Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Quick thought on Parousia


Just read this direct quote from the Wikepedia article on Deconstruction/Christianity/ Jean Luc Nancy: "For Nancy, because Christ is central to the formation of value and meaning in Christianity; because parousia is an announcement of a Christ to come; and because the promised return of Christ involves the return of a person who lived in the past, then Christianity as a framework of thought supports the notion that 'traces' of the non-present (i.e. past and future) are constitutive of the present."

I wonder how and if this connects with Karl Barth's threefold understanding of the parousia? The fact that the Resurrected (1st parousia) and the Glorified (3rd parousia) is radically with us through the Spirit after Pentecost (2nd parousia). Both non-present traces are crucial in our present understanding of Christ. You cannot understand the parousia without all three.

I have been debating on whether or not to engage Nancy. I have a couple of recent edited books on political thinking that he contributes; I guess after those I can decide on whether or not to read some of his other philosophy.

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