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Abstract:  

Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy: Pauline Meontology and Lutheran Irony, by Duane Armitage 

 This paper argues that Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy is primarily an exercise in Pauline meontology informed by Luther’s fundamental posture of the irony of sola fide vis-à-vis the Mosaic Law. Heidegger comments on Paul’s meontology in the last section of his Phenomenology of Religious Life, where meontology concerns the messianic standpoint of regarding the world ‘as not’ (hos me), and in turn awaiting the coming ‘not-yet.’  Such is an outgrowth of the powerless enactment of faith, which I argue has its roots in Heidegger’s appropriation of Luther’s ‘ironic’ doctrine of sola fide – ironic in the Kierkegaardian sense of ‘infinite absolute negativity’ directed against the whole of existence.    Moreover, I claim this ironic, meontological standpoint is essential for interpreting Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy, for Contributions concerns the overcoming of metaphysics by recognizing the ironic-concealing nature of beyng (Seyn).  Meontology is ironic in its negating, but beyng itself also proves essentially ironic in its continual refusal as the truth-process of ‘clearing-concealment’ (lichtende Verbergung).    Dasein is called to grasp this ironic dimension of beyng qua truth.  Yet, in Contributions, Heidegger calls such peculiar grasping, or ‘standing in the truth,’ faith itself.  It is precisely this understanding of ironic faith that, I argue, mirrors Luther’s doctrine of sola fide.   

Publication Name: The Heythrop Journal                                                                   Research Interests: Phenomenology, Continental Philosophy, and Martin Heidegger  

https://www.academia.edu/7234071/Heidegger_s_Contributions_to_Philosophy_Pauline_Meontology_and_Lutheran_Irony 

Excerpt:

For Kierkegaard, irony is characterized by a distance and difference between essence and appearance. Essence and appearance exist in a tension whereby appearance reveals not its essence but the opposite thereof.  Irony is simply the tension between word and meaning that results in the spoken word signifying the opposite of what it normally intends. One means, not what one says, but rather the opposite.   Real irony for Kierkegaard hides its meaning from its observers allowing for the ironist to have a sort of ‘negative freedom’ through lack of commitment to a meaning.  That is, when what is said means neither literally what is said nor the opposite, the ironist experiences a freedom in the very negation of meaning.  In other words, in irony meaning is always held back and concealed, and it is done so precisely by what is said.  Irony involves a hiding and a concealing in the very act of saying.  The ironist floats above meaning precisely because his speech holds back; it is this act of holding back that constitutes the negation, namely irony’s negation of essence. 

(--Duane Armitage, Gonzaga University) 

One bird's song through chill morning air

Dawn with Dogen:

“Because a buddha is in birth and death, there is no birth and death.” 

It is also said, “Because a buddha is not in birth and death, a buddha is not deluded by birth and death.” 

These statements are the essence of the words of the two Zen masters, Jiashan and Dingshan. You should certainly not neglect them, because they are the words of those who attained the way. 

Those who want to be free from birth and death should understand the meaning of these words. If you search for a buddha outside birth and death, it will be like trying to go to the southern country of Yue with your spear heading towards the north, or like trying to see the Big Dipper while you are facing south; you will cause yourself to remain all the more in birth and death and lose the way of emancipation. 

Just understand that birth-and-death is itself nirvana. There is nothing such as birth and death to be avoided; there is nothing such as nirvana to be sought. Only when you realize this are you free from birth and death. 

(--from The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, by Dogen Eihei)  http://www.tricycle.com/dharma-talk/birth-and-death

Zendo thermostat awakened for its Saturday morning sitting.

postmodern skepticism is contemporary aporia

Does Lila have quality?

The asking is statement of possibility.

What is possible is conceivably so.

Lila is qualitatively herself.

Until she isn't.

Ironic...

Eh?

what is seen through remains nameless

Science, poetry, and philosophy do not take you away from Christianity. They remove from Christianity ignorant, improbable, and blind belief. 

What remains are persons shone through with light and clarity -- a knowing unknowing -- engaging and serving with compassion.

No need for names. As the saying goes, "Better to see the face than hear the name."

where does one find interrelationality

Yes

Night

Our

Siddhartha Gautama Buddha / Jesus of Nazareth Christ

Connection

Kyomu.

Joanna Macy said serve it to final breath

Some nights your feet hurt.

Some nights the planet is only and wonderfully a planet and we, we, we are planetary.

recipe

Buddha sat down.

Watching.

moving toward edgeless open

In "Monk With A Camera" it always cheers to watch everything change when His Holiness Dalai Lama enters. 

He is great mother moving.

Cherished as changing direction of water finding new edges to wear down with flowing grace.

if we debate, it will not be truth

Closing poem of Transmission Eight, “Do Not Imagine You Are Going To Be A Still Pond", Vasumitra to Buddhanandi, in Living Buddha Zen by Lex Hixon. It reads:

Mother bird hears

insistent pecking from within.

With mature beak,

she breaks the shell.

Only a thin surface

separates mind 

from flight.

(--p.68)

Audible gasp is heard with these lines.

Then Tom says: "The path won't take you there, but don't deny yourself the taking of the path."

First practice of season in chapel/zendo. A small fire in woodstove.

Good to get back.

Good reading and comment to help the getting back.

ce n'est rien

what if

resurrection was

appearance and realization 

of nothing, 

(this time)

experienced fully,

with compassionate engagement, 

as God's love