Citation

Depoortere F. Heythrop J. 2009; 50(5): 877-889.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-2265.2008.00468.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The possibility of a naturalistic explanation of religious phenomena (including Christianity) which is offered by natural science gives the question of the uniqueness of Christianity a new urgency, for it raises the question of whether an irreducible otherness in Christianity vis-à-vis a generally-human, natural religiosity (which may be explained naturalistically) can be demonstrated. In what follows, we shall discuss the answer of two contemporary thinkers to this question: that of the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo and that of the French-American literary critic and fundamental anthropologist René Girard. There is also an interesting link between both thinkers, as we shall see below – Vattimo has stated that it was his reading of Girard which made him return to Christianity after having abandoned it earlier in his life.