Secularization as Kenosis

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can articulate this eventual character of Being by taking Heidegger’s critique of humanism
and Nietzsche’s announcement of an accomplished nihilism as ‘positive’ moments
for a philosophical reconstruction, and not merely as negative rejections of philosophy.
34 Although Vattimo speaks of a destruction of ontology, Being is still what matters
to Vattimo. What he rejects, though, is a conception of Being as a ‘stable structure’. 35
The weakening of being is therefore a normative development. 36
Nihilism
The specific position that Vattimo carves out, is on the one hand a philosophy of difference,
in line with Heidegger and on the other hand a nihilism. I will now briefly discuss
these two central notions of Vattimo’s philosophy. Nihilism comes to Vattimo from the
work of Nietzsche. Nihilism is not to be taken as a mere tragic experience, as a loss of
transcendent meaning. Rather Vattimo interprets Nietzsche’s philosophy as a positive
nihilism. 37 Nietzsche’s nihilism centers around his criticism of religion and his thesis of
the death of God. As Vattimo reads him, Nietzsche urges us to radically break with a
God who is nothing but a sublimation. When we agree with Nietzsche’s theory, the God
of metaphysics dies with the morality of sublimation. For Vattimo the death of God is an
act of piety: God has been slain by religious men out of piety and devotion. This allows
Vattimo to see both the end of metaphysics and the death of God as concurring with
true religion. The death of God is the death of the God that man himself brought forth.
For the God of sublimation is rooted in the human need for control. 38 Nihilism, thus,
is not only a deconstruction of metaphysics. It also entails a positive account of man’s
place in the world. For this positive nihilism, Vattimo refers to Nietzsche’s philosophy
of the morning, as a philosophy of ‘good temperament’. This entails a contemplative
way of being in the world, which is not primarily theoretical.
A second theme from Nietzsche that influences Vattimo’s nihilism is idea of eternal
recurrence, as an ‘unconditional endorsement of life.’ 39 Vattimo takes great interest in
a philosophy of the morning and Nietzsche’s teaching of eternal recurrence, for these
teachings express the positive element in the deconstruction of metaphysics. The end of
metaphysics has ontological implications. Nihilism is thus not a merely negative phenomenon,
but has a certain normativity for postmodern theory. Postmodernism cannot
be understood as a mere conflict of interpretations. There is a certain normativity with
34 As he reads Nietzsche and Heidegger: “Being is not understood by them to ‘be’ but rather to become,
yet this occurs according to necessary and recognizable rhythms which nevertheless maintain a certain ideal
stability. Instead, Nietzsche and Heidegger radically conceive of Being as an event; for both of them it is vitally
important, in order to be able to speak of Being, to understand at ‘what point’ we are, and at ‘what point’
Being itself is.” Vattimo, End of Modernity, 3,20.
35 Vattimo, End of Modernity, 11–12.
36 See also: Guido Vanheeswijck, ‘The religious philosophy of Gianni Vattimo. An introduction’, Bijdragen
61,4 (2000), 365–369.
37 For the term positive nihilism see Jean Grondin, ‘Vattimo’s Latinization of Hermeneutics: Why Did
Gadamer Resist Postmodernism?’, in: Santiago Zabala, editor, Weakening Philosophy. Essays in honour of Gianni
Vattimo (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007). Nietzsche discerns three forms of nihilism;
reactive, active and affirming nihilism. Vattimo, End of Modernity, 98.
38 Vattimo writes: “. . . the origin of belief in God, in a substance, or in free will, or indeed in the
imperative of truth, generally depends closely on violence and insecurity – this belief is rooted in the need to
protect oneself in the struggle for life against the deceptions and self deceptions emanating from the passions.”
Gianni Vattimo, Nietzsche. An introduction (London: Continuum Press, 2002), 77.
39 Vattimo, Nietzsche, 85.