ONTO-THEOLOGY UNVEILED ONTO-THEOLOGY UNVEILED: HEIDEGGER AND MARION ON THE INTERSECTION OF PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY By BRIAN WAYNE ROGERS, B.Ed., B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School ofGraduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment ofthe Requirements for the Degree Master ofArts McMaster University © Copyrighted by Brian Wayne Rogers, 2007 11 MASTER OF ARTS (2007) McMaster University (Philosophy) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Onto-theology Unveiled: Heidegger and Marion on the Intersection of Philosophy and Theology AUTHOR: Brian Wayne Rogers, REd. (Western), RA. (Guelph) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Brigitte Sassen NUMBER OF PAGES: viii, 85 111 Abstract Heidegger defines onto-theology as a calculative form ofthinking that reduces everything to an object or being on the basis ofan absolute grounding term. God is called upon in onto-theology to be this highest term upon whom all other beings taken as a whole are grounded in their universal "Being". Historically, Onto-theology grounds the relationship between philosophy and theology on this system ofuniversal ontology that admits only sameness under the conditions ofcausality and sufficient reason. Heidegger calls for a "step back" from onto-theology into a mode ofphilosophical thinking that allows beings to appear on their own terms and that gives theology a relative degree of autonomy to treat the believer's existential relation to the Other. Jean-Luc Marion, on the other hand, rejects Heidegger's "philosophical" solution to onto-theology in favour ofa radically "theological" one. Marion contends that the ontological concept itselfis the source ofonto-theology and as such, it must be overcome in a mystical relation to the Wholly Other that accomplishes a radical reversal ofphilosophical thinking. Marion bolsters his theological project with a phenomenology of"givenness" that treats the paradox ofthe arrival oftranscendence as philosophy's highest possibility. In this project I trace the contours ofHeidegger's and Marion's respective steps back from onto-theology and argue that Heidegger's earliest accounts of"facticallife" offer fruitful resources to expose a residual onto-theology in Marion's thought. I identify the deepest source ofonto-theology to be any commitment to the absolute autonomy of theoretical thought vis-a.-vis grounding commitments or worldview. Furthermore, I argue that Marion's step back from onto-theology is not only incomplete but perpetuates the philosophical view that ontology is necessarily or structurally violent. I conclude by sketching a program for a Christian philosophy that respects the relative autonomy of philosophy and theology as theoretical disciplines mutually existentially rooted in worldview. This retrieval respects the basic hermeneutical conditions ofphilosophizing even while it opens a space for Christian philosophy to express its own ontological assumptions about the subject's relation to the Wholly Other. IV Acknowledgments I am indebted to a good number ofpeople without whom I would not have been able to complete this project. I would like to extend special thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Brigitte Sassen, and my second reader, Dr. Dana Hollander, for teaching me to write like a scholar. I would also like to thank Dr. James K. A. Smith (Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI) for his continued mentoring and support. His own work has inspired me both as an academic and as a Christian. But above everything else I am grateful that he has called me his friend. I thank my parents, Brad and Deb, for their tireless encouragement and for the genuineness oftheir enthusiasm about what I do, as abstract as it may seem to them at times. Finally, this project would not have been possible without the loving support ofmy wife, Sarah. She is a source ofcontinued wisdom that keeps me grounded in the things that trump the importance even ofphilosophy. v Table ofContents Abbreviations ][ntroduction 1 ][: Unveiling onto-theology: thinking at a crossroads 9 What is metaphysics? Heidegger and Marion on the "step back" 11 An opening: Heidegger's question ofBeing 12 The way out ofonto-theology 16 Phenomenology ofreligion as the hermeneutics offacticity 21 The formal indication as phenomenological method 22 Conclusions: Theo-logy or theo-Iogy? 26 II: Interpretation of donation: a phenomenological critique of Marion 30 Marion's critique ofHeidegger revisited 32 The fact ofthe matter: Marion's reduction to donation 35 A matter offact? In defense ofthe hermeneutics offacticity 41 Destruction ofdonation: A hermeneutical investigation 45 Conclusions: Thinking ontology differently: Interpretations 49 III: Possibilities: toward a hermeneutic Christian philosophy 51 A critique ofMarion's "heuristic" model ofChristian philosophy 54 Christian philosophy beyond scholasticism 59 Conclusions: On the idol and icon as hermeneutic categories 70 Conclusion 74 Bibliography 78 VI Abbreviations Works by Martin Heidegger BPP Die Grundprobleme der Phiinomenologie. Lecture course (1927). Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1975. The Basic Problems ofPhenomenology. Revised Edition. Translated by Albert Hofstadter. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1982. BT Sein und Zeit (1927). Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1977. Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. New York: Harper and Row, 1962. FC Die Grundbegriffder Metaphysik: Welt, Endlichkeit, Einsamkeit. Lecture course (1929/30). Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1983. The Fundamental Concepts ofMetaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude, translated by William McNeill and Nicholas Walker. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995. HT Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Zeitbegrijfs. Lecture course (1925). Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1979.History ofthe Concept ofTime: Prolegomena, translated by, Theodore Kisiel. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985. IM EinjUhrung in die Metaphysik (1935). Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1983. Introduction to Metaphysics, translated by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000. IP EinjUhrung in die phiinomenologische Forschung. Lecture course (1921/22). Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1985. Introduction to Phenomenological Research, translated by Daniel O. Dahlstrom. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2005. LH "Letter on Humanism." In Basic Writings, edited and translated by David Farrell Krell. New York: Harper and Row, 1977. 193-242. MF Metaphysische Anfangsgriinde der Logik im Ausgang von Leibniz. Lecture course (1928). Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1978. The Metaphysical Foundations ofLogic, translated by Michael Heim. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1984. N'N Nietzsche's Word: 'God is Dead.'" In Martin Heidegger: Offthe Beaten Track, edited and translated by Julian Young and Kenneth Haynes. Cambridge: UP, 2002. 157-99. OM "Overcoming Metaphysics." In The End ofPhilosophy, translated by Joan Stambaugh. New York: Harper and Row, 1973. OT "On The Essence ofTruth." In Basic Writings, edited and translated by David Farrell Krell. New York: Harper and Row, 1977. 114-41. OTM "The Onto-Theo-Logical Constitution ofMetaphysics." In Identity and Difference, translated by Joan Stambaugh. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. PA Phiinomenologische Interpretationen zu Aristoteles: EinjUhrung in die Phiinomenologische Forschung. Lecture course (1921/22). Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1985. Phenomenological Interpretations ofAristotle: Initiation into Phenomenological Research, translated by Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2001. Vll PIU.., Phiinomenologie des religiosen Lebens. 1. Einleitung in die Phanomenologie der Religion, 2. Augustinus undder Neuplatonismus, 3. Die philosophischen Grundlagen der mittelalterlichen Mystik, edited by Matthius Jung, Thomas Regehly, and Claudius Strube. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1995. The Phenomenology ofReligious Life, translated by Matthias Fritsch and Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2004. PT "Phanomenologie und Theologie." Lecture (1927). Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1970. "Phenomenology and Theology." In The Piety ofThinking: Essays by Martin Heidegger, translated by James G. Hart and John C. Maraldo. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1976. TB "Time and Being." In On Time andBeing, translated by Joan Stambaugh. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. 1-24. WM "What is Metaphysics?" In Basic Writings, edited and translated by David Farrell Krell. New York: Harper and Row, 1977.95-112.287-317. Works by Jean-Luc Marion BG Etant donne: Essai d'une phenomenologie de la donation. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1997. Being Given: Toward a Phenomenology of Givenness, translated by Jeffrey L. Kosky. Stanford: UP, 2002. CP "'Christian Philosophy': Hermeneutic or Heuristic?" In The Question ofChristian Philosophy Today, edited by Francis J. Ambrosio. New York: Fordham UP, 1999. 247-64. EP Le phenomene erotique: Six meditations. Paris: Bernard Grasset, 2003. The Erotic Phenomenon, translated by Stephen E. Lewis. Chicago / London: University ofChicago Press, 2007. FA "The Final Appeal ofthe Subject." In Deconstructive Subjectivities, edited by Simon Critchley and Peter Dews. Albany: SUNY Press, 1996. 85-104. G'WB Dieu sans l'etre: Hors-Texte. Paris: Librairie Artheme Fayard, 1982. God Without Being, translatd by Thomas A. Carlson. Chicago: UP, 1991. IE De surcroft: Etudes sur les phenomenes satures. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2001. In Excess: Studies ofSaturated Phenomena, translated by Robyn Homer and Vincent Berraud. New York: Fordham UP, 2002. ITN "In The Name: How to Avoid Speaking of 'Negative Theology'." In God, the Gift, andPostmodernism, edited by John D. Caputo