Jean-Luc Marion: the reinscription of heteronormativity into postmodern theology

ABSTRACT

Since the “theological turn” in continental philosophy, theologians have regularly turned to phenomenology as an authentic opening to a new mode of theological discourse. Yet, when these theo-phenomenological discourses turn to the questions of sexuality, gender, and love they often fail to live up to the radical opening promised by this turn. Taken as a case study, the work of Jean-Luc Marion is emblematic of this failure. While many of his insights might offer new openings for theological thought, his phenomenological speculations nonetheless often merely serve to re-inscribe a traditional, even reactionary heteronormativity into the heart of postmodern theological thought. In fact, it is not uncommon to catch his work offering a denigration of the body, presupposing a determinately male subject, and foreclosing the very possibility of non-heterosexual love. This critical examination of Marion’s account of sexuality shows that even the most radical phenomenological theology needs the ideological interruption of queer theory.     

Beyond the Apophatic Circle: Rethinking the Debate Between Jean-Luc Marion and Jacques Derrida

This study offers a new perspective on the much-discussed debate between French phenomenologist Jean-Luc Marion and postructuralist theorist Jacques Derrida on the question of ‘negative theology’ and the Christian mystical tradition. It argues that Marion's critique of Derrida betrays a fundamental misunderstanding, specifically, that it fails to recognise that Derrida is not interested in negative theology qua theology, but rather as a discursive practice with certain resources for the performative ‘unsaying’ of logocentric systems. It continues to show that Derrida's principal object is not the God of apophatic theology, but the broader, juridico-political implications of all ‘transcendental signifieds’. Finally, it suggests that Marion's oversight of these facts in his defence of the apophatic tradition unwittingly legitimates Derrida's critique, to the extent that it insulates the Christian tradition from external criticism, and thereby limits the responsiveness of that tradition to the demands of justice.     

'Whereof We Speak': Gregory of Nyssa, Jean-Luc Marion and the Current Apophatic Rage

Recent postmodern discussions of the Christian apophatic tradition level a noteworthy criticism: after all its negations doesn't Christian apophatic discourse in fact slip back into kataphatic assertions about God? This article seeks to address this claim by bringing into concert two important Christian apophaticists (Gregory of Nyssa and Jean‐Luc Marion) in order to designate a type of discourse that emerges from apophatic union, a discourse that is not kataphatic but logophatic.     

The phenomenon and the transcendental: Jean-Luc Marion, Marc Richir, and the issue of phenomenalization

After reviewing the status of the concept of the phenomenon in Husserl??s phenomenology and the aim of successive attempts to reform, de-formalize, and to widen it, we show the difficulties of a method that, following the example of Jean-Luc Marion??s phenomenology, intends to connect the phenomenon directly to the revelation of an exteriority. We argue that, on the contrary, Marc Richir??s phenomenology, which strives to grasp the phenomenon as nothing-but-phenomenon, is more likely to capture the ??meaning?? of the phenomenological, and hence to help us orient in the field of problems that phenomenology encounters without always knowing how to tackle them. Yet, this extension of the phenomenon??s domain does not thereby encompass everything: there may well be certain issues that require a phenomenology without phenomenon; but the meaning of this cannot be determined before the complete reenvisioning of transcendental phenomenology.     

Theoria versus Poesis: Neoplatonism and Trinitarian Difference in Aquinas,John Milbank,Jean-Luc Marion and John Zizioulas

The totality with which postmodern Christian theology asserts its right to proceed independently of philosophy is, in fact, philosophically situated and determined. Heidegger, primarily, defines theology's project by his narration of Western Fate in terms of onto-theology. Two trinitarian differences are required of theologians who understand theology's situation thus: the first, associated with the procession of the Logos, requires getting beyond philosophy; the second, associated with the Spirit, requires getting beyond theology to poesis. Following Heidegger transforms theology into poesis and praxis. Beginning from a criticism of Aquinas implicit in a contrast made by Milbank between true trinitarian differential ontology and that possible from within Aristotelian categories like potency, act and actus purus , the paper considers what response might be made on behalf of medieval western philosophical theology and its development of trinitarian difference within theoria. The argument is that its union of Neoplatonic negative theology and metaphysics does not escape being onto-theology but does provide genuine trinitarian difference.     

The Problem of Having Both a Body and a Name in the Work of Jean-Luc Marion

In this essay, and following upon both Jacques Lacan’s and Jacques Derrida’s personal struggles with fatherhood and the naming of their children, I take up what I consider to be Jean-Luc Marion’s failure to deal with the embodiment of fatherhood through an examination of patriarchal signification, or, specifically, the naming of one’s children after the father — at least insofar as Marion’s brief analysis of this symbolic act points toward his failure to think through the various potential and lived embodiments of the father. I aim to illuminate how his efforts to continue this naming of the child with the father’s name speak more directly to an idealized (“theologized”) vision of our world that need not be serviced, indeed, which we would benefit from not utilizing at all. I wish, in an autobiographical-phenomenological response to Marion, to point to other names, other relationships, and other ways of perceiving how one might be situated within our world. I follow Sara Ahmed in calling “queer” ways in which a phenomenological account of the subject’s identity are not a pretext for perpetuating a quasi-theological, patriarchal agenda.     

Marion Woodman: An Embodied Life

Marion Woodman, internationally recognized author and speaker, died in July 2018 at the age of 89, leaving a rich legacy. A distinguished Jungian analyst, she was a pioneer in applying Jung’s principles to eating disorders, addictions, and the body. The author reflects on key influences affecting Woodman’s journey with the Self, as well as her extension of Jung’s thoughts on the feminine and active imagination with the body. Marion’s life can be seen to fulfill Jung’s concept of the “experiment of one’s life,” and thus is an example of a new consciousness seeking to be born—especially in the realm of the long-repressed feminine. The BodySoul Rhythms? program became the culmination of Marion’s research and application of Jung’s understanding of the basic unity of psyche and soma. These embodied practices support the integration of both into consciousness and promote a deeper relationship with the Self.