Authors

Part One: the Ancients and the monotheisms before reason · Read the section

Regime

social function: legislated theology

Pivotal text

Laws X ; Euthyphro

In debate with

the impious of his time ; Lucretius, Rousseau

receives a response from

• attested response Justin Martyr Read the sectionThe seminal Logos: Plato supposedly borrowed from Moses, and Socrates was a Christian before Christ.
• constructed confrontation Lucretius Read the sectionEpicurean peace faced with the law against the impious in the Laws.
• constructed confrontation Rousseau Read the sectionCivil religion takes up the penalty that the Laws reserved for the impious.

Part One: the Ancients and the monotheisms before reason · Read the section

Regime

god of the philosophers ; myths useful to the laws

Pivotal text

Metaphysics Λ

In debate with

Plato ; Heidegger against onto-theology

Part One: the Ancients and the monotheisms before reason · Read the section

Regime

error: gods without providence

Pivotal text

Letter to Menoeceus

In debate with

the piety of the crowd ; taken up by Lucretius

Part One: the Ancients and the monotheisms before reason · Read the section

Regime

error: religion as terror

Pivotal text

De rerum natura I

In debate with

Iphigenia and the priests ; Onfray claims him

responds to

• constructed confrontation Plato Read the sectionEpicurean peace faced with the law against the impious in the Laws.

receives a response from

• attested response Hume Read the sectionThe Natural History of Religion discusses Lucretius (sections 5 and 12); fear as the origin of the gods is common to both.

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

Regime

Logos: the Bible read with the Timaeus

Pivotal text

De opificio mundi

In debate with

Plato ; the Fathers

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

Regime

faith against wisdom

Pivotal text

authentic epistles

In debate with

Nietzsche against him ; Sanders

receives a response from

• attested response Nietzsche Read the sectionThe Antichrist § 42: Paul, inventor of Christianity against the good news.

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

Regime

the sown Logos

Pivotal text

Apologies

In debate with

Plato, Socrates

responds to

• attested response Plato Read the sectionThe seminal Logos: Plato supposedly borrowed from Moses, and Socrates was a Christian before Christ.

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

receives a response from

• attested response Origen Read the sectionAgainst Celsus answers the True Doctrine point by point: Jesus the magician, the plagiarism of Plato, a religion of the ignorant.

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

Regime

first critique, first response

Pivotal text

The True Doctrine ; Against Celsus

In debate with

Origen against Celsus

responds to

• attested response Celsus Read the sectionAgainst Celsus answers the True Doctrine point by point: Jesus the magician, the plagiarism of Plato, a religion of the ignorant.

Part One: the Ancients and the monotheisms before reason · Read the section

Regime

experience: the One and union

Pivotal text

Enneads VI 9

In debate with

Plato ; the Gnostics ; Augustine, Hadot

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

Regime

Neoplatonism and Christian synthesis

Pivotal text

Against the Christians ; Confessions VII ; The City of God VIII

In debate with

Plotinus ; Pascal, Heidegger

receives a response from

• attested response Augustine Read the sectionThe City of God discusses the Platonists, the closest to the Christians, and Porphyry, their adversary.

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

Regime

Neoplatonism and Christian synthesis

Pivotal text

Against the Christians ; Confessions VII ; The City of God VIII

In debate with

Plotinus ; Pascal, Heidegger

responds to

• attested response Porphyry Read the sectionThe City of God discusses the Platonists, the closest to the Christians, and Porphyry, their adversary.

Part One: the Ancients and the monotheisms before reason · Read the section

Regime

philosophy and the Law: reserved interpretation

Pivotal text

Faṣl al-maqāl (The Decisive Treatise)

In debate with

al-Ghazali ; the legend of the double truth

Part One: the Ancients and the monotheisms before reason · Read the section

Regime

negative theology ; reasons for the commandments

Pivotal text

Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190)

In debate with

Spinoza against him ; Eckhart

receives a response from

• attested response Spinoza Read the sectionTheological-Political Treatise, ch. VII: against accommodating Scripture to reason.
• constructed confrontation Feuerbach Read the sectionNegative theology read as a subtle atheism.

