«Sophia» XVI (2024)

Abstract: The work takes the perspective of a “correction” of the phenomenological evidence: understood as an unavailable form of the symbolic experience of meaning, intrinsically marked by the necessary dispatch to the invisible axiological of meaning. In this rectification, the giving of meaning is irreducible to the description of empirical meaning (referred to as “manifestation”), but makes it indispensable for the determination of lived meaning (referred to as “revelation”). The reflections presented are intended to make explicit the special interest of this retraction of phenomenological epistemology for the theology of the revelation of God’s truth in the manifestation of the body of the Lord.

Keywords: Phenomenology – Revelation – Manifestation – Credibility – Christology

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 11-19

Abstract: Several conferences on the theme of revelation have been organized in French-speaking countries over the last half-century. The first, in 1977, brought together authors such as Ricoeur and Lévinas. The most recent, in 2016 and 2021, included papers by Falque and Marion. This article, which focuses on Falque, highlights the developments in phenomenology on the question of revelation.

Keywords: Phenomenology – Falque – Levinas – Marion – Ricoeur

Read full article in French: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 21-36

Abstract: Theology’s predisposition to perceive in phenomenology a methodological and content framework more disposable than others to theological-Christian assimilation is undoubtedly one of the key concerns of contemporary theology. Based on this assumption, the Article attempts to highlight the main methodological paradigms on which to evaluate the attempts to date and lay the groundwork for new development. In particular, attention is brought to a non-disciplinary consideration of Phenomenology and to the “Reduction” as the institutive gesture of the phenomenological method.

Keywords: Phenomenology – Theology – Revelation – Phenomenological Reduction

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 37-46

Abstract: Husserl deals with God and religion within metaphysics, which starts from the factum. We will examine, first, the distinction between eidos and factum, and then briefly consider the relationship between teleology and theology. The analysis of the types of religious experience will finally allow us to address the problem of Revelation as the discovery and call of God to human beings.

Keywords: Husserl – Phenomenology – Religion – Revelation – God

Read full article in Spanish: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 47-57

Abstract: Just as French phenomenology seems to be characterized by a theological turn, so 20th century theology in turn seems to manifest a phenomenological intonation. This contribution, listening to these attempts, attempts to reread this relationship in the light of certain conceptual plexuses: form, flesh, intersubjectivity. Through these, an attempt will be made to delineate the “place” of Revelation.

Keywords: Form – Flesh – Intersubjectivity – Otherness – Lévinas

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 59-70

Abstract: The article aims to retrace the philosophical journey of Jean-Luc Marion, from his initial works to the present, in order to demonstrate its development and the lines of coherence in which his latest major work on Revelation is situated.

Keywords: Jean-Luc Marion – Revelation – French Phenomenology – Giveness – Picture

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 71-84

Abstract: This contribution aims to investigate the plausibility and implications of a phenomenal concept of Revelation following the Trinitarian intuitions of Klaus Hemmerle, that favors a recovery of ontology as a third pole capable of adequately mediating the relationship between philosophy/phenomenology and theology/Revelation.

Keywords: Revelation – Phenomenology – Trinitarian Ontology – Claritas – Hemmerle

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 85-99

Abstract: Igino Giordani was a protagonist of the twentieth century. His political and intellectual action was inspired by the principles of peace and social justice. He fought lonely battles in difficult times, in which there was no place for prophets of hope. By joining Chiara Lubich’s Focolare Movement, she reorganized her experience by focusing it on the reasons for the transformation of the present in view of the unity conceived as the destiny of the cosmos.

Keywords: Consistency – Catholicism – Martyrdom – Apologetics – Politics

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 101-113

Abstract: This essay will eminently concern the non-relational immanenstist realism outlined by David Armstrong in Universal and Scientific Realism. After clarifying its nature we will review the main criticisms that have been addressed to this doctrine and I will indicate some possible responses. Finally it will be presented a new objection to the non-relational realism.

Keywords: Non-relational Realism – David Armstrong – Unity – Relation – Universal and Scientific Realism

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 115-130

Abstract: This article starts from a reading of Parmenides’ ontology as the foundation of social community, seen in parallel with Jesus’ message of infinite communion. Tommaso Campanella refers to Parmenides’ ontology, read in the light of the doctrine of the Trinity, as centered on the “toticipative” unity of power, wisdom and love. The denial of such unity in the modern conception of knowledge as pure abstraction and domination, is characterized as “tyranny, sophistry, hypocrisy”. This article tries to actualize Campanella’s vision.

Keywords: Parmenides – Jesus’ message – Tommaso Campanella – Trinitarian ontology – Mercantile-technocratic world

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 131-142

Abstract: This essay aims to investigate the presence of the figure of Mary of Nazareth within Fichte’s theological and philosophical reflection. Indeed, through the reading of a youthful sermon that German philosopher dedicates to the Holy Virgin, it is also possible to find in later works of a philosophical nature an influence of meditation on the meaning of the Incarnation in the elaboration of concepts fundamental to Fichte’s philosophical system, such as those of will and bliss. Indeed, in precisely such a mature text as The Way Towards the Blessed Life it is possible to see these concepts united in the moving description of the Mother of God, seen as an ideal of supersensible beauty and an example of religious life.

