Researcher Details |

Joseph Rivera

See my personal website here:

https://www.josephmrivera.com/

I lecture and conduct research on a variety of topics. Trained in the fluid disciplines of phenomenology and philosophy of religion, I focus on themes such as the self, love, empathy, temporal experience, the body, and spiritual experience. In phenomenology I work on figures such as Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and their French heirs: Jean-Luc Marion, Michel Henry, Jean-Yves Lacoste, Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. I also research in a secondary area, political philosophy and the mechanics of dialogue. Here I draw principally on the work of John Rawls.

I am currently working on a fourth book project that explores the concept of the world in light of the debate between realism and anti-realism with an emphasis on the cosmology of St. Augustine. While I continue to work within post-Husserlian phenomenology, I also include in this project other philosophical voices from the anglophone world, such as Hilary Putnam and Richard Rorty.

Book

	Year	Publication
	2024	(2024) Theological Fringes of Phenomenology. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Theological-Fringes-of-Phenomenology/Rivera-OLeary/p/book/9781032472119#:~:text=These%20include%20the%20Incarnation%2C%20the,Eucharist%2C%20Grace%2C%20and%20Prayer.
	2022	Joseph Rivera (2022) Phenomenology and the Horizon of Experience: Spiritual Themes in Henry, Marion, Lacoste. New York: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Phenomenology-and-the-Horizon-of-Experience-Spiritual-Themes-in-Henry/Rivera/p/book/9781032136400
	2018	Rivera, J. (2018) Political theology and pluralism: Renewing public dialogue. [Link] [DOI]
	2015	Joseph Rivera (2015) The Contemplative Self after Michel Henry: A Phenomenological Theology. Notre Dame, Indiana: Notre Dame University Press.
	2014	Joseph Rivera and Scott Davidson (translators) (2014) Flesh and Body: On the Phenomenology of Husserl, by Didier Franck. New York and London: Bloomsbury.

Peer Reviewed Journal

	Year	Publication
	2025	Joseph Rivera (2025) 'Whom do I Love when I Love Myself? The Challenge of Narcissism'. Philosophie, :2-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies10010006
	2024	Joseph Rivera (2024) 'Two Types of Philosophy of Religion'. Religions, :1-7. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040503
	2023	Joseph Rivera (2023) 'Phenomenology, Givenness, Mystery: Dilating Subjectivity'. Religions, 8 :1-18. [Link] https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081008
	2021	Joseph Rivera (2021) 'Blumenberg's Problematic Secularization Thesis: Augustine, Curiositas and the Emergence of Late Modernity'. Religions, 15 (5):297-313. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050297
	2021	Joseph Rivera (2021) 'Giving as Loving: A Requiem for the Gift?'. Continental Philosophy Review, 54 (3):349-366. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-021-09527-y
	2020	Joseph Rivera (2020) 'Religious Reasons and Public Reason: Recalibrating Ireland's Benevolent Secularism'. Review of European Studies, 12 (1):1-12. [DOI]
	2020	Rivera, Joseph (2020) 'Political Liberalism and Resentment: A Theological Rejoinder'. Modern Theology, 36 (2). [DOI]
	2019	Rivera, Joseph (2019) 'The Original Position as Public Performance: Liberalism, Pluralism, and Asceticism'. Religions, 10 (8). [DOI]
	2019	Joseph Rivera (2019) 'Phenomenologies of the Trinity: Trends in Recent Philosophy of Religion'. Philosophy Compass, 14 (1):1-11. [DOI]
	2019	Joseph Rivera (2019) 'The as yet Undetermined Animal: Augustine's Memoria after Cognitive Science'. European Journal of Science and Theology, 15 (5):77-94. [Link]
	2019	Joseph Rivera (2019) 'Liberal Citizenship and the Hermeneutics of Public Dialogue: A Rawlsian Perspective'. Nations and Nationalism, 5 :133-151. [Link] https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2019-0012
	2019	Joseph Rivera (2019) 'We-synthesis: Husserl and Henry on Empathy and Shared Life'. Research in Phenomenology, 2 :183-206. https://doi.org/10.1163/15691640-12341418
	2018	Joseph Rivera (2018) 'The Myth of the Given? Rethinking Phenomenology's Theological Turn'. Philosophy Today, 62 (2):181-197. [Link]
	2018	Joseph Rivera (2018) 'Futures of the Theological Turn'. Philosophy Today, 62 (2):89-97. [Link]
	2017	Rivera, Joseph (2017) 'Human Nature and the Limits of Plasticity: Revisiting the Debate Concerning the Supernatural'. Neue Zeitschrift fur Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, 59 (1). [DOI]
	2016	Rivera, Joseph (2016) 'God and Metaphysics in Contemporary Theology: Reframing the Debate'. Theological studies, 77 (4). [DOI]
	2015	Henry, Michel; Rivera, Joseph; Faithful, George E. (2015) 'The four principles of phenomenology'. Continental Philosophy Review, 48 (1). [DOI]
	2013	Rivera J. (2013) 'Figuring the porous self: St. Augustine and the phenomenology of temporality'. Modern Theology, 29 (1):83-103. [DOI]
	2013	Dr Joseph Rivera (2013) 'Toward a Liturgical Existentialism'. NEW BLACKFRIARS, vol. 94 :79-96.
	2012	Dr Joseph Rivera (2012) 'Corpus Mysticum and Religious Experience: Henry, Lacoste, Marion'. International Journal of Systematic Theology, vol. 14 :327-349.
	2011	Dr Joseph Rivera (2011) 'Generation, Interiority and the Phenomenology of Christianity in Michel Henry'. Continental Philosophy Review, Continental Philosophy Review, 44 :205-235.
	2010	Dr Joseph Rivera (2010) 'Jean-Luc Marion: The Subject as Gifted in Christological Perspective'. Heythrop Journal-A Quarterly Review Of Philosophy And Theology, 51 :1053-1060.

