Herbert McCabe: Recollecting a Fragmented Legacy

by Franco Manni, David B. Burrell (Foreword)

Herbert McCabe struck those who met him (Alasdair MacIntyre, Anthony Kenny, Terry Eagleton, Denys Turner) or those who read his writings (David Burrell, Stanley Hauerwas) for his high intelligence. He was the most intelligent philosopher after the death of Karl Popper. His philosophical inquiries on God and the Human Being have yet to be properly understood, not because they were abstruse (clarity was McCabe's inexorable sword!) but because of their dizzying depth, for which many are not yet prepared. This is the first comprehensive study of McCabe, a person who preferred speaking to writing and left only the short--fragmented and dispersed--texts of his lectures and sermons. But in this book, to use David Burrell's words, Manni has "managed to get inside McCabe's mind" and assemble together for the first time the disiecta membra of a powerful system of thought.

Genres: Religion

302 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 2, 2020

Reviews

[Juxhin Deliu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Italian high school philosophy textbooks briefly mention McCabe even in the chapters regarding modern theology; what a pity! The author of this book (a former teacher of mine) "discovered" him while was completing a Ph.D. at the Cambridge Trinity College, due to his reputation there, other than their shared interests and vision of the world altogether. McCabe was quite a character himself: an Irish blackfriar who despite idolizing Thomas Aquinas and calling himself a humble servant of the Church mission, had a deep interest in Wittgenstein, marxism, liberalism, secular matters in general, believed "language" was the most important organ of our "body/spirit", openly called his organization "corrupt" and tried to modernize complex and theological issues for our times. Also, he was fond of Guinness pints, the Irish republican cause, and revolutions... above all, what does struck the most about him (professor Manni likes to stress this factor) is the faculty to elaborate a complex, updated system of thought and express it with astounding sharpness and clearness, deserving his title of "the most intelligent philosopher after Karl Popper".