In the Aftermath: Provocations and Laments

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, December 2008. Paper Back. New. 'Here I want-at least, in part-to entertain,' writes David Bentley Hart in his introduction to <i>In the Aftermath: Provocations and Laments </i>. In accord with Hart's faculty for being at once erudite, profound, satirical, and just plain funny, these essays really are some kind of wonderful, no matter if you agree or take issue with the opinions he unabashedly puts forward. Example (from 'The Laughter of the Philosophers'): 'For the most part, the works of philosophers mirror the shapes of their lives.The leaden, caliginous bombast of Hegel's prose was a pure emanation of his grindingly pompous soul. The turgidity of Derrida's attempts at playfulness are little more than clinical specimens of his insufferable self-infatuation.' and so forth. Included are book reviews, newspaper columns, an interview, magazine articles, and a public address. With an intellectual passion formed by Eastern Orthodox theology, Hart addresses everything from euthanasia and stem cell research to the justification of war, tsunamis, and John Paul's pontificate. The majority of these essays appeared in <i>First Things</i>, but many reached the broader audiences of <i>The Wall Street Journal</i> and <i>The New Criterion </i>. Hart's prose is at once acrobatic and lyrically fluent. The best commendation of his work, however, comes from his own hand (in reference to Søren Kierkegaard): 'He is one of that blessed and select company of modern philosophers whose writings can be read purely for the pleasure they afford.' 204 pp.