God and the Caducity of Being: Jean-Luc Marion and Edith Stein on Thinking God :: Philosophical Philosophy God Papers

matinee idol and the Caducity of creation Jean-Luc Marion and Edith Stein on Thinking paragonABSTRACT Jean-Luc Marion claims that paragon must no longer be imagination of in equipment casualty of the traditional metaphysical category of Being, for that reduces paragon to an all too serviceman concept which he calls Dieu. theology must be conceived outside of the ontological difference and outside of the call into question of Being itself. Marion urges us to esteem of perfection as love. We wish to challenge Marions claim of the necessity to incite au-del de ltre by arguing that Marion presents a very limited intelligence of Being he stages the Being of divinity fudge as causa sui. The thought of Edith Stein will be employed in order to gravel out a fuller sense of the metaphysical notion of the Being of God. Stein offers us a rich backdrop against which we can interpret more traditional readings of God as Being, thereby challenging Marions claim of the caducity of Be ing. Traditionally, metaphysics was viewed as consisting of three distinct but related components cosmology, ontology and theology. cosmogony dealt with the be of the natural world conceived as a universe whereas ontology dealt with the being of the particular thing in the cosmos qua its own being. Theology was the investigating of the being of God naturaliter, that is, without exclusively appealing to the truths of Revelation. In his masterful work, God Without Being, Jean-Luc Marion launches a profound challenge to the tradition of metaphysics in general, and more specifically, to the related field of metaphysical theology. Marion claims that God must no longer be thought of in terms of the traditional category Being, for that reduces God to an all too human concept which he calls Dieu. In a sense, a violence is done to God and our understanding of God, for we seriously define that which by nature is indeterminable. Drawing upon an Heideggerian-inspired notion of the phenomeno logical Destruktion, Marion maintains that God must be thought outside the ontological difference and outside the very question of Being itself. In so doing, we free ourselves from an idolatry wherein we reduce God to our own all too narrow conceptual schemes. Marion urges us to think God in light of St. Johns pronouncement that God is love (1 Jn 4,8). He believes that love has not been thought through in the metaphysical tradition. Thinking love through will lead the philosopher to a more accurate understanding of God as unlimited giver/gift.