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Truth in an Interpretative Age

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‘To catch a voice from an unknown source’ Truth in an interpretative age Thesis Research Master Theology School of Humanities/School of Catholic Theology Tilburg University Supervisors Prof. Dr. E. P. N. M. Borgman Dr. P. A. Bax Tilburg, 30 January 2012 Eveline van der Ham 552708 Preface During my studies in theology and culture. I decided to devote my bachelor’s thesis to that topic and to investigate what could be said about the meaning of a text objectively. I discerned levels of objectivity and subjectivity in interpretations and learned that what might be regarded as the deepest meaning of a text cannot be pinned down objectively. As a theologian, I had difficulties accepting that, as I wasn’t sure what it meant for our notions of revelation and truth. When I started exploring possible topics for my master’s thesis, I kept coming back to this matter and I decided that there was no other way to finish my academic ‘career’ but addressing this topic once again. And so I went on an adventure, not sure of where to go and what to expect. Writing this thesis has been the most difficult and frustrating exercise I have done during my studies, but I suppose it was done the way it had to be done. It has been a long and uncertain quest and it was only during the final weeks that I began to understand what I was trying to say. The results may cause more questions than answers, but at least I feel they give a direction. I wish to express my gratitude to my patient and wise mentors: professor Erik Borgman – who guided me by always leaving me confused and at best suspecting that the answer to my questions wasn’t anywhere near – and Sander Bax, who, supervising the abovementioned bachelor’s thesis, challenged me to confront my deepest convictions. Without their exceptional support, I would not have dared to go my own way (twice!), and without their valuable and constructive feedback, I would have got lost on that way. I also wish to thank my parents, who have always confidently encouraged me to do what I thought I had to do, and who somehow truly understood my personal struggles with the topics addressed in the thesis. Finally, I would like to thank my dearest friend AJ Boyd for his excellent English editing. 1 Contents Introduction 4 Part I 1. Martin Heidegger 6 §1.1 Short biography and general overview 6 §1.2 Key concepts 7 §1.3 Heidegger and metaphysics 8 §1.4 Heidegger on God 11 §1.5 Heidegger and Christianity 13 §1.6 Heidegger on religious life 15 §1.7 Heidegger’s reception 18 2. Karl Rahner S.J. 21 §2.1 Rahner’s anthropocentric theology 21 §2.2 Nature, grace and revelation 26 §2.3 Rahner’s matters for consideration 29 3. Gianni Vattimo 31 §3.1 Vattimo and Heidegger 31 §3.2 Nihilism and weak thought 33 §3.3 Conversion 35 §3.4 Truth and interpretations 37 §3.5 The event 38 §3.6 The historicity of the kenosis 39 §3.7 Evaluation of Vattimo’s thought, Heidegger revisited 41 2 Part II 4. Artistic Representation 43 §4.1 Heidegger: The origin of the work of art 43 §4.2 Vattimo on art 46 §4.3 Sacramental function of art 48 §4.4 Art, literature 49 §4.5 Why Calvino? 51 Part III 5. Italo Calvino 52 §5.1 Biography, oeuvre and themes 52 §5.2 If on a winter’s night a traveler: Plot 54 §5.3 IWNT: a closer examination 56 §5.4 Invisible Cities: Plot 59 §5.5 IC: a closer examination 60 §5.6 Interpretation: Theological perspectives in IWNT and IC 62 Conclusion 65 List of Sources 68 3 Introduction ‘We live in a world without a center, a Babel-like plurality, with an irreducible number of differing Weltanschauungen. This kind of pluralism necessarily ‘weakens’ and ‘lightens’ our understanding of Being, truth and reality.’1 The sense of nihilism this causes in our postmodern era impresses the idea upon us that we cannot know anything about God and true revelation, and it considers all conceptions as equally valid, as it appears that no objective, absolute truth can be found. It is often said that, because of modernity’s rationalism and postmodernity’s pluralism, the role of Christianity, and of all religion, is played out and that secularism will sweep the world. Indeed, religion may have left the place assigned to it by modernists (namely as offering explanations and absolute truths), but that does not mean that it has nothing to say anymore. This thesis seeks to illuminate and to react to the questions springing from the issues of truth and nihilism. What is the meaning of truth in an interpretative age? Can we know true revelation? How? How to understand divine revelation in the Christian tradition? How to think of the divine in this modern interpretative era? I want to investigate how truth