The Experiment of Night: Jan Patočka on War, and a Christianity to Come

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11260%2F17%3A10367689" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11260/17:10367689 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Experiment of Night: Jan Patočka on War, and a Christianity to Come

Original language description

In the wake of the present-day crises, social conflicts and growing divisions, Patočka&apos;s reflections on war and totalitarianism appear abiding. Moreover, the enigmatic language which Patočka uses, especially in his late Heretical Essay, sounds provoking and paradoxical. This article elaborates on the hypothesis that Patočka&apos;s reflections provide us with something more than a historical analysis interpreting the wars of the 20th century, and the 20th century as a war. I will argue that Patočka finds an intrinsic link between modernity, as a particular mode of being, and war and totalitarianism as unavoidable consequences of such a mode of being. To describe this situation, Patočka puts forth the dialectic of the light of day and the darkness of night. Paradoxically, in a somewhat mystical turn, Patočka gives preference to the night as the driving force of transgressing modern logic and the defective mode of modern being which throws crowds to the hell-fire of modern warfare. Against this background, this paper will present an innovative reading of Patočka&apos;s reflections as a specific search for an adequate spiritual response to the discontents of modernity. I will suggest that the trajectory of Patočka&apos;s thought can be read through the lens of a particular philosophy of religion, even though Patočka never elaborated on this avenue explicitly. Thus, I will propose that Patočka&apos;s thought opens up the possibility of reconsidering a heretical idea of Christianity that is coming after Christianity.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Labyrinth: An International Journal for Philosophy, Value Theory and Sociocultural Hermeneutics

ISSN

2410-4817

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

19

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1/2017

Country of publishing house

AT - AUSTRIA

Number of pages

18

Pages from-to

107-124

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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