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On God in Lacan: A Response to Tina Beattie

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Thomas Dalzell Open the ORCID record for Thomas Dalzell [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

Tina Beattie has re-read Aquinas in the light of Lacanian theory and found the later Lacan's transition to what he calls the register of “the Real” to be significant for a revitalised theology beyond traditional intellectual categories. She argues for a maternal Trinity which she believes to lie hidden in Thomas and, in support of this, she contends that Lacan left behind Freud's paternal preoccupations in favour of maternity. This response to Beattie will re-examine Lacan's trajectory from “the Symbolic” register to “the Real” through the lens of what he said in his year-long seminars about Moses, whom he regarded as a representative of “the Symbolic”, and it will demonstrate that paternity remained a constant in Lacan, who even came to see “the Real” itself as a name of the father.

Keywords

Thomas AquinasJacques LacanMosestheologypsychoanalysis
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 100 , Issue 1089 , September 2019 , pp. 538 - 553
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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