By Way of Obstacles

“Complementing the earlier lovers’ quarrel with his mentors and French predecessors, in this new book, Emmanuel Falque responds instead to some of his contemporary critics. Writing ‘as an act of life,’ he forges for readers a pathway through his rich and extensive work, showing us ‘how things stand’ at the crossroads between phenomenology and theology.”


—Christina M. Gschwandtner, Fordham University





“Emmanuel Falque gives us in By Way of Obstacles a way of negotiating his prolific work. Here, we see Falque being formed as a thinker by Miguel de Unamuno on the one hand, and by Mikhail Bulgakov and Nikolai Berdyaev on the other. Always, too, we find him meditating on the meaning of experience, the exposure to peril that marks all genuine philosophical and theological thought.”


—Kevin Hart, The University of Virginia





“Anyone interested in French phenomenology and theology must read the work of Emmanuel Falque, and By Way of Obstacles is the place to begin. Summarizing and explicating Falque’s key questions, motivations, and innovations, By Way of Obstacles enables readers to come to grips with the dimensions of his project and his responses to aspects of critique. Sarah Horton’s translation remains faithful to Falque’s struggle while bringing its diverse resonances to light in English.”


—Robyn Horner, Australian Catholic University





“With his characteristic intellectual bounty and passion, Falque demonstrates the generativity of the art of disputatio, shaping and sharpening his thought through debate and confrontation with a broad gathering of thinkers and methodologies—philosophical, theological, and psychoanalytic—across history. The resulting essay captures the dynamic vitality and orality of a raucous symposium; it bears witness to thinking in motion while also clarifying the ground from where Falque speaks.”


—Tamsin Jones, Trinity College