Jeff Robbins
Dissertation Prospectus
Syracuse University, Department of Religion
Fall 1999

The Trace of Transcendence: A Thematic Study of the Idea of the Infinite in Western Religious and Philosophical Thought

At least since modernity, the viability of thinking religion, and more specifically, of a 'philosophical theology', has been questioned. Even among those who reserved the greatest respect for religion, they too complicated the problem by preserving religion and/or theology at the cost of silence. This dissertation will explore this problematic through the religious and philosophical theme of transcendence in order to demonstrate the importance of theology for any understanding of the human condition and any ethic of human responsibility. Central to this project will be the demonstration of the interrelated natures of philosophy and theology. This will be the primary intent of the historical analysis throughout the first part of the work. The second part intends to clarify three post-modern approaches to the theme of transcendence, thereby demonstrating the continued possibilities for a distinctively postmodern philosophical theology. The argument of this work will be that the trace of transcendence infiltrates and conditions both theology and philosophy such that theology need not be dogmatic and philosophy admits of faith. The value of this project is realized in the extent to which it accomplishes its task of articulating the theological dimension to all human activity, whether religious or secular.

The dissertation will begin with an introduction that identifies the problem of philosophical theology from two contrasting perspectives. First, Martin Heidegger locates the problem of philosophical theology in the difference between thinking and science. Philosophy, as the question of being, is a kind of thinking which is necessarily indeterminate. Theology, as the science of faith, is a self-enclosed knowledge which proceeds from a known origin to a known end. The freedom of philosophy, therefore, must preserve itself from the self-enclosed strictures of theology. Second, Karl Barth locates the problem in the transcendence of God. Theology is determined by the God who is wholly other, whereas philosophy is limited to the bounds of human knowledge and limiting by rendering the other as the same. In other words, when theology becomes philosophical it loses itself in anthropology. The freedom of God, therefore, must be preserved from the arrogance of philosophy.

What both Heidegger and Barth share in common, and what will become the central problematic of this study, is their mistaken notion of the radical divide between philosophy and faith, and by extension, the logical and ethical impossibility of a philosophical theology. Yet to claim that this is a mistake is not to suggest that it is without its own utility or logic, but rather that it is short-sighted and ultimately betrays its final intentions of holding out for alterity. It is for this reason that the theme of the trace of transcendence is particularly suited for the problematic of philosophical theology because the trace resists all final or full categorizations, whether presence or absence, or past, present, or future. The trace is both a mark and a lack at once. Transcendence, meanwhile, can never be fully thought, and even when thought, transcendence still transcends. The trace of transcendence, in other words, blurs boundaries and implicates thought in its other. Philosophy becomes theological and theology philosophical.

Part One will be an historical analysis of the trace of transcendence in Western thought through the period of the Enlightenment. It will begin with the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, specifically how Plato’s eternal world of forms gives voice to the good beyond being, and how Aristotle’s Metaphysics speaks of theology as the highest and most honored of the theoretical sciences. It will then move to a general discussion of religion and a more specific discussion of the birth of theology within the Christian tradition. Here transcendence is focused on the question of God and the theologian is imagined as one who bends religious and philosophical discourse in his or her desire to express the inexpressible. Key representative thinkers will be Paul of Tarsus and Augustine of Hippo.

Next will be the historical analysis of the critical period of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment begins with Descartes’ method of doubt which makes the ego cogito the ground and arbiter of all knowledge of reality. Yet what stands before the self-confidence of Descartes is the idea of the infinite, which, as Levinas argues, allows Descartes to think more than he thinks. Self-doubt and the doubting self, therefore, are overwhelmed by the trace of transcendence. Or, in other words, the idea of the infinite comes before and makes possible Descartes’ certainty in the self as a thing that thinks. Much of the Enlightenment tradition can be read as an attempt to overcome this overwhelming trace, but as Hume so poignantly demonstrates, all to no avail. Thus we come to the end of the Enlightenment with the seminal figure of Immanuel Kant in whom transcendence becomes strictly a matter of epistemology and the transcendental method, which was intended to describe the conditions of knowledge, in fact, reinscribes the irreducible gap between the known and the real. This chapter will also examine the beginnings of modern theology through the theological apologetics of Friedrich Schleiermacher. With Schleiermacher religion is thought of as a feeling of absolute dependence located in the immediate self-consciousness. Religion is the ‘necessary and indispensable third’ mediating between the extremes of consciousness (knowing and doing). I shall argue that this 'modern' rendering of transcendence as immanence makes the avoidance of theology an impossibility.