Keywords: Mary of Nazareth – Fichte – Transcendental Philosophy – Christianity – Bliss

Read full article in inglese: «Sophia» XVI (2024-1) 143-155

Abstract: In his treatise Works of Love, published in 1847, Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) provides a detailed interpretation of what is meant by the “abiding of love” according to 1Cor 13:13. Based on this interpretation, Kierkegaard’s understanding of God as the “intermediate determination” in all true interpersonal love will be explained and his evaluation of both self-love as well as love for partners and friends will be reconstructed and assessed. Finally, Kierkegaard’s understanding of which love endures for eternity is summarised.

Keywords: God as Intermediate Determination of True Love – Triadic Character of True Love – Preferential Love – Selflessness/Self-Denial – Christian Charity

Read full article in English: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 223-233

Abstract: After being relegated for so long to a subject that philosophy did not deal with or dealt with only marginally, the centrality of love has asserted itself as a way of grasping the core of thought. There are many reasons for this, as are the philosophical paths that have dealt with them. Among these reasons and paths, the contribution of the well-known crisis of the onto-theological concept of God cannot be ignored, a crisis that has led to a revival of love in philosophy as a way of renaming God. However, he revived it by emphasising the paradoxical nature of love itself. The essay, which questions the meaning of love as a paradox, starting from the paradoxes of the infinite, proposes to understand love itself as infinite in order to finally grasp love as a relation, showing, with Kierkegaard, its irreducibility.

Keywords: Paradox – Infinite – Rest – Derrida – Kierkegaard

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 235-245

Abstract: Self-giving and thanks-giving could represent the two-way movement of the dynamic of love in Klaus Hemmerle’s thought, offering new suggestions on philosophical, theological and aesthetical level. The two terms are deeply interrelated, and build together the “circle of a permanent Easter”, whose inner logic shows the dynamic of freedom in self-giving and the dynamic of gratefulness in receiving. Gratefulness as awareness and free answer in receiving the gift is no long a merely mood, but becomes the hermeneutic key which can highlight on the ontological level the lines of Trinitarian Ontology, on the theoretical level the perspective of verdankendes Denken as gratefulness in the way of thinking, on anthropological level the mutual relationships and selfgiving as main basis for personal identity, on the aesthetical level the perspective of gratefulness for Art, artistic talent and beauty conceived as gifts.

Keywords: Self-giving – Thanksgiving – Dynamic of Love – Gratefulness – Gift

Read the full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 247-258

Abstract: Hemmerle’s transformation of the question “What remains?” by pointing to love is paradoxical. How is it possible for love to remain when it is that which does not insist on itself, but rather gives itself completely? How are we to think of the remaining of that which does not remain? And yet the recent development of philosophy shows that truth and thought are entangled in just such self-referential “paradoxes of the infinite”. This paper will follow Heidegger, Przywara and Hemmerle in studying how Trinitarian self-giving or love is a transformative rhythm of being beyond logic and dialectic. Does it move away from the impasses of modern philosophy and renew the tradition of Trinitarian metaphysics, so that it becomes clear why neither logic nor dialectic but only love completes the emendatory task of thought?

Keywords: Logic – Dialectic – Analogy – Love – Trinitarian Ontology

Read full article in English: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 259-271

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to highlight how in Edith Stein the love of knowledge, driven by the rational demonstrative faculty, leads to the truth of its only foundation, God. Similarly, God-infused love, relying on faith freed from the rational, reaches the same Truth, through a particular form of sensitivity, called by Stein, “spiritual perception”. Thus, a “two-way street” is trainee that moves from the human being striving to grasp the truth with his own strength and, at the same time, from the divine love that is ignited in the human soul.

Keywords: Love – Knowledge – God – Soul – Truth

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 273-282

Abstract: “Love never fails.” This statement by Paul in the so-called Hymn of Charity (1 Cor 13:8) must be understood in the everyday context of the Church of Corinth and the crises it was facing. To avoid any competition between the charisms, Paul proposes to show the Corinthians an excellent way: agape. This is neither a feeling nor a virtue; it is the very love of God that the Spirit pours into our hearts. The Spirit enables the believer to respond to God’s love with the gift received, that is, with agape. To grasp this dynamic of agape – between the love given and the love received that is given in turn – it is necessary to understand the movement of agape between God and human persons, as Paul presents it in his letters.

Keywords: Charisms – Love – Movement of Agape – Spirit – Saint Paul

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 283-291

Abstract: This survey intends to reassess the well known view of Anders Nygren who believes that the difference between eros and agape is key in the early Christian literature, and in this respect it considers the case of Origen of Alexandria (185-254) who, in the original Greek fragments of his Commentary on the Song of Songs, passed down to us also in the partial Latin translation of Rufinus of Aquileia, though he is aware of the original semantic difference between them, employs them as synonyms and applies them to supersensible and spiritual entities.