Other Journal

	Year	Publication
	2025	(2025) 'Single Guest Editor of Philosophies of Love in the journal Philosophies' Philosophies, . [Link]
	2024	Joseph Rivera (2024) 'Am I an Illusion?' Dublin Review of Books, . https://drb.ie/articles/am-i-an-illusion/
	2023	(2023) 'Single Guest Editor of Special Issue on “What is Philosophy of Religion: Definitions, Motifs, New Directions” Religions MDPI, 2023' Religions, 1 . https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/Philosophy_of_Religion_New_Directions
	2021	(2021) 'Editor and panel organizer of online symposium examining Joseph O’Leary’s Reality Itself: Philosophical Challenges of Indian Mahāyāna, hosted at Syndicate network' Syndicate, 2 . https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/reality-itself/
	2019	(2019) 'Single Guest Editor of Special Issue on “Political Theology and Pluralism,” Religions MDPI 2019' Religions, 1 . https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/PoliticalTheology
	2018	(2018) 'Single Guest Editor of Special Topic on “The Futures of Theological Turn in Phenomenology,” for the journal Philosophy Today, vol.62, no.1 (2018): 89-197' Philosophy Today, (no.1) .
	2018	Joseph Rivera (2018) 'Spiritual Exercises in a Secular Age: Prospects for a Theological Reduction' 17 (2) :307-327. [Link]
	2017	Joseph Rivera (2017) 'Christian Life and the Phenomenology of Life' 16 (1) :161-182.

Book Chapter

	Year	Publication
	2025	Joseph Rivera (2025) 'Love is a Life which Binds Together: Self-Love and Other in Henry and Augustine' In: Phenomenologies of Love. Leiden : Brill.
	2024	Joseph Rivera (2024) 'The Open Self: Political Identity and Dialogue' In: Festschrift Festschrift for Dermot Lane. Bern : Peter Lang.
	2023	Joseph Rivera (2023) 'Phenomenology, Experience, Spiritual Life' In: Image and Imagination in the Phenomenology of Religious Experience. Nordhausen Germany : Verlag Traugott Bautz GmbH. https://www.bautz.de/product-page/image-and-imagination-in-the-phenomenology-of-religious-experience?lang=en
	2023	Joseph Rivera (2023) 'Affection, Mood, and Poetry: Overcoming Mentalism' In: God and Phenomenology: Thinking with Jean-Yves Lacoste. Eugene Oregon : Veritas. [Link]
	2023	Michael Hinds and Joseph Rivera (2023) '“To Learn Baseball”: A Transatlantic Dialogue on the Astros and the American Ways of Winning (Michael Hinds and Joseph Rivera) in Astros and Asterisks' In: Asr. Austin : U Texas.
	2023	Joseph Rivera and Michael Hinds (2023) 'To Learn Baseball: A Transatlantic Dialogue on the Astros and American Ways of Winning' In: Astros and Asterisks: Houston's Sign-Stealing Scandal Explained. Austin, TX : University of Texas Press. https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477327432/
	2022	Joseph Rivera (2022) 'The Liberal Subject: The Politics of Life in Michel Henry' In: Michel Henry's Practical Philosophy. London : Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/michel-henrys-practical-philosophy-9781350202764/
	2013	Joseph Rivera (2013) 'The Night of Living Flesh: Sainthood in Michel Henry' In: Postmodern Saints of France. London and New York : Bloomsbury.

