Charred Root of Meaning: Rupture and Continuity in Christian Tradition

Abstract

Until very recently, the theological literature approached tradition almost exclusively as a phenomenon of continuity. But tradition involves several forms of rupture, both in its beginning and in its development. This paper distinguishes four: irruption (of the divine), forgetting, ‘destruction’ (together with retrieval/repetition), and exclusion. The argument draws on philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, and Jean-Luc Marion, but it is scripturally rooted and finds confirmation in Christian authors like Denys the Carthusian, Martin Luther, and Henri de Lubac.