The religious (re)turn in recent French philosophy
pp. 173-186
in: Jeremiah Hackett, Jerald Wallulis (eds), Philosophy of religion for a new century, Berlin, Springer, 2004Abstract
The return of the repressed? Failure of nerve? However one wants to interpret the phenomenon, there is no gainsaying the fact: "religious" themes and theses have received sympathetic treatment with notable frequency in the writings of European philosophers in recent years. Whether it be the question of negative theology in the work of Derrida, the notion of Pauline "truth" in the exegesis of Badiou, the frequent reference to the spiritual in Foucault or more direct allusions to religious themes and images in the writings of Levinas, Ricoeur, Henry, Marion, Irigaray, Courtine, Chrétien, and others, the religious in both its orthodox and its heterodox forms is enjoying an attention among professional philosophers that is unprecedented in our generation. The late Dominique Janicaud called attention to this fact in an influential essay entitled "The Theological Turn of French Phenomenology."1
