The Annihilated Self

The devout life literature requires the self to see itself as nothing—but what does this mean? The dialectic of being and non-being has a long history in Western metaphysics, but in the wake of the Copernican revolution nothingness is no longer a relative element in the great chain of being but something more absolute. With the help of Fénelon’s proof for the existence of God from human imperfection, it is shown how the devout self is figured as suspended between being and nothingness, dependent entirely on God for being. In this situation, Descartes’s assurance regarding the ontological basis of human existence is unsustainable. Yet even in the face of annihilation, the soul may still love God and practise a grateful acknowledgement of God’s good gifts.