Summaries
Emmanuel Gabellieri - Christianity and politics according to H. Arendt and S. Weil
In her interpretation of totalitarianism as in her political philosophy, H. Arendt seems - as opposed to S. Weil - to place a mutually exclusive relationship between politics and religion. Even so, a double convergence may be noted. On the one hand, S. Weil develops a philosophical criticism of the relationship between Christianity and history, which is close to some of H. Arendt's remarks. And, H. Arendt establishes a discrete but basic parallel between the evangelical message and her own philosophy of freedom (expressed by the concepts of birth, forgiveness and promise). A criticism of history, and faith in the ever-present possibility of a creative outpouring enables the confrontation of themes within a philosophy of action and what Blondel suggested might be termed the Christian Spirit.
Miklos Vetö - German idealism and Christianity
German idealism is one example of a philosophical system whose subject matter is articulated in the same way as that of christian revelation. Whilst dividing itself into four major figures, that is, critical idealism (Kant), ethical idealism (Fichte), absolute idealism (Hegel) and objective or aesthetic idealism (Schelling), its main characteristic is to develop the metaphysics of freedom, breaking the limits of the metaphysics of being, where meaning and history always seem to be opposed. Thus the importance given to time as the revelation of freedom, grappling with truth, is illustrated by the way in which each of the models of German idealism treats religious knowledge, the figure of Christ, and the problem of evil.
Philippe Capelle - The status of the phenomenology of religion - Martin Heidegger
In breaking with the system of scholastic thought, the young Heidegger did not wish to substitute philosophy for religion, but to found a phenomenology of religion, which thinks of the presence of God as factitious life. The project of his course on the Philosophical fundaments of medieval mysticism (1918) and then the Introduction to the phenomenology of religion (1920-21) thus aiming for meaningful content before all theoretical objectives, spreading out into a historical and temporal dimension. This determines both what the young Heidegger owes to his theological source and the dialogue which follows with his phenomenology of religion.
Pierre Gire - Maître Eckhart, mysticism and Christianity
Eckhart is at the same time a philosopher, theologian and a mystic. His work is situated within Christianity, at the crossroads of different intellectual and spiritual traditions (neo-Platonism, the Dominican school, Jewish and Muslim theological influences...). From this standpoint of understanding it is possible to interpret the meaning of his mystical experience as the proof of absolute life in God, within the reality of the human creature. This proof offers itself in the form of an opening, the metaphysical settling of the soul in the Divinity, through the necessary mediation of the Word. For man then, this is being a son in the Son (image in the Image) by the practice of radical detachment: fixed on nothing but God. Here then, the mystical life, maintained in Christianity is the true witness to Divine life as the Origin in whom all is held together.
François Chirpaz - Naming God ?
Christianity induces us to think of a God as revelation whilst remaining total Otherness. God and man not being strangers to one another, the criticism of anthropomorphic representations must accompany that of the naturalist models. Such a step occurs within biblical tradition, but also in Greek thought. Nevertheless, the Greek expresses itself about God, whereas the biblical approach is addressed to God. Thus, where philosophy most often does not avoid reducing God to human thought except by negation, the word of prayer, also up against the silence of God, expresses faith in a way that the whole of human possibility cannot be expressed by thought.
Philippe Soual - Faces of the Father. From philosophy to revelation
Speaking of God as Father should be understood beyond all naïve anthropomorphic projections. The human experience of paternity bears witness to the distance between the power to give life and the emergence of another, the child, who is not the creation of his or her parents. In both Greek metaphysics (Aristotle, Plotinus) and Christian thought (Augustine, Descartes) there is here a sign of the transcendental origin of life and spirit. But Christian revelation contests all schemas of emanation, giving rise to the thought of a generous creativity which liberates both the true sense of humanity and that of God as Trinity, ignoring the solitude of Oneness.