The Gift of the Other: Levinas, Derrida, and a Theology of Hospitality

275 Pages·2014·1.265 MB·English

by  Andrew Shepherd

The Gift of the Other
Levinas, Derrida, and a
Th eology of Hospitality
Andrew Shepherd
With a Foreword by Steven Bouma-Prediger
C
The Gift of the Other
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“In a world of a wrongly supposed benign globalization on the one hand,
and various forms of militant reactionary movements on the other, millions
of people are on the move looking for a new homeland. But everywhere
the politics of fear and exclusion seem to predominate. In a thoughtful, yet
critical engagement with the philosophies of Levinas and Derrida, Andrew
Shepherd argues that the fundamental human reality need not be an inevitable
violence between the self and the other leading to a proliferation of ‘gated’
communities. Instead, a redeemed relationality expressed in ‘communion’
and radical hospitality is a normative possibility. This is so, because in the
embrace of the radical Other, the Messiah, all social, ethnic, economic, and
ideological differences have been absorbed and transcended to make way for
the ‘community of the Beloved.’ This passionate book makes philosophical
and theological discourse prophetic. May we all come under its spell!”
Charles Ringma
Regent College, Vancouver;
Asian Theological Seminary, Manila;
The University of Queensland, Brisbane
The Gift of the Other
Levinas, Derrida, and a
Theology of Hospitality
Andrew Shepherd
With a Foreword by Steven Bouma-Prediger
C
James Clarke & Co
James Clarke & Co
P.O. Box 60
Cambridge
CB1 2NT
United Kingdom
www.jamesclarke.co
[email protected]
ISBN: 978 0 227 17484 5
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A record is available from the British Library
First published by James Clarke & Co, 2014
Copyright © Andrew Shepherd, 2014
Published by arrangement
with Pickwick Publications
All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced, stored
electronically or in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without prior written permission from the
Publisher ([email protected]).
Contents
Foreword by Steven Bouma-Prediger ix
Preface xi
Introduction: A World for All? 1
1
The Transcendence of the Other and Infinite Responsibility:
The Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas 17
2
Unconditional Hospitality, the Gift of Deconstruction?
The Philosophy of Jacques Derrida 46
3
Levinasian and Derridean Hospitality: Ethics beyond
Ontology? 81
4
Gifted, Called, and Named: Trinitarian Personhood and an
Ontology of Communion 98
• A tête à tête—Wrestling with the Other 130
5
“LOGOS,” “Sacrificial Substitute,” and “Eikon”: Christology
and the Overcoming of Hostility 136
• A tête à tête—Seen by the Other 172
6
Dwelling in Christ and the In-Dwelling Other: Forming the
Ecclesial and Eschatological Self 176
• A tête à tête—A Drink with the Other 202
7
Performing a Different Script: Participation in the Practice
of Ecclesial Hospitality 208
• A tête à tête—Hosted by the Other 242
Conclusion: Grounded Hospitality: Community, Ecological
Care, and Inter-Faith Relationships 246
Bibliography 253
Foreword
Few today would doubt the claim that violence seems pervasive in con-
temporary society. Whether reading the local newspaper or the global
online news, whether watching the latest film or listening to the newest
music, violence of one sort or another seems omnipresent. The violence of
our late-modern age, furthermore, seems embedded in competing claims
about boundaries and identities and what some philosophers call our re-
lationship to “The Other.” Some people cheerily claim that boundaries are
(or soon will be) no more, since modern technologies are shrinking the
walls and distances that separate us. Such shrinkage will, these optimists
argue, render violence a thing of the past. Others claim that the promise
of such technological mastery is illusory. These cultural observers worry
that the next technology is just domination by another name. Meanwhile
an all too precious few worry about the plight of refugees and strangers in
our midst and strive to offer hospitality to those who are homeless in an
increasing number of ways.
In his fine book The Gift of the Other, Andrew Shepherd dives into
these deep waters and presents a timely and powerful argument for why
we Christians ought to resist the multiple forms of violence that tempt
us and why we ought to offer hospitality to the homeless in this age of
multiple displacements. In the first half of the book Andrew explains
and critiques the views of postmodern thinkers Emmanuel Levinas and
Jacques Derrida. While finding much of merit in Levinas and Derrida,
Andrew also identifies how they view alienation and hostility as intrinsic
to human being-in-the-world. Despite their best intentions these thinkers
