Tragedy and philosophy are two distinct forms of interpretation of the world, both developed at the same time in Greece: both are two aspects of a certain mindset of that historical period. The philosophy is systematically and historically successive to tragedy. The tragedy, however, is not only preceding the philosophy, but also accompanying its origin and even forming the contentual cause of philosophy. To illuminate this cause, it is necessary to understand the tragedy and the philosophy as a common distinction (...) from that which precedes them and that they both seek to overcome: the myth. The reciprocal relationship of tragedy and philosophy can be described in the context of their common critique of the myth. At the same time, the phenomenon of tragedy is to be understood as a condition of philosophy, insofar the tragic is an expression of a mindset that allows philosophical thought. (shrink)

Cassirer proclaimed the human as ‘animal symbolicum’. Language, art and religion are manifestations of an symbolic and symbol-creating awareness. The symbols are caused by a movement which is to be characterized as tropical. A symbol can be generated as a metonymic term, based on the principle of contiguity, but also as an metaphoric term, corresponding to the principle of similarity. The perception of these tropical movements draws the attention to the origination of a symbolic term as well as to the (...) changes of already existing terms. The history of the ancient symbolic speech is a history of permanent creations, but also of mutations of meaning. This history is noticeable in Greece for the first time in Homer. His figurative speech is influenced by the mythical contiguity, which yields to a metaphorization and allegorization of the symbols in lyrics and philosophy in the following period, but still remains present in the religious literature. Finally, the symbolic speech of the new Christianity is situated in the non-solvable tension between the principles of contiguity and similarity. A recognition of this history of the ancient symbolic speech is required for its subsequent analysis, which is especially important for Christianity, for whom the ancient symbolism is normative, as well as for the philosophy, which desires to recognize its own history. (shrink)

The defects and blank spaces of language are a challenge for any theology that sees itself as a linguistic reflection of faith. If theology pretends to speaking with any philosophical relevance, it must respect these gaps. Hermeneutics and deconstruction offer philosophical ways of analysing these linguistic gaps present in theology. In this way, they can integrate the linguistic turn of philosophy into theology. The hermeneutical theology of the twentieth century is at an impasse. Insofar as deconstruction carries critically different elements (...) of the linguistic philosophy of hermeneutics forward, it provides theology with new opportunities to reflect on its own linguistic structure. (shrink)