Place of the Spirit (PDF)

The Place of the Spirit' is through and through a constructive work. It brings together a representative sample of thinkers of place, none of whom are theological in the strict sense, and asks the question whether, and if so how, this thinking can be brought productively to bear on Trinitarian thought and correspondingly whether, and if so in what way, Trinitarian thought can shed unexpected light on placial theories. Towards this end, Sarah Morice-Brubaker inserts the placial theories of Martin Heidegger and Edward Casey, Gaston Bachelard and Yi-Fu Tuan in two interlocking conversations. The first conversation is with patristic Trinitarian theology, more specifically the Trinitarian theology of the Cappadocian Fathers and Augustine; the second conversation is with the very developed Trinitarian thought of Jürgen Moltmann and with the somewhat underdeveloped Trinitarian thought of Jean-Luc Marion. The two conversations are interlocking in that while the patristic authors are at a relative disadvantage to their modern and post-modern successor who have available to them conceptual distinctions between 'place' and 'space' which play a central role in placial theory, Morice-Brubaker has no compunction about critically deploying figures such Basil and Augustine against either Moltmann or Marion as the need arises. The author concludes with some 'Notes toward a Trinitarian Theology of Place'.