With his new work, In Heidegger’s Vineyard: Reflections and Mystical Vignettes, distinguished scholar Richard Capobianco highlights a multitude of texts that have been largely overlooked in the scholarship, and invites the reader on a meditative “walk” to reflect on the manifold philosophical, religious, and spiritual implications of Heidegger’s thinking after Being and Time. It is a gentle walk, allowing us to breathe freely and lift up our hearts and minds in the presence of the unfathomable mystery of the Being-way.
Praise
“Only a master scholar could have written such a moving and inspirational book merging philosophy, literature, fine art, theology, and autobiography. In Heidegger’s Vineyard opens and invites readers into a deep conversation about the potential implications of Heidegger’s later thought for our lives. By thinking with and then beyond Heidegger, the philosophical journey Capobianco initiates includes tarrying in illuminating ways with the genius of Frost, Emerson, Whitman, Wordsworth, and Whitehead. Typically, within our cloistered subjective existence, we cling to reductive explanations of the world that preclude the illumining-effect of the primal Source, the ineffable and mysterious presence of Being. Through poetic-philosophical readings and the deft use of intimate
autobiographical vignettes, Capobianco reveals the many ways in which Being is always already presencing within our everyday lives. Our souls are expansive and there is potential for continued expansion when we release ourselves over to the power of Being and its light and shimmering illumination. Religious mysticism and spirituality permeate the text, which instructively offers a vision of the Unity of Being as a gathering and all-inclusive force that harbors and shelters the interconnectedness of the two-sides of the human condition, namely, the ineluctable communion between the ontic-and-ontological, the ordinary-and-extraordinary, the finite-and-infinite, the factical-and-transcendent. Capobianco’s book is a wonderfully written ‘poetic’ gem, inspiring our concern for and meditation on our relationship to Being, offering
the invaluable potential for the transfiguration of our souls, illuminating the darkness that shrouds the contemporary world.” ~ JAMES M. MAGRINI, author of Plato’s Socrates at the Limit of Education and Philosophical Sojourns
“In Heidegger’s Vineyard continues Richard Capobianco’s refinement of his engagement with Heidegger, boils it down into parables, lessons, etudes, aphoristic briefs, until these moments are organized—as in the late work of the writer he approaches here—around the gleaming moment of epiphany. It is Capobianco’s significant gift to reveal how Heidegger's later body of work is so sacral, illuminating, and transformative.” ~ RICK MOODY, author of The Ice Storm and Hotels in North America
“Every once in a long while there comes a voice in
the field of Heidegger studies that uncovers new depths, and even joy and beauty, by releasing remembrance of simple, essential attunement. Richard Capobianco’s three impeccable books, and now this new one, on Martin Heidegger’s vision of Being have succeeded in doing precisely that with singular poetic clarity and insight. Fearlessandinspiredare two words that come to mind when one reads the vignettes in this collection which reveal ‘the thinker at work’ or ‘the thinker in awe.’ Capobianco takes some brave steps off the beaten paths of academic thinking, and we are deeply grateful for the fresh clearings he is able to point out. He does so mindfully and elegantly—always keeping in view the ultimate mystery of Being and our relation to Being as the Holy and the Source.” ~ JUAN ANTONIO SANTESTEBAN, author of Espacios abiertos (Open Spaces)
About the Author
RICHARD CAPOBIANCO is Professor of Philosophy and Meehan Humanities Scholar at Stonehill College in Massachusetts. His previous books include Engaging Heidegger, Heidegger’s Way of Being, Heidegger’s Being: The Shimmering Unfolding, and Heidegger and the Holy (editor).
