Alexander Isakov. God and Being: Christianity and philosophy. Vol. 1. No. 1. 2016

Publication Details

God and Being: Christianity and philosophy
Title in the language of publication: Бог и Бытие: христианство и философия
Author:
Alexander Isakov
PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor of the Institute of Philosophy of the Saint Petersburg State University.
Address: 7/9 Universitetskaya emb., St. Petersburg 199034, Russia.
Issue:
P. 5–21.
Language: Russian
Document type: Research Article
 

Abstract

God and being are two equal in their genesis events of thought that have determined the destiny of the European cultural tradition. The article considers their interrelation in three research perspectives: historical, theological and philosophical. From the historical viewpoint, these two events of thought are originally independent from each other and belong to different cultural and historical types — the ancient Greek and Hebrew ones. However, in Christianity their relation becomes the principal hermeneutic problem. On the one hand, Christian theology tries to update the antique concept of Being by including in it the idea of God’s freedom (Gregory of Nazianzus) and/or human freedom (Soren Kierkegaard). On the other hand, Christian thought, first of all Protestant theology, develops a conception of the truth of Revelation, with its irremovable mythological node (Karl Bart, Rudolf Bultmann). From the viewpoint of contemporary philosophy the article underlines the significance of analysis of this issue in the works of Alain Badiou and Slavoi Zizek in the context of the notion of truth as a singular event breaking the initial totality of Being and Lacanian theory of the decentered subject, which allows conceiving a similar breach in the idea of God. In the latter case God is conceived as an unconscious dimension of the subject “before being”, while Christianity is considered as subjectivation of this dimension in a sincgular Event-Truth, notably in the event of Christ. On the whole the case Badiou/Zizek is quite telling as regards current philosophical attempts at reappropriating the efforts of Christian thought in the situation of meaning deficiency in culture. The author also concludes on the relevance of a meaningful dialog between contemporary philosophy and theology on a common conceptual ground.

Keywords

God, Being, Christianity, philosophy, neo-orthodox theology, transcendent, the subject, event of thought.

References 

Badiou A. (1999) Saint Paul. La fondation de l’universalisme. Moscow: Moskovskii filosofskii fond; St. Petersburg: Universitetskaya kniga (Biblioteka sovremennoi frantsuzskoi filosofii [The library of contemporary French philosophy]). (in Russian).

Barth K. (2005) Der Römerbrief. Moscow: Bibleisko-bogoslovskii institut sv. apostola Andreya (Sovremennoe bogoslovie [Contemporary theology]). (in Russian).

Benjamin W. (2000) Franz Kafka. Moscow: Ad Marginem (Filosofiya po krayam [Philosophy in the margins]). (in Russian).

Boethius (1990) “Contra Eutychen et Nestorium”. Boethius. “Uteshenie filosofiei” i drugie traktaty [“The Consolation of Philosophy” and other treatises]. Moscow: Nauka (Pamyatniki filosofskoi mysli [Monuments of philosophical thought]): 167–189. (in Russian).

Bonhoeffer D. (1994) Widerstand und Ergebung. Moscow: Progress. (in Russian).

Bultmann R. (2004) “Neues Testament und Mythologie. Das Problem der Entmythologisierung der neutestamentlichen Verkündigung”. Bultmann R. Izbrannoe: Vera i ponimanie. T. I–II [Selected works: Faith and Understanding. Vol. I–II]. Moscow: “Rossiiskaya politicheskaya entsiklopediya” (ROSSPEN) (Kniga sveta [The book of light]): 7–41. (in Russian).

Grenz S. J., Olson R. E. (2011) 20th-Century Theology: God and the World in a Transitional Age. Cherkassy: Kollokvium. (in Russian).

Hegel G. W. F. (1959) “Phänomenologie des Geistes”. Hegel G. V. F. Soch.: v 14 t. T. 4 [Works in 14 vol. Vol. 4]. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo sotsial’no-ekonomicheskoi literatury (Sotsekgiz). (in Russian).

Houtepen A. (2008) God. An Open Questio. Theological prospects of contemporary culture. Moscow: Bibleisko-bogoslovskii institut sv. apostola Andreya (Sovremennoe bogoslovie [Contemporary theology]). (in Russian).

Kojève A. (2003) Introduction à la lecture de Hegel. Leçons sur la “Phénoménologie de l’esprit” professées de 1933 à 1939 à l’École des Hautes Études, réunies et publiées par Raymond Queneau. St. Petersburg: Nauka (Slovo o sushchem [Word on the Being]). (in Russian).

Luther M. (1986) “De Servo Arbitrio”. Erasmus of Rotterdam. Filosofskie proizvedeniya [Philosophical works]. Moscow: Nauka (Pamyatniki filosofskoi mysli [Monuments of philosophical thought]): 290–545. (in Russian).

Robinson J. A. T. (1993) Honest to God. Moscow: Vysshaya shkola. (in Russian).

Tabor J. D. (2007) The Jesus Dynasty: A New Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. Moscow: AST. Khranitel’. (in Russian).

Žižek S. (1999) The Sublime Object of Ideology. Moscow: Khudozhestvennyi Zhurnal. (in Russian).

Žižek S. (2009) The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity. Moscow: Evropa. (in Russian).

Žižek S. (2014) The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology. Moscow: Izdatel’skii dom “Delo” RANEPA. (in Russian).

© Alexander Isakov, 2016

Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.