The Victim in Ethical Theology: Emmanuel Levinas and Jean Améry
Nietzsche would regard Levinas’ ethical theology, in which the moral subject is responsible for the oppressed as "other," as a "slave morality" which derives its moral force from resentment. In defence of Levinas’ ethics I turn to the life and reflections of Jean Améry, Jew, phil...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2007
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| In: |
Religious studies and theology
Year: 2007, Volume: 26, Issue: 2, Pages: 233-254 |
| Further subjects: | B
Jean Améry
B Levinas’ Tragical Ethical Theology B Nietzche |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Nietzsche would regard Levinas’ ethical theology, in which the moral subject is responsible for the oppressed as "other," as a "slave morality" which derives its moral force from resentment. In defence of Levinas’ ethics I turn to the life and reflections of Jean Améry, Jew, philosopher, atheist, resistance fighter tortured by the Gestapo, survivor of Auschwitz. His life is a "trace" of the tragic inhabiting Levinas’ theology. Améry rejects Nietzsche’s view of resentment. Drawing upon Bataille’s distinctive understanding of sadism, Améry claims that oppression is a pitiable degree of loneliness in the face of the tormentor’s lust for domination. This can be righted if the tormentor, by desiring to reverse this situation, becomes a fellow human being. Améry rejects evangelical forgiveness as a sub-moral abandonment of the oppressed’s responsibility for the oppressor. The historical impossibility of this reversal reveals the tragic destiny of the oppressed and of Levinas’ theology of the "other." |
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| ISSN: | 1747-5414 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religious studies and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/rsth.v26i2.233 |
