20th century AD

Christian Century, August 23, 2005 by Kevin J. Vanhoozer

Still, Ricoeur's thought takes us to the very threshold of theology. His "second Copernican revolution" dethrones the autonomous knowing subject and directs us to listen to those creative words that form us. Humility is the soul of his philosophy, and eschatology its horizon. Philosophical reflection, as Ricoeur well knew, thus stands under both judgment and promise.

As Ricoeur was fond of saying toward the end of his life, there is forgiveness and, with it, the possibility of new beginnings. This possibility cannot be the object of science or speculative philosophy; it can be spoken of only in the optative mood, subsidized by the currency of the imagination ("may be"). In the eschatological world of the Bible we hear this word of forgiveness: "You are better than your works." Ricoeur proclaimed this word to all who had ears to hear: to the discouraged and the disenchanted, to theologians and philosophers, psychologists and politicians. There is reason to hope that despite the uncertain sound of his testimony to the risen Christ, this Protestant philosopher too is in the truth.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, author of The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Westminster John Knox), teaches theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.