Richard Kearney’s Sacramental Aesthetics: From Eschatology to Deep Ontology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31802/GB.2026.60.1.019Keywords:
sacramental aesthetics, eucharistic experience, phenomenology of the flesh, R. Kearney, J. Caputo, anatheism, the sacred, the profane, philosophical theologyAbstract
In this article, the author analyzes the key features of the conceptual turn in the philosophical and theological project of the Irish philosopher Richard Kearney. The research employs hermeneutic and phenomenological methods. The author demonstrates the influence of Maurice Merleau‑Ponty's philosophy on Kearney’s thought. The study shows that a defining characteristic of Kearney’s philosophical theology is anatheistic thinking — a movement beyond the boundaries of theism and atheism. Kearney does not abandon the transcendent dimension or metaphysics; instead, he proposes a deep ontology in which the hermeneutics of embodiment plays a vital role. The research reveals that the turn in Kearney’s thinking serves as a strategy to transcend purely immanentist philosophical theologies while remaining outside of any confessional framework. The main features of this turn consist of a refusal to overcome metaphysics through eschatology and a pivot toward the phenomenology of the flesh.
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