Rhythm

Abstract

This book argues that, as a pervasive dimension of human existence with theological implications, rhythm ought to be considered a category of theological significance. Philosophers and theologians have drawn on rhythm—patterned movements of repetition and variation—to describe reality, however, the ways in which rhythm is used and understood differ based on a variety of metaphysical commitments with varying theological implications. This book brings those implications into the open, using resources from phenomenology, prosody, and the social sciences to analyse and evaluate uses of rhythm in metaphysical and theological accounts of reality. The analysis relies on a distinction from prosody between a synchronic approach to rhythm—observing the whole at once and considering how various dimensions of a rhythm hold together harmoniously—and a diachronic approach—focusing on the ways in which time unfolds as the subject experiences it. The text engages with the twentieth-century Jesuit theologian Erich Przywara alongside thinkers as diverse as Augustine and the contemporary philosopher Giorgio Agamben, and proposes an approach to rhythm that serves the concerns of theological conversation. It demonstrates the difference that including rhythm in theological conversation makes to how we think about questions such as “what is creation?” and “what is the nature of the God–creature relationship?” from the perspective of rhythm. As a theoretical category, capable of expressing metaphysical commitments, yet shaped by the cultural rhythms in which those expressing such commitments are embedded, rhythm is particularly significant for theology as a phenomenon through which culture and embodied experience influence doctrine.

Augustine on rhythm (or how to do theology in conversation with the arts)

“…Rhythmic movement also marks larger ecological and cosmic processes such as the changing of seasons, the oscillation of sound and light waves, the pulsations of atoms, and the circling of planets, including our own (Eikelboom 2018:2). This reality, of which countless more examples could be given, warrants a theological reflection, Eikelboom (2018) argues. She writes: 'If theology is talk about God by creatures, and about the difference that God makes to creatures, then understanding the creature's rhythmic context is indispensable for understanding that God-creature relationship' (p. 3).…”

“…While Eikelboom only briefly discusses this oft-overlooked work by Augustine (see Eikelboom 2018:125, 127-131), I 4.Eikelboom, in fact, takes as a starting point for her reflection Derrida's remark: ' [R] hythm has always haunted our tradition, without ever reaching the centre of its concerns' (Eikelboom 2018:1, cf. Derrida 1989.…”