Kevin Hart

Kevin John Hart (born 5 July 1954) is an Anglo-Australian theologian, philosopher and poet. He is currently Jo Rae Wright University Distinguished Professor at Duke Divinity School. He was the Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies and Chair of the Religious Studies Department at the University of Virginia. As a theologian and philosopher, Hart's work epitomizes the "theological turn" in phenomenology, with a focus on figures like Maurice Blanchot, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Marion and Jacques Derrida. He has received multiple awards for his poetry, including the Christopher Brennan Award and the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry twice.

Biography Hart was born on 5 July 1954 to James Henry Hart and his wife, Rosina Mary Wooton. Hart's family moved to Brisbane, Australia, in 1966. Hart attended secondary school at Oxley State High School, Hart received his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 1986. Leaving Monash in 2002, he became Professor of Philosophy and Literature at the University of Notre Dame, a position he held until 2007, when he became Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Virginia, In 2019, he delivered the Gifford Lectures on Philosophia and Religions at the University of Glasgow. In Fall 2024, Hart will assume the Jo Rae Wright University Distinguished Professorship at Duke Divinity School, with a courtesy appointment in the Duke University Department of English.

Theology and literary criticism

In his professional life, Kevin Hart is primarily known as a theologian who works in two areas: systematic theology and religion and literature. His work in systematic theology has not yet been collected into volumes but remains as uncollected essays and chapters. In general, Hart's approach is to ground theology in a phenomenology of the Christ, both a phenomenology of Jesus's words and actions, and an account of Jesus as performing epoche and reduction, especially through the parables. On Hart's understanding, the preaching of the Kingdom brings forth Christ's death and that preaching is confirmed by the Resurrection. His work on the Christian mystical tradition is focused on practices of contemplation. In terms of religion and literature, Hart has written extensively on English and French poetry and Christianity, especially Christian mysticism. Recent work has converged on Geoffrey Hill.

One facet of his work is extensive commentary on the writing of the atheist Maurice Blanchot to whom he has devoted four books: The Dark Gaze, The Power of Contestation, Nowhere without No, and Clandestine Encounters. Hart's analysis on Blanchot was praised by Peter Craven as combining "an attractive expository technique with an openness to speculative ideas". His work on Jacques Derrida and Samuel Johnson has also been praised, although one critic said that Hart's work on Johnson was "dubious" "and inconsistent in approach".

Poetry Hart's interests in poetry were piqued by an English teacher's presentation of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias. In addition to Shelley, Hart also cites T. S. Eliot, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Éluard, Vasko Popa, Zbigniew Herbert and Gerard Manley Hopkins as influences. As Toby Davidson writes, "Kevin Hart's poetry cannot be separated from his multiple, enduring engagements with mysticism and mystical poetics. He is an innovator, suggesting new approaches to the mystical in the free facets of *attending*." Michael Brennan notes that the philosophical connection stems out of Hart's "long study into phenomenology", specifically connecting Hart's "The Room" to Heidegger's philosophy. Similarly, David McCooey detects the influence of Jacques Derrida, specifically Hart's use of metaphor and perspective.

Erotic and sensual themes are also pronounced in Hart's work. Nathaniel O'Reilly notes, for example, that even though most criticism of Hart focuses on his religious themes, Hart is also an "intensely physical and sensual poet," linking the material and the spiritual.

Reception Hart's poetry has garnered multiple awards, including the Greybeal-Gowen Prize for Poetry in 2008, the John Shaw Neilson Poetry Award in 1977, the Mattara Poetry Award in 1982, 11the Wesley Michel Wright Award in 1984, the NSW Premier's Prize for Poetry in 1985, the Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry in 1985, the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry in 1992 and 1995, the Christopher Brennan Award in 1999.

Critical response to Hart's poetry has varied. Harold Bloom, writing on the back cover of Kevin Hart's 1999 volume of poetry, Wicked Heat, strongly praised Hart, saying that he is the "most outstanding Australian poet of his generation", and one of "the major living poets in the English language". Bloom also names Hart as one of the eleven canonical writers of Australia and New Zealand in his book, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages, specifically praising Hart's book Peniel and Other Poems. Other critics, such as Cyril Wong and Christian Sheppard, have also praised Hart's poetry. Some critics such as Geoffrey Lehmann and Pam Brown, however, have expressed negative views of Hart's work. while Christian Sheppard, reviewing the same volume, said "The primary pleasure of Hart's poetry, however, is an easy rhythmed, swiftly flowing line tracing the moment-by-moment impressions of an often impassioned yet always lucid mind".

Published works Books of Poetry The Departure, University of Queensland Press, 1978 The Lines of Your Hand, Angus & Robertson, 1981, Your Shadow, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 1984, Peniel Golvan Arts, 1991. New and Selected Poems HarperCollins Publishers, 1995, Dark Angel, Dedalus Press, 1996, Nineteen Songs, Vagabond Press, 1999 Wicked Heat Paper Bark Press, 1999, Madonna, Vagabond Press, 2000 Flame Tree Bloodaxe, 2002, Night Music, Lexicon House, 2003 Young Rain Bloodaxe Books, 2009, Morning Knowledge, University of Notre Dame Press, 2011,

Criticism Fordham Univ Press, 2000, A. D. Hope, Oxford University Press, 1992, The Oxford Book of Australian Religious Verse, Oxford University Press, 1994, Losing the Power to Say 'I''' (1996) How to Read a Page of Boswell, Vagabond Press, 2000, The Fifth Question and After: Poems for Tomas Salamun (2003)The Impossible Vagabond Press, 2006, Nowhere Without No: In Memory of Maurice Blanchot (editor; 2004)The Power of Contestation: Perspectives on Maurice Blanchot (with Geoffrey Hartman, 2004)Postmodernism: A Beginner’s Guide (2004) Counter-Experiences: Reading Jean-Luc Marion, University of Notre Dame Press, 2007, (editor)The Exorbitant: Emmanuel Levinas between Jews and Christians (with Michael A. Signer, 2010)Clandestine Encounters: Philosophy in the Narratives of Maurice Blanchot (2010)Poetry and Revelation: For a Phenomenology of Religious Poetry, Bloomsbury Academic, 2017,