Part One: the Ancients and the monotheisms before reason · Read the section

Regime

experience: detachment

Pivotal text

sermon 52, “Beati pauperes spiritu”

In debate with

28 propositions condemned in 1329 (In agro dominico), after his death ; reread by Weil and the spiritualities without God

Part Three: the classical age, the God of the philosophers · Read the section

Regime

fideist scepticism

Pivotal text

Apology for Raymond Sebond (Essays II, 12)

In debate with

Sebond ; Pascal

responds to

• constructed confrontation Hume Read the sectionA sceptical kinship, not an established influence.

receives a response from

• attested response Pascal Read the sectionThe Entretien avec M. de Sacy and the Pensées read Montaigne as a useful and dangerous sceptic.

Part Three: the classical age, the God of the philosophers · Read the section

Regime

god of the philosophers: the idea of the infinite

Pivotal text

Meditationes de prima philosophia (1641)

In debate with

Pascal ; Leibniz ; Levinas

receives a response from

• attested response Pascal Read the section“Je ne puis pardonner à Descartes” (I cannot forgive Descartes): the God of the philosophers against the God of Abraham.
• attested response Leibniz Read the sectionMonadology § 46: against the creation of the eternal truths by the divine will.

Part Three: the classical age, the God of the philosophers · Read the section

Regime

faith against theological reason

Pivotal text

Memorial ; Pensées

In debate with

Descartes ; foreshadows Heidegger

responds to

• attested response Descartes Read the section“Je ne puis pardonner à Descartes” (I cannot forgive Descartes): the God of the philosophers against the God of Abraham.
• attested response Montaigne Read the sectionThe Entretien avec M. de Sacy and the Pensées read Montaigne as a useful and dangerous sceptic.

receives a response from

• constructed confrontation Becker Read the sectionThe denial of death and diversion.

Part Three: the classical age, the God of the philosophers · Read the section

Regime

error ; spirituality of amor Dei

Pivotal text

Ethica ; Tractatus theologico-politicus

In debate with

Nietzsche, Hegel, Feuerbach

responds to

• attested response Maimonides Read the sectionTheological-Political Treatise, ch. VII: against accommodating Scripture to reason.

receives a response from

• attested response Leibniz Read the sectionAgainst the blind, geometrical necessity of Spinoza's God.
• attested response Leo Strauss Read the sectionDie Religionskritik Spinozas (1930): modern critique has not refuted revelation.

Part Three: the classical age, the God of the philosophers · Read the section

Regime

sufficient reason ; theodicy

Pivotal text

Principles of Nature and Grace (1714) ; Theodicy (1710)

In debate with

Spinoza, Bayle ; Voltaire against him ; Heidegger

responds to

• attested response Bayle Read the sectionThe Essais de théodicée (1710) answer Bayle's objections about evil.
• attested response Spinoza Read the sectionAgainst the blind, geometrical necessity of Spinoza's God.
• attested response Descartes Read the sectionMonadology § 46: against the creation of the eternal truths by the divine will.

receives a response from

• attested response Voltaire Read the sectionCandide (1759) mocks optimism and the best of all possible worlds.
• attested response Heidegger Read the sectionThe 1949 introduction to Was ist Metaphysik? takes up Leibniz's question.
• attested response Bergson Read the sectionCreative Evolution, ch. IV: the idea of nothingness as a pseudo-idea, in Spinoza or Leibniz.
• constructed confrontation Ivan Karamazov Read the sectionThe refusal of a harmony paid for with a child's tear, faced with theodicy.
• constructed confrontation Wittgenstein Read the sectionWonder that the world is, without any demand for sufficient reason.

Part Three: the classical age, the God of the philosophers · Read the section

Regime

error ; tolerance

Pivotal text

Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet

In debate with

Jurieu ; confrontation with Ivan Karamazov

responds to

• constructed confrontation Ivan Karamazov Read the sectionThe society of virtuous atheists faced with “everything is permitted”.

receives a response from

• attested response Leibniz Read the sectionThe Essais de théodicée (1710) answer Bayle's objections about evil.

Part Four: the Enlightenment and religion within limits · Read the section

Regime

utilitarian deism

Pivotal text

Epistle CIV (1769)

In debate with

d'Holbach ; prefigures the Inquisitor

responds to

• attested response Leibniz Read the sectionCandide (1759) mocks optimism and the best of all possible worlds.
• attested response d'Holbach Read the sectionThe article “Dieu, dieux” (1771) against the Système de la nature.
• constructed confrontation the Grand Inquisitor Read the section“Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer” (if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him): the Inquisitor's programme in one alexandrine.

receives a response from

• attested response Rousseau Read the sectionThe Lettre sur la Providence (1756) answers the Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne.

