Menschwerdung und Schwächung

Gianni Vattimo is one of the most influential representatives of postmodern philosophy and source of the concept of “weak thought”. For him a marked interest in the topic of religion came into being after the end of communism and the eclipse of the Continental philosophical tradition of the “grand narratives”. In the present volume Jakob Deibl delineates the development of Vattimo’s approach to religion. The crucial point for Vattimo is Saint Paul’s interpretation of the incarnation of the Logos as kenosis. In a paradoxical way this idea enables him to retrieve an approach to the philosophy of history beyond traditional totalising narratives: Vattimo argues for the subversive continuity of weakening structures (which were formerly strong), that process going back to the concept of kenosis. In doing so, he tries to face the triple challenge presented by apocalyptic scenarios, fundamentalism and nihilism: the first negating any vision of future, the second seeking refuge in positions immune from rational discussion and the third dissolving any common perspective of human being.