Philosophy and Martyrdom: Tertullian and Justin Martyr
Jean-Luc MarionUniversity of Chicago
Co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and Philosophy of Religions Club
During the first two centuries of Christianity believers were led to confess their faith before a pagan world and endure persecution and trial, often leading to martyrdom. One might expect from them the posture and tactics of an irrational and “prophetic” theology. But in fact they chose to make arguments for the consistency and rationality of faith under the literary genre of the apology. They even claimed that this rational confession of faith deserves the title of philosophy. This paradox sheds light on our contemporary situation.
Jean-Luc Marion is the Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Professor of Catholic Studies and the Philosophy of Religions and Theology at the Divinity School and Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. He holds the Dominique Dubarle chair at the Institut Catholique de Paris and is Professor Emeritus of the University of Paris IV (Sorbonne). In 2008 he was elected a member of the Académie Française. Among his books are In the Self’s Place: The Approach of Saint Augustine, God Without Being, and The Erotic Phenomenon. In 2014 he delivered the Gifford Lectures on Givenness and Revelation. Marion served a critical role in the founding of the Lumen Christi Institute and serves as a member of its academic committee.