Part Four: the Enlightenment and religion within limits · Read the section

Regime

error: fear and hope

Pivotal text

Natural History of Religion ; Dialogues

In debate with

the deists ; Kant

responds to

• attested response Lucretius Read the sectionThe Natural History of Religion discusses Lucretius (sections 5 and 12); fear as the origin of the gods is common to both.

receives a response from

• constructed confrontation Montaigne Read the sectionA sceptical kinship, not an established influence.
• constructed confrontation Boyer Read the sectionAgent detection: the faces Hume already saw in the moon.

Part Four: the Enlightenment and religion within limits · Read the section

Regime

religion of the heart ; civil religion

Pivotal text

Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar ; The Social Contract IV, 8 (1762)

In debate with

Voltaire ; Robespierre

responds to

• attested response Voltaire Read the sectionThe Lettre sur la Providence (1756) answers the Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne.
• constructed confrontation Plato Read the sectionCivil religion takes up the penalty that the Laws reserved for the impious.

Part Four: the Enlightenment and religion within limits · Read the section

Regime

error: atheist materialism

Pivotal text

The System of Nature (1770)

In debate with

Voltaire ; foreshadows Feuerbach

receives a response from

• attested response Voltaire Read the sectionThe article “Dieu, dieux” (1771) against the Système de la nature.

Part Four: the Enlightenment and religion within limits · Read the section

Regime

moral religion

Pivotal text

Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft (1793)

In debate with

Schleiermacher, Hegel, Nietzsche

Part Five: feeling and concept · Read the section

Regime

experience: feeling

Pivotal text

Über die Religion (1799)

In debate with

Kant ; Hegel against him

receives a response from

• attested response Hegel Read the sectionPreface to Hinrichs (1822): if piety is the feeling of dependence, the dog would be the best Christian.
• attested response Feuerbach Read the sectionThe feeling of dependence taken up and turned back towards nature.
• attested response Otto Read the sectionThe Idea of the Holy, chapter 3: the feeling of dependence presupposes the Kreaturgefühl and the inaccessibility of the object; Schleiermacher's discovery is acknowledged, then corrected.

Part Five: feeling and concept · Read the section

Regime

concept: Aufhebung

Pivotal text

Glauben und Wissen (1802) ; preface to Hinrichs (1822)

In debate with

Schleiermacher ; the Hegelian left

responds to

• attested response Schleiermacher Read the sectionPreface to Hinrichs (1822): if piety is the feeling of dependence, the dog would be the best Christian.

receives a response from

• attested response Kierkegaard Read the sectionThe existing individual against the system, faith against mediation.

Part Six: the Hegelian left and its adversaries · Read the section

Regime

metaphysics of the people ; atheist mysticism

Pivotal text

Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (1819)

In debate with

Hegel ; Nietzsche

receives a response from

• attested response Nietzsche Read the sectionFrom educator to foil: the denial of the will to live as the last avatar of the ascetic ideal.

Part Six: the Hegelian left and its adversaries · Read the section

Regime

religion of Humanity

Pivotal text

The Catechism of Positive Religion (1852)

In debate with

proof by fact ; Löwith

Part Six: the Hegelian left and its adversaries · Read the section

Regime

error: projection

Pivotal text

Das Wesen des Christentums (1841)

In debate with

Stirner, Marx, Barth ; translated by George Eliot

responds to

• attested response Schleiermacher Read the sectionThe feeling of dependence taken up and turned back towards nature.
• attested response Stirner Read the sectionThe reply of 1845: the predicates transferred into man lose their divine character.
• constructed confrontation Maimonides Read the sectionNegative theology read as a subtle atheism.

receives a response from

• attested response Stirner Read the sectionDer Einzige (1844): Feuerbach's Man is a spectre, a new divinity.
• attested response Marx Read the sectionThe Theses on Feuerbach (1845): the earthly basis of religion must be transformed.
• attested response Engels Read the sectionLudwig Feuerbach (1886): he does not want to abolish religion, he wants to complete it.
• attested response Barth Read the sectionFeuerbach is right about religion as the experience of wicked and mortal man.
• constructed confrontation Levinas Read the sectionThe I and the Thou: the unity of man with man, or the trace of the Other.
• constructed confrontation Simone Weil Read the sectionTwo atheisms: the one that purifies the notion of God, and humanist atheism, which puts man in the place of God and is only one more idolatry.

