Conceiving Transformation Without Triumphalism: Joachim of Fiore Against Gianni Vattimo

Abstract

Something happened to me as I was meditating on this book something for which, relying on the gift of God, I am made more bold to write.Gianni Vattimo enthusiastically proclaims the advent of the postmodern, which he believes holds the prospect of transformation from an authoritarian past into a new age of freedom. 1 Vattimo claims that the overcoming of metaphysics enables the recovery of Christian faith, albeit a faith now purged of literalism and hierarchy. In order to articulate this postmodern religiosity, Vattimo depends upon the medieval abbot Joachim of Fiore, harnessing Joachim's spiritual interpretation of scripture and his view of history as progress towards the age of the Spirit in support of his own vision for a Christianity without dogma. Vattimo writes, 'Joachim of Fiore offers us a model for living postmodern religious experience on the basis of the specific content of his teaching on the age of the Spirit and of his general theological tendency to understand salvation history as the story of the transformation in which the Scripture's meaning is spiritualized.' 2 Unfortunately, as I shall argue, he misconstrues Joachim on both counts. In the tumultuous twelfth century Joachim predicted that the tribulations described in the Apocalypse of John would arrive imminently, followed by a period of unparalleled peace. By interpreting the biblical description of tribulation and renewal as historical in character, Joachim activates a revolutionary hope for transformation in time, one that went on to inspire his followers to proclaim the advent of Joachim's spiritual age. 3 Vattimo thus stands in a long line of those which saw themselves as verging on a new era of freedom, but in this he shares an error common to Joachim's disciples and his most bitter detractors. Whereas Vattimo supposes that the Age of the Spirit replaces the ecclesial institutions that preceded it, Joachim is clear that they will persist; and while Vattimo supposes that Joachim's spiritual interpretation of scripture replaces literal readings, Joachim sees them as operating harmoniously together -a pattern of continuity in difference that is exemplified by the unity-in-distinction of the Trinitarian persons.Whereas Vattimo's account of 'the new -postmodern -age of being' 4 depends upon a momentous misreading of Joachim's texts, Joachim's account of the relationship between time and transformation offers a corrective to Vattimo's enthusiasm for the present moment. Under the force of his insistence that the future and the past remain intertwined, Joachim develops a vision of what the future might bring while admitting that, since the coming age remains unfulfilled, such suggestions remain uncertain. Against a triumphalist postmodernism that would proclaim the arrival of new liberty with respect to the r

Vattimo and Ecclesiology

“…18 Strictly speaking, it was not Joachim who drew these conclusions about the church, but some of his interpreters later in the Middle Ages, especially Gerardo of Borgo San Donnino. 19 Vattimo does not go as far as Gerardo, but he does embrace the idea of the 'third status' (age) and does talk about this age being a time where 'sacred texts will no longer be the exclusive heritage of a priestly authority'. 20 It is true that in the Catholic Church Vattimo sees historically the metaphysical, authoritarian arbitrariness he has also characterised as 'strong thought', in contrast with his own style of weak thought (pensiero debole), that interpretations are historic and truth is only made through consensus.…”

Eckhart, Derrida, and the Gift of Love

“…72 Whereas Caputo assumes that Derrida dwells in the pure indeterminacy of a 'religion without religion' while Eckhart is sullied by his association with a particular tradition, Derrida acknowledges that determinate affirmations can and should continue. 73 Each author works within a tradition that inflects their work, and the differences between them should not be elided. Nevertheless, their differing commitments do not preclude the reading I have developed, for they both recognize that such calculations are inevitably provisional.…”

God the Father in Vattimo's Interpretation of Christianity

“…Caputo situates Joachim of Fiore within a tradition that runs through Schelling, Hegel, and Feuerbach down to the death of God thinkers and -he thinks -perhaps Vattimo himself: plotting 'the transition from transcendence to immanence, from alienation and estrangement to homecoming, from God as a distant and severe Father to God first as Son and sibling and then as the spirit of love'. 33 Although David Newheiser has shown how Vattimo misinterprets Joachim's Trinitarian schema, 34 it is a misinterpretation that leaves itself open for the accusation of supersessionism. Frederiek Depoortere puts it as follows: 'Vattimo is magnifying the discontinuity between the Old and the New Testament.…”