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Copyright of Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Martin Koci es quizás uno de los exponentes más recientes de lo que ha sido denominado el “giro teológico” de la fenomenología contemporánea. Koci presenta una lectura desde una teología que recurre a la fenomenología para intentar dar razón de un Cristianismo posterior a la cristiandad. Aunque la referencia a Kierkegaard sea ineludible, Koci alude, sobre todo, a las implicaciones que supone la vivencia del Cristianismo en una época posmoderna. O, dicho más específicamente: una época post-cristiana. Para llevar a cabo su tarea, el teólogo checo establece un diálogo con uno de sus compatriotas más relevantes del siglo pasado: Jan Patočka. En su texto más reciente, Christianity after Christendom: Heretical Perspectives in Philosophical Theology, Koci amplía su diálogo con Patočka haciendo partícipes en la conversación a una serie de filósofos, conocidos todos por sus posturas heterodoxas o “heréticas” en lo que se refiere al Cristianismo. Entre estos se encuentran Jean-Luc Nancy, Gianni Vattimo, John D. Caputo y Richard Kearney. Junto con cada uno de estos autores, Koci asume el reto de hacer “la pregunta obvia, pero que en gran medida ha sido descuidada: ¿qué viene después del fin del Cristianismo?”.

Born into a pieds-noir family in Algeria in the first part of the 20th century, Pierre Claverie (1938–1996) realizes that he lived in a colonial bubble, completely ignoring the Algerian and Muslim realities. This "prise de conscience" will constitute the beginning of a deep mystical experience, a true process of "spiritual enlightenment" through which Claverie will try to re-establish himself in the lost meeting of his youth when he used to live in his "Western and Catholic bubble". His theological path will also be an institutional one: he will become a Dominican monk and Catholic bishop of Orano. Inevitably, his desire to spiritually encounter the Algerian reality in its Muslim identity will make Pierre Claverie reflect on the tension present in the paradox of the concept of religious truth (absolutely unique and/or multiple?). His reflection on the uniqueness/pluralism of religious truth represents a model of post-conciliar theological understanding that is worth examining and that supports a very current approach in today's religious and social world: understanding/accepting the truth of the other without the impression of betraying one's own truth. This study aims to deepen the mystical theological reflection of Bishop Pierre Claverie, considered a martyr in the Catholic Church, with regards to the concept of religious truth. It also to tries to understand how this reflection fits into the Catholic theological line inaugurated by the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interrogation of the problematic character of established traditions has become an increasingly dominant feature of contemporary political and social discourse. Gadamer's discussion of tradition takes on an often-unacknowledged utility in light of these discussions by both observing the subtle ways in which tradition persists even in times of social change while also placing an emphasis on the volitional (hence, risky and contingent) character of engagements with tradition. Gadamer's approach allows for a fidelity to tradition that nonetheless allows for a critical, emancipatory engagement with it, a precursor to the more explicitly political projects of hermeneutic thinkers such as Luigi Pareyson and Gianni Vattimo. This hermeneutic lineage offers our modern age a chance to embrace a new and more authentic relationship with the traditions in which we always-already find ourselves situated by giving us the opportunity to make those traditions speak to the challenges of our tumultuous present.

This contribution thematizes the Gadamerian legacy in the context of the Italian philosophical debate, attempting to understand whether this debate can contribute to rethink the vitality of the hermeneutic tradition and the future of its possible developments. When, in 1972, Gianni Vattimo, one of the key figures in contemporary Italian thought, published his seminal translation of Truth and Method, Gadamerian themes began to circulate, in Italy, based on a specific interpretation: The Italian hermeneutic debate received the project of Truth and Method as a kind of philosophical defense of the humanistic tradition. As the inventor of the "weak thought," Vattimo defended the idea that the 'weakening' of the project of the world's scientific rationalization could enhance other experiences related to truth, namely humanistic, artistic, literary, and religious ones. Just like then, the triumph of scientific rationality and calculative thinking places contemporary hermeneutics in front of a daunting task. One must ask whether hermeneutics, in order to remain faithful to the Gadamerian project, should remain essentially a project of metatheoretical foundations of textual interpretation, endowed with a historically and linguistically informed approach, or it should rather radically rethink its relationship to the problem of 'method.' To avoid this deflation of the Gadamerian tradition, one possible way forward is to orient hermeneutic research toward a 'hard' and philosophically grounded idea of objectuality/objectivity, but at the same time not methodologically sterile, that is, not flattened on the methods of the 'hard sciences'.

