From Religion to Faith: Levinasian Ethics and the Grammar of Address

The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory January 1, 2002

Source

Raschke - From Religion to Faith - JCRT 4.1

Carl A. Raschke
University of Denver

Terrible Spirit, your discourse has smitten me to the ground.

—Johann Gottlieb Fichte

The theoretical question of 'religion' is essentially that of 'divinity,' what the Greeks from Homer through the early Church fathers understand as ho theos, that which 'shines forth.' That question belongs appropriately neither to 'theology' nor to philosophy. It is not a question 'about' God, whatever that token may indicate in a 'cross-cultural' or 'multi-traditional' sense. Nor does it cycle within the orbit of what in these later decades has acquired the non-descript classification of 'religious studies,' or 'the study of religion.' It is a question that can only be posed in the breach. The query itself assaults the lattice of significations that girds the discourse we in the Occident have come to know as 'questioning.' It pries open a space; it constitutes a style of 'criture that is equally a means of 'erasure', giving us an epiphany of darkness that has nothing to do with the lucidity of the proposition, representation, or statement which the theoretical mind anticipates.

 > With you inspiring me I shall be affirming true things, which by your will I draw out these words. For I do not believe I give true exposition if anyone other than you is inspiring me. You are the truth, but every man is a liar.

Notes

Carl A. Raschke is professor of religious studies at the University of Denver and senior editor of the Journal for Religious and Cultural Theory. His major books include The End of Theology (The Davies Group, 2000), Fire and Roses: Postmodernity and the Thought of the Body (SUNY 1996), The Engendering God (Westminster Press, 1995), Painted Black (Harper Collins, 1990), Theological Thinking (Scholars Press, 1988). He is the author of over 200 popular and scholarly articles on subjects ranging from postmodern religious thought to computer-mediated education to new religious movements. He is formerly president of the Rocky Mountain-Great Plains Region of the American Academy of Religion and an editor of several series with the American Academy of Religion. He is also a well-known national media personality.

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