Conference Contribution

	Year	Publication
	2019	Joseph Rivera (2019) Leuven Encounters in Systematic Theology (LEST XII) Rawlsian Public Reason: A Model of Political Theology Leuven, Belgium, 23/10/2019-26/10/2019.
	2018	Joseph Rivera (2018) Society for the Study of Theology Annual Conference Nietzsche on the Hinterworld: A Relief for Theology University of Nottingham, UK, 09/04/2018-11/04/2018.
	2018	Joseph Rivera (2018) Workshop on Religion and Violence Rene Girard's Phenomenology of Religious Violence University Vienna, Austria, 18/03/2018-21/03/2018.
	2017	Joseph Rivera (2017) Annual Meeting of the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology Reconciling Metaphysics and Sacramental Experience Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, 22/03/2017-25/03/2017.
	2017	Joseph Rivera (2017) Colloquium on Michel Henry Michel Henry and Irenaeus on Life Instiut für Systematische Theologie, Universität Freiburg, 23/07/2017-25/07/2018.
	2016	Joseph Rivera (2016) Philosophy and Theology Symposium Sameness and Otherness: A Response to Jeffrey Bloechl Dublin City University, 12/03/2016-12/03/2016.
	2016	Joseph Rivera (2016) St. Patrick's College Humanities Workshop Secularization Theory: A Plea for Ambiguity Dublin, 23/03/2016-23/03/2016.
	2016	Joseph Rivera (2016) Society for the Study of Theology Plasticity in Question: The Debate Concerning the Supernatural Durham University, 22/04/2016-23/04/2016.
	2016	Joseph Rivera (2016) Role of the Church in a Pluralist Society Overlapping consensus and Political Theology: A Pragmatic Approach Trinity College Dublin, 21/06/2016-23/06/2016.
	2015	Joseph Rivera (2015) Christian Doctrines of Divinization East and West, Faculteit Theologie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven “Theosis and the Secularization of the Modern World.” Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 30/01/2015-.
	2015	Joseph Rivera (2015) Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain Grace without Nature? Theological Anthropology Revisited Durham University, 08/09/2015-09/09/2015.
	2014	Joseph Rivera (2014) Irish Theological Association Conference, Sacramental Theology Today, St. Patrick's College “The World is not a Sacrament: Disenchantment and Modernity.” Maynooth, Ireland, 18/10/2014-.
	2014	Joseph Rivera (2014) Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy Conference, Liverpool Hope University “Practical and Political Theology in a Secular Age.” Liverpool, 11/07/2014-.
	2013	Joseph Rivera (2013) The D Society in Philosophy of Religion, Cambridge University “God and Being in Contemporary Theology: the Promise of the Metaphysics of Exodus 3.14.” Cambridge, 08/02/2013-.
	2013	Joseph Rivera (2013) The Soul: Center for Theology and Philosophy Conference “The Soul-Body Distinction: An Augustinian Rereading Oxford, 28/06/2013-.
	2012	Joseph Rivera (2012) Theology and Ethics Public Seminar, University of Edinburgh School of Divinity “Philosophy and Theology: A Rapprochement Edinburgh, 09/02/2012-.
	2012	Joseph Rivera (2012) Beyond Myth and Enlightenment Conference, University of Vienna, Austria “Contemplating Transcendence: Eucharistic Temporality after Husserl and Heidegger.” Vienna, 13/09/2012-.
	2012	Joseph Rivera (2012) Phenomenology and Religion Workshop, Trinity College Dublin “The Phenomenological Reduction and the Problem of the ‘World:’ Theological Possibilities.” Dublin, 24/04/2012-.
	2011	Joseph Rivera (2011) What is Life? Center for Theology and Philosophy Conference “Individuation, Temporality and Life Krakow, Poland, 24/06/2011-.
	2011	Joseph Rivera (2011) Sacramental Theology and Postmodernism Seminar What are Saturated Phenomena? Edinburgh, 08/02/2011-.
	2011	Joseph Rivera (2011) Phenomenology and Theology Seminary, Univ of Edinburgh School of Divinity “Phenomenology and Theology in Michel Henry” Edinburgh, 15/02/2011-.
	2010	Joseph Rivera (2010) Colloquium in Catholic Theology, University of Nottingham “Corpus Christi Mysticum in Lacoste and Henry: Religious Experience or Non-Experience?” Nottingham, 11/11/2010-.
	2010	Joseph Rivera (2010) Colloque international à l’occasion de l’ouverture du Fonds Michel Henry “Michel Henry’s Phenomenology of the Incarnation and the Problem of Religious Experience.” Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 17/12/2010-.
	2010	Joseph Rivera (2010) Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen “Recovering the Cartesian Subject: Self-Affection as Self-Awareness in the Michel Henry’s Phenomenology of Life.” Copenhagen, 24/08/2010-.
	2010	Joseph Rivera (2010) International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture “Pure Flesh: Michel Henry’s Theological Critique of Husserlian Intentionality.” Oxford, 27/09/2010-.
	2010	Joseph Rivera (2010) “The Temporality of the Self: Comparing an Anxious Heidegger with a Hopeful St. John of the Cross.” The Present Moment: Postgraduate Conference in Theology and Religion Oxford, 30/09/2010-.
	2009	Joseph Rivera (2009) American Academy of Religion “Liturgy or Death? The Phenomenology of Authenticity in Heidegger and Lacoste.” Montreal, 07/11/2009-.
	2009	Joseph Rivera (2009) Leuven Encounters in Systematic Theology “The Question of a Phenomenology of Creation in Michel Henry.” Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 28/10/2009-.
	2008	Joseph Rivera (2008) The Philosophy of Jean-Luc Marion Reading the Atonement as a Saturated Phenomenon Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, USA, 25/04/2008-.
	2008	Joseph Rivera (2008) American Academy of Religion “Communing with the Gods: William Robertson Smith, Sacrifice and Atonement Theology 1890-1915.” Chicago, 31/10/2008-.

