The Absolute

Abstract

We have used the name of God several times in the last chapter. And although we have, in a phenomenological way, established how that God relates to both the text and humanity, we have said little if anything about what this name signifies. In Levinas’ approach to devising a Jewish ethics around the concept of “espace vitale” the status of God is framed by an intense monotheism. This means that for Levinas God is both the only God and the God that dwells in absolute difference. Out of this monotheistic conception grow the epistemological principles that inform our understanding of God and this conception consequently also is at the basis of Levinas’ Jewish ethics. In what follows I will trace Levinas’ monotheism back to Hermann Cohen and Franz Rosenzweig. I will demonstrate the function that monotheism has in their systems and the return to Levinas to specify his conception of God and ethics.KeywordsMoral ActionEthical ActionNegative JudgmentInfinite SpaceNegative TheologyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.