The Uses of Paradox: Religion, Self-Transformation, and the Absurd

In this groundbreaking comparative study, Matthew Bagger investigates the role of paradox in Western and Asian religious discourse. Drawing on both philosophy and social scientific theory, he offers a naturalistic explanation of religion's oft-noted propensity to sublime paradox and argues that religious thinkers employ intractable paradoxes as the basis for various techniques of self-transformation.

Considering the writings of Kierkegaard, Pseudo-Dionysus, St. John of the Cross, N?g?rjuna,...