Gianni Vattimo’s Philosophy of Religion

A Possibility of Philosophy on Love after the Death of God

Abstract

Gianni Vattimo, who is an Italian contemporary philosopher, regards the process of secularisation as a neccesary event of the history of Being. For, interpreting Heideggerian Being with Verwindung, Vattimo thinks Being itself derives from its presence. This proccess of Being’s derivation has affinity with Christianity. The God in Christianity has incarnated into the human Christ, and Vattimo interprets this event as the infinit derivation from origin. So, both the history of Being and Christianity have “weakness” in essence. This weakness is free from the violence which Western metaphysics has possessed. Vattimo, however, thinks there is an irreducible core in this weak Christianity (or weak Christian God). It is charity. So, according to Vattimo, if we interpret Christian messages in light of the weak ontology, they contribute to the developpment of the sociery based on love, and moreover, the establishment of the plural democrary in West. Vattimo’s concept of charity is important because in the contemporary philosophy of religion, the relation between being and love is to be taken seriously. The assessment that Christianity can contribute to democrary closes Vattimo to Rorty.