The aim of the text is to consider Gianni Vattimo's claim that hermeneutics needs to be more rational due to its criticised relativism and aestheticism. From this perspective, the author considers the projects proposed by Bartosz Brożek and Chrysostomos Mantzavinos, based on the assumption that the cognitive phenomena underlying the understanding of human behaviour and the resulting artefacts can be described using naturalistic methods. Finally, the question is considered whether these attempts, coming from outside the hermeneutic movement, offer hope for eliminating the flaws of hermeneutics mentioned by Vattimo, and what the prospects are for further research on this issue.

RESUMO Este texto tem como escopo mostrar a plausibilidade da tese de Gianni Vattimo, segundo a qual, a morte ou fim da arte, pensada pelo filósofo italiano como tramonto ou crepúsculo da arte, pode ser uma chance para pensar a estética filosófica na chamada condição pós-moderna. A plausibilidade dessa tese é mostrada por meio de um percurso estético-filosófico a partir das obras estéticas na língua original do autor, nas quais se evidenciam a constante dos conceitos de produção, ontologia, verdade e Verwindung com o intuito de mostrar a vocação ontológica da estética vattimiana. A pergunta que norteia as reflexões estéticas de Vattimo não tem por finalidade responder o que é a arte e, sim, qual o sentido de produzir obras artísticas na época do fim da arte. Lidas nessa perspectiva, as obras estéticas de Vattimo mostram a necessidade de iniciar toda e cada estética filosófica da aceitação do pressuposto da historicidade da arte e da necessária experiência artística porque nela, seguindo a filosofia de Heidegger, acontece a arte como posta em obra da verdade.

Copyright of Er(r)go: Teoria, Literatura, Kultura is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae is the property of Uniwerystet Kardynala Stefana Wyznskiege w Warzawie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Chung-ying Cheng's onto-generative hermeneutical studies of the foundational philosophical texts of China and the Western philosophical traditions expand the horizon of comparative interpretative analyses. The origin of onto-generative hermeneutics is multifaceted, ranging from the Yijing 《易經》 (the Book of Changes) and the Neo-Confucian text of Zhang Zai, Ximing 《西銘》 (the Western Inscription) to the phenomenology of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, and to the hermeneutics of Gadamer. Building on Cheng's examination of the relation between phenomenology, hermeneutics, and the classical texts of Chinese philosophy, the present discussion begins with an exploration of the origin and the continuation of phenomenology and hermeneutics in a comparative frame of reference of Chinese and Greek texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine how Gianni Vattimo, in using the terms “weak thought” aims to promote caritas in intellectual life by converging, however paradoxically, Heideggerian Verwindung and Nietzschean nihilism with Pauline kenosis. In line with René Girard’s postulation that Christianity rejects the sacred, Vattimo classifies the idea of a transcendent divinity as Aristotelian rather than Christian, arguing that the Incarnation, as an expression of caritas and humility, is incompatible with the idea of divine transcendence. Based on this perception, Vattimo argues that Nietzsche’s dictum that “God is dead” carries the same philosophical meaning as the kenotic doctrine of the birth of God as man. Furthermore, Vattimo redefines the Heideggerian Verwindung, a subtle response rigidity in the structures of metaphysics, in terms of kenotic caritas. Vattimo’s hermeneutic work over several decades have enabled this improbable convergence of methodologies and worldviews, upon which he bases his argument that postmodernism, in its weakening of all transcendental axiomatic claims, may be understood to share the “desacralizing thrust of Christianity.”

Este artigo tem como tema a democracia enquanto fundamentalismo, ou o fundamentalismo democrático. Seu objetivo principal é o reconhecimento de que o pensamento sobre a democracia pode ser, ele mesmo, fundamentalista, de modo que não só os fundamentalismos religiosos são uma ameaça à democracia contemporânea. Trata-se de uma interpretação de textos de dois filósofos contemporâneos que não costumam dialogar entre si, o italiano Gianni Vattimo e o francês Jean-Luc Nancy. A tese do ensaio é a afirmação do pensamento democrático enquanto uma forma de fundamentalismo, na medida em que ele cumpre certas condições estabelecidas pelos dois pensadores analisados. Estas condições são, na linguagem dos filósofos citados, o enquadramento da democracia sob o pensamento forte, ou a sua subsunção a um modo metafísico de pensar, de modo que se torna incapaz de autocrítica e de sua necessária reinvenção. Assim, espera-se contribuir para a construção de uma visão autocrítica da democracia mediante o diálogo com aspectos do pensamento pouco conhecidos de importantes filósofos da atualidade e também mediante o diálogo entre filosofia e teologia enquanto modos emancipatórios de saber.