Keywords: Origen – eros – agape – Song of Songs – love

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 293-302

Abstract: Taking into account the Trinitarian debate that spanned the 4th century, this article explores the anthropological articulation of being “in the image and likeness” of the divine, starting from the divine intentionality revealed in Christ as an open and intrinsically relational configuration. The distinction between essence and disposition (eudochía) made by Gregory of Nyssa allows the creature to consider God’s freedom in creating and thus to turn to Him with the freedom to respond with one’s own love to the love of the origin. Gregory, as a father and pastor, will indicate this through the image of the source, the mirror, and growth, making it possible to maintain that the Christian’s relationship with others and with the world is to be taken as that of the Son turned toward the Father, in the divine Trinity, and of the Bridegroom turned toward the bride who seeks him, in the economy of salvation.

Keywords: Gregory of Nyssa – Eudochía – Eros – Epéktasis – Mirror

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 303-315

Abstract:

The article explores Maximus the Confessor’s view on love as a natural movement towards God, transformed eschatologically into participation in Trinitarian love. Maximus distinguishes between movements “according to nature,” drawing creatures closer to God, and “contrary to nature,” leading them away. He critiques Origen’s association of movement with the fall, proposing a return to God culminating in ontological stability through deification. This process is characterized by an “ever-moving repose,” where divinized souls eternally move towards God without the risk of falling anew from union with God.

Keywords: Maximus the Confessor – Agape – Movement – Epektasis – Eschatology

Read full article in English: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 317-329

Abstract: The article aims to investigate the gradual evolution of the notion of love between the Middle Ages and the modern age. Starting from Dante’s conception and going all the way to Simmel’s thought, the article shows how gradually the notion of love becomes more and more impersonal. Passing through Cusanus, Bruno and Spinoza, we can arrive at the Hegelian concept of Wechselwirkung, later inherited by Simmel in the Philosophy of Money, where this general constraint is understood precisely as absolutely impersonal. Regarding this progressive immanentization, it is perhaps possible to detect in Kierkegaard’s thought a kind of countermovement, which highlights the problem of personality in the relationship between creator and creature.

Keywords: Dante – Cusano – Spinoza – Hegel – Simmel

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 331-343

Abstract: Phenomenologically, the possibility of logos on God is inseparable from the giving of the logos of God, that is, from his showing himself. The problem of the phenomenalization of the so-called “theological principle” emerges in various places of Husserl’s production, including intersubjectivity and, relative to it, the ethics of love. In our contribution, we focus on the intersubjective link between the ethics of love and God. The aim is to show that, with Husserl, it is possible to say God starts from his manifestation on the given ground of the intersubjective ethical community of love.

Keywords: Love – Community – God – Phenomenology – Husserl

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 345-358

Abstract: Love for the philosophy of personalist inspiration emerges as a key element that illuminates the vision of person and intersubjectivity. Love is the relationship par excellence, which orients us towards others, the place and experience of the mutual giving of oneself to others. However, some interpretations have distorted its face and consequently pose a problem for personalist thought. Maurice Nédoncelle, developing the circular character of love, invites us to overcome them, avoiding juxtapositions and distinguishing what is related to reciprocity from what is not. Furthermore, he emphasises the importance of freedom and unmasking the instrumentalisation of the other.

Keywords: Personalism – Nédoncelle – Love – Circularity – Reciprocity

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 359-368

Abstract: The aim of this contribution is to provide an interpretative approach to the philosophie de l’Action that highlights Blondel’s intention to integrate the intellectual (noetic) dimension with the affective (pneumatic) dimension of knowledge and to emphasise the infinite nature of the motion of the willing will in its incessant search for fulfilment, in order to open up the horizon of a philosophical-experiential highlighting of the creaturality of the person. From the analysis of some particularly significant junction points of Blondel’s method, a reconfiguration of the logos willed to the plenitudo essendi of the agape, and capable of meta-empirically orienting the dynamism of action incessantly driven by the desire for happiness and love, will emerge.

Keywords: Action – Adaequatio – Secular Apologetics – Willing Will – Agape

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 369-377

Abstract: The contribution examines the love for the other person moving from phenomenological investigation. It starts from feeling, and then dwells on the interpersonal relationship and love as a reciprocal and free gift. It addresses the ways in which young people today live this feeling and the role and responsibility that adults must have to allow young people a genuine understanding of themselves and love.

Keywords: Love – Young People – Feeling – Sentiment – Relationship

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 379-392

Abstract: The contribution addresses the theme of love through the interpretation of Notes from the Underground proposed by Tzvetan Todorov in 1978. After an initial bibliographical and editorial overview, the elements that characterize the reading of Dostoevsky’s novel are highlighted, with particular attention to the difference between the attitude of the “man from the underground” and Lisa’s gesture presented in the final pages of the novel. This difference refers to two alternative ways of conceiving the recognition and the “need” of the other, preluding, in turn, to the discussion of the distance between Lisa and Prince Myškin, in The Idiot.

Keywords: Tzvetan Todorov – Dostoevskij – Ethics – Love – Recognition

Read full article in Italian: «Sophia» XVI (2024-2) 393-402