Levinas and ethics: The death of Pope John Paul II

Abstract

The essay aims to identify the ethical dimension of the relation of the self with the Other/Beyond as an indispensable aspect of human existence that underlies and forms a premise for any cultural phenomenon, and thus constitutes an unavoidable perspective in anthropology. By juxtaposing modern and non-modern perspectives on value, self, and freedom, this essay reclaims the ethical dimension for the cultural dominant of modernity from which, through the imposition of the self, it has been lost from sight. The argument for the ethical dimension is centrally embedded in the thought of Emmanuel Levinas and anchored in different philosophical and theological concepts. It is exemplified by the event of Pope John Paul II's death, which is taken as a synecdoche for his life and work that allows us to redefine the interrelated topics of religion and ritual as statements of ethics.