Christ In Postmodern Philosophy

This book offers an investigation into the Christological ideas of three contemporary thinkers: Slavoj Zizek, Gianni Vattimo and Rene Girard.In the wake of Heidegger's announcement of the end of onto-theology and inspired by both Levinas and Derrida, many contemporary continental philosophers of religion search for a post-metaphysical God, a God who is often characterized as tout autre, wholly other.The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek is an exception to this rule.

First, he clearly has another source of inspiration: neither Heidegger, Levinas or Derrida, but Lacan and the great thinkers of German Idealism (Kant, Schelling, and Hegel). Moreover, he does not aim at tracing a post-metaphysical God. His 'turn' to Christianity is the result of his concern to 'save' the achievements of modernity from fundamentalism, post-modern relativism and religious obscurantism.The Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo is an intermediary.

His sources (mainly Nietzsche and Heidegger) seem to indicate that he aligns with those philosophers whose works are inspired by Heidegger, Levinas and Derrida. Indeed, Vattimo is also searching for the God who comes after metaphysics, but he explicitly rejects the wholly-other God. With Zizek, Vattimo shares a Christological interest, an attention for the event of the Incarnation and the conviction that the Incarnation amounts to the end of God's transcendence.

Both thinkers also defend the uniqueness of Christianity vis-a-vis natural religiosity. In this way, they seem to share at least some affinity with the views of the French-American literary critic and fundamental anthropologist Rene Girard, who has also defended the uniqueness of Christianity and claims that the latter broke away from the violent transcendence of the natural religions.The book will investigate the Christological ideas of these three contemporary thinkers, focussing on the topics of the relation between transcendence and the event of the Incarnation on the one hand, and the topic of the uniqueness of Christianity on the other.

Review: Both titles are examples of academically yet clear and readable studies.--Sanford Lakoff