The (im)possibilities of Levinas for Christian Theology: the search for a language of alterity

The paper aims to show how Levinas’ philosophy opens up a style of thinking and suggests a vocabulary of expression that can serve Christian theology, especially by opening the possibility of a language of alterity, or radical “otherness”, in theology. At the very risk of falling into the language of onto-theology, the paper will make use of a number of Levinasian notions to enhance Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theological reading of John 20:19-23 and his analogy of the transcendentals. The sense of the non-phenomenality of Christ’s otherness will be pivotal to our inquiry and our hope to unite theological language and ethical transcendence together. ISBN: 978-90-429-2119-