Minimal Theologies: Critiques of Secular Reason in Adorno and Levinas

by Hent de Vries, Geoffrey Hale (Translator)

What, at this historical moment "after Auschwitz," still remains of the questions traditionally asked by theology? What now is theology's minimal degree? This magisterial study, the first extended comparison of the writings of Theodor W. Adorno and Emmanuel Levinas, explores remnants and echoes of religious forms in these thinkers' critiques of secular reason, finding in the work of both a "theology in pianissimo" constituted by the trace of a transcendent other. The author analyzes, systematizes, and formalizes this idea of an other of reason. In addition, he frames these thinkers' innovative projects within the arguments of such intellectual heirs as Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida, defending their work against later accusations of "performative contradiction" (by Habermas) or "empiricism" (by Derrida) and in the process casting important new light on those later writers as well. Attentive to rhetorical and rational features of Adorno's and Levinas's texts, his investigations of the concepts of history, subjectivity, and language in their writings provide a radical interpretation of their paradoxical modes of thought and reveal remarkable and hitherto unsuspected parallels between their philosophical methods, parallels that amount to a plausible way of overcoming certain impasses in contemporary philosophical thinking. In Adorno, this takes the form of a dialectical critique of dialectics; in Levinas, that of a phenomenological critique of phenomenology, each of which sheds new light on ancient and modern questions of metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics. For the English-language publication, the author has extensively revised and updated the prize-winning German version.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy

760 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2004

Reviews

[Swami Narasimhananda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much like its size, this book has a huge task to perform: critiquing secular reason in the thoughts of Theodor Adorno and Emmanuel Levinas. That the author deft ly does that is another credit to his immense scholarship. The preface to the translation, which is also a revised edition, distanced from its German original by more than fifteen years, updates the reader with the huge corpus of literature of both the thinkers published since. The author places this book as the last of a trilogy of which his Philosophy and the Turn to Religion and Religion and Violence are the first two. In a fresh approach to religious philosophy, de Vries brings to us the similarities in the thoughts of Adorno and Levinas, and shows us how taken together, they have much deeper impact, than considered separately. That the author discussed this book with Emmanuel Levinas in person adds authenticity to the work. Avowedly a critique of negative dialectics, this volume offers an original exploration of the interactions of philosophy and religion, and is a must read for those interested in theology, critical theory, deconstruction, and dialectics.