Part Six: the Hegelian left and its adversaries · Read the section

Regime

critique of critique

Pivotal text

Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (1844, dated 1845)

In debate with

Feuerbach ; Marx against him

responds to

• attested response Feuerbach Read the sectionDer Einzige (1844): Feuerbach's Man is a spectre, a new divinity.
• constructed confrontation the New Atheists Read the section“Unsere Atheisten sind fromme Leute” (our atheists are pious people): Reason and Science as essences.

receives a response from

• attested response Feuerbach Read the sectionThe reply of 1845: the predicates transferred into man lose their divine character.
• attested response Marx Read the sectionThe German Ideology and “Saint Max”.

Part Five: feeling and concept · Read the section

Regime

myth

Pivotal text

Das Leben Jesu (1835)

In debate with

Hegel ; Renan ; Nietzsche

receives a response from

• attested response Schweitzer Read the sectionVon Reimarus zu Wrede (1906) writes the history of the quest for the historical Jesus and judges its predecessors.
• attested response Nietzsche Read the sectionThe first Untimely Meditation (1873) against the “Bildungsphilister”.

Part Five: feeling and concept · Read the section

Regime

radical myth

Pivotal text

critique of the Gospels

In debate with

Engels ; Onfray

receives a response from

• attested response Engels Read the sectionThe 1882 article on Bauer and early Christianity.

Part Six: the Hegelian left and its adversaries · Read the section

Regime

faith against Christendom

Pivotal text

Øieblikket (1855) ; Efterskrift (1846)

In debate with

Hegel ; Feuerbach as paradoxical ally

responds to

• attested response Hegel Read the sectionThe existing individual against the system, faith against mediation.

Part Six: the Hegelian left and its adversaries · Read the section

Regime

symptom

Pivotal text

Einleitung (1844) ; Theses (1845)

In debate with

Feuerbach, Stirner, Bauer ; Löwith against them

responds to

• attested response Feuerbach Read the sectionThe Theses on Feuerbach (1845): the earthly basis of religion must be transformed.
• attested response Stirner Read the sectionThe German Ideology and “Saint Max”.

receives a response from

• attested response Löwith Read the sectionMeaning in History (1949): Christian eschatology transposed.

Regime

translation and novel

Pivotal text

The Essence of Christianity (1854)

In debate with

Feuerbach, Strauss

Part Six: the Hegelian left and its adversaries · Read the section

Regime

symptom

Pivotal text

Einleitung (1844) ; Theses (1845)

In debate with

Feuerbach, Stirner, Bauer ; Löwith against them

responds to

• attested response Feuerbach Read the sectionLudwig Feuerbach (1886): he does not want to abolish religion, he wants to complete it.
• attested response Bruno Bauer Read the sectionThe 1882 article on Bauer and early Christianity.

Part Seven: the ordeal and the genealogy · Read the section

Regime

the ordeal of the novel

Pivotal text

The Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880)

In debate with

Renan, Belinsky ; Camus, Sartre

responds to

• attested response Renan Read the sectionA Writer's Diary (1873) on Renan's Christ, an ideal of human beauty.

receives a response from

• attested response Camus Read the sectionThe Rebel (1951) reads Ivan Karamazov and metaphysical rebellion.

Part Five: feeling and concept · Read the section

Regime

sentimental history

Pivotal text

Life of Jesus (1863)

In debate with

Dostoevsky ; Nietzsche against him

receives a response from

• attested response Dostoevsky Read the sectionA Writer's Diary (1873) on Renan's Christ, an ideal of human beauty.

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

animism ; magic, religion, science

Pivotal text

Primitive Culture (1871) ; The Golden Bough

In debate with

Wittgenstein against Frazer

Part Eight: the sciences of religion and spiritual experience · Read the section

Regime

individual experience

Pivotal text

The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)

In debate with

Durkheim

responds to

• attested response Clifford Read the sectionThe Will to Believe (1896) answers The Ethics of Belief (1877).

receives a response from

• attested response Otto Read the sectionOtto borrows testimonies from the Varieties and reproaches James for having collected them without paying attention to the irrational that quivers in them.

