Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T02:25:13.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Doing Violence upon God: Nonviolent Alterities and Their Medieval Precedents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Ian Almond
Affiliation:
Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

Extract

The Other resembles God.

To welcome the Other absolutely is to preserve the Other as a state of irreducible uncertainty, to suspend the desire to ascertain exactly who or what the Other is, to suppress the wish to name, and to avoid assimilating or incorporating the Other into a reassuringly familiar vocabulary. The object of this paper is a tentative comparison between Eckhartian gelâzenheit and Derridean openness. I will compare the Derridean response to the uncertainty of the infinitely Other with that of the German Dominican preacher Meister Eckhart (1260–1329) in order to examine their respective terms of “emptiness” and “openness” and to try to understand how Eckhart's idea of description or conception as doing violence upon the Other is, in part, adopted and, in part, rejected by Jacques Derrida. As some of the most interesting aspects of Derrida's understanding of otherness can be discerned in his early work on Levinas, I will first examine Derrida's initial skepticism toward the idea of a nonviolent phenomenology, in contrast to his more recent reappraisal of his relation to Levinas and the “welcome of the Other.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Emmanual Levinas, cited in Derrida, Jacques, Writing and Difference (London: Routledge and Kegan, 1978) 70Google Scholar.

2 Eckhart, Meister, “Renovamini spiritu,” in Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings (ed. Davies, Oliver; London: Penguin, 1994) 235.Google Scholar

3 Eckhart, Meister, “Haec dicit dominus,” in Meister Eckhart: Sermons and Treatises (ed. Walshe, M. O'C.; 3 vols.; London: Watkins, 1979) 2. 249.Google Scholar

4 , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 89.Google Scholar

5 Heidegger, Martin, Gelassenheit (New York: Harper and Row, 1966) 62.Google Scholar

6 Heidegger, Martin, Der Satz vom Grund (Pfullingen: Neske, 1978) 71.Google Scholar

7 , Heidegger, Gelassenheit, 62.Google Scholar

8 Derrida, Jacques, “Post-Scriptum,” in Coward, Harold and Foshay, Toby, eds., Derrida and Negative Theology (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992) 316.Google Scholar

9 , Eckhart, Selected Writings, 245.Google Scholar

10 Jacques Derrida, “Perhaps or Maybe,” interview by Alexander Garcia Diittma, in Midgley, Nick, ed., Responsibilities of Deconstruction (Coventry: Parousia Press, 1997) 4Google Scholar.

11 , Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works (London: SPCK, 1987) 50.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., 75. Grosseteste, the thirteenth-century commentator on Dionysius, best sums up this idea of multiplicity as a means of returning to oneness: “Without material forms and figures…we shall eventually contemplate the divine and intellectual beings, yet we shall not be able to attain to this contemplation unless we first use both the uplifting forms and the material figures.” Minnis, A. J. and Scott, A. B., Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988) 169.Google Scholar

13 “Doch sint uns die namen erloubet, damite in die heiligen genant hânt” (, Eckhart, “Misit dominus manum suam,” in Meister Eckhart: Werke [ed. Largier, Nikolaus; Frankfurt am Main: Kohlhammer, 1993] 566;Google Scholar ET: , Eckhart, Selected Writings, 129)Google Scholar.

14 Cited in Hyman, Arthur and Walsh, J., Philosophy in the Middle Ages (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1973) 492.Google Scholar

15 “das si swigen und wolten nicht liegen” (, Eckhart, “Eratis enim aliquando tenebrae,” in Werke, 558;Google Scholaridem, Selected Writings, 136).

16 “Da von swig und klafe nit von gotte; wande mit dem, so du von ime claffest, so Iugest du, so tûstu sunde” (, Eckhart, Werke, 190;Google Scholaridem, Selected Writings, 236).

17 Cited in , Hyman and , Walsh, Philosophy in the Middle Ages, 376Google Scholar.

18 Ibid., 377.

19 “Wer dâ spraeche daz got guot waere, der taete im als unrehte, als ob er die sunnen swarz hieze” (Eckhart, “Quasi Stella matutina,” in Quint, Josef, Textbuch zur Mystik des deutschen Mittelalters [Halle: Niemeyer, 1952] 12;Google Scholaridem, Meister Eckhart: An Introduction to the Study of his Works with an Anthology of his Sermons [ed. Clark, James M.; London: Nelson and Sons, 1957] 207)Google Scholar.

20 “Aber wir tuon im gewalt und unreht mit dem, daz wir in sines natiurlichen werkes hindern mit unbereitschaft” (, Eckhart, Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen und lateinischen Werke [ed. Quint, Josef; 5 vols.; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1936] 5.Google Scholar 281; idem, Selected Writings, 41).