and revelation can be understood and how our interpretative age has something to say about the divine, or rather: how it lets the divine speak. I will make use of the theories of Heidegger (as he thinks in an a Christian way of the unification of nature and supernature and the presence and nearness of truth), of Karl Rahner and his theological response to those matters (influenced by Heidegger concerning his thinking of the openness of man to Being) and of Gianni Vattimo (who recognizes the problems of our interpretative age, but at the same time considers them to be an answer). Each of these philosopher-theologians may contribute to a better understanding of what truth is and does in a multiform reality and to an understanding of divine revelation. In line with Heidegger we will argue that religion cannot be dealt with objectively from the outside, as religion is not abstract, but has to do with concrete experiences, with “factic life experience” (a Heideggerian term, referring to actual and factual human experiences).2 Vattimo, too, argues that we have to work phenomenologically, ‘being inside a situation, facing it as someone who has a history, as someone who belongs to a community’.3 For that reason, the outcomes of the first part of this thesis will be illustrated in a case study, indicating what an analysis from factic life- experience (and not so much from an external, ‘objective’ angle) might contribute to theology; I will 1 T. Guarino, Vattimo and Theology. London/New York: T&T Clark, 2009, p. 26. 2 F. Vattimo, G. Groot (ed.) Een zwak geloof. Christendom voorbij de metafysica. Kampen: Agora, 2000, p. 33. 3 J. Caputo & G. Vattimo (ed. J. Robbins) After the Death of God. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, p. 29. 4 discuss literary artworks by the Italian writer Italo Calvino, as artistic expressions reflect the ideas of their time and react to them. The overall structure of the thesis takes the form of five chapters, the first three of which are concerned with the theoretical part. They present the philosophical and theological contributions of Heidegger, Rahner and Vattimo. The fourth chapter connects the theoretical and the practical part and offers an apologetic, a defense, for the final chapter. In the fourth chapter I will describe and illustrate the transition from normative to descriptive research and the alteration of tone that implies. The final chapter presents the case study that draws upon and illustrates the theories presented in the previous chapters. The conclusion, finally, gives a summary of the findings. 5 Martin Heidegger Science is not an original happening of truth but always the cultivation of a domain of truth that has already been opened. It does this through the apprehension and confirmation of that which shows itself to be possible and necessarily correct within this sphere. If, and to the extent that, a science transcends correctness and arrives at a truth – i.e. an essential disclosure of beings as such – it is philosophy.4 This quote, taken from Heidegger’s lectures on art, proposes a remarkable method for scientists that are after the truth, namely to transcend correctness and realize the disclosure of beings, which makes us see truth. Heidegger encourages to be open to the event of “un-hiddenness” (Unverborgenheit) as in this event of un-hiddenness truth is disclosed – or in theological terms; truth is revealed. This unorthodox philosophy offers a way of thinking that is radically different from metaphysics, which regards truth rather as something thoroughly static. In Heidegger’s thinking, truth can never be established plainly, for it is always an event. According to Heidegger, this very event and its meaning are the ultimate things that philosophy has to question. Heidegger’s philosophy carries a theological appeal; though rejecting metaphysics, Heidegger does not discard themes like truth, transcendence, God and revelation. Rather, he understands them in a whole new way – a way that might enable theology to re-think some of its core concepts. A lot has been written about Heidegger’s relation to theology. It is my intention to find out what Heidegger can contribute to an understanding of what theologizing is, should be and should do, and to explain how he might contribute to a new perspective on theology. §1.1 Short biography and general overview Martin Heidegger was born in 1889 in Germany into a Catholic family. After having studied theology and philosophy, he became a professor in Marburg at age 34. His main work Sein und Zeit was published in 1927. A year later, he succeeded Edmund Husserl as professor of philosophy at Freiburg University and in 1933 he became rector of that university.
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