Ethno-religious identity, Ethics, and Responsibility: Levinas’s Critique of Religion

Abstract

In the Christian, Moro, and Indigenous People’s relation in the Philippines, religion is the foundation of ethnic identity and provides the legitimacy of their disparate notion of history, understanding of conflict, and meaning of peace. As the underlying motif of their relation, religion has contributed in their uneasy and at times violent encounter, which deepens their division. Following his critique on monotheistic religions and Judaism, Levinas challenges ethno-religious identity to transcend religion as a content discourse, ontology, and thematization to the ethical. By orienting religion as the ethical and God as the structure of the ethical relation, ethno-religious identity must be redefined as the responsibility for the other if the tri-people dialogue has to pursue social harmony and peace.