ONLINE FIRST
published on October 23, 2018
Philipp W. Rosemann
https://doi.org/10.5840/mpp20181091
Leonard Cohen, Philosopher
This paper, which the author delivered as his inaugural lecture as the Chair of Philosophy at Maynooth University, explores the relationship between philosophy, poetry, and religion. Through a line-by-line interpretation of Leonard Cohen¡¯s song ¡®Steer Your Way¡¯, it discovers the poet in a space between postmodern disillusionment and a desire for faith. What opens Cohen to the latter is specifically the experience of pain and brokenness, which lead him to the figure of Jesus. The paper concludes with a reflection on Richard Kearney¡¯s notion of ¡®anatheism¡¯, the return to a ¡®God after God¡¯.