CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY: THE KENOTIC CALL FOR THE WEAKENING OF CHRISTIANITY IN GIANNI VATTIMO

Abstract

This article approaches Christianity and its history from the hermeneutic perspective of Vattimo. The first part analyzes the relationship between Nietzsche's and Heidegger's thought and the kenotic action of overcoming metaphysics as historicization of Christianity. The second part deals with the weakening of metaphysics as response to an appeal for the divine Kenosis to secularize violent hierophanies, in order to further the democratic and ethical-political project. Consequently, the “natural sacred” is removed from “tragic Christianity” in its metaphysical foundation in the Totally Other. The announcement of the death of the moral God and the dismantling of the sacred-violent therefore weaken the structures of the objectifying thought of being and provide a plurality of perspectives on the world as well as on Christianity, opening the latter to an effective historicity of its tradition.