In Italy for the last decade, a very interesting public debate has been conducted about artificial reproduction. An important step in this discussion was the adoption in 2004 of a special law regulating the use of the in vitro method. In 2014 the Constitutional Court cancelled the prohibition, existing in this document, of the methods of heterological artificial reproduction. A very important part of the debate in Italy are different kinds of philosophical arguments. The most interesting or very representative voices in this discussion include statements of Oriana Fallaci, Vittorio Possenti, and Gianni Vattimo.

The purpose of this article is to examine the themes present in Gianni Vattimo's Art's Claim to Truth. I argue that there is a central phenomenon that links his aesthetics to his hermeneutics: the experience of groundlessness. I consider how three aspects color this experience: the artwork's lack of foundations, the ungrounding of our world, and an element of a-rationality/irrationality indicated by the event of art as experience--i.e., as expressed in affectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae is the property of Uniwerystet Kardynala Stefana Wyznskiege w Warzawie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Violence is often considered through its causes or effects, but seldom by its source. As to that, opinion is also divided. Some say that human culture is the source of violence and that love and peace can only come from 'outside'; others claim that precisely this 'outside' is the source of violence and that love can only blossom in a society that cancels all arbitrary reference to any 'outside'. These positions are articulated by, respectively, René Girard and Gianni Vattimo. This article confronts both positions and tries to learn from them, even though no scientific proof can decide between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

W artykule zanalizowana zostaje rozwijana w horyzoncie hermeneutyki Gianniego Vattimo koncepcja doświadczenia estetycznego. Przywołane są poglądy Fryderyka Nietzschego, Martina Heideggera i Waltera Benjamina, z których Vattimo czerpał inspiracje. Rozważania koncentrują się wokół tezy głoszącej, że doświadczenie estetyczne sztuki współczesnej, powodując dezorientację i wyobcowanie, „osłabia” metafizyczny sposób myślenia, a także ugruntowane na nim „realność” i tożsamość odbiorcy. Oddziaływanie sztuki współczesnej okazuje się jednak pozytywne, gdyż daje sposobność do wykształcenia nowego rodzaju wrażliwości, związanej z otwartością na to, co różnorodne, zdarzeniowe, zmienne, inne, fragmentaryczne, kruche, niepełne i przemijające. Doświadczenie estetyczne zostaje ujęte na tle zjawisk charakterystycznych dla późnej nowoczesności. Podjęty zostaje również problem ambiwalentnej roli techniki i mass mediów w procesie „osłabiania” fikcyjnych realności.

W artykule został zaprezentowany projekt słabej pedagogiki religii, inspirowany radykalną hermeneutyką Gianniego Vattimo i kluczową dla niej kategorią kenosis („osłabiania”). Projekt ten zakłada rezygnację z doktryny preambula fidei, z ortodoksji jako mocnej ontologii, narzucającej się w arbitralnych i autorytatywnych sądach oraz apodyktycznych roszczeniach do określania i ustalania obowiązujących uniwersalnie kryteriów epistemologicznych, metafizycznych, antropologicznych czy etycznych. Praxis takiej pedagogiki wiązałoby się z hermeneutycznym w swym charakterze odkrywaniem zbawczego sensu chrześcijańskiego przesłania polegającego na wyzbywaniu się roszczeń do obiektywności oraz na sprowadzaniu kategorii prawdy z zewnątrz (doktryna) do wewnątrz (przeżywanie). Przez bardziej świadomą identyfikację z treścią tradycji, stawianie jej pytań, poszukiwanie i odnajdywanie odpowiedzi wykraczających poza przyjętą ortodoksję i dogmat podmiot odzyskiwać ma autonomię i sprawczość, ma także szansę stawać się dojrzałym i odpowiedzialnym uczestnikiem hermeneutycznej tradycji chrześcijańskiego przekazu. Formuła ta otwiera przed nim przestrzeń specyficznego „mówienia” o doświadczeniu religijnym i jego ekspresji nie tylko w ramach usankcjonowanej dziś tzw. hermeneutyki biblijnej, lecz przede wszystkim na drodze swobodnego eksperymentowania ze słowem, gestem, znakiem i symbolem religijnym, na sposób, w jaki czyni to sztuka, co w silnie zmediatyzowanej (pop)kulturze nie pozostaje bez znaczenia dla recepcji tradycji i identyfikacji z nią.

Artykuł stanowi propozycję wykorzystania interpretacyjnych narzędzi żydowskiego mesjanizmu w celu osłabienia dyskursu umacniających się na Zachodzie narodowych populizmów. Zawiera analizę oryginalnej koncepcji słabego mesjanizmu Waltera Benjamina, jej ponownego odczytania przez Gianniego Vattimo oraz pozornie polemicznej propozycji Harolda Blooma, która słabości Benjaminowskiego mesjasza zdaje się przeciwstawiać siłę mocnego poety. Nacisk położony zostaje na reinterpretacyjne otwarcie zawarte w teoriach Benjamina, Vattimo i Blooma, pozwalające znaleźć odpowiedź na wpisane w narodowy populizm triumf i powrót mitu. Słaby mesjanizm jest przedstawiony jako interpretacyjna forma oporu przed zawłaszczeniem historii i próbą jej domknięcia. W katastrofalnej kondycji współczesności można bowiem upatrywać szansy na otwarcie przed słabą myślą możliwości skutecznego rozmontowania struktur mitu.

Artykuł dotyczy filozoficznej idei „myśli słabej” włoskiego filozofa postmodernistycznego, Gianniego Vattima, która może być traktowana jako sposób hermeneutycznej interpretacji faktów kulturowych, z edukacyjnymi włącznie. Słabą myśl charakteryzuje Vattimo na tle dwóch wielkich nurtów filozoficznych: dialektyki i filozofii różnicy. Jest to taki typ refleksji, który z jednej strony poszukuje dla siebie normatywnych punktów oparcia, z drugiej zaś przyznaje im prowizorycznystatus, pozbawiając się przywileju uniwersalistycznych roszczeń. Wspomniana koncepcja ukazuje związki między etyką i hermeneutyką, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem etyki otwartej kontynuacji. Podkreśla ona również możliwość osłabienia kolonizującej mocy „mocnego” (nowoczesnego i naukowego) dyskursu w pedagogice. Do prawdy (prawdy pozbawionej metafizycznego gruntu) można również dotrzeć na drodze nienaukowej, która sprzeciwia się scjentyzmowi i wiedzie przez interpretację.

En los últimos años, hemos tenido la oportunidad de conocer diversas teorías que, desde diferentes puntos de vista, certifican la «muerte del arte». La pregunta que queremos responder aquí, a partir del estudio de una de ellas, es si dichas teorías implican al mismo tiempo la pérdida de autonomía de la estética. Se trata de una pregunta crucial, pues la cuestión de la soberanía está estrechamente ligada a la disciplina desde su nacimiento, hasta el punto de que es casi imposible desligar su historia de ese relato emancipador.In recent years we have had the opportunity to know different theories that certify the «death of art» from different points of view. The question we would like to answer, paying attention to one of them, is whether these theories imply, at the same time, the loss of aesthetic autonomy. It is a crucial question because the issue of sovereignty is closely tied to the discipline since its birth, to the point that it is almost impossible to isolate the history of Aesthetics from this redemptive narrative.

Paul Ricoeur insists on some kind of philosophical agnosticism although in everyday practice he is consciously bound to Christianity. That said, his poetical approach in Biblical hermeneutics when he confronts his position with his no believing contemporaries, very clearly shows that religious dimension of man, especially in its openness to new meanings, makes the understanding more proli fi c. This opens the way for new attempts of repeated search for human need for religious dimension also at Luc Ferry and Gianni Vattimo. It is not necessary that there is a very certain form of religiosity; the important thing is openness for these questions. In this way we liberate the science, to seriously confront with religious dimension of man. This is especially important in a globalized world where religiosity on one hand can be a cause for the clash of civilizations and on the other it can be a possibility of a common search for a world ethos.

This article examines Gianni Vattimo’s contribution to the recent ontological turn in political theory. Drawing on Nietzsche and Heidegger, Vattimo offers a ‘philosophy of history’ in which strong metaphysical claims are presented as gradually being weakened, but in which the irrationalism he thinks characteristic of many anti-foundationalist theorists is also avoided. This philosophy is said to provide for new understandings of ethical and political life which have the acceptance of pluralism as their aim. The article argues that Vattimo’s attempt to identify a position beyond metaphysics on the one hand and relativism on the other is unsuccessful, and that he ought to join in with the thoroughgoing anti-foundationalism that marks the work of writers such as Rorty and Derrida. It suggests further that awareness of our historical situation need not weaken the confidence with which our beliefs are held, and does not support any particular political programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including theorist Carl Schmitt's political theology in contrast to the ontology proposed by Martin Heidegger, the future of political theology beyond the theology of sovereignty of Schmitt and less than in the concept of Jewish messianism, and the changing structure of international law in relation to Schmitt's concept of nomos.

