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GIANNI VATTIMO AND RENÉ GIRARD ON THE UNIQUENESS OF CHRISTIANITY
Author(s) -
DEPOORTERE FREDERIEK
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the heythrop journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.127
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1468-2265
pISSN - 0018-1196
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2265.2008.00468.x
Subject(s) - christianity , naturalism , philosophy , religiosity , reading (process) , natural (archaeology) , religious studies , epistemology , theology , history , linguistics , archaeology
The possibility of a naturalistic explanation of religious phenomena (including Christianity) which is offered by natural science gives the question of the uniqueness of Christianity a new urgency, for it raises the question of whether an irreducible otherness in Christianity vis‐à‐vis a generally‐human, natural religiosity (which may be explained naturalistically) can be demonstrated. In what follows, we shall discuss the answer of two contemporary thinkers to this question: that of the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo and that of the French‐American literary critic and fundamental anthropologist René Girard. There is also an interesting link between both thinkers, as we shall see below – Vattimo has stated that it was his reading of Girard which made him return to Christianity after having abandoned it earlier in his life.