A relação entre secularização e cristianismo na pós-modernidade: uma análise da proposta de Vattimo a partir da filosofia de Hans Blumenberg.

Abstract

This doctoral thesis aims to analyze the way in which Gianni Vattimo and Hans Blumenberg understand secularization and from that, the consequent possibility of Christianity remaining in postmodernity. Specifically, we tried to answer the following problem: to what extent is it possible to affirm the permanence of Christianity in postmodernity, as Vattimo wants, in the face of Blumenberg's understanding of secularization? For this, Blumenberg's philosophical thought was taken as an object of study, above all, his work The Legitimacy of the Modern Age (2008) and the various writings of Vattimo, emphasizing, however, After Christianity (2004) and The End of Modernity (2002). Based on this, the thesis was defended that after the process of secularization it is still possible to notice the permanence of Christianity in postmodern society, even when secularization is understood as the functional reoccupation of empty spaces left by other times. This reoccupation occurs, however, based on rhetoric, especially in its metaphorical character defended by Blumenberg as a mark of philosophical anthropology. The metaphor opens space for the realization of a hermeneutic and anthropological ontology that guarantees the human being a new function, namely, no longer one that contemplates the universe, or passive to the divine will, but an interpreter of the world of life and builder of his own existence. Then, there is the liberation of metaphor as a condition for the possibility of reaffirming the human being, not from exaggerated rationalism that would result in metaphysical statements, but from the recognition of the limits of the human being. In this process of metaphor, the manifestation of the nihilistic elements expressed by Vattimo as a condition of postmodernity is expressed that results opening up to the eventuality of being, which, in the course of time, guarantees plurality and diversity. In the context of this opening, it makes sense for Christianity to dialogue with these plural cultures and faiths, which is only possible when the dogmatic and orthodox condition of Christianity is overcome. It results from this weakened Christianity the affirmation of love-charity as the starting principle for the encounter with the other. This principle, in itself nihilistic and weakened, does not affirm a violent and indoctrinating Christianity, but points to the fact that the weakening and weakness of thought leave a Christianity of the human heart and humanity as a legacy.