I propose a reading of Vattimo which focuses attention on and develops his suggestions regarding the Heideggerian meditation on technology in relation to the history of Being. In a number of texts, Vattimo takes up Heideggers analysis of the essence of modern technology as Ge-Stell, paying particular attention to those moments where he suggests that in the enframing we can catch a first glimpse of a turning in Being. In Bestand, beings begin to loose the characteristics of subject and object, preparing for the Kehre to a new epoch in the history of Being. Vattimo contends that this turn is further developed in the new information and communication technologies of which Heidegger was only dimly aware. I argue then that one of Vattimo's key contributions to post-Heideggerian hermeneutic ontology is to suggest that we may locate the turn to a new epoch in the history of Being in information, understood as a newly emergent paradigm for the way in which beings appear. However, in order for this to be further developed, Vattimo's work must be uncoupled from the focus on natural language he inherits from Heidegger and Gadamer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With Gianni Vattimos late collaborative works with Santiago Zabala, Vattimo is proving to be not only a philosopher of emancipatory hermeneutics but also one who is making his own distinct contribution to liberation philosophy. This article critically explores Vattimo's liberationist weak thought in the context of the New Materialisms. Though Vattimo's post-metaphysical hermeneutics lacks the linkage with the natural sciences and eschews the development of a political ontology, which are both characteristic of the New Materialisms, his deliberate reactivation and rehabilitation of Marx by way of Heidegger eventuates in an expressed preferential option for the poor. This animating concern with what Vattimo and Zabala term "the discharge of capitalism" restores the original animating spirit of Marx's dialectical materialism and thus makes the political dimension latent in materialist thought explicit and provides a new species of the New Materialisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vattimo's political liberalism often sits uncomfortably with his non-foundational commitments. The attempt to disentangle postmodern thought from moral relativism is seen as a disingenuous strategy: one either arbitrarily adopts liberal values or does so because it is part of our tradition, thus depending on the very metaphysical foundations which Vattimo denies to other thinkers. One answer may well be to distinguish metaphysics from ontology and show that Vattimo's justification of liberalism arises from an oscillation between Heidegger and Nietzsche. However, the following article maintains that Vattimo's justification is often not properly understood because it is peculiarly Italian, seeking a plural account of truth derived from the human being's peculiar position as the imaginative creature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we will take Italian philosopher, politician and cultural critic Gianni Vattimo's thoughts on truth's violence and weak thought in a general framework. At first we'll introduce the Italian Philosopher in a few words and give some information about his works. Secondly we'll explain his views on truth's violence. According to Vattimo, since Plato, Western thought and thus societies live in this "violence''/metaphysical categories. He argues that this violence stems from [metaphysical] truth claims. In other words, he put forwards that this truth claims are not only intrinsic to religious [truth] claims but also common in modern thought, science and technology. And finally, we'll discuss his concept of "weak thought" (il pensiero debole) as a critical and weakener stance against these truth claims. The weak thought tries to find a way to liberate us from these metaphysical categories and claims. In this direction Vattimo 's intellectual background mainly depends on Nietzschean and Heideggerian literature. Nietzsche and Heidegger always object to these claims and categories in a different ways. Vattimo eclectically uses their thoughts and concepts/phrases (for example Nietszche 's famous phrase "God is dead" and Heidegger's concept of Verwindung (Overcoming)) to weaken these claims. In Vattimo's all works we can see the criticism of metaphysical thoughts because he believes that the end of the truth is beginning the democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gianni Vattimo refers his weak interpretation of metaphysics to its Christian provenance. He argues that his nihilist secularization theory divulges the full and ultimate meaning of Christianity. This model understands Christianity as God who 'returns,' not as an eternal (pre-modern) substance but as one who in his return reveals himself as becoming the current nihilist hermeneutic flux that is reality. Vattimo takes kenosis as the model of the destiny of ontology. God takes a distance from the eternal origin and lets go of his transcendent divinity. From this, Vattimo learns that truth becomes a purely 'wordly' matter without any external, c.q. metaphysical or sacred reference. The Good message is: there are only messages, no facts. God's return has to be understood epistmo-theologically. Revelation is now completely accomplished in a nihilist, endless way: Christianity means keeping thought away from petrifying into truth, fact, and reality. This is pure Christian caritas in that it does away with the violence of metaphysics and the sacred and thereby discourages all human attempts toward violence. Redeeming though this may sound, perhaps Vattimo is too naïve (as Girard claims) and too theologically shallow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

