Christ in Postmodern Philosophy

Dr Frederiek Depoortere is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) at the Faculty of Theology, K.U.Leuven (Belgium) and a member of the research group 'Theology in a Postmodern Context'.

Some of Europe's top philosophers of religion put forward great new ideas based on the works of Levinas, Derrida, Lacan, Kant and others, to explore divergent philosophical concepts around Christology, incarnation and the uniqueness of Christ, and therefore Christianity, in a very different way.

• Introduction: The Question of Christology after the Death of God 1. Gianni Vattimo 1.1. The Background of Vattimo's Christology: How the Return of Religion Became Possible (Nietzsche, Heidegger)1.2. Vattimo's Christology: Kenosis and Caritas2. Slavoj Žižek2.1. The Background of Žižek's Christology: Reading Hegel's Christology with Lacan2.2. Žižek's Christology2.2.1. The Deadlock of the Sacrificial Interpretation of Christ's Death on the Cross2.2.2. From God as 'Wholly Other Thing' to God as 'Barely Nothing'2.2.3. The Coming of Christ, the Death of the Divine Thing 2.2.4. The Crucified Christ, the Ultimate objet petit a3. René Girard3.1. The Background of Girard's Christology: Mimesis and the Scapegoating Mechanism3.2. Girard's Christology3.2.1. Girard's Account of the Christ Event 3.2.2. Girard vs. Nietzsche: Dionysus and the Crucified One - on the impact of the Christ Event in World History4. Evaluations & Confrontations4.1. Vattimo's Christology, a Return of 'God Is Dead'-Theology4.2. Girard vs. Vattimo4.3. The Shared Inspiration of Žižek and Girard4.4. The Fate of Transcendence in the Work of Žižek4.5. Girard vs. Žižek 4.6. General Conclusion: On the Transcendence of Love and the Uniqueness of Christianity