Part Two will identify three ways in which the trace of transcendence has been conceived in post-modernity: (1) Transcendence has been imagined metaphorically as an inbreaking, in which there is a realization of the infinite within the finite. Here, the trace of transcendence is disruptive, paradoxical, even impossible. This will be explored through Kierkegaard and Levinas. Kierkegaard’s dialectical thinking manifests the tension between the infinite and finite, and the disruptive encounter between God and humanity. Levinas’ description of ‘ethics as first philosophy’ demonstrates the positive overflow of infinity which founds the freedom of philosophy by the responsibility for the other. (2) The theme of overcoming has also been prominent in postmodernity. In relation to transcendence, it will be identified as the desire for overcoming the kind of thinking which identifies transcendence as a world behind, above, before or after. Here transcendence will be reimagined as an affirmation of the extraordinary within this ordinary, secular world. Its roots reach back in two directions at once--both to the phenomenological and existentialist philosophies, and to the extreme rationalism of a Hegelian philosophy which affirms the positive value of history in the becoming of the real. The analog in theology is the ‘death of God’ movement in the United States which incorporated both the existential dimensions of affirmation and the radical reversal and transvaluation from the philosophies of becoming. Heidegger will become the chief spokesperson of this varied tradition by his ongoing attempt at ‘overcoming metaphysics’ and out-thinking ontotheology. (3) The final approach to transcendence will be identified as a kind of transgression in which thinking itself produces a knowledge of otherness and leads to an experience and appreciation of the Other. Here, the divide between philosophy and theology, being and God, and immanence and transcendence will be questioned, complicated, and transgressed. Thus, Postmodernity will be thought of as the age which makes possible the impossible discoveries of a philosophical theology (see Deleuze), a theology of a God with and without being (see Derrida), and an immanent transcendence that is also a transcending immanence. Together, these three chapters will demonstrate the viability and various postmodern possibilities of a philosophical theology.

The concluding chapter will articulate the re-placed theology as it now stands within the trace of transcendence. If the trace of transcendence haunts the history of the West, as this dissertation suggests, then the persistence of theology, even in a secular age, is secure. This chapter will therefore conclude the study by arguing that this awareness of the trace of transcendence is precisely theology’s gift to the history of religious and philosophical thought.

In the Twentieth-century alone, theology has passed through a number of movements from which it was thought there could be no return. For theology proper, it was the Swiss Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, who first set the tone by engaging in a prolonged, thoroughgoing, and ever-expanding critique of ‘modern’ theology and its reduction of theology to anthropology. Barth’s theology eventually culminated in the Church Dogmatics in which the revealed Word of God in Christ determined both the form and content of theological reflection. Key to the present study, as was already suggested, was Barth’s deep suspicion of the philosophical contamination of theology. Theology pertains to the God who is wholly other; likewise, theological discourse must also be set apart. Theology, in other words, strives to speak the Word of God as God has spoken to humanity. For Barth, a denial of this basic, methodological starting-point amounts to the human sin of hubris. Philosophical theology, therefore, appears as an ethical impossibility

Another trajectory which determines the contemporary field of theological studies began with the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, and his critique of the ‘onto-theological’ tradition. In an early essay by Heidegger, he argues that theology is the ‘science of faith,’ whereas philosophy is the question of being. Later in his career he would say that a philosophical theology is a square circle—in other words, a logical impossibility, a mixing of discourses, or a contamination of being with faith and faith with being. What followed was a tradition of theology that took as its task the explication of faith unencumbered by being as Heidegger had described. The most prominent examples of this tradition are the Biblical scholar Rudolf Bultmann, ‘post-liberal’ theologians such as Hans Frei, George Lindbeck, and Stanley Hauerwas, and contemporary figures such as John Milbank and Jean-Luc Marion.

However, recent developments within religious and philosophical thought have begun to question this rigid separation between theology and philosophy. The one is always already implicated in the other. There is neither a pure, uncontaminated, undefiled language of theology, nor of philosophy. Some of those who figure prominently in this tradition are Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and Mark C. Taylor. This present work will be sympathetic to these recent developments, while also showing how there is a continuous tradition from ancient times to the present that has had this implicit awareness all along.

Concerning the theme of transcendence, it has been differently assessed and valued in contemporary thought, ranging from Levinas’ critique of the history of philosophy as an erasure of transcendence to Deleuze’s quip: "Transcendence: a specifically European disease." Regardless, however, whether it is a theme for recovery or a disease to be overcome, it remains as an inexhaustible trace given for thought.

