Beáta Tóth
Title of PhD
Logos and Love – The Theological Contours of a Fragile Unity
Short Description
The research project explores a so far neglected area of theological anthropology: the theological contours of human emotionality. While the theological contours of human reason have for long been clearly drawn and systematised, the comments made on affectivity were considered as derivative with regard to tenets concerning the human intellect, the traditionally unquestionable seat of the image of God in the human person. Over against such background, the project has the double goal to interrogate patristic and medieval authors in the theological tradition (and also their modern commentators) in an effort to gain first-hand knowledge of the particularities of the issue and give a systematic shape to scattered discourses, on the one hand, and on the other, to situate the question of human affectivity within the contemporary climate where one registers important changes in both philosophical and theological reflection: after a long period of neglect, the body has been re-integrated into both philosophical and theological discourse, subverting traditional distinctions between spirit and matter. Accordingly, the traditional seat of the image of God has been shifted from an exclusive place in reason to the whole of the embodied person. In contradistinction to current a-theological emotion research in philosophy, the perspective I adopt is distinctively theological; it re-situates the issue of human affectivity within the original context of the biblical creation accounts expressed in terms of a theology of human likeness to God and it views the human person as primarily God’s creation. It is also holistic in the sense that it does not study emotions on their own as separate phenomena, but treats them as part of an integral anthropological vision which is determined by a distinctively theological stance and teleology. My aim is to explore the specifically Christian logic of human affectivity registered by many as missing from current accounts.
toth.beata@sapientia.hu
Publications
Articles in English:
‘Critical’ Theology? Notes on Theological Method’, Louvain Studies 26 (2001) 99-116.
’Theologia et Philosophia: Twin Sisters In Conversation’, New Blackfriars 86 (2005) 365-378.
’Chapter Thirteen: Imagination, Belief and Abstract Thought Within the Orbit of Religious Emotion’, in Willem Lemmens, Walter Van Herck (eds), Religious Emotions: Some Philosophical Explorations, (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 174-182.
’Our Most Serious Deficiency-Disease’ – Reason, Faith and the Rediscovery of Sensibility’ New Blackfriars 90 (2009) 718-737.
’Gift as God – God as Gift? Notes Towards Rethinking the Gift of Theology’, in Cristian Ciocan (ed.), Philosophical Concepts and Religious Metaphors: New Perspectives on Phenomenology and Theology, Special Issue of Studia Phaenomenologica, 2009 (Bucharest: Zeta Books, 2009) 255-267.
’The Concept of Mystery as a Challenge In Recent Theological Reflection’, in Iryna Dubianetskaya (ed.), Your Sun Shall Never Set Again, And Your Moon Shall Wane No More: Essays in Honour of Fr Alexander Nadson on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday and Fiftieth Anniversary of His Priesthood, (Minsk: Technalohija, 2009)
Forthcoming articles in English:
’The hint half-guessed, the gift half understood”: Incarnation at the Intersection of Divine Communication and Human Poesis’ in Terrence Merrigan and Frederick Glorieux (eds.), “Godhead Here in Hiding”. Incarnation and the History of Human Suffering (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 234) (Leuven: Peeters, 2010), pp. 253-260.
„Diaphany of the Divine Milieu or the Epiphany of Divine Glory? – The Revelation of the Natural World in Teilhard de Chardin and Hans Urs von Balthasar” (Conference volume of ’Green as a Leaf – Renewing a Theology of Creation’, University of Nottingham)
Articles in Hungarian:
’Palackba zárt üzenet? – Kortárs angolszász teológusok Hans Urs von Balthasar nyomában [A Bottle Thrown Into the Sea?’ – Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Theologians in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Wake], in Kathekón 3 (2006) 325-335 republished in In memoriam Hans Urs von Balthasar, Sapientia füzetek 10. (Budapest: Vigilia kiadó, 2007), 284-296.
’Theologia et Philosophia: Társalgó ikernővérek’, Sapientiana 1 (2008) 2-16.
Reviews in English:
Gesa E. Thiessen & Declan Marmion (eds.), Theology in the Making: Biography, Contexts, Methods. (Dublin: Veritas, 2005), in Louvain Studies 31 (2006) 112-113.
René Girard. I See Satan Fall Like Lightning. Translated with a Foreword, by James G. Williams. (Maryknoll, NY / Ottawa, Ont. / Leominster, Herefordshire: Orbis Books / Novalis / Gracewing), 2001, in Louvain Studies 31 (2006) 372-374.
Stefano De Fiores, Maria: Nuovissimo Dizionario (Bologna: EDB, 2006) ETL 84 (2008) 273-274.
Henri-Dominique Gardeil, Initiation á la Philosophie de Saint Thomas D’Aquin (Paris: Cerf, 2007), ETL 84 (2008) 252-254.
John Milbank, The Suspended Middle: Henri de Lubac and the Debate concerning the Supernatural (London: SCM, 2005), ETL 85/2* (2009) 211-215.
Craig A. Boyd, Visions of Agapé: Problems and Possibilities in Human and Divine Love (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), ETL 85/2* (2009) 234-236.
John Milbank, The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2009), ETL 85/2* (2009) 236-237.
Kevin E. O’Reilly, Aesthetic Perception: A Thomistic Perspective (Dublin/Portland: Four Courts Press, 2007) Louvain Studies 33 (2008) 321-322.
Risto Saarinen, God and the Gift: An Ecumenical Theology of Giving (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2005) Louvain Studies 33 (2008) 324-327.
St. Thomas Aquinas. On Love and Charity. Readings from the “Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard” . Translated by Peter A. Kwasniewski, Thomas Bolin, O.S.B., & Joseph Bolin. With introduction and notes by Peter A. Kwasniewski. Washington D.C., The Catholic University of America Press, 2008, ETL 85/4 (2009) 585-587.
Nicholas J. Healy. The Eschatology of Hans Urs von Balthasar: Being as Communion (Oxford Theological Monographs). (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) Louvain Studies 34 (2009) 102-104.
Herbert McCabe, Faith Within Reason (London/New York: Continuum, 2007) Louvain Studies 34 (2009) 104-106.
Review in Hungarian:
Jürgen Moltmann: Minden végben kezdet rejtezik, Kis reménytan, [Im Ende – der Anfang, Eine kleine Hoffnungslehre] (Pannonhalma: Bencés kiadó, 2005), in Vigilia 71 (2006) 474-475.