conceive of human existence as inevitably adversarial and thus they can-
not construe the world in terms of an ontology of peace and communion.
For Derrida especially, violence is inescapable, since intersubjectivity itself
is always already violent, and hence there is no credible hope that hostility
can be overcome.
In the second half of the book Andrew cogently argues that the
Christian doctrines of the Trinity, creation, sin, and redemption—prop-
erly understood—provide robust resources for a theology and practice of
ix
Foreword
genuine homemaking and homecoming. Violence need not be, since we
humans are persons gifted, called, and named by the triune God of love.
In essence, Andrew presents a careful case for a theological rehabilitation
of the concept of hospitality. By attentively reading Scripture, mining the
riches of the Christian theological tradition, and engaging contemporary
thinkers, Andrew roots the practice of hospitality to the stranger in rich
theological soil. This soil includes some of the wisest of aged saints, such
as Irenaeus, Athanasius, and Gregory of Nyssa, along with more recent
voices such as Barth, Bonhoeffer, Moltmann, and Zizioulas.
As Andrew insists, pace many of the postmodern philosophers, vio-
lence is not woven into the warp and weft of creation but a distortion of the
shalom-filled way of being God intended for all creation. Difference does
not necessarily mean conflict. Mutuality and reciprocity are potentially
achievable and real—both the work of human hands and the gift of divine
grace. Self and Other are not necessarily engaged in a Hobbesian war of
all against all, but capable of authentic communion. What Andrew in The
Gift of the Other calls ecclesial hospitality reminds me of what Brian Walsh
and I, in our book Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of
Displacement, call sojourning community. We are neither well-ensconced
home-dwellers, safe and secure in our fortresses of sameness, nor are we
nomads perpetually peripatetic, on the road, heading nowhere. We are
neither eternal dwellers nor eternal wanderers, but Christ-following so-
journers at home on the way, traveling with others as people of memory,
community, and hospitality.
God’s blessings to you as take up and read this stimulating work of
timely scholarship. May you in reading it be inspired to engage in the
practice of ecclesial hospitality—the disciplined habit of offering a gra-
cious and joyous welcome to the strangers at your door. In so doing, you
bear witness to God’s great good future of shalom.
Steven Bouma-Prediger
x
Preface
All theology takes place in the context of a community of faith
and there are numerous others whose gifts—time, wisdom, and other
resources—have enabled and enriched this project. My thanks, firstly, to
Mark Forman for the discussions around New Zealand songwriter Dave
Dobbyn’s anthem to hospitality, “Welcome Home,” which gave renewed
impetus to my long-time theological reflections upon the importance of
the practice of “hospitality.” Kodesh Christian community in Auckland,
New Zealand, was our home during the early stages of research and their
provision of emotional and practical support demonstrated the very ethos
I sought to write about. I am grateful too for our next-door-neighbors and
friends, Marcel and Daphne, who provided me with both office space and
rich fellowship.
This book has its origins in a doctoral thesis undertaken through
the University of Otago, New Zealand. I acknowledge with gratitude my
supervisor Murray Rae, whose patience, theological astuteness and erudi-
tion ensured that the quality of work was of a far higher standard than
would have been achieved without his input and guidance. Likewise, I am
grateful to fellow postgraduate students who offered comments and reflec-
tions on draft sections of the work and to Ingrid, Mark, and Jono for their
painstakingly proofreading. Suffice to say, any mistakes contained within
stem therefore from my own oversights or omissions.
The axiomatic nature of the saying “hospitality begins at home” is
one that I can testify to. Without the support, aroha, and patience of my
wife Ingrid and daughters Julia, Kristin and Natalie this project would
never have been possible. It is a gift and joy to practice “hospitality” with
them to the many family, friends, and strangers who pass through our
home and lives. Finally, but most significantly, I acknowledge my father’s
English foster parents, without whose profound act of radical hospitality
during the Second World War—the welcoming of a sick, orphaned infant
into their home and loving of him as their own—neither my father, and
therefore nor I, would be here today. Accordingly, this work is dedicated
to the memory of Ted and Florence Kennell.
xi