As contemporary theology continues to struggle to find a voice, the intention of this study is to highlight a theological tradition that is not immediately recognizable. The underlying question which compels this study is concerning the viability of a ‘philosophical theology.’ There are at least two reasons why this question is especially relevant. First, the place of theology within the field of the academic study of religion is under attack by many who insist that theology is necessarily dogmatic and essentializing. What this neglects is the long-standing tradition of theological thinking which functions more as critique than demonstration or determination. By bringing to the fore this questioning dimension within the history of theology, the place of theology within the field of religion serves as a safeguard against the rigid scientism which thinks itself self-sufficient. Theology, in this sense of the term, is an acknowledgment of a lacking knowledge, an awareness of the persistence of mystery, and an insistence on the immeasurable responsibility that issues from the call of the Other. Practically speaking, this means that the study of religion cannot be reduced either to the straightforward communication of values in public life, nor to the more objective social scientific study of the religious effect. That is because the trace of transcendence compels one into self-reflection and expels one beyond oneself and one's certainties by the presence of an otherness that is always otherwise.

Second, there is an historic divide between philosophy and theology, but this divide itself rests on a circular logic that insulates both philosophy and theology from its other. In other words, for philosophy to say that theology cannot be philosophical because it is an explication of faith denies the perspectivalism that gives any philosophy its coherence. And for theology to cut itself off from philosophy because it fears it might be contaminated or compromised denies the always already encultured nature of any theology. It shall be my argument that there is an undeniable interrelationship between philosophy and theology, and thus, not only is philosophical theology possible, but even more, it is impossible to deny within any meaningful discourse which takes account of the basic human desire to know (cf. the metaphysical, philosophical tradition from Plato and Aristotle to Twentieth-century thinkers ranging from Heidegger to Kristeva.) and the ethical responsibility which exceeds intentionality (cf. the prophetic, religious tradition from the Hebrew and Christian Bibles to the theological critics of modernity such as Kierkegaard and Barth, to Postmodern critics of the metaphysical tradition, such as Derrida and Levinas.). Theology, in this sense of the term, is an expression of longing as it recognizes the trace which binds one to an-other. And as a longing or striving after God, this is a theology which seeks to speak to all, irrespective of religion, faith, or culture. At the same time, by virtue of its being determined by the trace of transcendence, it is a theology which is without recourse or appeal to any dogmatic certainties. In this double sense of the term, this project intends to articulate a philosophical theology that is neither purely philosophical nor purely theological, and thereby hopes to accomplish the task of bridging the gap between what has historically been presumed to be two mutually exclusive discourses.

The methodology employed in this dissertation will be diverse. Part One will be an historical genealogy of the trace of transcendence in the history of Western thought. Through this genealogy I hope to show the interrelated natures of philosophy and theology in order to disavow any notions of either a purely philosophical or theological discourse. This genealogy will also serve as backdrop for understanding what is stake in the various post-modern understandings of transcendence. Part Two will be largely a philosophical analysis as it identifies three ways of thinking transcendence. The first of these is characterized by what is predominantly an existentialist component, the second is largely phenomenological, and the third will relate the method of deconstruction to the ‘theme’ of transcendence. The concluding chapter on re-placing theology seeks to be a constructive apologetic theology which draws from the diversity of materials and traditions already discussed in the preceding chapters. In this way, the work as a whole will be representative of a kind of philosophical theology which is not confined to a single religious or dogmatic tradition, nor to any single methodological or theoretical vantage point.

Introduction: The Problem of Philosophical Theology
• Heidegger's Critique: logical impossibility of philosophical theology
  • Philosophy is the question of being
  • Theology is the science of faith
• Barth's Critique: ethical impossibility of philosophical theology
  • Theology is determined by the Word of God
  • Philosophy is determined by words of humanity

Part One: Tracing Transcendence Through History
• Chapter One: Birth of Philosophy
  • Plato's beyond being: the form of transcendence
  • Aristotles Metaphysics: the height of theology
• Chapter Two: Birth of Theology
  • Paul of Tarsus: borrowed philosophy
  • Augustine: baptized philosophy
  • Aquinas: coming together of reason and faith
• Chapter Three: The Enlightenment: Transcendence in-between
  • Descartes: ego cogito as after-thought of the idea of infinity
  • Kant: transcendence within the limits of reason
  • Schleiermacher: theological appropriation of philosophies of consciousness

Part Two: The Trace of Transcendence in Post-Modernity
• Chapter Four: The Inbreaking of Transcendence
  • Kierkegaard: qualitative difference between God and Humanity, God as wholly other
  • Levinas: the call of the other, every other is wholly other
• Chapter Five: Overcoming Transcendence
  • Hegel: historical realization of transcendence
  • Heidegger: overcoming metaphysics, discovering difference
• Chapter Six: Transgressing Transcendence
  • Deleuze: postmodernity as epoch of theological discovery
  • Derrida: deconstructing the divide between philosophy and faith
  • Taylor: a purely surface theology

Conclusion: Re-Placing Theology

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