The Economy of the Gift: Paul Ricoeur's Poetic Redescription of Reality

Abstract

This essay takes Paul Ricoeur's use of the phrase of the as an opportunity to explore the relationship between theology, ethics, and poetic redescription. A primay focus is Ricoeur's juxtaposition of the golden mle and the love command, the manner in which these two are poetically related by biblical discourse, and what this means for theological ethics. This focus offers the opportunity to explore some of the more radical implications of Ricoeur's claims about the poetic, redescriptive function of religious discourse, implications that were not adequately addressed by Ricoeur himself. In One of his occasional articles on a topic of theological interest, Paul Ricoeur wrote: It is this commandment [to love one's enemies], not the golden rule, that seems to constitute the expression closest, on the ethical plane, to what I have called the economy of the gift. This expression approximating the economy of the gift can be placed under the title of a logic of superabundance, which is opposed as an opposite pole to the logic of equivalence that governs everyday morality.... Detached from the golden rule, the commandment to love one's enemies is not ethical but supraethical, as is the whole economy of the gift to which it belongs. If it is not to swerve over to the nonmoral, or even the immoral, the commandment to love must reinterpret the golden rule and, in so doing, be itself reinterpreted by this rule.1 In this passage, Ricoeur offers the reader a number of enigmatic expressions, but the most enigmatic of all, and the one about which he is centrally concerned here, is the notion of an 'economy of the gift'.2 What could Ricoeur have meant by economy of the gift? At the level of general reflection, it is at least difficult to think the ideas of 'economy' and 'gift' together. In a passage that has now become iconic, Adam Smith explained economic Literature & Theology © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press 2006; all rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: joumals.permissions@oxfordjoumals.org The Author 2006. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.124 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 05:33:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms