Heidegger’s Hermeneutics of Paul
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Ben Vedder
Abstract
This essay follows Heidegger’s interpretation of Saint Paul. First I present Heidegger’s concern with facticity and the way he sees the need of a philosophy that is connected with and comes forward out of human facticity. This leads to a philosophy that tries to avoid petrified concepts and is a-theistic in principle. Classical philosophy is not able to do justice to human facticity and human historicity. Therefore, the question arises of how a philosophy has to be in order to make human facticity understandable? For Heidegger, the early Christian texts of Saint Paul are an expression of the experience of human facticity. Especially the notion that Christ will come like a thief in the night expresses the unpredictability and the suddenness of the future. This also raises the question of whether an atheistic philosophy can understand religion. For Heidegger, an atheistic philosophy is the only possibility for philosophy, also for a philosophy of religion. The unpredictability of the future is expressed in early Christianity also there where Paul writes about the “as if not.” The “as if not” expresses that humans live not as completely open to the unpredictable future but still have to use concepts that are framed already on forehand. This means that human self-understanding remains always a vulnerable and broken understanding. This applies also to the hermeneutics of religion.
Abstract
This essay follows Heidegger’s interpretation of Saint Paul. First I present Heidegger’s concern with facticity and the way he sees the need of a philosophy that is connected with and comes forward out of human facticity. This leads to a philosophy that tries to avoid petrified concepts and is a-theistic in principle. Classical philosophy is not able to do justice to human facticity and human historicity. Therefore, the question arises of how a philosophy has to be in order to make human facticity understandable? For Heidegger, the early Christian texts of Saint Paul are an expression of the experience of human facticity. Especially the notion that Christ will come like a thief in the night expresses the unpredictability and the suddenness of the future. This also raises the question of whether an atheistic philosophy can understand religion. For Heidegger, an atheistic philosophy is the only possibility for philosophy, also for a philosophy of religion. The unpredictability of the future is expressed in early Christianity also there where Paul writes about the “as if not.” The “as if not” expresses that humans live not as completely open to the unpredictable future but still have to use concepts that are framed already on forehand. This means that human self-understanding remains always a vulnerable and broken understanding. This applies also to the hermeneutics of religion.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Table of Contents VII
- List of Abbreviations 1
- Introduction: On the Philosophical Affiliations of Paul and Πίστις 3
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Part I. Philosophical Portraits of Paul and Πίστις
- Reading, Seeing and the Logic of Abandonment: Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul 21
- The Invention of Christianity: Preambles to a Philosophical Reading of Paul 47
- Heidegger’s Hermeneutics of Paul 67
- The Philosophers’ Paul: A Radically Subversive Thinker 81
- Disillusioning Reason—Rethinking Faith: Paul, Performative Speech Acts and the Political History of the Occident in Agamben and Foucault 95
- On What Remains: Paul’s Proclamation of Contingency 115
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Part II. Paul and Πίστις in the Greco-Roman World
- Paul’s Stoic Onto-Theology and Ethics of Good, Evil and “Indifferents”: A Response to Anti-Metaphysical and Nihilistic Readings of Paul in Modern Philosophy 133
- Narratives of Πίστις in Paul and Deutero-Paul 165
- Returning to “Religious” Πίστις: Platonism and Piety in Plutarch and Neoplatonism 189
- The Metahistory of Δίκη and Πίστις: A Greco-Roman Reading of Paul’s “Justification by Faith” Axiom 209
- Paul’s Use of Πίστις/Πιστεύειν as Epitome of Axial Age Religion 231
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Part III. The Political Theologies of Paul
- The Management of Distinctions: Jacob Taubes on Paul’s Political Theology 251
- Paul as Political Theologian: How the “New Perspective” Is Reshaping Philosophical and Theological Discourse 269
- Church, Commonwealth, and Toleration: John Locke as a Reader of Paul 283
- Europe and Paul of Tarsus: Giorgio Agamben on the Overcoming of Europe’s Crisis 297
- The Invisible Committee as a Pauline Gesture: Anarchic Politics from Tiqqun to Tarnac 309
- Epilogue: Saint Paul and Philosophy—The Consonance of Ancient and Modern Thought 325
- Index of Ancient Sources 351
- Index of Names and Subjects 361
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Table of Contents VII
- List of Abbreviations 1
- Introduction: On the Philosophical Affiliations of Paul and Πίστις 3
-
Part I. Philosophical Portraits of Paul and Πίστις
- Reading, Seeing and the Logic of Abandonment: Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul 21
- The Invention of Christianity: Preambles to a Philosophical Reading of Paul 47
- Heidegger’s Hermeneutics of Paul 67
- The Philosophers’ Paul: A Radically Subversive Thinker 81
- Disillusioning Reason—Rethinking Faith: Paul, Performative Speech Acts and the Political History of the Occident in Agamben and Foucault 95
- On What Remains: Paul’s Proclamation of Contingency 115
-
Part II. Paul and Πίστις in the Greco-Roman World
- Paul’s Stoic Onto-Theology and Ethics of Good, Evil and “Indifferents”: A Response to Anti-Metaphysical and Nihilistic Readings of Paul in Modern Philosophy 133
- Narratives of Πίστις in Paul and Deutero-Paul 165
- Returning to “Religious” Πίστις: Platonism and Piety in Plutarch and Neoplatonism 189
- The Metahistory of Δίκη and Πίστις: A Greco-Roman Reading of Paul’s “Justification by Faith” Axiom 209
- Paul’s Use of Πίστις/Πιστεύειν as Epitome of Axial Age Religion 231
-
Part III. The Political Theologies of Paul
- The Management of Distinctions: Jacob Taubes on Paul’s Political Theology 251
- Paul as Political Theologian: How the “New Perspective” Is Reshaping Philosophical and Theological Discourse 269
- Church, Commonwealth, and Toleration: John Locke as a Reader of Paul 283
- Europe and Paul of Tarsus: Giorgio Agamben on the Overcoming of Europe’s Crisis 297
- The Invisible Committee as a Pauline Gesture: Anarchic Politics from Tiqqun to Tarnac 309
- Epilogue: Saint Paul and Philosophy—The Consonance of Ancient and Modern Thought 325
- Index of Ancient Sources 351
- Index of Names and Subjects 361
