This paper was originally presented at a colloquium on Michel Henry’s book Incarnation at the Institut Catholique Paris. Michel Henry’s response to the present study can be found in “À Emmanuel Falque,” in Ph énoménologie et christianisme chez Michel Henry, ed. Ph. Capelle : 168-182. This response was reprinted recently in Michel Henry, La Ph énoménologie de la vie, vol. 5.

Everything is phenomenon, everything is gift, or everything is given. This presupposition of phenomenology, which makes giveness the starting point for phenomenality, is not altogether self-evident. It is not sufficient to look merely at the reverse of the gift, but it is a matter of questioning the impossibility of even giving. Questioning the strategies of the contemporary reappropriations of Kant—radicalization, disproportion, and inversion —this text works under a fourth possibility, seldom examined and yet still envisaged by Kant: the “Extra-Phenomenal”, or (...) in other words, the “Chaos”, the “pell-mell”, the “Cinnabar”, or the “melee of sensations”. (shrink)

This book starts off from a philosophical premise: nobody can be in the world unless they are born into the world.

“The final task of phenomenology as a philosophy of consciousness,” Merleau-Ponty wrote, “is to understand its relationship with non-phenomenology. That which resists phenomenology in us – natural being, the ‘barbaric principle’ of which Schelling spoke – cannot remain extra-phenomenal and must have its place within it.” The barbaric principle, and the there is – such is the confrontation that must be attempted here. Far from remaining simply pre-reflexive or presupposing the signified, the Nietzschean ‘abyss’, even more radical than the Schellingian (...) ‘groundless ground’, is an invitation for us today to probe what could also stand ‘outside the phenomenon’. (shrink)

As Hans Urs von Balthasar has put it, 1 This remark is the inspiration for the following rereading of Bonaventure’s inaugural lecture. Not only does the Commentary succeed to a remarkable degree in unifying scholasticism and mysticism, but it also contains the seeds of a descriptive theological method that is original in ways that parallel contemporary phenomenological thought, despite the risk of anachronism inherent in such a claim.

The “phenomenological practice of medieval philosophy” actualizes its relevance. This method, undertaken substantially in the author’s God, the Flesh, and the Other: From Irenaeus to Duns Scotus finds its full justification here. The fruitfulness of a method is not found in its theorization, but in its practical application. An examination of authors as diverse as St. Augustine, John Scotus Eriugena, and Meister Eckhart, Sts. Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Bonaventure, and Origen, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus, actualizes the relevance of medieval philosophy—an (...) actualization of relevance understood in the first place as the realization of these thinkers’ “potentialities”. (shrink)

It might be surprising to find in a journal of contemporary philosophy a text that is mostly about Hugh of St. Victor. The hermeneutic question, however, did not begin only yesterday. While this question has its actual sources in Origen and Saint Augustine, it is in the Didascalicon or The Art of Reading by Hugh of St. Victor that it first finds its clearest formulation and its most methodical development. This “hidden source of hermeneutics” allows for a questioning of the (...) foundations of the hermeneutics of the text from its outset, and also for a return of hermeneutics, or better to turn it, to its primordial origin: a hermeneutics of the “world” or of “creation” [ liber mundi ], rather than of the “text” and of “Scripture” [ liber Scripturae ]. A “Catholic” hermeneutics of “the body and the voice” should, in my opinion, take the place of the “Protestant” hermeneutics of “the meaning of the text” and the “Jewish” hermeneutics of the “body of the letter”. This thesis, which is stated and developed in my book Crossing the Rubicon, has its roots and justification in this historical essay on Hugh of St. Victor. (shrink)

There is an actuality of medieval philosophy. The “phenomenological practice of medieval philosophy” put into practice by the author in his work “God, the flesh and the other” finds its full justification here. One does not demonstrate the fertility of a method by his theory, but by its application in practice. The crossing of authors as diverse as St. Augustine, John Scotus Erigena and Master Eckhart, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Bonaventura, and Origen, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scot, deploys for today the (...) actuality of medieval philosophy – not first understood as “up-to-date” but as implementation of their “potentialities”. (shrink)

“A Tempest in a Skull”. The expression comes from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, but it says just as much about Freud's life as it does about ours. No one is probably more 'disturbed', or descends to the depths of chaos, than when he or she takes on the trappings of a 'tidy' being, or is caught up in a cosmetic life apparently made of order and beauty. Of course, “everything is fine” does not always hide “everything is bad”. But we (...) must also recognize that there is often a 'tempest' in a skull, and that it is precisely at this moment that everything changes, and everything is modified within us. Based on this phenomenon, the leitmotiv "so much exception, so much modification" thus becomes the new imperative of phenomenology - not out of attachment to the tragic or the pathetic, but on the contrary to reach that part of us which is inexpressible and which is the strongest part of our existentiality. Garcia Lorca's Duende, as the “spirit of aching Spain”, will express in its own way this force “that burns the blood”, the only one capable of touching our own depths, magnified and exorcised by the rhythm of Andalusian singers. (shrink)

