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Library & Online Resources
Dr. Jeffrey McCurry is Director of the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center at Duquesne University. His interests are philosophy, literature and the fine arts, and psychoanalysis. He cultivates the Center's special collection of phenomenological literature, manages the Center's phenomenological archives, organizes lectures and events in phenomenology for faculty, staff, students, alumni and beyond, and teaches courses in the Philosophy Department and the Honors College.
In The Ethics of Immediacy: Dangerous Experience in Freud, Woolf, and Merleau-Ponty (Bloomsbury, 2023), McCurry examines how Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Woolf’s modernist criticism and fiction, and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, psychology, literature, and philosophy in turns embraced the risks and dangers of putting immediate experience as the center of humanity, of respecting, understanding, appreciating, and following the lead of immediate, spontaneous, pre-reflective, pre-evaluative, concrete experience in human life. This book launches an ethical depth-charge to its reader: without any ideal, normative prescription, or even expectation, what responsibility, if any, does one have to interrogate immediate experience in one's own life and times?
Purchase a copy of The Ethics of Immediacy at Bookshop.org or Amazon.com
Select Bibliography
The following books are not currently in the Barbour Library collection. The links below will take you to either Bookshop.org (which supports local bookstores), the author's online store, or Amazon.com, where you can purchase the book.
Horner, Robyn. The Experience of God: A Phenomenology of Revelation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Masterson, Patrick. Approaching God: Between Phenomenology and Theology. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. On Merleau-Ponty. Translated by Chris Turner. London: Seagull Books, 2021.
Simpson, Christopher Ben. Merleau-Ponty and Theology. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2014.
Smith, James K. A. The Nicene Option: An Incarnational Phenomenology. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2021.
Books and Media in Barbour Library
Print books below may be checked out by PTS students, faculty, and staff, as well as local area patrons who have library accounts (requires an annual fee). Media items are indicated in parentheses. Ebooks are indicated by asterisks, and are available to current PTS students, faculty, and staff only.
A General selection from the works of Sigmund Freud by Call Number: BF173 .F72ISBN: 9780385093255Publication Date: 1989-04-01
God, Guilt and Death : an existential phenomenology of religion by Call Number: BL51 .W44ISBN: 9780253325860Publication Date: 1984-01-01
Phenomenology, language and sociology : selected essays of Maurice Merleau-Ponty by Call Number: B2430 .M38 E56ISBN: 9780435826666Publication Date: 1974
The Ethics of Immediacy : dangerous experience in Freud, Woolf, and Merleau-Ponty by Call Number: BD450 .M347 2024ISBN: 9798765107249Publication Date: 2023-11-02
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Articles in Barbour Library
Articles that are available online have links, and are only available to current PTS students, faculty, and staff. Articles without links are in the print journal collection.
Cottingham, John. “Spiritual Experience: Its Scope, Its Phenomenology, and Its Source.” New Blackfriars 104, no. 1112 (December 31, 2023): 414–27.
Heiden, Gerrit Jan van der. “Engaging with and Detaching from Religious Experience: Towards a Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Religion.” Heythrop Journal 64, no. 2 (December 31, 2023): 162–72
McKeever, Martin. “Is Conscience Best Understood as a Particular Form of Consciousness?: Theological and Ethical Reflections Inspired by the Phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty.” Religions 14, no. 1 (December 31, 2023): 1–10.
Nikkel, David H. “Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenal Body and the Study of Religion.” Religion 55, no. 1 (January 1, 2025): 243–74.
Roth, Jeremi. “Phenomenology, Psychoanalysis, and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion.” Philosophy Today 43 (December 31, 1999): 132–39.
Turcan, Nicolae. “The Phenomenology of Prayer and the Relationship between Phenomenology and Theology.” Religions 14, no. 1 (December 31, 2023): 1–8.
Professor Ellie Anderson, co-host of Overthink philosophy podcast, introduces Maurice Merleau-Ponty's approach to phenomenology and key concepts from it, including the lived body, direct description of experience, oriented space vs. objective space, and the primacy of perception. To learn more, read Merleau-Ponty's 1945 classic The Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Donald A. Landes.
- Overthink PodcastOverthink is a philosophy podcast featuring fresh takes on perennial themes. Hosted by professors Dr. Ellie Anderson (Pomona College) and Dr. David Peña-Guzmán (San Francisco State University), each episode does a deep dive explaining a key concept through accessible conversation and sassy humor. Overthink also often features other experts as guests.
- Phenomenology is for Beginners Video Series (Duquesne Department of Philosophy)Our Phenomenology is for Beginners video series consists of short talks about key phenomenologists like Husserl or Heidegger, interdisciplinary connections between phenomenological philosophy and other areas of research, and in-depth explorations of real-world issues through a phenomenological lens. Browse our catalogue and enjoy learning about phenomenology from graduate students and leading scholars!
- Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic CenterThe Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center (PPC) is a training and educational institution affiliated with and accredited by the American Psychoanalytic Association. It is one of more than 70 psychoanalytic societies and institutes worldwide. PPC offers extensive training programs and educational opportunities to mental health professionals, psychiatric residents, and members of the community. These programs are designed to further the practice of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy, a form of therapy that focuses on the whole person using non-judgmental attitude, empathy, caring, and understanding in order to help the individual resolve his/her symptoms with aims in developing confidence, self-definition, and improved interpersonal relationships.
- Simon Silverman Phenomenology CenterThe Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, founded in 1980, is an embodied expression of the phenomenological orientation of Duquesne University, especially found in the graduate programs in Philosophy and Psychology. Actively promoting the advancement of phenomenology by sponsoring original scholarship, the Center sponsors an annual symposium at Duquesne that invites major speakers to present about cutting-edge areas of phenomenology.
A curated list of print and media resources from the collection of Barbour Library will be posted shortly. These items will be on display at the library and available for checkout.
- Ethics of Immediacy Display BibliographyItems available for checkout from Barbour Library.