Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith: A Dialogue by Gianni Vattimo

Author:Gianni Vattimo [Vattimo, Gianni]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780231148283
Google: 1lisAgAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2010-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

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HERMENEUTICS, AUTHORITY,

TRADITION

Gianni Vattimo and René Girard

ROBERT HARRISON:1 I would like to ask René Girard to comment on the particular reading that Gianni Vattimo has given to his work by reinterpreting it in a Heideggerian key.

RENÉ GIRARD: I may not be the person best qualified to supply a response to Gianni Vattimo in strictly philosophical terms, but I must say nevertheless that I find myself in agreement with the bulk of what he has to say, especially when it comes to his claim about the relation between Heidegger and the Judeo-Christian scriptures. There have been numerous attempts, especially in France, to study the relation between Heidegger and the problem of God, but I have the impression that they have all glanced off the most important questions. For my part I believe that the closest links are to be found in the hermeneutic perspective, the end of metaphysics, and, especially, “productive” interpretation. A propos of this, I take the view that the Old Testament should be the point of departure, because it seems to me that the question of interpretation is already central in that very text. The Old Testament is already available to be read as an interpretive system. In Genesis, for example, the story of Joseph can be read as an interpretation of myth. Joseph is the mythical figure of the hero who is the victim of his own brothers, of the group he himself belongs to, and like many mythical figures (think of Oedipus), he is accused of having committed a sexual crime. Hence he is expelled, first from his own family and then from his adoptive country, as the person whose crime provoked the terrible plague that afflicts his people. The question posed by mythical texts and the Bible text is the same: “Is he guilty?” Myth always answers in the affirmative. Oedipus is guilty and his relatives and friends have the right to drive him out. But in the Old Testament story, the answer given is the opposite: Joseph is innocent, and his brothers, who are jealous, drive him out unjustly and hound him in mimetic fashion. So right from the start the Bible presents itself as an interpretation of mythology, and as a deconstruction of it.

In this sense I can say that I agree with Vattimo, even though my own trajectory and method of reasoning are different, primarily because I have to define myself as a “bad” Heideggerian, despite the fact that I have read Heidegger with some care. I only took an interest in some parts of Heidegger, and since I have always focused more on anthropology than philosophy, I have a more restricted vocabulary than does Vattimo, who certainly has a better title to the status of “creative Heideggerian” than I do. He is one of the few philosophers around who makes use of Heidegger in an original manner, reinterpreting him in new directions. And the idea that Christ is living interpretation seems highly valid to me. There is something missing in Vattimo’s discourse,

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