“A Tempest in a Skull”. The expression comes from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, but it says just as much about Freud's life as it does about ours. No one is probably more 'disturbed', or descends to the depths of chaos, than when he or she takes on the trappings of a 'tidy' being, or is caught up in a cosmetic life apparently made of order and beauty. Of course, “everything is fine” does not always hide “everything is bad”. But we (...) must also recognize that there is often a 'tempest' in a skull, and that it is precisely at this moment that everything changes, and everything is modified within us. Based on this phenomenon, the leitmotiv "so much exception, so much modification" thus becomes the new imperative of phenomenology - not out of attachment to the tragic or the pathetic, but on the contrary to reach that part of us which is inexpressible and which is the strongest part of our existentiality. Garcia Lorca's Duende, as the “spirit of aching Spain”, will express in its own way this force “that burns the blood”, the only one capable of touching our own depths, magnified and exorcised by the rhythm of Andalusian singers. (shrink)

Originally published: Brussels: Editions Lessius, 2013.

In this article E. Falque offers an original reading of the Augustinian epithet “I am a weight to myself”. The question for Falque is not to determine whether Augustine belongs to the history of metaphysics, but to determine what Augustine’s “weight of life” does to phenomenology in the backlash, or the after theafter, of metaphysics. Specifically, foliowing M. Heidegger, Falque finds the “weight of life” particularly relevant to frame the post-metaphysical experience of memory and the question of pain. Overall, the (...) infamous Augustinian “restless heart” finquietum, conf. 1.1) ineludes, through the “weight of life”, an unquenchable dynamic which is the divine action in human beings. The “weight of life” is such in the finitude of human existence that there always remains restlessness in rest. Thus, Falque recovers the restlessness of rest through an analysis of the backlash of the “weight of life” in the after the after of metaphysics. (shrink)

Spontaneous creations often exist in nature but rarely in philosophy. Yet, theemergence of the International Network of Philosophy of Religion was such an instance. France and the United States have long been linked, not just in friendship, but in thought. Paul Ricoeur, Jacques Derrida, and, more recently, Jean-Luc Marion have been among some of the French pioneers bridging this divide. More than a matter of an affiliation to a particular school of thought, a true“bridge of friendship” has been constructed across (...) the ocean, as if these waters were not enough to separate us. (shrink)

Se interroga el fundamento de la hermenéutica del texto y lo que significa retomarla a la letra en filosofía y en teología. Una hermenéutica es fundamental si se afinca en un modo de existencia adecuado a su propósito, de modo que se diferencie mejor y sea identificada claramente. La hermenéutica protestante del sentido del texto y la hermenéutica judía del cuerpo de la letra serán sustituidas aquí por una hermenéutica católica del texto del cuerpo, en una tentativa al menos programática.

Fons signatus: the sealed source -- Part One. God: chapter 1. Metaphysics and theology in tension ; chapter 2. God phenomenon ; chapter 3. Reduction and conversion -- Part Two. The Flesh: chapter 4. The visibility of the flesh ; chapter 5. The solidity of the flesh ; chapter 6.- The conversion of the flesh -- Part Three. The Other: chapter 7. Community and intersubjectivity ; chapter 8. Angelic alterity ; chapter 9. The singular other -- By way of conclusion: (...) toward an act of return. (shrink)

Un essai sur les moments de crise que chacun peut rencontrer dans sa vie. Se fondant sur les leçons de la phénoménologie, l'auteur propose de penser la crise hors catégorie, pour réussir à affronter les moments de difficulté en les intégrant dans une autre perspective, celle d'un chemin de vie, chaque étape participant à la transformation de l'être.

