As for death, do not the narratives provided by literature serve to soften the sting of anguish in the face of the unknown, of nothingness, by giving it in imagination the shape of this or that death, exemplary in one way or another? Thus fiction has a role to play in the apprenticeship of dying. The meditation on the Passion of Christ has accompanied in this way more than one believer to the last threshold.' Oneself as Another, p. 162
By 'fiction', Ricoeur isn't saying 'it's made up': rather, he is pointing to the literary features of the account.
6 comments:
Dude, I'm dying here. Give us a nice perspicuous Rowan Williams quote or something. I used to hate it when you did that, but, like, you know, maybe it wasn't so bad.
Oh BTW I think you might of mis-spelled 'propaedeutic' in that last post.
Well, I did spell it two different ways - corrected now.
I have broken my own rules somewhat about just noting quotes without a decent comment (I hate it when bloggers do that).
I think Ricoeur is a difficult but rewarding thinker of considerable influence, so I am happy to ask my readers to think a little harder here. I would argue that John Owen is harder to read, for one!
I mean obviously we are unhappy to think of the Passion narrative as just soothing us as we approach death; yet he is making an interesting point about the therapeutic role that narratives play for us. They give life a 'shape'.
but also, Gordo: Ricoeur famously was a a proponent of the idea of the hermeneutics of suspicion! He is actually your guiding light! your homeboy!
Ah, gotcha!
OK! *makes note to self...'must try harder'*
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