| Abstract: | The article argues that the debate between Derrida and Marion about the impossibility of gift is in fact a debate about the proper method of phenomenology. In order to analyse the giving of gifts it must not be understood as a particular case of ‘giving’ but as a social practice in its own right. The gift constitutes its addressee in a purely passive way, and this passivity is the most significant aspect of the giving of gifts both in everyday life and in religion. Various religious and philosophical symbolisations of this passivity are explored and criticised. The human passivity brought out by gifts is not lack but enrichment. This is a decisive insight of the Christian view of human passivity. |
