Thinking Faith after Christianity

Martin Koci

Description

Winner of the 2020 Emerging Scholar’s Theological Book Prize presented by the European Society for Catholic Theology

This book examines the work of Czech philosopher Jan Patočka from the largely neglected perspective of religion. Patočka is known primarily for his work in phenomenology and ancient Greek philosophy, and also as a civil rights activist and critic of modernity. In this book, Martin Koci shows Patočka also maintained a persistent and increasing interest in Christianity. Thinking Faith after Christianity examines the theological motifs in Patočka's work and brings his thought into discussion with recent developments in phenomenology, making a case for Patočka as a forerunner to what has become known as the theological turn in continental philosophy. Koci systematically examines his thoughts on the relationship between theology and philosophy, and his perennial struggle with the idea of crisis. For Patočka, modernity, metaphysics, and Christianity were all in different kinds of crises, and Koci demonstrates how his work responded to those crises creatively, providing new insights on theology understood as the task of thinking and living transcendence in a problematic world. It perceives the un-thought element of Christianity—what Patočka identified as its greatest resource and potential—not as a weakness, but as a credible way to ponder Christian faith and the Christian mode of existence after the proclaimed death of God and the end of metaphysics.
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Philosophia ancilla theologiae? Jan Patočka and the Theological Turn

2. Sola ratione? On the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity

3. After Metaphysics? Patočka's Deconstruction of Metaphysics and the Postmodern Overcoming of Ontotheology

4. Faith and/as Metaphysical Thinking: A Theological Reading of Patočka's Negative Platonism

5. Deconstruction or Heresy: Reconsidering the Un-thought of Christianity

6. The Call to Responsibility: Derrida's Reading of Patočka's Christian Thinking

7. Sacrifice for Nothing: The Movement of Kenosis in Patočka's Thought

Conclusion: Thinking Transcendence, Living Transcendence

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Christianity
• Philosophy of religion
• Theology

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438478944
• Langue: English

Extrait

Thinking Faith after Christianity
SUNY series in Theology and Continental Thought

