Time and Transcendence

Time and Transcendence provides a new theory of secularization in the Catholic context, a new interpretation of the origins of modern historical science, and a new reading of Heidegger's theories of time and history. The author shows how a secular sense of the past evolved in early modern French memoirs. Memoirs uncovered a level of personal experience that was then applied as an intuitive framework for the study of history. Modern history's scientific study of sources is embedded in the imaginative sense of a personal past.
Nineteenth-century French Traditionalists countered this threat of a secular past by expanding the concept of tradition to include all of history. Neoscholasticism then canonized philosophy as Catholic tradition, turning the history of philosophy against secular culture.
Heidegger's thinking developed in the contexts of both this Catholic counterattack and the fin-de-siècle disillusion with secular history. Against fin-de-siècle notions of memory as a better way of penetrating the past, Heidegger recast history as future-oriented action. Rejecting both secular culture and religious tradition, he used history as a tool for secularizing religious experiences that secular culture had ignored, such as grace, mystical experience, and death.
This book shows that while religion can turn a self-conscious secular culture against itself, ultimately the religious critique of secular culture can also be turned against religion.

Klappentext

Time and Transcendence provides a new theory of secularization in the Catholic context, a new interpretation of the origins of modern historical science, and a new reading of Heidegger's theories of time and history. The author shows how a secular sense of the past evolved in early modern French memoirs. Memoirs uncovered a level of personal experience that was then applied as an intuitive framework for the study of history. Modern history's scientific study of sources is embedded in the imaginative sense of a personal past.
Nineteenth-century French Traditionalists countered this threat of a secular past by expanding the concept of tradition to include all of history. Neoscholasticism then canonized philosophy as Catholic tradition, turning the history of philosophy against secular culture.
Heidegger's thinking developed in the contexts of both this Catholic counterattack and the fin-de-siècle disillusion with secular history. Against fin-de-siècle notions of memory as a better way of penetrating the past, Heidegger recast history as future-oriented action. Rejecting both secular culture and religious tradition, he used history as a tool for secularizing religious experiences that secular culture had ignored, such as grace, mystical experience, and death.
This book shows that while religion can turn a self-conscious secular culture against itself, ultimately the religious critique of secular culture can also be turned against religion.

Inhalt

Preface. Section I: The Genesis of Secular History from Criticism and Memoirs. Introduction. Part I: The Problem of Religion. Part II: The Problem of Time. Part III: The Problem of Retrospection. 1. Memoirs and History: Saint-Simon. 2. From Education to Criticism: Lenglet. Section II: The Catholic Reaction to Secular History and the Rediscovery of Time. Introduction: Religion and the Secular Concept of Subjectivity. 1. The Development of the Catholitic Concept of Tradition from the Council of Trent to the Tübingen School. 2. The Tradition as an Alternative to Secular History in French Traditionalism. 3. The Catholic Turn to Philosophy as an Alternative Tradition. 4. The End of Continuity and Heidegger's Rediscovery of the Problem of Time. Index.