Phenomenology and Theology (4N03)
Winter 2010

TEXT PREPARATION 1

Assignment due in class on February 24 from some students*

*Since part of the value of the text preparation assignment is that it will prepare you to be an active participant in tutorial and in class, it may only be submitted in class on the day it is due.  If you have to miss that day's class, please contact me to make alternate arrangements.

Please read the selections that have been assigned from Jean-Luc Marion, God Without Being and address two out of the three questions below in 4-5 well-written paragraphs (spanning 3-4 pages). Since this is your first reading of this text, and since we have not yet discussed it in class, you are not being asked to supply definitive answers but preliminary, thoughtful responses based on close attention to the text. Your answers may also include 1-2 important questions raised by your reading for further discussion.  

1. (pp. 34-35*) In studying to what extent the modern Western philosophical tradition has an "apprehension" of God as transcendent, Marion notes that that to the extent that the tradition has such an apprehension/notion/idea/concept, that "apprehension can claim legitimacy only on condition of also recognizing its limit" (35).  That is, in Marion's view, the traditional view of God as transcendent is "legitimate" only in a "limited" sense.  How does he explain precisely what is "limited" about the traditional view of God? 

*This page reference is designed to give you an idea of the passages on which your answer should be centered, and also to indicate that it is possible to address the question by looking exclusively at this passage.  But of course if you find it helpful to refer to another part of Marion's book in support of your answer, you are encouraged to do so.

2. What is the "second idolatry" (44) that Marion finds in Heidegger?

3. What does Marion seek to convey by "crossing out" God (46)?


As you did for the Text Summary assignment, in preparing this assignment please use in-text parenthetical page references.  

Your assignment should be printed double-spaced and with one-inch margins, using a 10-12-point font.  Please number and staple the pages you hand in. 

Please keep a copy of your assignment to refer to in our class discussion.

 

 

distributed/posted February 12, 2010