Toward a More Expanded Mode of Reason:
The Theological Phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion:
Jean-Luc Marion is one of the most important philosophers alive today.
This French phenomenologist has found a path back to the realization
of God through developing a brilliant new understanding of reason
itself, one that breaks through the artificial separation of reason and
faith. He then applies this new approach to God, employing the logic of
love, to an unprecedented portrait of Christian teachings—founded on
the simplicity of one core concept that he invents: that of the saturated
phenomenon.
This concept enables us to observe that there are many experiences
and imperiences in our life for which we have no adequate explanation
and which defy conceptualization. They are saturated with content that
we directly intuit, but they leave us speechless or we simply accept
them because of their overwhelming reality, without seeking reasons or
causes. The realization of the Presence of God is, of course, the
ultimate example of a saturated phenomenon.
Marion’s philosophy goes much deeper into this issue, of course, and
he applies his philosophy widely to understand the total nature of our
reality, including the partial approaches such as physics, psychology,
neuroscience, and information theory, but he makes clear that
consciousness can never be anything other than saturated with an
inconceivable power that can only be the Source of all that unfolds as
the cosmos.
Youtube Description:
Prof. Jean-Luc Marion and Prof. Donald Wallenfang discuss both the powers of human reason and its natural limits, especially within the domain of theological questions. In order for reason to resist closing in on itself and thereby become irrational, the possibility remains open for reason to give way to knowledge through faith in divine revelation.