Faculty > Profile

Karl Eric Hefty

Associate Professor

khefty@ustpaul.ca

613-236-1393, ext. : 2261

GIG 366

Profile

Karl Hefty is Associate Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology and Director of Undergraduate Academic Programmes. Trained in Theology and the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Chicago and the University of Cambridge, his teaching and research focus on the question of revelation and its relation to Christology, hermeneutics, and theological method. He also works in Greek and Latin patristic thought and in the history of medieval philosophy. He is currently completing the manuscript of his first book, an approach to revelation through the phenomenology of life. Prior to coming to Saint Paul University, he held an Arthur J. Ennis, O.S.A., Postdoctoral Fellowship at Villanova and a Lectureship in Greek Thought & Literature at the University of Chicago.

Expertise

Courses taught

THO 6399 - METHODOLOGIES IN THEOLOGY
- Various methodologies used in the main fields of theological research. Theoretical and practical aspects of writing a paper or a thesis: matters of research, defining the problem, a working hypothesis, choosing a method, bibliographical research, writing up the status questiones, etc.
THO 6358 - SPIRITUALITY: METHODS; RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE HUMAN SCIENCES
- Analysis of the methods used in the theological study of spirituality. Spirituality in relation to the human sciences.
THO 3562 - Révélation et foi chrétienne
- Élaboration d’une théologie chrétienne de la révélation : la création comme lieu de révélation; Dieu parle au cours de l’histoire d’Israël; accomplissement de la révélation en Jésus-Christ; impact de la révélation divine sur la physionomie des premières communautés chrétiennes; la foi réponse humaine au Dieu qui se révèle; conséquences sur la manière de comprendre l’inspiration des Écritures et la Tradition; la révélation chrétienne et les autres religions mondiales.
THO 4507 - Création et responsabilité : anthropologie théologique
- Anthropologie chrétienne. Responsabilité et liberté de l’être humain comme co-créateur. Péché et problème du mal. Rapport entre la création et la rédemption. La création et la vision scientifique du monde. Écologie et théologie.
THO 6710 - HERMÉNEUTIQUE THÉOLOGIQUE
- Principes et histoire de l'herméneutique en théologie. Développements et débats récents. Rôle des textes classiques et question de la conscience historique.
THO 4204 - Christianity and Religious Plurality
- Exploring theological approaches to the fact of religious pluralism. Historical perspectives on the question of salvation outside the church; Catholic teaching and commitment to dialogue with other faiths; exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist approaches.
THO 2189 - Can we talk about God? An Introduction to Theology
- An exploration of the origins of Theology as a discipline, of significant moments in its historical development, of its presuppositions, methods, and the basic questions it seeks to answer.

Education

Publications

Articles

“Presence in the Flesh: Henry, Marion, and the Reduction of Givenness,” Archivio di Filosofia, Vol. 2, 2018: 203-303.

"In the Way of Communion: A Reply to Emmanuel Falque," Crossing the Rubicon: The Borderlands of Philosophy and Theology, by Emmanuel Falque (New York: Fordham University Press, 2016), a book symposium in Syndicate Philosophy, November/December 2018.

“‘Givenness from Above’: The I Can and its Limits,” Diakrisis Yearbook of Theology and Philosophy, Vol. 1, 2018: 45-60.

“Mercy as 'Experience' of Life," in Theoforum, Vol. 47, No. 2, 2016/2017: 286–312.

“Phenomenality or Revelation: Michel Henry’s Approach to Christianity,” Analecta Hermeneutica (special issue devoted to the work of Michel Henry), Vol. 8, 2016: 296-317.

“The Disclosive Power of Prayer: A Reply to Andrew Prevot,” Thinking Prayer: Theology and Spirituality amid the Crises of Modernity, by Andrew Prevot (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2015), a book symposium in Syndicate Theology, Issue 3.5, September/October, 2016: 47-51.

Book Chapters

“The Darkness of God and the Light of Life: Augustine, Denys, Eckhart,” Desire, Faith, and the Darkness of God, ed. Eric Bugyis and David Newheiser (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2015): 37-71.

“Comment déterminer le rôle de Dieu dans la philosophie de Michel Henry?” trans. Pierre-Jean Renaudie, La Vie et les vivants: (Re-)lire Michel Henry, ed. Grégori Jean, Jean Leclercq and Nicolas Monseu (Louvain-la-Neuve: Louvain University Press, 2013): 583-92.

“Introduction,” Words of Christ, by Michel Henry, Forward by Jean-Yves Lacoste, trans. Christina Gshwandtner (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012): xi-xxviii.

“Sens de la vérité et évidence charnelle,” trans. Anne Henry, Cahier Michel Henry, Les Dossiers H, ed. Jean Leclercq and Jean-Marie Brohm (Paris-Lausanne: Éditions L'Âge d'Homme, 2009): 457-65.

“The World without the Lie,” Transcendence and Phenomenology, ed. Peter M. Candler Jr. and Conor Cunningham (London: SCM Press, 2007): 227-40.

“Truth and Peace: The Body Politic in Augustine and Hobbes,” Theology and the Political: The New Debate, ed. Slavoj Žižek, John Milbank, and Creston Davis (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005): 427-38.

Translations

English Translation, Incarnation: A Philosophy of Flesh, by Michel Henry (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2015), 293 pp. + xx.

English Translation, “Philosophy and Subjectivity,” by Michel Henry, The Michel Henry Reader, eds Scott Davidson and Frederic Seyler (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, forthcoming).

English Translation, “St. Augustine, or the Impossibility of Any Ego Cogito,” by Jean-Luc Marion, Augustine our Contemporary: Essays in Honor of David Tracy, ed. Willemien Otten and Susan Schreiner (South Bend, IN: Notre Dame University Press, submitted, 2016), 22 pp.

English Translation, “Reduction, Construction and Destruction of a Three-Way Dialog: Natorp, Husserl and Heidegger,” by Jean-François Courtine, co-trans. Daniel R. Rodríguez Navas, Variations on Truth: Approaches in Contemporary Phenomenology, ed. Pol Vandevelde and Kevin Hermberg (London: Continuum, 2011): 179-200.

Select conferences

Awards