Against the Titans - Theology and the Martyrdom of Alfred Delp

Modern history has been marked by the emergence of the figure of the titan, who yearns for self-mastery in the face of death and who denounces modernity’s tendency to reduce the individual to the lockstep of need and gratification. But what of those few who rejected the impulses of the titan, those militant desires to exert supremacy over all? The story recounted in Against the Titans: The Theology of the Martyrdom of Alfred Delp examines one martyr’s rejection of the titan’s perversion of heroism and sacrifice. The life of Delp, a Jesuit priest, embodied a Christian theology of martyrdom, articulated over against a virile fundamentalism that rejected divine sovereignty. As Peter Nguyen, S.J., shows, Delp opposed Ernst Jünger’s active nihilism by revealing a more authentic and no less demanding existence, one that came not from acquiring self-mastery, but rather from an emptying out of self — an indiferencia, an unselving — through a radical dependence upon God.

List of contents

1. Alfred Delp's Faith and Ministries
2. The Militant Appeal of Titanism
3. Against the Hypertrophy of Sacrifice
4. The Heart of Christ and the Theology of Kenosis
5. Pneumatic Existence

About the author

Peter Nguyen, S.J., is assistant professor of theology at Creighton University.

Product details

• Authors: Peter Nguyen, Sj Nguyen, Sj Peter Nguyen, Nguyen Peter, Nguyen Sj Peter
• Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.07.2020
• EAN: 9781978704770
• ISBN: 978-1-978704-77-0
• No. of pages: 302
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Christianity; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Biographies, autobiographies; HISTORY / Europe / Germany, PHILOSOPHY / General, European History, Biography: general, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General, Germany, Philosophy, RELIGION / Christianity / History, RELIGION / Christian Theology / General, RELIGION / Christianity / General, Theology, Christianity, Christian theology, History of Religion