Iris Murdoch and the Others

The others examined by Fiddes are mainly those with whom Murdoch entered into explicit dialogue in her novels and philosophical writing-including Immanuel Kant Simone Weil Dietrich Bonhoeffer Rudolph Bultmann Paul Tillich Don Cupitt Donald Mackinnon and Jacques Derrida. This historic dialogue is however placed within a wider dialogue between literature and theology being conducted by the author and others are brought into relation with Murdoch in order to illuminate this more extensive conversation-notably the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and the feminist philosopher Julia Kristeva. <br/><br/>The book demonstrates that characteristic themes in Murdoch's novels and philosophy-the love of the Good the death of the ego illusory consolations the death of God the modifying of the will by waiting the sublime and the beautiful and attention to other things and persons-all take on a greater meaning when placed in the context of her life-long conversation with theology. The exploration of this context is deepened in this volume by reference to annotations and notes that Murdoch made in a number of theological books in her personal library.