Un - combat amoureux - (Heidegger) ou une - lutte entre les penseurs - (Husserl) determine le destin de l'histoire de la philosophie. Au coeur du debat avec la phenomenologie francaise, cet ouvrage engage une veritable disputatio philosophique ancree sur ledit -tournant theologique de la phenomenologie francaise-. Assure que l'heure n'est plus au simple choc frontal, mais a un veritable dialogue et confrontation entre les disciplines, ce livre tente de montrer en quoi une -phenomenologie de la limite- peut aussi servir (...) de contrepoint a la -phenomenologie de la revelation-, et la tourner davantage vers une pensee de l'-i ncarnation- ou de l'-e xperience-. Jacques Derrida, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Marion, Michel Henry, Jean-Louis Chretien, Jean-Yves Lacoste, Claude Romano et Jean Greisch, marquent les differents etapes de cette -traversee- point par point articulee, et en quete d'un respondeo a meme d'autrement decider.". (shrink)

«Au moment de monter sur ce théâtre du monde [...], j'avance masqué». Cette déclaration de Descartes dans le Préambule des Cogitationes Privatae n'est pas que l'aveu d'un jeune philosophe à l'aube du XVIIe siècle, mais marque une stratégie maintenant séculaire selon laquelle philosophie et théologie devraient être séparées tant dans leurs disciplines que dans leur corpus. Jean-Luc Marion, témoin exemplaire de cette dichotomie, use ainsi de la démarche dionysienne de l'homme caché devant Dieu comme justification théologique de l'avance masquée du (...) philosophe . Le gain unilatéral pour la philosophie est cependant une perte pour la théologie. À partir de la double hypothèse bonaventurienne du «Dieu proche» et de la «monadologie trinitaire», cet article trace une autre voie pour notre aujourd'hui - non pas contraire à la précédente, mais la poussant en quelque sorte «à son terme», ne craignant pas cette fois de revendiquer la fécondité explicite de la phénoménologie pour la théologie elle-même: non larvatus sed détecta fonte prodeo - j'avance non pas voilé mais à visage découvert. (shrink)

La philosophie, et en particulier la phénoménologie, se trouve aujourd'hui en France dans une situation pour le moins paradoxale dans son vis-à-vis avec la théologie. Alors que les uns e - accusent les phénoménologues d'un prétendu tournant théologique et que les autres s'en défendent comme si toute théologisation devait entacher leur intégrité, nul ne tente délibérément la traversée en prenant en charge les deux disciplines comme telles. En osant " passer le Rubicon " avec cette conviction que " plus on (...) théologise, mieux on philosophe ", cet ouvrage tente donc de mettre fin à la trop fréquente position de " chiens de faïence " et propose un " choc en retour " de la théologie sur la phénoménologie. Loin des philosophies du " seuil " ou du " saut ", une véritable rencontre des disciplines est ici revendiquée, dans l'assurance qu'elles seront mieux distinguées si elles acceptent d'être davantage assumées. Alea jacta est : " le sort en est jeté ", avec audace et peut-être témérité mais en sachant que nul ne pense s'il ne vient à s'exposer. (shrink)

En s'appuyant sur le prologue et la première partie du ¤¤Breviloquium¤¤ de Bonaventure, l'auteur étudie la question de l'entrée de Dieu en philosophie comme en théologie, autrement dit son mode de manifestation à l'homme.

This book provides a critical introduction to twentieth-century French phenomenology and philosophy of religion. Emmanuel Falque, the most important voice in contemporary French philosophy of religion, offers a novel and creative philosophy of the body at the intersection of philosophy and theology.

Emmanuel Falque’s The Wedding Feast of the Lamb represents a turning point in his thought. Here, Falque links philosophy and theology in an original fashion that allows us to see the full effect of theology’s “backlash” against philosophy. By attending closely to the incarnation and the eucharist, Falque develops a new concept of the body and of love: By avoiding the common mistake of “angelism”—consciousness without body—Falque considers the depths to which our humanity reflects animality, or body without consciousness. He (...) shows the continued relevance of the question “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”, especially to philosophy. We need to question the meaning of “this is my body” in “a way that responds to the needs of our time”. Because of the ways that “Hoc est corpus meum” has shaped our culture and our modernity, this is a problem both for religious belief and for culture. (shrink)

The texts in this book offer new observations on incarnation in light of the developments of the past twenty years in both philosophy and theology, as well as current debates in anthropology and ethics.

The question of the body spans across the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, from Noli me tangere, to Corpus and Jacques Derrida’s dialogue with Nancy in On Touching. In constant conversation with Christianit...

Everyone can agree that the mystery of the Incarnation is difficult to believe and to understand, and yet it is precisely what Christians do not cease to profess. The most innocent questions concerning the “carnal consistency” of the Resurrected One today are omitted for want of a suitable and contemporary anthropology for us to ask them. But that a body made of “flesh and bones” can indeed now claim to appear and reappear in what we ordinarily call a horizon of (...) reality or objectivity goes against our faculties of thought and even imagination. Philosophy must aim to render comprehensible this mystery of a God made body. (shrink)

