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And Who is My Neighbour? Levinas and the Commandment to Love Re-examined.

Strhan, Anna (2009) And Who is My Neighbour? Levinas and the Commandment to Love Re-examined. Studies in Interreligious Dialogue, 19 (2). pp. 145-166. ISSN 0926-2326. (doi:10.2143/SID.19.2.2044689) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:42628)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2143/SID.19.2.2044689

Abstract

With the publication of 'A Common Word' in October 2007, both Christian and Muslim leaders have in recent years highlighted the contemporary significance of the commandment to love the neighbour as a starting point in working towards a meaningful peace between these religious traditions. In this paper, I propose that Emmanuel Levinas’s presentation of obligation towards the neighbour in a relation of proximity in Otherwise than Being provides a provocative reinterpretation of this commandment, extending its appeal by suggesting that the demand of responsibility towards the neighbour and the possibility of peaceful relations is a transcendental condition of subjectivity rather than understanding it as a commandment addressed to members of the Abrahamic religions. Levinas’s conceptions of illeity, vulnerability and proximity as preconditions for society and justice provide a challenge to how we think about relations with others in education, particularly for considering the nature of inter-faith and intra-faith dialogue. Levinas’s vision of loving the neighbour is not sentimentalised but admits of the potential violence found in the approach of the neighbour whilst at the same time presenting the obligation of responsibility to the neighbour as bringing the possibility of peace.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.2143/SID.19.2.2044689
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Neshen Isaeva
Date Deposited: 21 Aug 2014 21:53 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:16 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/42628 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Strhan, Anna.

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