Abstract
Abstract This paper investigates the connections between the phenomenology of religious experience and Michel Henry’s entire body of work. Henry debated on Christianism and the phenomenological interpretation of religion in the latter part of his philosophical thinking. However, a new interpretation of Henry’s work is needed starting from his work The Essence of Manifestation and his critique of religion by Marx and Feuerbach which he analyzed in two volumes devoted to these two philosophers (1976). Although it has been scarcely investigated, Henry’s work should be considered as a whole from its beginning to his philosophy of Christianity. As this aspect of Henry’s work has often been ignored, this paper proposes a new interpretation of the essence of religion through its connections with the essence of manifestation. This will be done in three steps: firstly, an investigation of Henry’s thought starting from his interpretation of Marx and Feuerbach will be proposed; secondly, a “new ontology of manifestation” by Henry will be analysed; and finally, a connection between Henry’s phenomenological essence of manifestation and the new conception of the essence of religion will be suggested.
Highlights
This paper investigates the connections between the phenomenology of religious experience and Michel Henry’s entire body of work
Henry debated on Christianism and the phenomenological interpretation of religion in the latter part of his philosophical thinking
Even if Jean Greisch, in his majestic work Le Buisson ardent et les lumières de la raison,[1] inserted Henry in the section devoted to the phenomenology of religion, he cannot be defined as a “philosopher of religion”
Summary
Throughout his work, Michel Henry shows that the manifestation of reality cannot be known without understanding the experience that every man has of it. All his work can be regarded as a phenomenology of religious experience. He develops this topic by considering what religion is, and how its phenomenology could be possible. The objective of this article is to analyze Henry’s view of the phenomenology of religious experience examining different aspects of his study. The analysis concludes with Henry’s investigation of the essence of manifestation and Christianity. These three key elements have provided a decisive contribution to the answering of Henry’s fundamental question: how does a religious experience manifest itself?
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
