Abstract
Abstract In this paper, I examine how Gianni Vattimo, in using the terms “weak thought” aims to promote caritas in intellectual life by converging, however paradoxically, Heideggerian Verwindung and Nietzschean nihilism with Pauline kenosis. In line with René Girard’s postulation that Christianity rejects the sacred, Vattimo classifies the idea of a transcendent divinity as Aristotelian rather than Christian, arguing that the Incarnation, as an expression of caritas and humility, is incompatible with the idea of divine transcendence. Based on this perception, Vattimo argues that Nietzsche’s dictum that “God is dead” carries the same philosophical meaning as the kenotic doctrine of the birth of God as man. Furthermore, Vattimo redefines the Heideggerian Verwindung, a subtle response rigidity in the structures of metaphysics, in terms of kenotic caritas. Vattimo’s hermeneutic work over several decades have enabled this improbable convergence of methodologies and worldviews, upon which he bases his argument that postmodernism, in its weakening of all transcendental axiomatic claims, may be understood to share the “desacralizing thrust of Christianity.”
Highlights
In this paper, I examine how Gianni Vattimo, in using the terms “weak thought” aims to promote caritas in intellectual life by converging, paradoxically, Heideggerian Verwindung and Nietzschean nihilism with Pauline kenosis
In our age of supposedly increasing secularism, it is unusual for a Christian thinker to develop a philosophical belief based on the convergence of kenotic theology with nihilist philosophy
Depending as he does on the nihilist philosophies of Nietzsche and Heidegger, Vattimo takes the New Testament toward theological and philosophical claims so weak, non-metaphysical, and undogmatic that neither the Catholic Church nor even Girard would entertain
Summary
Contemporary academic philosophers generally take the position that their personal lives have little—if anything— to do with the arguments they make and the views they hold. Vattimo assumed a leadership role in the movement while still in high school and later became its diocesan representative.[9] Even in those early years, Vattimo felt that his political, social, and religious convictions combined to produce a valuable creed, with which he hoped to influence the public arena He concluded that the study of philosophy would help him to achieve this goal.[10]. During his studies at the University of Turin, which were supervised by the existentialist philosopher Luigi Pareyson, the views that Vattimo had developed under Catholic tutelage were gradually superseded by a different set of ideas These were, principally, the Nietzschean-Hiedeggerian reading of the postmodern condition and discussion of the end of metaphysics: The tendency of modern culture, according to this view, is towards ideals that are in opposition to fixed ontological foundations and transcendence. His philosophical work in the succeeding years would be recognizable in the German tradition, with his major publication being on Nietzsche.[13]
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