Part Seven: the ordeal and the genealogy · Read the section

Regime

value, genealogy

Pivotal text

The Gay Science ; The Antichrist

In debate with

Schopenhauer, Renan, Strauss ; Heidegger against him

responds to

• attested response Paul of Tarsus Read the sectionThe Antichrist § 42: Paul, inventor of Christianity against the good news.
• attested response Strauss Read the sectionThe first Untimely Meditation (1873) against the “Bildungsphilister”.
• attested response Schopenhauer Read the sectionFrom educator to foil: the denial of the will to live as the last avatar of the ascetic ideal.

receives a response from

• attested response Girard Read the section“Dionysus versus the Crucified”: Girard reads Nietzsche as the one who saw the difference and chose Dionysus, that is, the crowd against the victim.
• attested response Heidegger Read the section“The Word of Nietzsche: God is Dead”: Nietzsche the last metaphysician.

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

the ethics of belief

Pivotal text

“The Ethics of Belief” (1877) ; “The Will to Believe” (1896)

In debate with

James against Clifford ; Pascal

receives a response from

• attested response William James Read the sectionThe Will to Believe (1896) answers The Ethics of Belief (1877).

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

animism ; magic, religion, science

Pivotal text

Primitive Culture (1871) ; The Golden Bough

In debate with

Wittgenstein against Frazer

receives a response from

• attested response Wittgenstein Read the sectionThe remarks on The Golden Bough: against the intellectualist explanation of rites.

Part Eight: the sciences of religion and spiritual experience · Read the section

Regime

illusion of desire

Pivotal text

Die Zukunft einer Illusion (1927)

In debate with

Romain Rolland ; Feuerbach

responds to

• attested response Romain Rolland Read the sectionCivilization and Its Discontents (1930) discusses the oceanic feeling of the 1927 letter.

receives a response from

• attested response Ricoeur Read the sectionDe l'interprétation (1965): reading Freud to the end in order to pass through the critique.
• attested response Girard Read the sectionThe founding murder of Totem und Tabu taken up and transformed.

Part Eight: the sciences of religion and spiritual experience · Read the section

Regime

social function

Pivotal text

The Elementary Forms (1912)

In debate with

James ; Bergson

receives a response from

• attested response Bergson Read the sectionThe Two Sources (1932) discusses the sociological theory of religion.
• attested response Girard Read the sectionThe social unanimity of the sacred explained by the scapegoat victim.

Part Eight: the sciences of religion and spiritual experience · Read the section

Regime

static and dynamic religion

Pivotal text

The Two Sources (1932)

In debate with

Durkheim, James

responds to

• attested response Durkheim Read the sectionThe Two Sources (1932) discusses the sociological theory of religion.
• attested response Leibniz Read the sectionCreative Evolution, ch. IV: the idea of nothingness as a pseudo-idea, in Spinoza or Leibniz.

Part Eight: the sciences of religion and spiritual experience · Read the section

Regime

disenchantment

Pivotal text

Wissenschaft als Beruf (1919)

In debate with

Nietzsche ; Gauchet

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

Regime

the historical Jesus and the mythicist thesis

Pivotal text

Von Reimarus zu Wrede (1906) ; Die Christusmythe (1909) ; Le Mystère de Jésus (1924) ; Did Jesus Exist? (2012)

In debate with

Goguel against Couchoud ; Onfray

Regime

oceanic feeling

Pivotal text

letter to Freud (1927)

In debate with

Freud

receives a response from

• attested response Freud Read the sectionCivilization and Its Discontents (1930) discusses the oceanic feeling of the 1927 letter.

Part Eight: the sciences of religion and spiritual experience · Read the section

Regime

experience: the numinous

Pivotal text

Das Heilige (1917)

In debate with

Schleiermacher, Kant

responds to

• attested response Schleiermacher Read the sectionThe Idea of the Holy, chapter 3: the feeling of dependence presupposes the Kreaturgefühl and the inaccessibility of the object; Schleiermacher's discovery is acknowledged, then corrected.
• attested response William James Read the sectionOtto borrows testimonies from the Varieties and reproaches James for having collected them without paying attention to the irrational that quivers in them.

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

is belief rational?

Pivotal text

Why I Am Not a Christian (1927) ; The Miracle of Theism (1982) ; Warranted Christian Belief (2000)

In debate with

Hume ; Leibniz

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

religious function of the psyche

Pivotal text

Psychology and Religion (1938)

In debate with

Freud ; Buber against him

receives a response from

• attested response Buber Read the sectionEclipse of God (1952): Jung's religion reduced to the psyche.

