Givenness and Revelation Rethinking the Relationships between Phenomenology and Theology

Alissa Shea

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Flakne, April

Keywords

Husserl, Edmund, Marion, Jean-Luc, Phenomenology, Theology

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis considers the potential relationship between phenomenology and theology by looking at the philosophies of Edmund Husserl and Jean-Luc Marion. Prima facie it seems any transcendental idealist system prohibits access to transcendent entities. Yet, by freeing idealist phenomenology from the restrictions of metaphysics and rethinking God not as an entity but as revealed in experience, one can develop a phenomenological theology. In the first chapter I explicate and defend Husserl�s phenomenology as a form of transcendental idealism. In the second chapter I look at Marion�s advance away from Husserl. Where Husserl�s reduction shows how things are given, Marion moves to a post-metaphysical position where the how of reduction points to the event or facticity of givenness, rather than to things given. Finally, in the third chapter I explore the theological implications of Marion�s phenomenology of givenness by emphasizing the role of �saturated phenomena� as an excess of intuition over intention, particularly the saturated phenomenon of revelation. I also defend Marion against critics by arguing that the paradox of saturated phenomena legitimately expands the limits of phenomenology while at the same time reinvigorating theology.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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