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ON THE POSSIBILITY OF A CHRISTIAN ONTOLOGY AFTER HEIDEGGER: PHENOMENOLOGY AS A WAY OF RETHINKING THE EASTERN CHRISTIAN TRADITION

Abstract
The article examines approaches to Christian ontology in the works of contemporary Orthodox thinkers (Chr. Yannaras, J. P. Manoussakis, D. B. Hart) in the context of the “postmetaphysical project” in theology. We argue that the post-metaphysical theology is based on the understanding of metaphysics as onto-theology, which is due to the influence of Heidegger’s philosophy. The article presents an analysis of those modes of Heidegger’s thought that served as the basis for the treatment of metaphysics as onto-theology in post-metaphysical projects (forgetting of Being, understanding of beings as a presence, being as a supreme being that grounds itself), and considers their critical reception in the works of Orthodox theologians. For Yannaras the key question of ontology, the question of being and beings, is identical with the question of the person, understood as prosopon, which leads to the relational ontology based on the category of beauty, which is interpreted as an “invitation-to-relationship.” Manoussakis’ theological aesthetics makes an appeal to the sensual experience of God, which focuses religious thought on the event of the Incarnation. Hart seeks, by uniting metaphysics as a grammar of theology and phenomenology, to retrieve the patristic ontology of the infinite. Since the above authors insist on the application of phenomenological methods in their ontology, our analysis focuses on the transformations of method in their attempts to present a deep or transcending phenomenology. We argue that Yannaras, Manoussakis and Hart construct certain strategies for understanding the Eastern Christian tradition that radicalise this tradition in the context of contemporary phenomenological hermeneutics, while such use of the phenomenological method in elaboration of neopatristic ontology from a phenomenological perspective is an movement from the realm of the givenness.

Keywords
phenomenology, Heidegger, metaphysics, onto-theology, relational ontology, infinite, beauty.

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