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

Publication Details

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 

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© Alexander Isakov, 2016