Levinas and the Philosophy of Religion

Kosky examines Levinas' thought from the perspective of the philosophy of religion and he does so in a way that is attentive to the philosophical nuances of Levinas' argument...an insightful, well written, and carefully documented study ...that uniquely illuminates Levinas' work' - John D. Caputo. For readers who suspect that since Nietzsche there is no place for religion and morality in post-modern thought, Jeffrey L. Kosky suggests otherwise with this skillful interpretation of the ethical and religious dimensions of Levinas' thought. Placing Levinas in relation to Hegel and Nietzsche, Husserl and Heidegger, and Derrida and Marion, Kosky develops the religious themes found in Levinas' work and offers a way to think and speak about ethics and morality within the horizons of contemporary philosophy of religion. Kosky embraces the entire scope of Levinas' writings from Totality and Infinity to Otherwise than Being. He contrasts Levinas' religious and moral thought elaborated in the earlier works through the latter while developing such themes as the nature of phenomenological reduction, the relation of religion and philosophy in Levinas, the question of whether Levinas can be considered a Jewish thinker, and the religious and theological import of Levinas' phenomenology. Kosky stresses that Levinas is first and foremost a phenomenologist and it is the relationship between religion and philosophy in Levinas' ethics that should compel philosophers to question the assumption that a natural or inevitable link exists between deconstruction and atheism. Through his investigation of Levinas' philosophy of religion, Kosky articulates an innovative understanding of religion and religious life.