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

Regime

the historical Jesus and the mythicist thesis

Pivotal text

Von Reimarus zu Wrede (1906) ; Die Christusmythe (1909) ; Le Mystère de Jésus (1924) ; Did Jesus Exist? (2012)

In debate with

Goguel against Couchoud ; Onfray

responds to

• attested response Strauss and Bauer Read the sectionVon Reimarus zu Wrede (1906) writes the history of the quest for the historical Jesus and judges its predecessors.

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

Regime

the historical Jesus and the mythicist thesis

Pivotal text

Von Reimarus zu Wrede (1906) ; Die Christusmythe (1909) ; Le Mystère de Jésus (1924) ; Did Jesus Exist? (2012)

In debate with

Goguel against Couchoud ; Onfray

receives a response from

• attested response Goguel Read the sectionJésus de Nazareth : mythe ou histoire ? (1925) answers Le Mystère de Jésus (1924).

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem · Read the section

responds to

• attested response Couchoud Read the sectionJésus de Nazareth : mythe ou histoire ? (1925) answers Le Mystère de Jésus (1924).

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

philosophical faith

Pivotal text

Der philosophische Glaube (1948)

In debate with

Bultmann, Heidegger ; Camus against him

responds to

• attested response Bultmann Read the sectionDie Frage der Entmythologisierung (1954): myth cannot be translated without loss.

receives a response from

• attested response Camus Read the sectionThe Myth of Sisyphus (1942): Jaspers's leap towards transcendence.

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

anxiety and uncertainty

Pivotal text

Magic, Science and Religion (1925)

In debate with

Durkheim

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

religion as unbelief

Pivotal text

Kirchliche Dogmatik I/2, § 17 (1938)

In debate with

Feuerbach

responds to

• attested response Feuerbach Read the sectionFeuerbach is right about religion as the experience of wicked and mortal man.

receives a response from

• attested response Bonhoeffer Read the sectionThe letters of 1944: the “positivism of revelation”.

Part Eleven: secularization on trial · Read the section

Regime

secularization of concepts

Pivotal text

Politische Theologie (1922)

In debate with

Blumenberg

receives a response from

• attested response Blumenberg Read the sectionReoccupation against political theology.

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

onto-theology

Pivotal text

Identität und Differenz (1957)

In debate with

Nietzsche ; Marion against him

responds to

• attested response Nietzsche Read the section“The Word of Nietzsche: God is Dead”: Nietzsche the last metaphysician.
• attested response Leibniz Read the sectionThe 1949 introduction to Was ist Metaphysik? takes up Leibniz's question.

receives a response from

• attested response Levinas Read the sectionEthics before ontology; “Heidegger, Gagarine et nous” (1961).
• attested response Marion Read the sectionGod Without Being (1982) turns the critique of onto-theology to the service of faith.

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

the mystical ; wonder

Pivotal text

Tractatus (1921) ; Lecture on Ethics (1929)

In debate with

Frazer ; Leibniz

responds to

• attested response Frazer Read the sectionThe remarks on The Golden Bough: against the intellectualist explanation of rites.
• constructed confrontation Leibniz Read the sectionWonder that the world is, without any demand for sufficient reason.

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

inner experience without God

Pivotal text

Somme athéologique (1943-1945)

In debate with

Nietzsche ; Sartre against him

receives a response from

• attested response Sartre Read the section“Un nouveau mystique” (1943) against L'Expérience intérieure.

Part Eleven: secularization on trial · Read the section

Regime

secularized eschatology

Pivotal text

Meaning in History (1949)

In debate with

Marx, Comte ; Blumenberg against him

responds to

• attested response Marx and Comte Read the sectionMeaning in History (1949): Christian eschatology transposed.

receives a response from

• attested response Blumenberg Read the sectionDie Legitimität der Neuzeit (1966) against the thesis of secularized eschatology.
• attested response Leo Strauss Read the sectionA long correspondence on modernity: the critique of historicism and the return to the Ancients.

Part Eleven: secularization on trial · Read the section

Regime

Athens and Jerusalem

Pivotal text

Die Religionskritik Spinozas (1930) ; Persecution and the Art of Writing (1952)

In debate with

Spinoza, Maimonides ; Löwith

responds to

• attested response Spinoza Read the sectionDie Religionskritik Spinozas (1930): modern critique has not refuted revelation.
• attested response Löwith Read the sectionA long correspondence on modernity: the critique of historicism and the return to the Ancients.