21 The three citations (in order) are taken from “In hoc apparuit,” in Sermons and Treatises, 1. 117; “Omne datum optimum,” in Meister Eckhart: An Introduction, 173; and “Quasi vas auri,” in Schürmann, Reiner, Meister Eckhart, Mystic and Philosopher: Translations with Commentary (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978) 102Google Scholar.

22 Derrida, Jacques, Of Grammatology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976) 292.Google Scholar

23 Meister Eckhart, “Mulier, venit hora et nunc est,” in , Schürmann, Meister Eckhart, Mystic and Philosopher, 57Google Scholar.

24 “Daz dritte: si enhate so vil zttes niht, daz si in genante. Si enkan sô lange von minne niht gekênen; si enmac kein andrer wort geleisten wan minne” (, Eckhart, “Surrexit autem Saulus,” in Werke, 70;Google Scholaridem in , Schürmann, Meister Eckhart, Mystic and Philosopher, 125)Google Scholar.

25 , Derrida, Of Grammatology, 283.Google Scholar

26 , Eckhart, Selected Writings, 236.Google Scholar

27 “Swenne die tempel alsus ledic wirt von alien hindernissen, daz ist eigenschaft und unbekantheit, sô blicket er alsô schône daz im nieman wider schînen mac dan der ungeschaffenen got aleine” (, Eckhart, Werke, 16;Google Scholaridem, Selected Writings, 155).

28 , Schürmann, Meister Eckhart, Mystic and Philosopher, 200.Google Scholar

29 One could take issue with this, given the fact that in a number of sermons (“In his quae patris,” for example) Eckhart quotes that Derridean epitomy of phonocentricity 2 Cor 3:6 “The letter (that is, all outward practices) kills, but the Spirit gives life.” However, Eckhart's interesting amendment to the verse— “all outward practices” —suggests that what the Dominican understands by “letter” includes all discourse, written and spoken, a possibility reinforced by the verse quoted immediately afterward, Matt 6:7 “When you pray, do not use many words in your prayers like the Pharisees, for they think to be heard with much speaking” (, Eckhart, Sermons and Treatises, 1. 36).Google Scholar Meaning may well be privileged and separated from discourse here, but it is difficult to see how speech is privileged over writing.

30 , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 142.Google Scholar

31 “Aux prises avec des problèmes qui furent aussi bien ceux de la theologie négative” (Derrida, Jacques, L'Écriture et la différence [Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1967] 170;Google Scholaridem, Writing and Difference, 116).

32 “vielle amitie occulte entre la lumière et la puissance” (, Derrida, Écriture, 136;Google Scholaridem, Writing and Difference, 91).

33 , Derrida, Of Grammatology, 37.Google Scholar

34 , Coward, Derrida and Negative Theology, 219;Google Scholar Joseph Libertson is cited in Eaglestone, Robert, Ethical Criticism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997) 131; see alsoGoogle ScholarLlewellyn, John, Emmanuel Levinas (London: Routledge, 1995) 176CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 124.Google Scholar

36 Ibid., 111.

37 Ibid., 145.

38 Ibid., 90.

39 Ibid., 116.

40 Ibid., 121.

41 Ibid., 83.

42 Emmanuel Levinas, interview by Kearney, Richard, in Face to Face with Levinas (ed. Cohen, Richard; Albany: SUNY Press, 1986) 23Google Scholar.

43 “L'infiniment autre ne serait pas ce qu'il ést, il s'était infinité positive et s'il ne gardait en lui la négativité de l'in-défini, de 1'apeiron. ‘Infiniment autre’ ne signifie-t-il pas d'abord ce dontje ne peux venir à bout malgré un travail et une expérience interminables? Peut-on respecter l'Autre comrae Autre et chasser la négativité, le travail, hors de la transcendance comme le voudrait Levinas? LInfini positive (Dieu), si ces mots ont un sens, ne peut pas être infiniment Autre. Si L'on pense, comme Levinas, que l'lnfini positif tolère ou même exige l'altérité infinie, il faut alors renoncer à tout langage et d'abord au mot infini et au mot autre. L'infini ne s'entend comme Autre que sous la forme de l'in-fini. Dès que L'on veut penser l'lnfini comme plénitude positive (pôle de la transcendance non-négative de Levinas), l'Autre devient impensable, impossible, indicible. C'est peut-être vers cet impensable-impossible-indicible que nous appelle Levinas au-delà de l'être et du Logos (de la tradition). Mais cet appel ne doit pouvoir ni se penser ni se dire” (, Derrida, Ecriture, 168;Google Scholaridem, Writing and Difference, 114).

44 See , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 146.Google Scholar Eckhart's words can be found in his , sermon “Quasi Stella matutina,” in Meister Eckhart: An Introduction, 206Google Scholar.

45 , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 107.Google Scholar

46 Ibid., 101.

47 “La présence comme violence est le sens de la finitude” (, Derrida, Ecriture, 195;Google Scholaridem, Writing and Difference, 133).

