George P. Grant (1918-88) was one of Canada's premier political philosophers and stands as the benchmark for the Red Tory Tradition. He can also be credited with introducing the thought of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Simone Weil to Canada, critically analyzing their work seriously for the first time. Grant's Red Toryism has been revived and modified in the UK, but for a look at the essential thought of its chief architect, this book is a must read. Included in this work are essays in political theology, along with previously unpublished letters and classnotes that are critical to an understanding of Grant's 'primacy of the Good' vis-a-vis the 'primacy of freedom-as-mastery.' Especially important is the analysis of his theological relationship to Simone Weil and an appropriation of his work to rise above the culture wars of left and right. Table of Contents Preface / 1 Part 1 - CONVERSION 1. George Grant's Conversion Accounts / 5 2. Simone Weil's Encounter with Christ in Marseilles / 13 3. Grant's McMaster Sermon / 17 Part 2 - THE RISE OF MODERNITY 4. Sprouts of Modernity in Medieval Theology / 23 5. Blooms of Modernity in the Reformation and Calvinist Puritanism / 37 6. The Autonomous Subject: Knowing as Willing in Descartes, Bacon and Kant / 49 Part 3 - MYSTICAL EPISTEMOLOGY 7. Etymology of Nous / 65 8. Heidegger's Eckart / 81 9. Weil's Mystical Ascent / 85 Part 4 - GRANTEAN THEOLOGY 10. God the All-Powerful, All-Powerless / 111 11. Consent as Coercion / 123 Part 5 - GRANTEAN JUSTICE 12. Grant's Rhetorical Method / 131 13. Christ at the Checkpoint / 141 Part 6 - PRIMARY SOURCES 14. Previously Unpublished Letters and Journal Entries / 151 15. Reading Simone Weil: Unpublished Excerpt / 199 16. Dalhousie Classnotes on Plato / 201 17. Robin Mathews: The Wave of the Future / 211 18. Grant's References to Martin Luther's Thesis 21 / 213 APPENDICES 19. Grant's Readings in Weil: French and English / 219 20. Beyond Dualism: Correspondence with Radical Orthodoxy / 221 Abbreviations / 227 Bibliography of Sources Consulted / 231

This collection of essays by George Grant scholars, Ron Dart and Brad Jersak, explores issues of political philosophy, including comparisons with Manning, Strauss, Voegelin and Weil. Part 1 Essays by Ron S. Dart 1. Reversing the Reversal / 7 2. Review of Lament for a Nation / 15 3. George Grant and Ernest Manning: Who is the Real Conservative? / 27 4. Biblical Judaism, Western Christianity and Liberalism / 37 5. Matrix of Liberalism: a Seven Act Drama / 45 Part 2 Essays by Brad Jersak 6. Grant, Weil and Nietzsche: The Darkness of Modernity / 73 7. Grant, Strauss and Voegelin: Modernist Embodiments / 107

Simone Weil and George P. Grant were among the 20th century's top political theologians. Weil, a philosopher-activist-mystic from France, was the Christian mystic who refused to join the Church but nevertheless, influenced the Vatican II popes with her radical openness. George Grant, one of Canada's top three thinkers, once said that next to the four Gospels, Weil was his highest authority. This book is a series of essays in political theology, exploring some of their key themes and how their work inter-relates. This book explores in depth, for the first time, how their 'theology of consent' informs their political philosophy and a public ethic of the Cross. Table of Contents Preface / 1 Part 1 - SIMONE WEIL: RED VIRGIN 1. Simone Weil: George Grant's Diotima / 5 2. Stages of Weil's Mystical Ascent / 19 3. Competing Conceptions of God in Biblical Religion / 49 Part 2 - GEORGE GRANT: RED TORY 4. Grant and the Matrix: Complex of Ideologies / 71 5. Grant and the Matrix: Dialogue Partners / 75 6. Finding His Voice: Conversion to Lament / 83 Part 3 - DIVINE CONSENT 7. Wrath and Love as Divine Consent / 109 Abbreviations / 123 Bibliography of Sources Consulted / 127

Foreword by Willard Swartley

???We considered him stricken by God, but . . .???

Did God really pour out his wrath against sin on his Son to satisfy his own need for justice? Or did God-in-Christ forgive the world even as it unleashed its wrath against him? Was Christ??'s sacrifice the ultimate fulfillment of God??'s demand for redemptive bloodshed? Or was the cross God??'s great ???No??? to that whole system? This distinctively panoramic volume offers fresh perspectives on these and other difficult questions reemerging throughout the church today.

Contributors: James Alison
Kharalambos Anstall
Mark D. Baker
Sharon Baker
Anthony Bartlett
Marcus Borg
Ronald S. Dart
E. Robert Ekblad
Michael Hardin
Brad Jersak
Andrew P. Klager
Brita Miko
C. F. D. Moule
Wayne Northey
Nathan Rieger
Richard Rohr
Miroslav Volf
J. Denny Weaver
Rowan Williams
N. T. Wright