David Bentley Hart

David Bentley Hart (born 1965) is an American philosopher and theologian whose work encompasses a wide range of subjects and genres. A prolific essayist, he has written on topics as diverse as art, literature, religion, philosophy, film, baseball, and politics. He is also an author of fiction.

For the religious historian specializing in Presbyterianism, see D. G. Hart.

David Bentley Hart
Born	1965 (age 54–55)
Nationality	American
Scholarly background
Alma mater	University of Maryland University of Cambridge University of Virginia
Thesis	Beauty, Violence, and Infinity[1] (1997)
Influences	Hans Urs von Balthasar[2] Gregory of Nyssa[2] John Milbank[2]
Scholarly work
Discipline	Theology
Sub-discipline	Patristics philosophical theology theological aesthetics
School or tradition	Eastern Orthodoxy
Notable works	Atheist Delusions (2009)

As a religious scholar, his work engages heavily with classical, medieval and continental European philosophy, philosophical and systematic theology, patristic texts, and South and East Asian culture, religion, and metaphysics. His translation of the New Testament was published in 2017.[3]

Life and career

Academic career

Hart earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland, his Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge, and his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Virginia.[4] He has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), Duke Divinity School, and Loyola College in Maryland. He served as visiting professor at Providence College, where he also previously held the Robert J. Randall Chair in Christian Culture. During the 2014–2015 academic year, Hart was Danforth Chair at Saint Louis University in the Department of Theological Studies. In 2015, he was appointed as Templeton Fellow at the University of Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study.[5]

Personal life

Hart is a convert from high-church Anglicanism to Eastern Orthodoxy. Politically, he identifies as a Christian socialist[6] as well as a democratic socialist[7][8] and is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.[9]

Literary writing

Noted for his distinctive, humorous, pyrotechnic and often combative prose style,[10][11][12] Hart has been described by the conservative writer Matthew Walther as "our greatest living essayist".[13] He has written essays on subjects as varied as Don Juan, Vladimir Nabokov, Charles Baudelaire, Victor Segalen, Leon Bloy, William Empson, David Jones, and baseball.[14] Two of his books, A Splendid Wickedness and The Dream-Child's Progress, are collections devoted to non-theological essays. They also include several short stories.

In 2012, The Devil and Pierre Gernet, a collection of his fiction, was released by Eerdmans.[15] His short stories have been described as "Borgesian"[16] and are elaborate metaphysical fables, full of wordplay, allusion, and structural puzzles.

Awards and reception

Hart's first major work, The Beauty of the Infinite, an adaptation of his doctoral thesis, received acclaim from the theologians John Milbank, Janet Soskice, and Reinhard Hütter. William Placher said of the book, "I can think of no more brilliant work by an American theologian in the past ten years."[17] Geoffrey Wainwright said, "This magnificent and demanding volume should establish David Bentley Hart, around the world no less than in North America, as one of his generation's leading theologians."[18]

On 27 May 2011, Hart's book Atheist Delusions was awarded the Michael Ramsey Prize in Theology,[19] and was praised by the agnostic philosopher Anthony Kenny: “Hart has the gifts of a good advocate. He writes with clarity and force, and he drives his points home again and again. He exposes his opponents’ errors of fact or logic with ruthless precision.”[20]

Oliver Burkeman, writing in The Guardian, praised Hart's book The Experience of God as "the one theology book all atheists really should read".[21]

Selected bibliography

Books

• Theological Territories: A David Bentley Hart Digest. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. 2020.
• The Mystery of Castle MacGorilla. With Patrick Robert Hart. New York: Angelico Press. 2019.
• That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press: 2019.
• The New Testament: A Translation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press: 2017.
• The Hidden and the Manifest: Essays in Theology and Metaphysics. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 2017.
• The Dream-Child's Progress and Other Essays. New York: Angelico Press. 2017.
• A Splendid Wickedness and Other Essays. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans: 2016.
• The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press: 2013.
• The Devil and Pierre Gernet: Stories. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 2012.
• Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.
• In the Aftermath: Provocations and Laments. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 2008.
• The Story of Christianity: An Illustrated History of 2000 Years of the Christian Faith. London: Quercus: 2007.
• The Doors of the Sea. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 2005.
• The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 2003.

Translations

• The New Testament: A Translation. Yale University Press: 2017.
• Erich Przywara, Analogia Entis: Metaphysics: Original Structure and Universal Rhythm. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 2014. In collaboration with John R. Betz.