48 , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 111.Google Scholar

49 Eckhart, “Surrexit autem Saulus,” in , Schürmann, Meister Eckhart, Mystic and Philosopher, 125Google Scholar.

50 “L'expérience de l'autre (de l'infini) est irréductible, elle est done ‘l'expérience par excellence’ (Totalite et Infinité)…Mais peut-on parler d'une expérience de I'autre ou de la difference? Le concept de I'expérience n'a-t-il pas toujours été déterminé par la métaphysique de la présence?” (, Derrida, Ecriture, 225;Google Scholaridem, Writing and Difference, 152).

51 , Derrida, Of Grammatology, 52.Google Scholar

52 “s'est protégée a jamais contre toute convocation absolument surprenante” (, Derrida, Écriture, 227;Google Scholaridem, Writing and Difference, 153).

53 In Nicholas's own library at Cues (or Cusa), on the river Moselle, the fifteenth-century churchman had in his possession Codex 21, one of the largest collections of Eckhart's Latin scholastic works. However, it was in a theological quarrel with the traditionalist theologian von Herrenberg that the Eckhartian influences of Cusano's works (particularly Of Learned Ignorance) were pointed out. For von Herrenberg at that time, “Eckhartian” is clearly just another word for “heretical.” Cusano was, in turn, prompted to defend “Magister Eghardus” at some length in his Apologia doctae ignorantiae (1448). SeeGoogle ScholarPenzo, Giorgio, Invito al Pensiero di Eckhart (Milan: Bompiani, 1997)Google Scholar.

54 , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 150.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., 146.

56 “Devant une pensée comme celle de Levinas, je n'ai jamais d'objection. Je suis prêt à souscrire tout ce q'il dit. ça ne veut pas dire que je pense la même chose de la meme façon; mais là les diffèrences sont très difficiles à determiner: que signifie dans ce cas-là la différence d'idiome, de langue, d'écriture? J'ai essayé de poser un certain nombre de questions à Levinas en le lisant … mais ce qui se passe là n'est pas de I'ordre du désaccord ou de la distance” (Derrida, Jacques and Labarriére, Pierre-Jean, Altérités [Paris: Editions Osiris, 1986] 74.Google Scholar My translation.)

57 See, for example, Simon Critchley: “If there indeed exists this happy homoiosis between Levinas and Derrida … then what on earth is Derrida doing in his extended, and at times highly critical, 1964 monograph on Levinas?” in , Midgley, Responsibilities of Deconstruction, 94Google Scholar.

58 Ibid., 13.

59 Derrida, Jacques, “Psyché: Inventions of the Other,” in A Derrida Reader: Between the Blinds (ed. Kamuf, Peggy; Exeter: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) 209.Google Scholar

60 Derrida, Jacques, “At This Very Moment in This Work Here I Am,” in A Derrida Reader, 414.Google Scholar

61 , Midgley, Responsibilities of Deconstruction, 3.Google Scholar

62 , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 146.Google Scholar

63 “La pensée de I'être n'est done jamais, dans son dévoilement, étrangère à une certaine violence” (, Derrida, Ecriture, 218;Google Scholaridem, Writing and Difference, 147).

64 , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 131, 83.Google Scholar

65 Citations (in order) from: , Eckhart, Selected Writings, 245;Google Scholaridem, “Intravit Jesus,” ibid., 159; idem, “Et cum factus esset,” ibid., 226.

66 “L'abandon à cette Gelassenheit n'exclut pas le plaisir ou la jouissance, il leur donne lieu au contraire. II ouvre lejeu de Dieu (de Dieu et avec Dieu, de Dieu avec soi et avec la création” (Derrida, Jacques, Sauf le nom [Paris: Editions Galilee, 1993] 102,Google Scholaridem, “Post-Scriptum,” in , Coward and , Foshay, Derrida and Negative Theology, 317)Google Scholar.

67 , Derrida, A Derrida Reader, 217.Google Scholar

68 , Eckhart, Selected Writings, 41.Google Scholar

69 Derrida, “Perhaps or Maybe,” in , Midgley, Responsibilities of Deconstruction, 6.Google Scholar

70 Eckhart, “Surrexit autem Paulus,” in , Schürmann, Meister Eckhart, Mystic and Philosopher, 125Google Scholar.

71 , Derrida, Writing and Difference, 312, n. 7.Google Scholar

72 , Midgley, Responsibilities of Deconstruction, 4;Google Scholar my emphasis.

73 , Derrida, A Derrida Reader, 414.Google Scholar

74 Ibid., 217.

75 , Pseudo-Dionysius, Complete Works, 58.Google Scholar

76 Turner, Denys, The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism (London: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 278.Google Scholar