Transcendence in an Age of Tabloids and Terror: Don DeLillo's Apophatic Approach.
This essay examines how Don DeLillo employs the apophatic tradition as a means of approaching the transcendent while resisting media absorption and extremist cooptation. Apophatic discourse—discourse that points toward that which is beyond language—honors the dynamic nature of truth, making it well...
| Published in: | Religion & the Arts Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 50 - 76 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Brill Academic Publishers
2019
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=137344310&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 137344310 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10799265 C4V jtl: Religion & the Arts issn: 10799265 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 2019 vid: 23 iid: 1 pid: 639 pub: Brill Academic Publishers artinfo: ui: 137344310 10.1163/15685292-02301003 ppf: 50 ppct: 26 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 180KB tig: atl: Transcendence in an Age of Tabloids and Terror: Don DeLillo's Apophatic Approach. aug: au: Carson, Jordan affil: Baylor University su: DeLillo, Don, 1936- Transcendence (Philosophy) Tabloid newspapers Negative theology Spiritual formation sug: subj: DeLillo, Don, 1936- Transcendence (Philosophy) Tabloid newspapers Negative theology Spiritual formation keyword: apophatic theology Don DeLillo literature and belief postmodernism postsecularism religion and literature ab: This essay examines how Don DeLillo employs the apophatic tradition as a means of approaching the transcendent while resisting media absorption and extremist cooptation. Apophatic discourse—discourse that points toward that which is beyond language—honors the dynamic nature of truth, making it well suited to a postmodern, pluralistic era. Yet, apophasis is not just a recognition of the limits of language but a way of approaching the Ultimate that results in personal transformation. DeLillo's invocation of mystery is often noted but rarely connected to spiritual formation. Yet his work is full of pilgrims disaffected by traditional religion who unavailingly seek spiritual fulfillment elsewhere. I demonstrate that DeLillo offers a standard for discriminating among religious mysteries by chronicling the spiritual etiolation of misguided pilgrims. I then identify apophatic discourse in his work, arguing that DeLillo upholds apophasis as a way of engaging mystery that is self-realizing and redemptive. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Religion & the Arts is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Religion & the Arts holder: Brill Academic Publishers dt: @attributes: year: 2019 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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