Ecstatic Morality and Sexual Politics
A Catholic and Antitotalitarian Theory of the Body
This first book-length treatment of Thomas Aquinas’s
theory of the body presents a Catholic understanding
of the body and its implications for social and political
philosophy. Making a fundamental contribution to
antitotalitarian theory, McAleer argues that a sexual politics
reliant upon Aquinas’s theory of the body is better (because
less violent) than other commonly available theories.
He contrasts this theory with those of four other groups
of thinkers: the continental tradition represented by Kant,
Schopenhauer, Merleau-Ponty, Nancy, Levinas, and Deleuze;
feminism, in the work of Donna Haraway; an alternative
Catholic theory to be found in Karl Rahner; and the
“Radical Orthodoxy” of John Milbank.
This is a splendid book. It adds to the wave of books by fine medievalists who are also trained in the best traditions of analytic philosophy.
We can only hope that those thomists who wish to take up the cause are as well attuned to the need for showing the ongoing relevance of Aquinas for modern thought as is McAleer---—The Thomist
Making a fundamental contribution to antitotalitarian theory, G. J. McAleer argues that a sexual politics reliant upon Aquinas's theory of the body is better (because less violent) than other commonly available theories.---—Theology Digest
McAleer's excellent book stands out for the richness of its metaphysical, ethical, and political account of the body-soul ecstasis to which Christians are called, and likewise for the richness of its range of interlocutors."---—National Catholic Bioethics Center
The book is fun and infuriating.---—Modern Theology