'Being Towards Death': Heidegger and the Orthodox Theology of the East

by Sylvie Avakian

Overview

Das Werk stellt den philosophischen Beitrag Martin Heideggers im Zusammenhang mit dem theologischen Beitrag des Ostens, besonders dem Nikolai Berdyaevs, dar. Damit bringt es die westliche Welt mit der östlichen, die Philosophie mit der Theologie ins Gespräch und ist ein Versuch der christlichen Theologie eine existentielle Sprache zu bieten, die für die Gegenwart von Bedeutung ist. Des Weiteren ist das „Sein zum Tode“ mit dem Sein zu den Anderen bzw. zu Gott vergleichbar, durch welche das Sein-zum-wahren-freien-Selbst zu erreichen ist. In diesem Sinne zielt das Werk darauf ab, das „Sein zum Tode“ durch die Sprache zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Damit ist das Werk auch ein Übergang von allgemein akzeptierten Formulierungen und überkommenen Weisen Theologie zu treiben hin zur philosophischen Reflexion über den Glauben. An vielen Stellen ruft es aber auch jene tiefgründigen Beiträge des menschlichen Denkens aus der Vergangenheit ab, die hauptsächlich von den anthropologischen Aspekten der Theologie ausgehen. Denn auch wenn die göttliche Gabe jeglicher menschlichen Erwiderung vorausgeht sind alle Ausdrücke dieser Gabe und der Erwiderungen darauf menschliche Ausdrücke, die aus Menschen entstehen und für Menschen formuliert sind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110707663
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	04/19/2021
Series:	Theologische Bibliothek Töpelmann , #191
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	345
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sylvie Avakian, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.
Sylvie Avakian, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations xiii

Introduction 1

1 Openness to the Mystery 34

1.1 The Mystery and its Givenness 34

1.1.1 Being-or God-as Mystery and the Human Being as the 'Shepherd' of Mystery 34

1.1.2 Αληθεια as the Mystery 43

1.1.3 Inwardness and Introspection as Openness and Astonishment 52

1.2 God as 'Nothing' and 'Everything' 58

1.2.1 The Mystery of 'Self-Concealing Sheltering' 58

1.2.2 Nothingness: The True Aspect of Being 62

1.2.3 The Mystical Union: The Human and the Divine 68

1.3 The Mystery and the Necessity of a Leap 71

1.3.1 Beings as Carrying Within Themselves their Own Grounds 71

1.3.2 The Need for a New Beginning 75

1.3.3 The Leap 78

2 The Human Reality-Its Worldliness and Transcendence 82

2.1 The Worldly Human Reality as the Starting Point for Theology 82

2.1.1 Science 88

2.1.2 Technology 98

2.1.3 Art 106

2.2 Transcendence as the Move Inward 111

2.2.1 Meditative Thinking vs. Calculative Thinking 111

2.2.2 Being in the World and Transcendence as 'Radical Individuation' 120

2.2.3 Freedom as Transcendence 130

2.3 Language: The 'House of Being' 135

2.3.1 Pure Thinking as Revealing 135

2.3.2 Language as Gathering All into a Unity of their Belonging Together 138

2.3.3 Poetry: The Utterance of Truth or Being 142

3 The Human Spirit and the Divine 147

3.1 Freedom of Spirit and the Human Spirit 147

3.1.1 The Human Being as Spirit 153

3.1.2 God as Spirit 162

3.1.3 The Symbolic Nature of Things 168

3.2 Spirit as Corresponding to Being 171

3.2.1 Being as Spirit 171

3.2.2 'Being-With-Other' 181

3.2.3 The Human Spirit and Fallenness 184

3.3 Spirit and Human Consciousness as Care and Resoluteness 190

3.3.1 Care as an Essential Trait of Human Reality 190

3.3.2 The Call of Conscience 194

3.3.3 Resoluteness as Enlightenment and 'Being-One's-Self 199

4 Christianity as Authenticity 203

4.1 Authentic Being as Homecoming 203

4.1.1 'Being towards Death' as 'Homecoming' or Approaching the Mystery 207

4.1.2 Releasement: 'Coming-into-the-Nearness of Distance 209

4.1.3 Letting Be: The Meaning of Creation and Incarnation 218

4.2 Being through No-thing or Life through Death 223

4.2.1 Grief or Pain as the Essential Experience of Being 223

4.2.2 Death as a 'Way to Be' 229

4.2.3 Being for and through the Other 236

4.3 'Being towards Death' as the Meaning of Death and Resurrection 239

4.3.1 'Being towards Death 239

4.3.2 The Meaning of Death and Resurrection 245

4.3.3 Jesus Christ, the Human and the Divine 248

5 Temporality and Eternity 253

5.1 Movement and Repetition 256

5.1.1 Movement 256

5.1.2 The Two Aspects of Movement 265

5.1.3 Repetition as the Retrieval of the Truth of Being 267

5.2 Temporality, Eternity and the Leap Forward 272

5.2.1 Temporality and Care 272

5.2.2 Temporality, Finitude and Eternity as the Means for the Experience of Being 276

5.2.3 Being on the Way and the 'Anticipatory Leap Forward' 281

5.3 Toward Universal Liberation 284

5.3.1 Identity, Difference and Appropriation 284

5.3.2 The Consummation of the Steadfastness of the Human Being and of Everything 290

5.3.3 Approaching the End and the New Beginning 294

Conclusion 301

Bibliography 308

Early Greek Writings (Including the Greek Patristic Works) 308

Works by Heidegger 310

Heidegger's Gesamtausgabe 312

Additional Materials 313

Articles 313

Works by Berdyaev 313

Articles 315

Other Works 315

Subject Index 325

Author Index 330