By Willemien Otten | Nov 14, 2022
From November 2 to 4, 2022, the Marty Center organized a conference to mark the retirement of French scholar Jean-Luc Marion, Greeley Professor of Catholic Studies in the Divinity School, also appointed in the Philosophy Department and the Committee on Social Thought.
The conference title “The Contribution of Theology to Rationality” was chosen by Marion and very much characterizes his approach, which was never one that was timid or cautious but rather forthright and precise. This may betray his phenomenological philosophical background, which situated him rather centrally at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) in France, from where he then came to the U.S. and developed a more theological profile. Sometimes theologians can feel apologetic about the field or feel that they should be, given the secular nature of the modern academy. Not so in the case of Jean-Luc Marion.
A total of 20 national and international scholars spoke on panels at the event, including colleagues, friends, former students, and translators of Marion's work. Speakers came from several different fields inside and outside the Divinity School, including philosophy, theology, sociology, literary studies, Islamic and Jewish studies. The paper by Hent de Vries (NYU) introduced the first discussion of whether there is a potential difference between left and right Marion-scholars modeled on the common distinction between left and right Hegelians.
The conference ended with a farewell address by Marion himself, which was titled “The Phenomenality of Revelation: The Parabolic and the Paradoxical.” Leading his audience through several phenomenological observations and biblical reflections in support of his claim that theology indeed contributed to rationality, Marion was himself very pleased, as he told his audience, with a central piece of evidence, namely that the French parole (word) actually has its origin in the biblical notion of parable.
"The Contribution of Theology to Rationality" was extremely well attended and made some of the approximately 100 attendees – among whom were faculty, current students, and alumni – exclaim that “the Divinity School is back.” If so, the Marty Center played a central role in bringing it back, closing a difficult period in which in-person events had to be halted or curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you are interested in learning more about Marion's beginnings, a column on his arrival at the Divinity School, which was facilitated by David Tracy (from whom he would later inherit the Greeley chair), can be found here.
Featured photograph by Lauren Pond. Jean-Luc Marion responds to panelists during "The Contribution of Theology to Rationality" conference in November 2022.