Phenomenology and Religion: New Frontiers

supposed god is there

its crisis.^30 A weak alterity implies that the only Other left is an Other
which is constructed and “appropriated” (Hegelian Aneignung) by the
Self; hence the possibility of forgiveness is reduced to the call to forgive
Oneself.^31 This is, however, no forgiveness at all, i.e., it renders forgive-
ness impossible and — in a wider perspective — renders impossible the
radical possibility of otherness. The only supposition which could
interrupt the process of continuous constructions of reality is the
Other being there, an absolute Other who binds the I to necessity, to
the irreducible necessity of being-there, of being-oneself, and as such of
responding to the Other. This would in fact be subjectivity in
Kierkegaard’s sense, but then as subjectivity in crisis, separated from
God in “the most chasmic qualitative abyss.”^32
Supposed God is there, as Derrida does when reflecting upon
forgiveness, we are still facing the problem of defining the limits
between Oneself and the Other. In late modern Europe, we may
probably presuppose that the “I” speaking is already abandoned. But
this destiny also carries the seed of new possibilities:

If forgiveness can be asked for by me but granted only by the other,

then God, the God of mercy, is the name of he who alone can forgive,

in the name of whom alone forgiveness can be granted, and who can

always abandon me, but also — and this is the equivocal beauty of this

word abandonment — the only one to whom I can abandon myself, to

the forgiveness of whom I can abandon myself.^33

Third Reading: Dissension

If we therefore return to the description of God who is at the same time
Other than me and more intimate with me than myself and presuppose
subjectivity in Kierkegaard’s sense, this Otherness opens a “chasmic
qualitative abyss” within the Self, disparate from itself and devoid of
any firm ground. The Self not only abandoned by God, but abandoned
even by itself, is searching for identity, for borders and necessity; for

30. Cf. Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, 25; SKS 11, 141.


31. Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, 13; SKS 11, 129.


32. Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, 122; SKS 11, 233.


33. Derrida, ”Hospitality,” 389. Derrida, ”Hospitality,” 389.