Emmanuel Levinas and the Hospitality of Images
When it comes to interfaith dialogue between the Abrahamic religions, there is a prevailing assumption that the best place to start is with Scripture, with a common emphasis on ‘the book’. In this essay, I want to suggest a different route. The visual arts, I will contend, can offer a powerful but u...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2011
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| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2011, Volume: 25, Issue: 4, Pages: 364-378 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | When it comes to interfaith dialogue between the Abrahamic religions, there is a prevailing assumption that the best place to start is with Scripture, with a common emphasis on ‘the book’. In this essay, I want to suggest a different route. The visual arts, I will contend, can offer a powerful but under-appreciated resource for inter-religious dialogue, stimulating genuinely new ways of seeing the Other. I will make my case for the hospitality of images through a re-reading of the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. While Levinas can be sharply critical of the visual arts, at the same time a strong aesthetic vein runs through his work, which has been consistently obscured or overlooked by scholars. Exploiting such visual dimensions, I will read Levinas against the grain, suggesting ways in which art might meet the stringent demands of his ethical vision, and as such offer an ideal site for interfaith dialogue. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frr050 |