paul ricoeur, solicitude, love, and the gift
this symbolism: “And God saw everything that he had made, and
behold it was very good (1.31).”^58Yet even this deeply felt study of the intersecting words and worlds of
philosophy and religion does not suggest to Ricoeur any need for the
intrusion of, or a capitulation to, a religious framework, even as a
guiding principle. It is but one form of language investigation, even if
it is a highly evocative and resonant one. Ricoeur further explains his
standpoint:
There is no doubt that the religious experience expressed in stories,
symbols and figures is a major source of my taste for philosophy.
Acknowledging this is not a source of embarrassment for me, inasmuch
as I do not believe that a philosophy can be stripped of presuppositions.
One always philosophizes from somewhere. This affirmation does not
concern simply the fact of belonging to a religious tradition, but
involves the entire network of cultural references of a thinker, including
the economic, social, and political conditions for his or her intellectual
commitment.^59What needs to be remembered is that Ricoeur, even in this undertaking,
has definite reasons for demurring from writing what he calls a
“religious philosophy.” This is evident in his response to Raynova who
specifically questioned him on this topic in an interview that took
place in the late 1990s. He replies:
What you call religious philosophy is a philosophy that has an opening
towards religion. But I shall, at the same time, resist identification of a
God who is a name and prayed to in the Psalms and in the prophecies,
with the word ‘God’ in philosophy, which is the presupposition of a
culture that is no longer ours.... what we name God in philosophy is
not somebody to whom we can pray, it is not somebody with whom we
can enter into relation, but a concept.^60Ricoeur does not believe that only one religious philosophy could
emerge from the Jewish and Christian heritage,^61 let alone the other
- Ibid., 32. Ibid., 32.
- Ricoeur, “Reply to David Stewart,” in Hahn, Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, 445.
- Ricoeur in Raynova, “All that Give Us to Think,” 683–4. Ricoeur in Raynova, “All that Give Us to Think,” 683–4.
- It is from this pluralistic perspective too that Ricoeur acknowledges that there