To celebrate his 80th birthday, the Roman universities of Roma Tre and the Pontifical Athenaeum S. Anselmo organised in May 2016 a conference entitled Around Gianni Vattimo. Friends, students and young researchers gathered for a moment of 'conversation' with one of the most important figures in contemporary Italian philosophy to retrace together some of the paths that Vattimo himself traced and opened up during his long academic and political career. Among the various themes of his thought, hermeneutics, Christianity and politics (...) were those privileged by the interventions of these memorable days: these in fact constitute the essential axes of the present volume that makes us re-read the fundamental knots of his philosophy. This work takes place under the banner of a new way of understanding philosophical research, no longer as the conquest of a unique and definitive knowledge, but as an infinite interpretative task, just as Heidegger and Nietzsche, the main authors of reference of the father of 'weak thought', now allow him to understand the search for Being that is given in language. (shrink)

Christianity is a complex phenomenon, especially during the initial period. The use of the plural “Christianities” in historiography aims to emphasize this complexity. This paper offers some examples to highlight the different ways of life, the manifold interpretations of Jesus, the diverse organizations of churches and of worship during the first two centuries. The paper goes on to discuss the concept of Christianity and proposes a definition deriving from the impact of Jesus on believers. This impact led to his veneration, (...) whether in an exclusive sense or not, but always in a decisive manner, given that, as the eschatological envoy, Jesus is the cause of salvation. (shrink)

The conviction that from the beginning believers in Christ possessed an awareness of their own faith and that they strove to avoid dissolving into different beliefs or doctrines, was the impulse for the author of this article to argue in a point by point manner in favor of the strong collective identity of the first believers in Christ. From the margins the author offers evidence of the liminality of the believers in Christ with respect to Jews and Pagans; from the (...) contents he offers some reflections on the canonical Gospels, the day of celebration, the organization of the community and communication between the communities. The unitive outlook with which the author approaches the first testimony of Christianity distances his point of view from the pluralistic visions which are more in fashion among historians, who prefer to speak ofChristianities and not of a Christianity. (shrink)

The modern concept of 'dialogue' among persons and groups of different religions or 'world-views' is the fruit of interaction between Christian tradition and the technique of dialogue in Greek philosophy. Dialogue in general requires a classification of those in dialogue , a prototype and an archetype of mediation , a teleotype or final objective , a procedural type , and a representation of spacial logic . This article examines especially the Thomistic approach, through demonstrative and probable reasons.

In the context of a wider investigation into Christianity as dialogue with non-Christians, and following up on a study of the approach of Thomas Aquinas through «demonstrative or probable reasons», the present study examines the approach of Francis of Assisi, who went off to preach to the Sultan and ordered his friars to give witness to the Gospel without resorting to discussions or conflicts, and that of Bonaventure, who, like Paul in the First Letter to the Corinthians, insisted on the (...) power of the signs of God and of his Word. (shrink)

Nella prima parte del volume (Lineamenti generali) viene analizzata sotto un profilo storico-critico l’interpretazione del cristianesimo data dalle più significative correnti filosofiche del Novecento italiano: dal neotomismo all’idealismo, dall’esistenzialismo alle più recenti temperie speculative, come l’ermeneutica ed il “pensiero debole”. Pagine di approfondimento vengono dedicate anche al rapporto tra cristianesimo e politica, così come viene preso in esame sia da autori di tendenza marxista che liberale. In tal modo viene effettuato un excursus che mette in luce il contributo (...) originale di alcune posizioni filosofiche tipicamente italiane e che, allo stesso tempo, evidenzia la fecondità di domande che il messaggio cristiano ha per il lógos umano. La seconda parte del libro (Percorsi di approfondimento) è costituita da cinque saggi sul rapporto tra fides et ratio così com’esso è stato tematizzato in autori e contesti ricchi di intuizioni originali ma che talvolta non hanno trovato adeguati spazi nelle ricostruzioni storiografiche. In particolare ci siamo soffermati sul kantismo di Filippo Masci, sul personalismo di Luigi Stefanini (letto come “ermeneutica filosofica” ante litteram), sul “tomismo essenziale” di Cornelio Fabro, sull’ontologismo di Augusto Del Noce, sull’epistemologia di Dario Antiseri. Tali indagini storiografiche prendono le mosse dall’idea giobertiana della poligonìa del cristianesimo, contraddistinto da una pluralità di confessioni, liturgie e spiritualità: esso non è religio “ad una sola dimensione” ma è un evento in grado di dar vita a molteplici ermeneutiche della condizione umana, a molteplici metodologie che, pur con differenti accentuazioni, tendono ad ampliare gli orizzonti della ragione umana. La Weltanschauung ebraico-cristiana fa intravvedere alla ragione i suoi limiti costitutivi ma, allo stesso tempo, apre ad essa dimensioni di senso e di ulteriorità, altrimenti inattingibili. (shrink)