The Phenomenology of Revelation in Heidegger, Marion, and Ricoeur provides a critical framework for understanding the phenomenology of revelation through a series of close readings that serve as the basis for an imagined dialogue between Martin Heidegger, Jean-Luc Marion, and Paul Ricoeur. Adam J. Graves distinguishes between two dominant approaches to revelation: a "radical" approach that seeks to disclose a pre-linguistic experience of revelation through a radicalization of the phenomenological reduction, and a "hermeneutical" one that characterizes revelation as an eruption of meaning arising from our encounter with concrete symbols, narratives, and texts. According to Graves, the radical approach is often driven by a misplaced concern for maintaining philosophical rigor and for avoiding theological biases, or "contaminations." This preoccupation leads to a process of "counter-contamination" in which the concept of revelation is ultimately estranged from the phenomenon's rich historical and linguistic content. While Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology may do a better job of accommodating the concrete content of revelation, it does so at the price of having to renouncing the kind of "presuppositionlessness" generally associated with phenomenological method. Ultimately, Graves argues that a more nuanced appreciation of the complex nature of our linguistic inheritance enables us to reconceive the relationship between revelation and philosophical thought.

The Symbolism of Evil is the final book in Ricoeur's early trilogy on the will. While Freedom and Nature sets aside normative questions altogether and Fallible Man examines the question of what makes the bad will possible, here Ricoeur takes up the question of evil in its actuality. What is the nature of the will that has succumbed to evil? The question of evil resists reflection and remains inscrutable. This leads Ricoeur to proceed indirectly through a study of the abundant resources contained in symbols and myths. Symbols, as Ricoeur famously says, "give rise to thought" and thereby open up a field of meanings which help to inform a philosophical reflection on evil. This hermeneutics of symbols signals an important shift in Ricoeur's philosophical trajectory which increasingly shifts to language and the various forms of discourse which harbor multiple meanings. The contributors to this volume highlight a wide range of important themes in Ricoeur's treatment of the symbolics of evil that resonate with current topics in contemporary philosophy and religion.