George Pattison

I think he [Heidegger] sets the question up in a useful way and, despite appearances, he's not 'against' technology. He just wants…

— George Pattison

Barth's approach tears up any possibility of dialogue between faith and unfaith or between theology and other human sciences. Theology just says…

— George Pattison

Ethics arises in the recognition of our obligation to care for others as beings, like us, exposed to mortality - that is,…

— George Pattison

I still read a lot about teenage angst! Of course, any kind of mourning CAN become pathological and then it 'has to…

— George Pattison

It seems that just Being, the sheer fact of existence, that there is something rather than nothing, already inspires a wonder akin…

— George Pattison

But my point is that 'the death of God' is not something like the Battle of Waterloo or Magna Charta. It's not…

— George Pattison

But, inevitably, as he [Kierkegaard] approaches what we might call his Christocentric climax many readers drop off. Many scholars just leave that…

— George Pattison

And perhaps this has to do with what I sense is a turning away from the idea of religion as being about…

— George Pattison

Of course, it's always difficult to disentangle fact from fiction in relation to, e.g., the singularity project. Many scientists I know are…

— George Pattison

Perhaps - and this goes for the Kyoto School too - one of these insights is that nothingness and unknowing don't have…

— George Pattison

When I'm on the operating table, I'm happy for the surgeon to treat me as a machine, but the moment I return…

— George Pattison

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there's a paradox here! Kierkegaard's own indirect communication proposes that we start with the experience of those who don't believe…

— George Pattison

In brief, I regard love as a more decisive focus of meaning than death. In terms of Heidegger's argument, this is because…

— George Pattison

Of course, if one's reading Kierkegaard for personal interest that's fine - but it's sloppy scholarship just to cherry pick what suits…

— George Pattison

For others the mourning is over. Others would say that whilst one God has died - the God of ontotheology perhaps? -…

— George Pattison

Positively, he [Heidegger] shows that the prospect of death doesn't of itself destroy all possibilities of meaning but calls instead for these…

— George Pattison

Essentially I see the new atheism as largely part of the crisis of the left. Having failed to carry through its agenda…

— George Pattison

I'm not sure that I 'am' a philosopher - but I do engage with questions that are generally recognized as philosophical questions,…

— George Pattison

Schleiermacher, however, starts by attempting to find what he takes to be a basic element of the human condition as such, namely,…

— George Pattison

There are kinds of unity other than those of the explicit and systematic unity that Poole is attacking. There are kinds of…

— George Pattison

But why should a religious person be interested in a work like Heidegger's that many regard as the epitome of nihilism? For…

— George Pattison

At a theoretical level, I think a naturalist approach to religion is just asking questions I'm not interested in. They're perfectly legitimate…

— George Pattison

I'm not sure if Cupitt himself still uses this term, but it's useful in suggesting that, actually, there are more choices than…

— George Pattison

Now, as at the beginning of the 19th century, there is a certain discovery of Eckhart and related figures. There are questions…

— George Pattison

One of the most violent attacks on the Church in the Soviet Union was under Kruschev when, during a period of economic…

— George Pattison

Interpretation is a task that we repeatedly have to take up and start again from the beginning, Sisyphus-like. But, as Camus said,…

— George Pattison

Ultimately, we live in the face of an irresolvable mystery about our origin and, for that matter, about our end. And what…

— George Pattison

Religious life is about something real in human experience that is not constrained by what Wittgenstein called 'all that is the case'.…

— George Pattison

I'm not sure how far Derrida's later 'theological' interests are really rooted in post-structuralism or whether they don't rather reflect a kind…

— George Pattison

It's strange that in an age when we pride ourselves on our independence of thought we meekly submit without further question to…

— George Pattison

However, in brief, I think the connecting of 'God' and 'Being' is one of these things for which there seems to be…

— George Pattison

And this is also what he takes Christian doctrine, in all its complexity, to be centrally about, that is, teaching an attitude…

— George Pattison

Every stroke a tennis player plays is different, yet we perceive them as playing in a distinctive and unique way. It's what…

— George Pattison

And one thing the void certainly can teach us is how to wait, how to become truly patient, and how to let…

— George Pattison

What it does remind us is that 'God' is not to be separated from the quest for the Kingdom of God and…

— George Pattison

In a sense these are questions that most people ask themselves to some extent. They become philosophical when asked with a persistence…

— George Pattison

Perhaps this is an area where every generation starts from scratch. Although the crisis of the First World War inaugurated an especially…

— George Pattison

Sartre is one example of someone who does just this. Every text is, after all, a human document and whatever Kierkegaard thought…

— George Pattison