Abstract

Governed by the rigorous methodological constraints of phenomenology, Intersubjectivity and the Divine Envisionment explores a hitherto sorely neglected theological theme: the relationship between the universal intersubjective community of finite minds and the field of consciousness of the divine mind. Nothing is presupposed concerning the extra-phenomenal existence of God. Rather, attention is directed exclusively to the "God-phenomenon." And it is shown that strictly derived phenomenological insights lead insistently to the conclusion that intersubjectivity and the divine envisionment are identical. ;The investigation is undergirded by the fundamental assumption that the general necessities governing all phenomena govern equally the God-phenomenon. Hence, it is seen that the God-phenomenon exhibits the necessary features of intentionality, accessibility to phenomenological reflection, teleology and intersubjectivity. Each is taken up in a separate chapter. Chapter Two, "Intentionality and Objectivity," contends that, while logical criteria of intentionality fail, a phenomenological elucidation of intentionality as "ek-static" self-transcendence can be provided. Chapter Three, "Omniscience of Reduction," includes a demonstration of the phenomenological impossibility of a suitably standard version of omniscience from the irreducibly transparent functioning of the divine field of consciousness. And Chapter Four, "The Teleology of Presencing," shows that not only must God be seen as ek-statically self-transcendent and transparently self-accessible, but also as the fundamental entelechy and ultimate telos of all possible presencing acts. In the final chapter, "Intersubjectivity and the Divine Envisionment," maintains that all finite minds are internally related and that Sartre's theory of the "detotalized totality" of minds neglects the co-occurrence of apperception with perception. The chapter culminates in an examination of Husserl's speculation that the divine mind intends the world through the universal intersubjective community of finite minds, the latter serving as its field of consciousness or envisionment