Heidegger and Scripture: The Calling of Thinking in Our Abandonment

Abstract

This paper seeks to perform an interdisciplinary reading of some scriptural passages in light of Heidegger‘s phenomenology generally and his discussion of thinking in particular. The paper treats one passage from Isaiah and two from the Gospels of Luke and John that highlight the human situation of signification (or meaning) and abandonment (or alienation). Using Heidegger‘s description of experience, which roots the logic and unfolding of meaning as expressing the structure of human existence, the paper proposes that the movement toward the divine that each of the scriptural passages embodies (albeit each in its own unique situation) moves us toward an essential insight--namely that the human being exists as a divine sign of care. As such a sign, humans exist not just as the reception of the calling but also as the very calling of thinking itself.

Keywords

• phenomenology
• heidegger
• husserl
• signification
• continental philosophy of religion
• abandonment