O artigo busca refletir as chances do cristianismo no contexto pós-moderno, cuja característica principal se define como niilismo, traço fundamental das filosofias de Nietzsche e Heidegger. A hipótese apresentada parte do pressuposto de que o abandono da metafísica clássica não representa somente uma ameaça à fé cristã, mas lhe desafia a uma nova configuração. O filósofo Gianni Vattimo aproxima cristianismo e niilismo, apontando para os cristãos um caminho possível, mesmo se os cristãos não acolhem todos os pressupostos de sua filosofia. A fé cristã encontra na sua vertente mística os elementos de que necessita para enfrentar os desafios do niilismo, pois sua dimensão prático-existencial tem mais chances de falar ao homem de hoje do que seu discurso metafísico. Por outro lado, muitos místicos enfrentaram o nada na sua busca de Deus, mostrando que o niilismo não é estranho à experiência de fé. Abstract: The article seeks to reflect on the possibilities of Christianity in the postmodern context, the principal characteristic of which is defined as nihilism, a fundamental trait of the philosophies of Nietzsche and Heidegger. The hypothesis presented starts from the presupposition that the abandonment of classical metaphysics not only presents a threat to Christian faith but also challenges it to form a new configuration. The philosopher Gianni Vattimo compares Christianity to Nihilism, showing to Christians a possible path, even when Christians do not accept all the presuppositions of his philosophy. Christian faith finds in its mystical dimension the elements which it needs to face the challenges of nihilism, because its practical and existential aspect has more possibilities of speaking to the contemporary person than its metaphysical discourse. Many mystics face the “nothing” in their search for God, showing that nihilism is not foreign to the experience of God.

This article takes its point of departure in Phillip Blond's Christian criticism of secular materialisms and the failure of modern thought to appreciate the true materiality of creation. He challenges secular thought and returns to a combination of Greek and Christian Trinitarian thought, in order to reach for a new ground for political theology Blond's Christian ontological claims are contested, but an aspect of them is brought into the context of cultural creation and related to questions of the spiritual dimension of cultural artefacts in a secular setting. Against the background of Friedrich Nietzsche's struggle with the difficulty of singling out a pure secular culture from the old and (in his view) stifling religious heritage in society and culture, this article suggests that a radical notion of human intentional (but finite) creation, analogous to Blond's idea of God's infinite creative intention, may be helpful for a construction of a materialistic critical theory about contingent spiritual obstacles to political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Gianni Vattimo, the renunciation of violence is the starting point for constructing a post foundational politics. So far, criticism of Vattimo's argument has focused on his larger commitment to metaphysical nihilism and whether the renunciation of violence is a thicker principle than his post foundational philosophy can support. I argue that Vattimo's renunciation of violence can also be criticized for two other reasons. First, Vattimo attempts to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable uses of violence through an under developed idea of self-defense. Second, despite his attention to the political and philosophical impact of mass communications technology, Vattimo ignores emerging technological challenges to our understanding of violence. Nonetheless, I argue that Vattimo's renunciation can still serve as a useful starting point for contemporary political thinking. What Vattimo's logic shows is that we can enhance the moral standing of democracy by decisively detaching its practices and institutions from historical artifacts of political violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stephen White and Gianni Vattimo have argued in favor of weak ontological thought. Particularly for White, weak ontology's contestable fundamentals are a superior response to strong ontologies, including the violence linked to them. I make a historically comparative evaluation of their arguments. The evaluation draws on William Davenant's Restoration revision of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Davenant's play defends Charles II's sovereignty against the strong ontological claims of orthodox Anglicans. Lady Macduff's much expanded role and the death she suffers, in contrast to her counterpart in Shakespeare's Folio, are key vehicles for this defense. Davenant's revisions are linked in this interpretation to Charles II's Happy Act of Indemnity and Oblivion of 1660. Also explored are new connections between Macduff and the witches. I argue Davenant exemplifies a contingency unanticipated by weak ontology advocates: he is both antifoundational and in favor of violence. Antifoundational arguments aid more political persuasions than often imagined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]