The mediation of the immediate
Ricœur and the Phenomenology of Religion
Abstract
Ricœur believes that it is not possible to elaborate a phenomenology of religion, since the religious phenomenon is always constituted within a historical-cultural horizon and in particular for the Judeo-Christian religion the mediation of Scripture is irreducible. In this paper we want to compare this position with Ricœur’s reflection on witness, understood as anthropological mediation necessary for the constitution of the specific sense of the experience of the absolute. Ricœur, referring to Nabert’s thesis, relates the idea of absolute to which the theoretical consciousness reaches (the original affirmation) with the experience of the absolute mediated by the witness. To avoid falling back into Hegelian absolute knowledge, the hermeneutic of witness must keep these two moments separate, which are ultimately reason and faith. The paper aims to highlight how the problematic aspect of Ricœur’s proposal lies in its transcendental approach. In fact, this prevents Ricœur from recognizing a truthful character to experience, insofar as the event of the witness is configured as a possible realization of what is already simply included in the reflective act.
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