<Articles>The varieties of nothingness-qua-being and being-qua-nothingness in Hajime Tanabe's philosophy of religion

This paper describes a study that investigates the varieties and evolution of nothingness-qua-being 無即有 and being-qua-nothingness 有即無 in Hajime Tanabe's philosophy of religion (from Philosophy as Metanoetics to Philosophy of Death). Nothingness-qua-being means that absolute nothingness saves beings by mediating them. Being-qua-nothingness means that beings become intermediaries of absolute nothingness and cooperate with it to save other beings. Nothingness-qua-being and being-qua-nothingness constitute the pivot point of the relation between religion and ethics, which is Tanabe's lifework. Nothingness-qua-being, from Philosophy as Metanoetics to Demonstratio of Christianity, means that absolute nothingness works by mediating beings who are already saved by absolute nothingness. However, in Philosophy of Death, the dead are also regarded as intermediaries of absolute nothingness. The dead who were bound to us by ties of love teach and guide us after their deaths. Being-qua-nothingness is thought of as gensō ekō 還相回向 in Philosophy as Metanoetics. Gensō ekō is a concept of Shinran's and refers to the guidance that beings who have already been saved give other beings to save them. In Tanabe's philosophy, gensō ekō means that beings who have already undergone resurrection 死復活, have become intermediaries of absolute nothingness, and save other beings. In Existenz, Love, and Praxis, being-qua-nothingness is thought of as charity, a concept which is strongly attached to God's love and love of God. In Demonstratio of Christianity, being-qua-nothingness is thought of as loving one's enemies 愛敵, which means that we sacrifice ourselves as we battle against enemies because we love them, realizing cooperation through love 愛の協同. In Philosophy of Death, being-qua-nothingness is thought of as bodhisattva-way 菩薩道, which means that we put our own salvation on the bottom of our list and prioritize saving others. Thus, all of the varieties of being-qua-nothingness are concrete praxis and characterize Tanabe's philosophy of religion