Joseph Stephen O'Leary

Examining the ways in which two representatives of the “theological turn in French phenomenology” speak of the interrelationship between philosophy and theology, one may detect a number of tendencies which are deleterious both to philosophy and theology. The idea of an autonomous philosophy, pursued as an end in itself, needs to be defended against claims that philosophy can only flourish under theological tutelage. Again, the integrity of theology as a science of faith excludes any identification of theology as a kind of philosophy. Interaction between the two disciplines, especially in the border areas of apologetics, fundamental theology, religious philosophy, and philosophy of religion, can be fruitful only if a keen sense of their radical difference of orientation is sustained. Behind the swamping of phenomenology by theological concerns lies a series of misunderstandings of metaphysics and its overcoming as well as a misguided notion that phenomenology allows revealed theology to re-enter the French university under the rubric of philosophy.

L’effet origénien d’interpréter le Prologue johannique dans le cadre d’une métaphysique platoniste aplatit les contours de la narration biblique et en perd le caractère événementiel. Des tensions profondes entre personnalisme biblique et recherche de principes cosmiques condamnent la pensée et l’écriture d’Origène à un va-et-vient mobile entre deux registres qui ne concordent jamais dans une synthèse stable. La meilleure réponse à cette tension, pour un lecteur contemporain, serait d’entreprendre un pas en arrière de la phénoménalité contemplative du monde johannique, en dépassant les cadres de pensée qui chez Origène semblaient s’imposer obligatoirement.Origen’s effort to interpret the Johannine Prologue in the framework of a Platonist metaphysics flattens the contours of the biblical narration and loses its event-character. Deep tensions between biblical personalism and the quest for cosmic principles condemn Origen’s thought and writing to a mobile to-and-fro between two registers that never harmonize in a stable synthesis. The best response to this tension for a contemporary reader would be to undertake a step back to the contemplative phenomenality of the Johannine world, overcoming the frames of thought which for Origen seemed obligatory

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