“The book is a result of a passion and a circumstance. I have a passion for religions in general, each of which I take to embody the attempt to decipher the mystery of human being in terms of its animating transcendent dimension. The circumstance was a course I gave in 2007 on Mormon doctrine. The course made me discover the point of contact between Mormonism, Buddhism, and Shi’ite Islam. That gradually suggested the possibility of writing a short book combining the philosophical point of view (implementing the transcendental of messianicity) and the point of view of the academic study of religions, without neglecting the literary dimension—since I did a fair bit of work on the novels of Orson Scott Card to support my argument.As for the two essays appended to the main work: During my stay at BYU in 2008, at your invitation, I had the opportunity to take part in the meetings of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology that took place that year at the University of Utah. I took that opportunity to develop the theme of chapter 6 of this book, “Lehi’s Axiom,” through a confrontation with Schelling. I am among those who believe in the virtue of comparison. The idea of the second essay came to me while reading Pico della Mirandola: I brought together two distant stars. Needless to say, through that meditation I found a way of satisfying my passion for Christology.”
Postponing Heaven is part of the Institute’s new Groundwork series on scripture and theory. You can purchase a copy at Amazon.com today or read more about the book here.