Overview

The Unthinkable Sacrifice provides a brief and accessible account of early fatherhood using the tools of phenomenological philosophy. Mickel takes up the phenomenological task of describing the father's experience of his child's soul. Drawing on the work of the thinkers associated with France's ""theological turn,"" especially Jean-Luc Marion and Emmanuel Levinas, he speaks of the child's soul as a phenomenon that appears most of all through the child's face and that issues a call for the father's attention and responsibility. Mickel then explores the unique challenges the late modern world presents for heeding the call of the child's soul. The book reaches its crescendo with an exploration of fatherly sacrifice, those places where the child's finitude and the father's finitude meet, those sites of communion in which the father gives himself all the way to the seeming limits of his love, refusing to leave the child alone at the mercy of the sufferings he or she will inevitably undergo as a human person. This voluntary exposure to whatever existential conditions the child finds him- or herself in, Mickel argues, is precisely the highest calling of the father's love.

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Reviews

""'We were all children before being men.' This formula of Descartes finds its most perfect expression in the work of Zechariah Mickel. Childhood refers to parenthood, and parenthood to a particular form of love. With all the resources of phenomenology, the unthinkable sacrifice of Isaac here takes on meaning for each of us. Like Abraham on the day of Isaac's sacrifice, the child's face definitively deprives us of our pretensions to wanting to control everything. This book is a learning experience, and also a lesson. Because anyone who has exercised parenthood knows that there is sacrifice there, too. Because it is not enough to give. You still have to give yourself."" --Emmanuel Falque, author of The Metamorphosis of Finitude: An Essay on Birth and Resurrection ""If phenomenology's promise to describe our experience can be hindered by the abstract nature of its concepts, Mickel's vivid and accessible prose provides readers a valuable entry point to the discussion. The meditation found in these pages seamlessly draws on key insights from contemporary French phenomenology to bring an experience philosophy has too rarely brought to explicit focus: the beautiful and terrible vulnerability of parenthood, and the joys of the sacrifice that this responsibility demands."" --Stephanie Rumpza, author of Phenomenology of the Icon: Mediating God through the Image ""Striking in its philosophical depth and poignant in its portrayal of human existence, Mickel's The Unthinkable Sacrifice is a wonder. As both a philosopher and a father, I found myself profoundly moved by Mickel's insights and reflections. A must-read for anyone seeking to comprehend the beautiful and tumultuous journey of fatherhood. I am glad to see that philosophers are still able to write such books."" --Martin Koci, author of Christianity after Christendom: Heretical Perspectives in Philosophical Theology ""When my son was about six, he told me that he didn't want to be a philosopher because they don't spend time with their kids. Sadly, being good at philosophy doesn't automatically translate into being a good father. In an absolutely stunning work of subtle beauty and vulnerably concise argument, Zechariah Mickel offers a constructive phenomenological vision of fatherhood that simultaneously gives me hope and reassurance. I needed to read this book and so do you."" --J. Aaron Simmons, author of Camping with Kierkegaard ""I don't know whether there are many things as philosophically and existentially massive as begetting and caring for a child, and the love which a man has for his own child is beyond comparison. Zechariah Mickel has written beautifully and lucidly about the joys and anguish of fatherhood. His words spring forth from his particular experiences, but these are essentially human. They will resonate deeply with anyone who has started upon the same path."" --Steven Nemes, author of Theology of the Manifest: Christianity without Metaphysics ""Phenomenology is, first and foremost, about bringing us back to experience, back to the everydayness of life itself. What could be more pertinent, then, than a phenomenological examination of one of the most common (and yet, in contemporary society, neglected and devalued) experiences: parenting? In The Unthinkable Sacrifice, Mickel approaches this oft-overlooked topic with the attention and insight it demands. As a father who happens also to be a philosopher, I highly recommend this book."" --Matthew Clemente, author of Eros Crucified: Death, Desire, and the Divine in Psychoanalysis and Philosophy of Religion

Author Information

Zechariah Mickel is an independent scholar working at the intersection of continental philosophy and theology. He is the host of Wipf and Stock Publishers' The Theology Mill podcast.

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