Part Eleven: secularization on trial · Read the section

Regime

secular religions

Pivotal text

Die politischen Religionen (1938) ; “L'avenir des religions séculières” (1944)

In debate with

Schmitt, Löwith, Camus ; Kelsen against Voegelin

Part Eleven: secularization on trial · Read the section

Regime

secular religions

Pivotal text

Die politischen Religionen (1938) ; “L'avenir des religions séculières” (1944)

In debate with

Schmitt, Löwith, Camus ; Kelsen against Voegelin

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

consistent atheism

Pivotal text

Existentialism Is a Humanism (1946)

In debate with

Bataille, Dostoevsky

responds to

• attested response Bataille Read the section“Un nouveau mystique” (1943) against L'Expérience intérieure.
• attested response Camus Read the sectionThe quarrel over The Rebel in Les Temps modernes (1952).

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

non-religious Christianity

Pivotal text

prison letters (1944)

In debate with

Barth, Feuerbach

responds to

• attested response Barth Read the sectionThe letters of 1944: the “positivism of revelation”.

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

ethics against onto-theology

Pivotal text

Totality and Infinity (1961) ; Difficult Freedom (1963)

In debate with

Heidegger ; Buber ; Descartes

responds to

• attested response Heidegger Read the sectionEthics before ontology; “Heidegger, Gagarine et nous” (1961).
• constructed confrontation Feuerbach Read the sectionThe I and the Thou: the unity of man with man, or the trace of the Other.

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

purifying atheism

Pivotal text

Gravity and Grace (1947)

In debate with

Eckhart ; Feuerbach implicitly

responds to

• constructed confrontation Feuerbach Read the sectionTwo atheisms: the one that purifies the notion of God, and humanist atheism, which puts man in the place of God and is only one more idolatry.

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

metaphysical revolt

Pivotal text

The Rebel (1951)

In debate with

Stirner, Ivan, Nietzsche, Marx ; Sartre and Jeanson

responds to

• attested response Jaspers Read the sectionThe Myth of Sisyphus (1942): Jaspers's leap towards transcendence.
• attested response Dostoevsky Read the sectionThe Rebel (1951) reads Ivan Karamazov and metaphysical rebellion.

receives a response from

• attested response Sartre and Jeanson Read the sectionThe quarrel over The Rebel in Les Temps modernes (1952).

Part Eight: the sciences of religion and spiritual experience · Read the section

Regime

hermeneutics after suspicion

Pivotal text

De l'interprétation. Essai sur Freud (1965)

In debate with

Marx, Nietzsche, Freud ; Barth

responds to

• attested response Freud Read the sectionDe l'interprétation (1965): reading Freud to the end in order to pass through the critique.

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

the Good without God

Pivotal text

The Sovereignty of Good (1970)

In debate with

Weil, Plato ; Sartre

Part Eleven: secularization on trial · Read the section

Regime

reoccupation, legitimacy

Pivotal text

Die Legitimität der Neuzeit (1966)

In debate with

Löwith, Schmitt

responds to

• attested response Löwith Read the sectionDie Legitimität der Neuzeit (1966) against the thesis of secularized eschatology.
• attested response Schmitt Read the sectionReoccupation against political theology.

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

spirituality of exercise

Pivotal text

Exercices spirituels et philosophie antique (1981)

In debate with

Foucault

responds to

• attested response Foucault Read the sectionHadot discusses Foucault's “care of the self”, too aesthetic in his eyes.

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

victimage mechanism

Pivotal text

Violence and the Sacred (1972)

In debate with

Durkheim, Freud, Nietzsche ; the sacrifice criterion

responds to

• attested response Nietzsche Read the section“Dionysus versus the Crucified”: Girard reads Nietzsche as the one who saw the difference and chose Dionysus, that is, the crowd against the victim.
• attested response Freud Read the sectionThe founding murder of Totem und Tabu taken up and transformed.
• attested response Durkheim Read the sectionThe social unanimity of the sacred explained by the scapegoat victim.
• constructed confrontation Gauchet Read the sectionChristianity, exit from sacrifice or religion of the exit from religion.

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

denial of death

Pivotal text

The Denial of Death (1973)

In debate with

Pascal, Kierkegaard

responds to

• constructed confrontation Pascal Read the sectionThe denial of death and diversion.

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

spirituality and truth

Pivotal text

The Hermeneutics of the Subject (1982)

In debate with

Hadot

receives a response from

• attested response Hadot Read the sectionHadot discusses Foucault's “care of the self”, too aesthetic in his eyes.

