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Document Details : Title: The return to religion Subtitle: Vattimo's reconciliation of Christian faith and postmodern philosophy Author(s): DE WIT, Theo W.A. Journal: Bijdragen Volume: 61 Issue: 4 Date: 2000 Pages: 390-411 DOI: 10.2143/BIJ.61.4.565623 Abstract : For Gianni Vattimo in his essay Belief (1999), the widespread modern conviction that the (philosophical) longing for lucidity and (Christian) religiosity are irreconcilable has today become questionable. In this article the author first discusses an actual instance of the philosophical yearning for lucidity, namely ‘cognitive melancholy'. This melancholia already appears in the sociologist Max Weber's diagnoses of the ‘disenchantment of the world' and of the separation of faith and kwowledge. The author sharpens somewhat further the dualism to which Weber pointed, and relates it to Vattimo's attempt at softenung this dualism – of even abrogating it altogether by reconciling Christian religion with (post-)modernity. Some critical observations with regard of this attempt evoke the question of whether philosophical lucidity should not be pursued further than Vattimo does. In consequence of this the radical thrust of the Christian religion to which Vattimo claims to be returning can be percieved more clearly. |
