The “carnal turn” in the discussion about the Sacred
https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6401-2023-3-28-42
Abstract
The paper is concerned with the carnal turn in contemporary philosophical theology. In the theological studies religion is often interpreted as primarily belonging to the sphere of the spiritual. While it is true that for most religious traditions (Christian as well as non-Christian) God is a spiritual and disembodied being, even the presence of God is always a mediated presence, and it may well be argued that this mediation is always material in character. We analyze theological aspects of the project carnal hermeneutics (Richard Kearney, Brian Treanor, John Panteleimon Manoussakis). Carnal hermeneutics shows the new philosophical turn away from the overly abstract, relativist and limited emphasis on structural linguistics and deconstruction in favor of a new emphasis on the on the fundamental act of incarnation. From that new point of view, linguistics and textual exegesis may continue to be a necessary aspect of hermeneutics – but they are not sufficient in themselves. It is a way of thinking which might help us recover the body as text and the text as body: to restore hermeneutics to phenomenology and vice versa and to remind us that interpretation is never a dis-embodied act. Carnal hermeneutics declares the living presence of the body as the inescapable foundation of our very being – inclusive of any act of interpretation. The carnal hermeneutics insists upon the crisscrossing of text and flesh, which both denies the collapsing of flesh into text (and vice versa) and also reveals the utter inextricability of the two.
About the Author
S. A. Konacheva
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Svetlana A. Konacheva, Dr. of Sci. (Philosophy), associate professor
bld. 6, Miusskaya Square, Moscow
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Review
For citations:
Konacheva S.A. The “carnal turn” in the discussion about the Sacred. RSUH/RGGU BULLETIN. Series Philosophy. Social Studies. Art Studies. 2023;(3):28-42. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6401-2023-3-28-42
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