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

sacred canopy ; invisible religion

Pivotal text

The Sacred Canopy (1967)

In debate with

Durkheim, Weber

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

Islam facing the exit from religion

Pivotal text

Pour une critique de la raison islamique (1984) ; Comment sortir de la religion (2012)

In debate with

Averroes ; Gauchet

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

sacred canopy ; invisible religion

Pivotal text

The Sacred Canopy (1967)

In debate with

Durkheim, Weber

Part Eleven: secularization on trial · Read the section

Regime

post-secular, translation

Pivotal text

“Glauben und Wissen” (2001)

In debate with

Kant, Löwith

Part Eleven: secularization on trial · Read the section

Regime

secular age

Pivotal text

A Secular Age (2007)

In debate with

the “subtraction stories”

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

existential security

Pivotal text

Sacred and Secular (2004)

In debate with

Weber, Berger

Part Eleven: secularization on trial · Read the section

Regime

exit from religion

Pivotal text

The Disenchantment of the World (1985)

In debate with

Weber ; Ferry

receives a response from

• attested response Ferry Read the sectionThe public debate on what survives the exit from religion.
• constructed confrontation Girard Read the sectionChristianity, exit from sacrifice or religion of the exit from religion.

Part Ten: the twentieth century, God after metaphysics · Read the section

Regime

idol and icon

Pivotal text

God Without Being (1982)

In debate with

Heidegger

responds to

• attested response Heidegger Read the sectionGod Without Being (1982) turns the critique of onto-theology to the service of faith.

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

memory and lineage

Pivotal text

La Religion pour mémoire (1993)

In debate with

Gauchet

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

transcendence within immanence

Pivotal text

L'Homme-Dieu (1996)

In debate with

Gauchet, Comte-Sponville

responds to

• attested response Gauchet Read the sectionThe public debate on what survives the exit from religion.

receives a response from

• attested response Comte-Sponville Read the sectionThe quarrel of the two wisdoms: immanence against horizontal transcendence.

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

spirituality without God

Pivotal text

L'Esprit de l'athéisme (2006)

In debate with

Onfray against him

responds to

• attested response Ferry Read the sectionThe quarrel of the two wisdoms: immanence against horizontal transcendence.

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

existential security

Pivotal text

Sacred and Secular (2004)

In debate with

Weber, Berger

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

trajectory: from error to civilization

Pivotal text

Traité d'athéologie ; Décadence ; Théorie de Jésus

In debate with

Bataille, Engels, Comte-Sponville ; the Inquisitor

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition · Read the section

Regime

cognition

Pivotal text

Religion Explained (2001)

In debate with

Hume, Feuerbach

responds to

• constructed confrontation Hume Read the sectionAgent detection: the faces Hume already saw in the moon.

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

Islam facing the exit from religion

Pivotal text

Pour une critique de la raison islamique (1984) ; Comment sortir de la religion (2012)

In debate with

Averroes ; Gauchet

Part Nine: why do people believe? Need, function, cognition

responds to

• attested response Jung Read the sectionEclipse of God (1952): Jung's religion reduced to the psyche.

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God

receives a response from

• attested response Jaspers Read the sectionDie Frage der Entmythologisierung (1954): myth cannot be translated without loss.

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem

responds to

• attested response the mythicists Read the sectionDid Jesus Exist? (2012): an agnostic defends the historicity of Jesus against the mythicist thesis.

Part Three: the classical age, the God of the philosophers

responds to

• constructed confrontation Leibniz Read the sectionThe refusal of a harmony paid for with a child's tear, faced with theodicy.

receives a response from

• constructed confrontation Bayle Read the sectionThe society of virtuous atheists faced with “everything is permitted”.

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God · Read the section

Regime

a spirituality without God?

Pivotal text

Burnouf (1844) ; Der Antichrist §§ 20-23 ; Droit, Le Culte du néant (1997)

In debate with

Schopenhauer, Nietzsche

Part Four: the Enlightenment and religion within limits

receives a response from

• constructed confrontation Voltaire Read the section“Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer” (if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him): the Inquisitor's programme in one alexandrine.

Part Two: the birth of Christianity, between Athens and Jerusalem

receives a response from

• attested response Ehrman Read the sectionDid Jesus Exist? (2012): an agnostic defends the historicity of Jesus against the mythicist thesis.

Part Twelve: spiritualities without God

receives a response from

• constructed confrontation Stirner Read the section“Unsere Atheisten sind fromme Leute” (our atheists are pious people): Reason and Science as essences.