Articles

• "Three Cheers for Socialism: Christian Love & Political Practice", Commonweal (February 2020).
• "Divorce, Annulment, & Communion", Commonweal (August 2019).
• "What Lies Beyond Capitalism? A Christian Exploration", Plough Quarterly 21 (Summer 2019).
• "Quentin Tarantino's Cosmic Justice", The New York Times (August 6, 2019).
• "Can We Please Relax About 'Socialism'?", The New York Times (April 27, 2019).
• "The New York Yankees Are a Moral Abomination", The New York Times (July 14, 2018).
• "Everything you know about the Gospel of Paul is likely wrong", Aeon (January 8, 2018.)
• "Christians and the Death Penalty", Commonweal (November 2017).
• "Are Christians Supposed to be Communists?", The New York Times (November 4, 2017).
• "From a Vanished Library", First Things (April 2017).
• 'We need to talk about God', Church Times (an independent Church of England newspaper), February 2016.
• "Christ's Rabble", Commonweal (September 2016).
• "The Myth of Schism", Clarion Journal (June 2014).
• "Therapeutic Superstition", First Things (November 2012).
• Response to critiques of The Beauty of the Infinite by Francesca Murphy and John A. McGuckin, Scottish Journal of Theology 60 (February 2007): 95-101.
• "Daniel Dennett Hunts the Snark", First Things 169 (January 2007).
• Contribution to Theology as Knowledge: A Symposium, First Things 163 (May 2006): 21-27.
• "The Lively God of Robert Jenson", First Things 156 (October 2005): 28-34.
• "The Anti-Theology of the Body", The New Atlantis 9 (Summer 2005): 65-73.
• "The Soul of a Controversy", The Wall Street Journal (April 1, 2005).
• "Tsunami and Theodicy", First Things 151 (March 2005): 6-9.
• "The Laughter of the Philosophers", First Things 149 (January 2005): 31-38. A review loosely structured around The Humor of Kierkegaard by Thomas C. Oden, containing a long excursus on Johann Georg Hamann.
• "God or Nothingness" in I Am the Lord Your God: Christian Reflections on the Ten Commandments Carl E. Braaten and Christopher Seitz, eds. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005: 55-76.
• "The Offering of Names: Metaphysics, Nihilism, and Analogy" in Reason and the Reasons of Faith. Reinhard Hütter and Paul J. Griffiths, eds. London: T. & T. Clark, 2005: 55-76.
• "Tremors of Doubt", The Wall Street Journal (December 31, 2004). This article was the seed for the book The Doors of the Sea.
• "Ecumenical Councils of War", Touchstone (November 2004).
• "The Pornography Culture", The New Atlantis 6 (Summer 2004): 82-89.
• "Freedom and Decency", First Things 144 (June/July 2004): 35-41.
• "An Orthodox Easter", The Wall Street Journal (April 9, 2004) (in "Houses of Worship").
• "Religion in America: Ancient & Modern", The New Criterion (March 2004).
• "A Most Partial Historian", First Things 138 (December 2003): 34-41. A review of Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England Volume III: Accommodations by Maurice Cowling.
• "Christ and Nothing", First Things 136 (October 2003): 47-57.
• "The Bright Morning of the Soul: John of the Cross on Theosis", Pro Ecclesia (Summer 2003): 324-45.
• "Thine Own of Thine Own: the Orthodox Understanding of Eucharistic Sacrifice" in Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Considerations Roch A. Kereszty, ed. (Paulist Press, 2003): 142-169.
• "A Gift Exceeding Every Debt: An Eastern Orthodox Appreciation of Anselm's Cur Deus Homo", Pro Ecclesia 7.3: 333-348.
• "The Mirror of the Infinite: Gregory of Nyssa on the Vestigia Trinitatis", Modern Theology 18.4 (October 2002): 542-56.
• "No Shadow of Turning: On Divine Impassibility", Pro Ecclesia (Spring 2002): 184-206.
• Contribution to The Future of the Papacy: A Symposium, First Things 111 (March 2001): 28-36.
• "The 'Whole Humanity': Gregory of Nyssa's Critique of Slavery in Light of His Eschatology", Scottish Journal of Theology 54.1 (2001): 51-69.
• "Analogy" in Elsevier Concise Encyclopaedia of Religion and Language (Elsevier Press, 2001).
• "The Writing of the Kingdom: Thirty-Seven Aphorisms towards an Eschatology of the Text", Modern Theology (Spring 2000): 181-202.
• "Matter, Monism, and Narrative: An Essay on the Metaphysics of Paradise Lost" Milton Quarterly (Winter 1996): 16-27.

