The joy of yes

Ricoeur: Philosopher of hope

by Kevin J, Vanhoozer
ISCUSSIONS about hermeneuticsthe theories and practices of interpretationare
ubiquitous. We all read texts
whetlier tliese be histories, novels, musical scores, paintings, plav'scripts or anything else humans produce that has
meaningand we are all interpreters of
texts wlio argue over tlieir meaning and
over our interpretations. The question of
our time is: Is there anything beyond
our various interpretations?
Paul Ricoeur, the leading
hermeneutic philosopher of the
20th century, "disappeared" (as the
French say) in May at the age of 92.
Of what special significance is his
passing to pastors and theologians?
Why should we care? We should
care about Ricoeur because his
philosophy enables us, jaded
denizens of a post-Christian world,
to careto believe, to hope, to
loveagain, and this without sacrificing our intellect. He is the
hermeneutical equivalent of John
the Baptist, preparing the way for a
new hearing of hopeful words.
Ricoeur's central insight is that
understanding depends on interpreting texts that mediate the meaning of and nourish onr existenceespecially poetic and religious texts that
foster memory, faith and hope. Understanding conies from situating ourselves "in front of texts that display
the full range of human possibilities
and capacities,
"The ,symbol gives rise to thought"
[Symholisi7i of Evil). Ricoeur never
tired of insisting that creative language gives to thought something that
reason cannot discover on its own.
Tluis the whole style and substance of
Ricoeur's philosophy concerns faith

and is colored with a distinctly Christian hue. In contrast to that of JeanPaul Sartre, his contemporary in postwar France, who described being
human as "a useless passion," Ricoeur's philosophy is positively
charged: "Man is the Joy of Yes in the
sadness of the fmite" {Fallible Man).
His conviction of the primordial
goodness of things also accounts for

Ricoeur's texts display a conspicuous lack of vitriol; his typical response

to attack was: "Thank you for contributing to my self-understanding."
He even hoped that those with whom
he disagreed were somehow in the
truth: "Each time we sense deep
affmities between realities, points of
view, or disparate personages, we are
happy" {History and Truth), His instinct was not to dilute differences
but creatively to mediate them.
This was, perhaps, his special talent. While the rest of us line up on
either sidemodern vs, postmodern; analytic philosophy vs. continental philosophy; religion vs.
atheism; red vs. blueRicoeur
displayed an astounding ability to
discern helpful points from all
sides and hence to attain higher
ground.
Ricoeur's mediating method
also informs the three-part structure in his most important works,
as well as his famous "hermeneutical arc." The arc begins with a
precritical moment of "naive" unPaul Ricoeur
derstanding. The second moment
involves testing that understandhi.s charity toward other thinkers. He ing (testing memory by historical inwent out of his way to include others vestigation, or testing reading by
in a conversation oriented to some- methods of critical exegesis). The
thing bigger than any one disciplinary crucial third phase of appropriation
aim or agenda. In Memory, Histonj, culminates in a "second nai'vete."
and Forgetting, he brought the histo- This is the moment of truth, of
rians work of remembering into dia- grasping not factuality (the literal
logue with different forms of forget- truth of things) but existence (the
ting: repressed memories (psychology), amnesty (politics) and repentance Kevin J. Vanhoozer, authorof The Drama
(religion). He even dealt with what tlie
of Doctrine: A CanoTiical-Linguistic
neurosciences contribute to the disApproach to Christian Theology
cussion, though here too he refused to
(WestminsterJohn Knox), teaches thereduce the rich conversation to one
ology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity
discourse only (tlie bioclieinical).
School in Deerfiekl. Illinois,
27

X CENTURY August23,2005

metaphorical truth ahout human potentially as important as the Repossihihties).