The question of the body spans across the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, from Noli me tangere, to Corpus and Jacques Derrida’s dialogue with Nancy in On Touching. In constant conversation with Christianity, corporeality in Nancy can be summarised using the figure of the “exposed body ”: a demonstration of the surface of the skin and an exposition of the self to the other in the sense of a “staging”. In my work, the concept of the “spread body,” situated between Descartes’ (...) “extended body” and Husserl’s “lived body,” is also one of a confrontation with the “This is my body” of Christianity. In confronting one with the other, it is a matter of seeing how my expansion of the body, says something different than, or articulates differently, Jean-Luc Nancy’s exposition of the body, this time drawn from the biological side though nevertheless without ceasing to be intentional. It is certainly a matter of philosophy, but also of ethics, in the possibility of describing such a body, especially in the suffering situation of palliative care. (shrink)

RESUMEN Se interroga el fundamento de la hermenéutica del texto y lo que significa retomarla a la letra en filosofía y en teología. Una hermenéutica es fundamental si se afinca en un modo de existencia adecuado a su propósito, de modo que se diferencie mejor y sea identificada claramente. La hermenéutica protestante del sentido del texto y la hermenéutica judía del cuerpo de la letra serán sustituidas aquí por una hermenéutica católica del texto del cuerpo, en una tentativa al menos (...) programática. ABSTRACT The article inquires into the basis of textual hermeneutics and what it means to apply it literally in philosophy and theology. Hermeneutics is fundamental if it is grounded in a mode of existence that is adequate to its purpose, so that it is better differentiated and clearly identified. The Protestant hermeneutics of the meaning of the text and the Jewish hermeneutics of the body of the letter are here replaced by a Catholic hermeneutics of the text of the body, in an attempt that is at least programmatic. (shrink)

There is the death of God, but comes also the death of man. Both are fundamentally linked, at least in Nietzsche’s thought. Christianity will also have to find its place there. Not in order to deplore the radicalism of contemporary nihilism, but to understand it from the inside and also to ensure its succession. Etsi homo non daretur — what if man (and not only God) were not given? With this questioning must arise a God of strength and resurrection, a (...) sort of “over-God” capable of rivaling Nietzsche’s superman. To think through “the main thread of the body” is not only to reverse the relationship between the soul and the body, but to consider incarnation in a different way, also with all that there is in us of passions and impulses. The “Self” (das Selbst) then takes precedence over the “It” (das Es), because it is not enough for the ego to stand like “a rider” on his horse (Freud) ; it is also necessary to recognize to any plural subject the power to be for itself and in itself “like on the back of a tiger” (Nietzsche). It is at this price, and at this price alone, that our humanity will be fully assumed so that it can create again. (shrink)

Emmanuel Falque Il y a la mort de Dieu, mais vient aussi la mort de l’homme. L’une et l’autre sont foncièrement liées, au moins chez Nietzsche. Le christianisme devra lui aussi y trouver sa place. Non pas pour déplorer la radicalité du nihilisme contemporain, mais pour le comprendre de l’intérieur et en assurer aussi la relève. Etsi homo non daretur — et si l’homme n’était pas donné? Avec cette interrogation doit surgir un Dieu de la force et de la résurrection, (...) sorte de « sur-Dieu » capable de rivaliser avec le surhomme de Nietzsche. Penser « au fil conducteur du corps » n’est pas seulement renverser le rapport de l’âme et du corps, mais autrement envisager l’incarnation, aussi avec tout ce qu’il y a en nous de passions et de pulsions. Le « Soi » prend alors le pas sur le « Ça », car il ne suffit pas au moi de se tenir comme « un cavalier » sur son cheval, encore faut-il reconnaître à tout sujet pluriel d’être pour lui-même et en lui-même « comme sur le dos d’un tigre ». C’est à ce prix, et à ce prix seulement, que notre humanité sera pleinement assumée pour nouvellement créer. (shrink)

What does God do with the “holes” or “troumatisms” that comprise the limits of our existence, that “original solitude” whereby we are confronted with the impending annihilation of all sense? Are we left enclosed in it or does God accompany us there? This essay considers to what extent Christ’s descent on Holy Saturday takes part in the extra-phenomenal “impossibility of possibility” of this original solitude. Such a consideration requires distinguishing between that “underworld” Christ descends to on the Second Day from (...) the sin that is the proper domain of “hell.” Christ descending to the underworld marks God entering our finitude so it may be transformed (Holy Saturday) rather than our faults so that we may be resurrected (Last Judgment). Philosophically, Holy Saturday, as the ab-sense and non-sense residing between Crucifixion (Good Friday) and Resurrection (Easter Sunday), exemplifies the extra-phenomenal in which nothing is manifested (phenomenology) nor signified (hermeneutics). This intermediate realm is then one in which God comes to meet us at the limit of our own finitude. (shrink)