Embracing finitude

Falque's phenomenology of the suffering "God with us"

William C.

pp. 115-133

in: Bruce Ellis Benson (ed), Evil, fallenness, and finitude, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

Representing a new generation of phenomenologists in the so-called theological turn, Emmanuel Falque presses the boundary between theology and phenomenology in a more radical way than many of his predecessors. Despite his conviction that "the more one theologizes, the better one philosophizes," he adopts a very different approach from other theological phenomenologists—beginning from the point of immanence and incarnation rather than transcendence and height. Falque thus reclaims the essential goodness of the human body, even in its finitude and limitations. This approach yields numerous problems, however, when maximized into a comprehensive system by creating a paradigmatic or normative phenomenological perspective grounded in the experience of "the human as such" (l"homme comme tel). Consequently, I argue for a minimalist reading of Falque's phenomenology—one that seeks to preserve its various insights and benefits (especially in the realm of pastoral care) while avoiding the problems of a comprehensive "grand narrative" of theological phenomenology.

Cited authors

Falque Emmanuel