into.
A Cultural History of the Universe in the Medieval Age
Forthcoming. A history of ideas of the cosmos in the Middle Ages, beginning with Plato, Aristotle... more Forthcoming. A history of ideas of the cosmos in the Middle Ages, beginning with Plato, Aristotle, and Ptolemy and concluding with Nicholas of Cusa.
Internet culture, Jan 1, 1997
This piece essentially identifies in cyberpunk and related triumphalist discourses around interne... more This piece essentially identifies in cyberpunk and related triumphalist discourses around internet/cyberspace technologies (e.g., John Perry Barlow, Hans Moravec, etc.) a recapitulation of religious desires for transcendence of/escape from the material world, especially but not only the limitations of the body. I zero in on Dante and medieval religiosity as a particularly apt model by which to understand said discourses. The paper is theoretically informed, but grounded in meticulous close reading and historically contextualized.
Curiously, I have seen this paper misread at least once (in print) as a kind of techno-triumphalism. Very confusing, given that it is precisely triumphalism that I am critiquing.
Sophia, 2009
... Pseudo-dionysius . ... The argument is essentially that Dionysius's treatment of the inc... more ... Pseudo-dionysius . ... The argument is essentially that Dionysius's treatment of the incarnation "recapitulates" his understanding of all being as theophany, but in such a way ... I have found to admit that I find this unpersuasive as a Christology, in much the same way that I have found ...
in progress by Jeffrey Fisher
in progress
I'm currently revising the text and translation I did of Gerson's Anagogicum in my dissertation, ... more I'm currently revising the text and translation I did of Gerson's Anagogicum in my dissertation, as well as revising my analysis and argument about the text's central arguments and structure. I'm happy to share what I have privately, but it is very much in progress, at the moment.
I expect to post updates to my substack when I have a better handle on the situation.
If you are interested in this project, please do check out https://jeffreyfisher.substack.com/p/published-papers-and-things and let me know that you are interested.
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Papers by Jeffrey Fisher
It is worth considering that aspects of medieval mystical writing, mystical theorizing, mystical attitudes toward God, the world, and religiosity itself are well suited for postmodern (or late modern) religious consciousness. In fact, medieval mystical discourse provides a vast resource not only for postmodern religiosity, construed narrowly, but for ways of refiguring the self and its relationship to the world. Ironically, it will turn out that a certain kind of atheism, perhaps more than one kind, necessitates this return of and to the medieval. I will rely heavily on a reading of the work of the Catholic philosopher (and, arguably, theologian) Louis Dupré, whose analysis of the reification of a dichotomy between nature and grace resulting in a kind of death of symbols dovetails with the sociological work of Danièle Hervieu-Léger, for whom tradition, the heart of religiosity, perpetuates itself through adap- tation and reinterpretation. To see how this analysis of the postmodern religious condition plays out, I will consider all too briefly the recent “non-conversation” between Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank, in which an atheistic “materialist theologian” who might properly call himself an “unbeliever” debates with the foremost theologian of Radical Orthodoxy over the place of Meister Eckhart in a contemporary understanding of what it means to be truly Christian. Here we will see the importance for both the atheist and the (Anglo-)Catholic of a proper reading of Eckhart to an accurate diagnosis and prescription of the problems arising out of the Enlightenment instrumentalization of rationality. While Žižek and Milbank frame their confrontation in terms of the demise of Enlighten- ment rationality back to Immanuel Kant, I will emphasize a more recent philosophical terminus of modernity, logical positivism, which despite its implosion continues to tacitly govern the everyday understanding of the world of moderns. Wherever we lay the stress, however, there seems to be agreement among philosophers, theologians, critics, and even sociological anthropologists that the Western world (at least) has deprived itself of symbolic language in the name of reason understood primarily as science (in the modern sense of this term). Significant consensus also points to the medieval mystics, and particularly the outliers – the heretical, heterodox, or at best marginal mystics – as the most promising way out of the ideological corner we have painted ourselves into.
Curiously, I have seen this paper misread at least once (in print) as a kind of techno-triumphalism. Very confusing, given that it is precisely triumphalism that I am critiquing.
in progress by Jeffrey Fisher
I expect to post updates to my substack when I have a better handle on the situation.
If you are interested in this project, please do check out https://jeffreyfisher.substack.com/p/published-papers-and-things and let me know that you are interested.
It is worth considering that aspects of medieval mystical writing, mystical theorizing, mystical attitudes toward God, the world, and religiosity itself are well suited for postmodern (or late modern) religious consciousness. In fact, medieval mystical discourse provides a vast resource not only for postmodern religiosity, construed narrowly, but for ways of refiguring the self and its relationship to the world. Ironically, it will turn out that a certain kind of atheism, perhaps more than one kind, necessitates this return of and to the medieval. I will rely heavily on a reading of the work of the Catholic philosopher (and, arguably, theologian) Louis Dupré, whose analysis of the reification of a dichotomy between nature and grace resulting in a kind of death of symbols dovetails with the sociological work of Danièle Hervieu-Léger, for whom tradition, the heart of religiosity, perpetuates itself through adap- tation and reinterpretation. To see how this analysis of the postmodern religious condition plays out, I will consider all too briefly the recent “non-conversation” between Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank, in which an atheistic “materialist theologian” who might properly call himself an “unbeliever” debates with the foremost theologian of Radical Orthodoxy over the place of Meister Eckhart in a contemporary understanding of what it means to be truly Christian. Here we will see the importance for both the atheist and the (Anglo-)Catholic of a proper reading of Eckhart to an accurate diagnosis and prescription of the problems arising out of the Enlightenment instrumentalization of rationality. While Žižek and Milbank frame their confrontation in terms of the demise of Enlighten- ment rationality back to Immanuel Kant, I will emphasize a more recent philosophical terminus of modernity, logical positivism, which despite its implosion continues to tacitly govern the everyday understanding of the world of moderns. Wherever we lay the stress, however, there seems to be agreement among philosophers, theologians, critics, and even sociological anthropologists that the Western world (at least) has deprived itself of symbolic language in the name of reason understood primarily as science (in the modern sense of this term). Significant consensus also points to the medieval mystics, and particularly the outliers – the heretical, heterodox, or at best marginal mystics – as the most promising way out of the ideological corner we have painted ourselves into.
Curiously, I have seen this paper misread at least once (in print) as a kind of techno-triumphalism. Very confusing, given that it is precisely triumphalism that I am critiquing.
I expect to post updates to my substack when I have a better handle on the situation.
If you are interested in this project, please do check out https://jeffreyfisher.substack.com/p/published-papers-and-things and let me know that you are interested.