Hanson Jeffrey. - Michel Henry

Michel Henry

Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy

Series Editor: James Fieser, University of Tennessee at Martin, USA

Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy is a major monograph series from Continuum. The series features first-class scholarly research monographs across the field of Continental philosophy. Each work makes a major contribution to the field of philosophical research.

Adornos Concept of Life, Alastair Morgan

Badiou, Marion and St Paul, Adam Miller

Being and Number in Heideggers Thought, Michael Roubach

Deleuze and Guattari, Fadi Abou-Rihan

Deleuze and the Genesis of Representation, Joe Hughes

Deleuze and the Unconscious, Christian Kerslake

Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New, edited by Simon OSullivan and Stephen Zepke

Derrida, Simon Morgan Wortham

Derrida and Disinterest, Sean Gaston

Derrida: Profanations, Patrick OConnor

The Domestication of Derrida, Lorenzo Fabbri

Encountering Derrida, edited by Simon Morgan Wortham and Allison Weiner

Foucaults Heidegger, Timothy Rayner

Gadamer and the Question of the Divine, Walter Lammi

Heidegger and a Metaphysics of Feeling, Sharin N. Elkholy

Heidegger and Aristotle, Michael Bowler

Heidegger and Logic, Greg Shirley

Heidegger and Nietzsche, Louis P. Blond

Heidegger and Philosophical Atheology, Peter S. Dillard

Heidegger Beyond Deconstruction, Michael Lewis

Heidegger, Politics and Climate Change, Ruth Irwin

Heideggers Early Philosophy, James Luchte

Idealism and Existentialism, Jon Stewart

Kant, Deleuze and Architectonics, Edward Willatt

Levinas and Camus, Tal Sessler

Merleau-Pontys Phenomenology, Kirk M. Besmer

Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future, edited by Jeffrey Metzger

Nietzsches Ethical Theory, Craig Dove

Nietzsches Thus Spoke Zarathustra, edited by James Luchte

The Philosophy of Exaggeration, Alexander Garcia Dttmann

Sartres Phenomenology, David Reisman

Time and Becoming in Nietzsches Thought, Robin Small

Whos Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari? Gregg Lambert

iek and Heidegger, Thomas Brockelman

ieks Dialectics, Fabio Vighi

Michel Henry

The Affects of Thought

Edited by
Jeffrey Hanson and Michael R. Kelly

Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy

Continuum International Publishing Group

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Jeffrey Hanson, Michael R. Kelly and Contributors 2012

Kindly reproduced by permission of Zeta Books:

Rolf Khn pp. 95104 from Philosophical Concepts and Religious Metaphors: New Perspectives on Phenomenology and Theology [Wahrheit als Ur-Intelligibilitt des Lebens], ed. Cristian Ciocan (Bucharest: Zeta Books, 2009)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-4411-0833-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Michel Henry: the affects of thought/edited by Jeffrey Hanson and Michael R. Kelly.

p. cm. (Continuum studies in Continental philosophy)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4411-4523-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4411-2138-7 (pdf ) ISBN 978-1-4411-0833-3 (epub) 1. Henry, Michel, 19222002. I. Hanson, Jeffrey. II. Kelly, Michael R., 1974

B2430.H454M55 2012

194dc23

2011036466

Contents

Jeffrey Hanson

Jean-Luc Marion (Translated by Christina M. Gschwandtner)

Renaud Barbaras (Translated by Darian Meacham)

Jeffrey Hanson and Michael R. Kelly

Kevin Hart

Sylvain Camilleri (Translated by W. Christian Hackett)

Rolf Khn (Translated by Mark D. Gedney)

Raphal Gly (Translated by Carl S. Hughes)

Notes on Contributors

Renaud Barbaras is Professor of Contemporary Philosophy at Universit Paris 1 Panthon-Sorbonne and a Member of the Institut Universitaire de France.

Sylvain Camilleri is Teaching Assistant in Philosophy at the Universit Catholique de Louvain.

Raphal Gly is Research Associate at the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique and Lecturer in Philosophy at the Universit Catholique de Louvain.

Jeffrey Hanson is Research Fellow in Philosophy at Australian Catholic University.

Kevin Hart is Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Virginia and Eric DArcy Chair in Philosophy at Australian Catholic University.

Michael Kelly is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Boston College.

Rolf Khn is Professor of Theology at Albert-Ludwigs-Universitt Freiburg.

Jean-Luc Marion is Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Professor of Catholic Studies and Professor of the Philosophy of Religions and Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School and Honorary Fellow in Philosophy at Australian Catholic University.

Introduction

Jeffrey Hanson

Michel Henry (19222002) was a French philosopher, professor and novelist whose work spanned decades and genres while nevertheless being united by a singular vision and animated by a devotion to the mystery of life. His inquiries were informed by a profound acquaintance with the history of philosophy and sought to articulate life, understood as the irreducible bedrock of all reality, in its self-manifestation under the rubrics of phenomenological experience, art, religion and politics. His first book, his massive magnum opus of 1963, LEssence de la manifestation,

The revolutionary work of Michel Henry is only now beginning to be appreciated by an English-speaking philosophical audience, though in many ways this is a belated development. The Essence of Manifestation was translated into English and published in 1973, and ten years after that I Am the Truth.

The case could be made that it was in the year 2000 that Henrys work for the first time made a serious impact on the English-speaking philosophical community. One of his essays, Speech and Religion: The Word of God, appeared in translation in the volume Phenomenology and the Theological Turn: The French Debate, which centred on a translation of the bombshell essay from Dominique Janicaud The Theological Turn of French Phenomenology and featured representative essays from some of the targets of his criticism. Since Henry was included among other better known figures like Jean-Luc Marion and Paul Ricoeur, he came unavoidably to the attention of a wider audience of thinkers challenged by and responsive to the debate over the theological turn, which was at the time and remains a contentious and lively discussion. In the years that immediately followed the publication of this work, interest in Henry, whom even Janicaud admitted was a surprising figure to include in his indictment and one whose way of thinking has long been unique and only recently been turned into a school of thought,Anglophone world, and English-language journals have released special issues on his work.