Called by Beauty: Paul Ricoeur’s (Late) Liturgical Turn

Daniel O’Dea Bradley

doi:10.3390/rel12100796

Abstract

We are now witnessing a great renewal of philosophical interest in the material aspects of religiosity. In this article I show that we have resources for this work in the very late philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, resources that are equally unexpected and deeply moving. In particular, in Ricoeur’s late turn we see the promising beginnings of a sacramental philosophy that links Baptism and the Song of Songs to show how liturgical practice is fundamentally tied to the beauty and sacredness of the natural world. The result is the realization that an ethics of hope is only truly completed in a philosophy of praise, eschatology pointing toward doxology.

Highlights

Ricoeur’s final phase of thought provides the promising beginnings of a sacramental philosophy that links Baptism and the Song of Songs to show how liturgical practice is fundamentally tied to the beauty and sacredness of the natural world
Recognizing this helps us understand Ricoeur in a more holistic way, but emphasizing the reasons why he was usually so opposed to liturgical theology reminds of us of some of the dangers we must avoid in the excitement of this renewal
In Ricoeur’s main contribution to the philosophy of religion, we see a powerful constellation of ideas that include: the methodological constraints imposed on philosophy by the illusions in which we find ourselves embedded, the attendant place for symbols of defilement and slavery, the claim that the coherent unity of self-consciousness is a task rather than a given, the role of narrative and attestation in achieving morally responsible agency, the central place of conatus in ethics, and the ultimate decentering of ethical self-possession toward eschatological hope

Summary

Introduction

The 20th Century advocates of phenomenology, deconstruction, and philosophical hermeneutics tended to be dismissive or openly antagonistic toward liturgy and theologies rooted in liturgical and sacramental practice.2 This is beginning to change, and we are witnessing a great renewal of interest in the material aspects of religiosity. Ricoeur’s final phase of thought provides the promising beginnings of a sacramental philosophy that links Baptism and the Song of Songs to show how liturgical practice is fundamentally tied to the beauty and sacredness of the natural world Recognizing this helps us understand Ricoeur in a more holistic way, but emphasizing the reasons why he was usually so opposed to liturgical theology reminds of us of some of the dangers we must avoid in the excitement of this renewal.

The 20th Century Theological Turn

Baptismal Liturgies and the Song of Songs