Douglas L. Donkel, editor
Thinking Faith after Christianity
A Theological Reading of Jan Patočka’s Phenomenological Philosophy
Martin Koci
Cover photo: The Wotruba-Kirche in Vienna, Austria. Photograph by the author.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2020 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Koci, Martin, 1987– author.
Title: Thinking faith after Christianity : a theological reading of Jan Patočka’s phenomenological philosophy / Martin Koci.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2020. | Series: SUNY series in theology and continental thought | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019028105 | ISBN 9781438478937 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781438478944 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Patočka, Jan, 1907–1977. | Philosophical theology. | Phenomenological theology. | Philosophy and religion.
Classification: LCC B4805.P384 K63 2020 | DDC 199/.437—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028105
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction Chapter 1 Philosophia ancilla theologiae? Jan Patočka and the Theological Turn Chapter 2 Sola ratione? On the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity Chapter 3 After Metaphysics? Patočka’s Deconstruction of Metaphysics and the Postmodern Overcoming of Ontotheology Chapter 4 Faith and/as Metaphysical Thinking: A Theological Reading of Patočka’s Negative Platonism Chapter 5 Deconstruction or Heresy: Reconsidering the Un-thought of Christianity Chapter 6 The Call to Responsibility: Derrida’s Reading of Patočka’s Christian Thinking Chapter 7 Sacrifice for Nothing: The Movement of Kenosis in Patočka’s Thought
Conclusion Thinking Transcendence, Living Transcendence
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Professor Lieven Boeve and Dr. Joeri Schrijvers from Leuven who supported me in the course of working on this book. I am grateful to my other friends and colleagues from Leuven, especially the members of the research group Theology in a Postmodern Context, for stimulating discussions we had over the years. Thanks must go to Colby Dickinson, who always treated my work with a profound respect, and to Justin Sands, who never hesitated to ask questions out of his genuine interest in the work of others. I am extremely grateful to both of you for academic collegiality and friendship.
I am very indebted to the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna, for granting me a Junior Jan Patočka Fellowship. The six months I spent at the IWM were in many ways decisive for the production of this book. Thanks must go to the academic staff of the IWM, especially to Ludger Hagedorn, the head of the philosophy program and Patočka Archive in Vienna, for his detailed comments on previous versions of this work. However, thanks also belong to the administrative staff of the IWM for their care, which enabled me to focus only on my writing.
Over the years, many people critically assessed the results of my research. Those who deserve to be mentioned are Ivana Noble, Peter DeMey, František Štěch, Virgil Brower, Gábor Ambrus, and Prokop Brož.
I am grateful to Daniel Leufer and Tim Morgan for introducing me to the peculiarities of the English language. Their educated insights made the text of this book much better.
Last but not least, I would love to give special thanks to my wife Katka, who knows what it means to write an academic book. The family life of two scholars is a complicated thing. Experiences of our relatives as well as our own experiences are telling. Katka, thank you for your willingness to live with me the life in problematicity, a truly Patočkian movement, on an everyday basis. And I also have in mind our children, Noemi and Elias, who are the inspiration for thinking more than they realize and who can constructively interrupt the flow of ideas when necessary.
An earlier version of chapter 4 was originally published in the International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 79, nos. 1–2 (2018): 18–35, DOI: 10.1080/21692327.2017.1402692 , and the previous version of chapter 7 appeared in Modern Theology 33, no. 4 (2017): 594–617, DOI: 10.1111/moth.12357 . Last but not least, I am grateful for the generous financial support that made this work possible. This project was conceived within the framework of the project Christianity after Christendom (PRIMUS/HUM/23) and was written and completed with the generous financial support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for the project Revenge of the Sacred: Phenomenology and the Ends of Christianity in Europe (P31919).
Abbreviations
Jan Patočka’s Texts CN Le christianisme et le monde naturel . Translated by E. Abrams. Istina 38 (1993): 16–22. HE Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History . Translated by E. Kohák. La Salle: Open Court, 1996. NP Negative Platonism . In Jan Patočka: Philosophy and Selected Writings . Translated by E. Kohák. 175–207. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. NW The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem . Translated by E. Abrams. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2016. PE Plato and Europe . Translated by P. Lom. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002. SS 1 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 1. Péče o duši, I: Stati z let 1929–1952; Nevydané texty z padesátých let . Edited by I. Chvatík and P. Kouba. Praha: Oikoymenh, 1996. SS 2 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 2. Péče o duši, II: Stati z let 1970–1977; Nevydané texty a přednášky ze sedmdesátých let . Edited by I. Chvatík and P. Kouba. Praha: Oikoymenh, 1999. SS 3 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 3. Péče o duši, III: Kacířské eseje o filosofii dějin; Varianty a přípravné práce z let 1973–1977; Dodatky k Péči o duši I a II . Edited by I. Chvatík and P. Kouba. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2002. SS 4 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 4. Umění a čas, I: Soubor statí, přednášek a poznámek k problémům umění . Edited by D. Vojtěch and I. Chvatík. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2004. SS 6 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 6. Fenomenologické spisy I: Přirozený svět; Texty z let 1931–1949 . Edited by I. Chvatík and J. Frei. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2008. SS 7 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 7. Fenomenologické spisy II: Co je existence; Publikované texty z let 1965–1977 . Edited by P. Kouba and O. Švec. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2009. SS 10 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 10. Komeniologické studie II: Texty publikované v letech 1959–1977 . Edited by V. Schifferová. Praha: Oikoymenh, 1998. SS 12 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 12. Češi I: Soubor textů k českému myšlení a českým dějinám . Edited by K. Palek and I. Chvatík. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2006. SS 13 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 13. Češi II: Soubor textů k českému myšlení a českým dějinám; Nepublikované práce . Edited by K. Palek and I. Chvatík. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2006. SS 20 Sebranné spisy Jana Patočky, vol. 20. Dopisy Václavu Richterovi . Edited by I. Chvatík and J. Michálek. Praha: Oikoymenh, 2001.
Other Texts GD Jacques Derrida. Gift of Death . Translated by D. Wills. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. NYP The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy XIV. Religion, War and the Crisis of Modernity: A Special Issue Dedicated to the Philosophy of Jan Patočka . Edited by L. Hagedorn and J. Dodd. London: Routledge, 2015. PSW Erazim Kohák, Jan Patočka: Philosophy and Selected Writings . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. QCT Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology . In Basic Writings , edited by D. F. Krell, 307–342. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993.
Introduction
Not only to live faith, but also to think it.
—Jan Patočka
In a letter addressed to a theologian of his acquaintance, the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka suggests that faith is more than practice. Faith, which in Patočka’s writings always means Christianity, concerns thinking. What does it mean to associate Christianity with thinking? Does Patočka ever express his personal views concerning belief? Is he accidentally pronouncing a theological idea here? Does the proposition contain a programmatic statement? Is this a provocation indicating that faith does not think (enough)? Or, should we understand it as a challenge to think more about faith, or to think about faith in a different way? This book is launched from the midst of these questions and is to some extent an extended reflection on this single enigmatic utterance. It seeks to explore Christian faith and theology in their proximity to philosophical-phenomenological reflection and its way of thinking. The central thesis is that Patočka’s thought offers a wealth of insights that both challenge and inspire theology in its own task of thinking.
Some readers may be surprised by my choice of principal interlocutor. Patočka is neither a theologian nor a philos