Niilismo e cristianismo em Gianni Vattimo

Abstract

Nihilism, in view of Gianni Vattimo’s weak thought, is a secularized expression of christianity. Based upon a reinterpretation of Nietzsche’s and Heidegger’s master works, Vattimo describes how the West became the land of the demise of being. After the long metaphysical journey, the death of God puts an end to the belief in absolute values and inaugurates postmodernity. Time of plurality and conducive to the flourishing of hermeneutics which finds its origin in the christian tradition. The age of interpretation is possible because, in its root, there is the inaugural experience of kenosis of Jesus. Emptying of the divine that, in the incarnation, accepts the limits of the secular in order to turn it into an ever relational love. Accordingly, caritas, the only commandment left by Christ, has become the inexhaustible claim and the formal criteria for any current experience of christianity. By showing the intimate relationship between Christianity and nihilism, Vattimo also advocates a secularized church no longer centered on the strength of their dogmas, but a witness to the dialogue and hospitality. Some questions arise from this proposal, namely: what would a nonreligious christianity be? Relativism or relative identity? End of the institution or the emergence of a weak church? Can one believe without transcendence?