Book Review

	Year	Publication
	2014	Dr Joseph Rivera (2014) Postmodern Apologetics? Arguments for God in Contemporary Philosophy, Christina M. Gschwandtner (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012). BREV
	2014	Dr Joseph Rivera (2014) Interpreting Excess: Jean-Luc Marion, Saturated Phenomena and Hermeneutics, by Shane Mackinlay (New York: Fordham University Press, 2010). BREV
	2013	Dr Joseph Rivera (2013) Michel Henry: the Affects of Thought, eds., Jeffrey Hanson and Michael Kelly (New York and London: Continuum, 2012). BREV
	2013	Dr Joseph Rivera (2013) Secularization: In Defense of an Unfashionable Theory by Steve Bruce (Oxford, UK Oxford University Press, 2011). BREV
	2011	Dr Joseph Rivera (2011) Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building-Block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special Things, by Ann Taves (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009). BREV
	2011	Dr Joseph Rivera (2011) Derrida and Theology, by Stephen Shakespeare (London and New York: Continuum, 2009). BREV
	2010	Dr Joseph Rivera (2010) Solomon Among the Postmoderns, by Peter Leithart (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2008). BREV
	2009	Dr Joseph Rivera (2009) What Would Jesus Deconstruct? The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church, by John Caputo (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007). BREV
	2008	Dr Joseph Rivera (2008) Christ and Culture, by Graham Ward (Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2005). BREV

Editorial

	Year	Publication
	2020	Rivera, Joseph (2020) Introduction: Political Theology, or the Formations of Pluralism. ED [DOI]

Other Publication

	Year	Publication
	2019	Rivera, J. (2019) We-synthesis: Husserl and henry on empathy and shared life. [Link] [DOI]
	2019	Rivera, J. (2019) Liberal Citizenship and the Hermeneutics of Public Dialogue: A Rawlsian Perspective. [Link] [DOI]

Languages

Language	Reading	Writing	Speaking
German	Functional	None	None
French	Fluent	Basic	Basic
Spanish	Functional	None	Basic

Research Interests

Philosophy and philosophy of religion

Themes: secularity, political theory, democracy, concepts of the world, theories of the self, time, the philosophical nature of the body, empathy, love, and happiness.

Current Postgraduate Students

Student Name	Degree	Supervision
Cunningham ,Caitriona	PhD-track	Supervisor
Antilla ,Phillip	PhD-track	Supervisor
Ferrick ,Gearoid	PhD-track	Supervisor
Hao ,Wanhui	PhD	Supervisor
Mc Bennett ,Padraig	PhD	Supervisor

Teaching Interests

I teach a wide range of modules, from first year undergraduate modules to postgraduate modules that serves our MA programme.

I also organize and lead an annual reading group in philosophy for all PhD research students in the School of Theology, Philosophy and Music.