From self-development to human solidarity: a critical study on the dialogical theology of "inter-" cultures

Abstract

This dissertation questions the politics of contemporary cultural development known as "multiculturalism" and "particularism" which permeate the realm of theology, particularly in relation with non-Western theologies. It begins by examining the mechanism of representing "different others" within the modern subjectivity and its universal validity claim, in order to reveal the modernist's essentialism and reductionistic, totalising tendency. By arguing that reality is non-formalistic, ambiguous and contingent, and decentring of the subject, the study articulates the social source of rationality that exists in "in-between" people (subjects) against the philosophical metanarrative. From this standpoint, the focus shifts from the subject's ontological/epistemological emphasis to a dialogical event or relation with the other.

Therefore, this study explores human desire on the relation of "I and the Other," with particular attention paid to Emmanuel Levinas' idea on the 'ethical responsibility for the Other' as the first philosophy. This argues that Levinas disrupts the philosophy of ontology by inserting a God who is infinite into the finite, and suggests a new modality (meontological) of ethical responsibility for the Other/other. It argues that Levinas' idea is concretised in Mikhail Bakhtin's dialogism that perceives human consciousness not as a unified whole but one that always exists in a tensile, conflict-ridden relationship with other consciousness. It also argues that dialogism is not simply a textual or even an inter-textual phenomenon, but reaches beyond the text to the social world as a whole. It suggests that ethics exists in an open and ongoing obligation to respond and answer to the other, rather than as a consensus or philosophical end or rule. Ethics, as a reminder of the surplus in human dialogue, argues for the structural necessity of otherness in my solidarity with the other

This thesis, then, explores the event of kenotic Christ as a fertile prototype for the leitmotif of 'the Word made flesh,' and the I/Other dichotomy, and as the consciousness of human development and dialogical orientation. It stresses a theological and religious affinity of creating an ethical space to experience the meaning of the future that interrogates the temporal reality and 'givenness,' a space which brings people into "radical communality and human solidarity" of the great time, the eschatological plenitude. From this perspective, I suggest theology as a critical engaging discourse and a cultural criticism within the public sphere, in creating a new world of human relation.