formers' recover)' of the original lanThese three parts form a single guages of the Bible.
project. To use a Ricoeurian metaA second contribution is more subphor: they are three masts that carr\ tle. It has to do with Ricoem s persondistinct hut interlocking sails that he- alism. Ins treatment of persons in
long to the same ship setting off on a temis not of suhstance but of "capabilsingle itinerary. To set sail on Ri- ity": the power to choose, tt) do and to
coeurs tliree-masted ship is to cm- suffer, Ricoeur inai"veled at this, our
bark on a heady pJiilosophical pro- "only humaTi freedoui" {Freedom and
ject: a voyage to new worlds^refigu- Nature). Embodied aud heucc embatrations of human existencepro- tled, we finite creatures persistently
jected by poetic texts.
harbor infinite desires and wishes.
Ricoeur is an excellent guide Narratives matter precisely because
through the present cultural and intel- they recount and enjoin those actions
lectual inferno, and engages major in- that unite humau projects aud worldly
tellectual figures across ii host of disci- eveuts. We begin to grasp the measure
plines. He confronts critical ap- ot human freedom, then, in the stories
proachesFreudian, structuralist and histories that record humanand Marxist^by maintaining that being-as-act.
there is something in language that
The artist Paul Klee wauted to see
survives our critical suspicion.
the world aucw, like a child: "I want to
For years, Ricoeur has inspired and be as though uew-born, knt)wing
challenged the way I do theolog)'. both nothing." The apostle Paul, reborn,
my overall method and some of my wanted to know nothing but Jesus
material concerns. This despite his Christ, Ricoeur, like his uauiesakes,
stated preference to take the exegete, found a way of seeing that meaning
not the dogmatician, as his dialogue and hope restoretl to an age marked
partner. (He meant it: he coauthored by what yet another Paul (Tillich, RiThinkin^i Bihlicalhj with his longtime coeur's predecesstir at the University
friend, Andre LaCocque, an Old Tes- of Chicago) called the anxiety of
tament scholar,) Systematic theolo- nieaninglessness.
gians, he felt, moved from nacrn pagiHE WORLD, for Ricoenr, was
na to sacra doctrina too fast, reducing
made up of all the hooks he
the rich feast of biblical literature to a
had read, known and loved.
mess of conceptual pottage.
It was this world, projected
Nevertheless, Ricoeur is the
quintessential Protestant philosopher: or refigured bv these texts, that was
his life and work are a positi\ e witness the object of his second naivetenot
{pro + testarc) to "the Joy of Yes in the the present world (that way lies madsadness of the finite." Indeed, his en- nessthe frenzy of market and media
tire philosophy is a profes.sion of faith and militarism) but a prospective
in the nieaningfuhiess and transform- world in which we may hope,
Ricoeur presented a new grammar
ing power of creative language. The
words on which Ricoeur wagers of assent in a world where criticism
symbols, metaphors and storiesare and evnicism held sway. Fostering the
those that nourish existence. They abilit)' to affirm and to attest to someconjure up imaginative possibilities thing one can believe in with all one's
the "world of the text"and invite us heait is a prodigious accomplishment.
to discover truth by appropriating aud Ricoeur was a philosophical Moses
indwelling them: "In imagining his who traveled through and beyond the
possibilities, man acts as a propliet of desert of modern criticism aud who
his own existence" {History and enjoyed not only a glimpse but a long
look at the promised land before
Tmth).
Ricoeur recovered the cognitive dyiug. Rnt how far did he see?
significance of forms of language like
When relating philosophy to theolmetaphor (The Rule of Metaphor) and ogy, Ricoeur typically preferred to reof forms of literature like narrative spect boundaries ratlier than attempt
(Time and Narrative). This recovery is a creative mediation. His philosophy

C K N T U H Y AiigtiSt23,2005

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begins in wonder but stops just short

of worship. His philosophical discourse approximates a number of
Christian doctrines: creation, fall,
even redemption. His recent work on
forgiveness comes breathtakingly
close to the notion of justification by
faitli. What Pniallyintrigued him about
the Rible was not its morality' {he rejected the economy of retribvition topical of the first naivete) but its eschatology, its hopeful expectation ot
something other, and better, yet to
come. Rieoeurs Pauline, Protestant
philosophy bears witness to a morcthau-moral order characterized by an
economy of the gift and a "logic of superabundance"in a word, grace.
Yet at one pointfor confessing
Christians, the crucial pointRicoenrs approximation falls short, even
flat. Easter, he thought, means that
Jesus eonqnered death by serving others, who bv serving others in turn become his historical "body" {Crititfue
and Conviction). Here, as a witness to
the resurrection, Rieoeur the philosopher can uiusterouly alisp rather than
an exultaut ery ("He is risen!").
Still. Rieoeurs thought takes us to
the very threshold of theolog)'. His
"second Copernican revolution" dethrones the autonomous knowing subject and directs us to listen to those
creative words that form us. Huuiilit)'
is the soul of his philosophy, and eschatology its horizon. Philosophical reflection, as Ricoeur well kuew, thus stands
under both judgment and promise.
As Ricoenr was fond of saying toward the end of his life, there is forgiveness and, with it, the possibilit)' of
new beginnings. This possibility cannot be the object of science or speculative philosophy; it can be spoken of
only in the optative mood, subsidized
by the currency of the imagination
("may be"). In the eschatological
world of the Bible we hear this word of
forgiveness: "You are better than your
works." Ricoeur proclaimed this word
to all who had ears to hear: to the discouraged aud the disenelianted, to
theologians and philosophers, psychologists and politicians. There is
reason to hope that despite the uncertain sound of his testimony to the risen
Christ, this Protestant philosopher too
is in the truth.