The Reasonableness of Theology: Recent Pontifical Approaches in Response to the Critique of Emmanuel Levinas

This article responds to Emmanuel Levinas and his critique of reason in the Western philosophical tradition, contrasting it with a continuity of approach taken by recent Bishops of Rome, including Francis, Benedict XVI, and John Paul II. Levinas provides an important corrective to aspects of the way reason has been deployed, especially with regard to violence and war. It will be argued that Levinas helps refine and humble theological reflection, but his argument is not altogether applicable to theology. A Catholic tradition of theology relies on philosophy in terms of ‘naming names,’ an activity responsive to Levinas’s critique, and counters it in terms of moral goodness. Responding to Levinas helps to confidently articulate theology as an intelligent participation and performance of the good in a thoroughgoing reasonableness.