Book reviews

• "Mind Over Matter", Commonweal (January 2019). A review of Lloyd P. Gerson's translation of The Enneads by Plotinus.
• "Shock of the Real", First Things (November 2017). A long essay-review of Natasha Lehrer's translation of "Équipée" by Victor Segalen.
• "Empson in the East", First Things (May 2017). A review of "The Face of the Buddha" by William Empson.
• "Our Atheism is Different", Commonweal (June 2016). A review of Battling the Gods by Tim Whitmarsh.
• "Dante Decluttered: A review of The Divine Comedy", First Things (November 2013). A review of Clive James' translation of "The Divine Comedy".
• "Inside the mind of the Archbishop of Canterbury", The Times Literary Supplement (March 2008). A review of Rowan Williams's "Wrestling with Angels," edited by Mike Higton.
• "Con Man", The New Criterion (September 2006): 124. A review of "The Theocons: Secular America under Siege" by Damon Linker.
• "Beyond Disbelief", The New Criterion (June 2005): 78-81. A review of "The Twilight of Atheism" by Alister McGrath.
• "Roland Redivivus", First Things 150 (February 2005): 44-48. A review of Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo, translated by Charles Stanley Ross.
• "The Laughter of the Philosophers", First Things 149 (January 2005): 31-38. A review loosely structured around The Humor of Kierkegaard by Thomas C. Oden, containing a long excursus on Johann Georg Hamann.
• "When the Going was Bad", First Things 143 (May 2004): 50-53. A review of Waugh Abroad: Collected Travel Writing by Evelyn Waugh.
• "Sheer Extravagant Violence", First Things 139 (January 2004): 64-69. A review of Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol, translated by Peter Constantine.
• "A Most Partial Historian", First Things 138 (December 2003): 34-41. A review of Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England Volume III: Accommodations by Maurice Cowling.
• Review of Gianni Vattimo's Belief, The Journal of Religion 82.1 (Jan. 2002): 132–133.
• "Israel and the Nations", First Things 105 (August/September 2000): 51-54. A review of Church and Israel After Christendom: The Politics of Election by Scott Bader–Saye.
• "Review Essay: On Catherine Pickstock's After Writing", Pro Ecclesia (Summer 2000): 367-372.
• "Beyond Reductionism", First Things 87 (November 1998): 55-57. A review of Religious Mystery and Rational Reflection by Louis Dupre.

See also

• Christian philosophy
• Criticism of atheism
• Eastern Orthodox Christian theology
• Philosophy of religion
• Universal reconciliation

References

1. Hart, David Bentley (1997). Beauty, Violence, and Infinity: A Question Concerning Christian Rhetoric (PhD thesis). Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia. OCLC 68963111.
2. Placher, William C. (September 7, 2004). "God's Beauty". The Christian Century. Vol. 121 no. 18. Chicago. p. 42. ISSN 0009-5281. Archived from the original on 26 July 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-05-30. Retrieved 2018-07-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. What disciplines are Dr. Hart’s degrees in? "David Bentley Hart". The Berkley Center - Georgetown University. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
5. "David Bentley Hart". Notre Dame - Institute for Advanced Study. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
6. https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/three-cheers-socialism
7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-09-02. Retrieved 2018-08-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
8. https://www.facebook.com/dbhartwriter/posts/1094016380751517
9. https://www.facebook.com/720442008108958/posts/a-brief-political-confessionforgive-me-for-stepping-out-from-behind-the-curtain-/1094016380751517/
10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-07-30. Retrieved 2018-07-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
17. Placher, William C. (6 September 2004). "God's Beauty". The Christian Century. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
18. "Archived copy". www.eerdmans.com. Eerdmans. Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2018-01-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
19. "Winner of £10,000 Theology Prize Announced". The Archbishop of Canterbury. May 2011. Archived from the original on 4 July 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
20. www.amazon.com. The Times Literary Supplement https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E64EH0K?_encoding=UTF8&isInIframe=1&n=133140011&ref_=dp_proddesc_0&s=digital-text&showDetailProductDesc=1#iframe-wrapper. Missing or empty |title= (help)
21. Burkeman, Oliver. "The one theology book all atheists really should read". www.theguardian.com. The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 January 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2015.

External links

• The David Bentley Hart Appreciation Blog
• David Bentley Hart, Featured Author at First Things