The volume is edited by ICS alums and The King's University professors Joshua Lee Harris and Neal DeRoo, and Kirk Lougheed of LCC International University, Lithuania / University of Pretoria, South Africa. Harris was awarded a research grant in the fall of 2021 to study the psychological, philosophical, and theological dimensions of gratitude. That original grant has since fed into a symposium on the topic, articles, podcast interviews, and most recently, the forthcoming publication of this collection of essays. You can read more about this volume below.
Publisher's Description
Existential gratitude—gratitude for one's very existence or life as a whole—is pervasive across the most influential human, cultural, and religious traditions. Weaving together analytic and continental, as well as non-western and historical philosophical perspectives, this volume explores the nexus of gratitude, existence and God as an inter-subjective phenomenon for the first time.
A team of leading scholars introduce existential gratitude as a perennially and characteristically human phenomenon, central to the distinctive life of our species. Attention is given to the conditions under which existence itself might be construed as having a gift-like or otherwise gratitude-inducing character.
Drawing on a diversity of perspectives, chapters mark out new territory in philosophical inquiry, addressing whether and in what sense we ought to be grateful for our very existence. By analyzing gratitude, this collection makes a novel contribution to the discourse on moral emotions, phenomenology, anti-natalism, and theology.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Joshua Lee Harris (The King's University, Canada), Kirk Lougheed (LCC International University, Lithuania /University of Pretoria, South Africa) and Neal DeRoo (The King's University, Canada)
1. Grounding Existential Gratitude: A Social Form Account
Joshua Harris (The King's University, Canada)
2. Gratitude and Resentment: A Tale of Two Weddings
Graham Oppy (Monash University, Australia)
3. Gratitude and the Human Vocation
Brian Treanor (Loyola Marymount University, USA)
Part II. Gratitude and Existence
4. Generous Existence? Gift, Giving, and Gratitude in Contemporary Phenomenology
Christina Gschwandter (Fordham University, USA)
5. Analogia Gratiae: Creation, Existence, and Gift in the Christian Metaphysics of Erich PrzywaraEric Mabry (St. Mary's Seminary and University, USA)
6. Gratitude for Life-Force in African Philosophy
Thaddeus Metz (University of Pretoria, South Africa)
Part III. Gratitude and the Divine
7. The Dilemma of GratitudeMichael Almeida (University of Texas at San Antonio, USA)8. Is Gratitude Necessary? Avicenna on Existential DependenceCatherine Peters (Loyola Marymount University, USA)9. Do we Owe Gratitude to God for Our Existence?Kirk Lougheed (University of Pretoria, South Africa)
10. Thank You: William Desmond's Ethic of Gratitude and Personal God
Ethan Vanderleek (Marquette University, USA)
