Theology as a science of the givenness and J.-L. Marion’s saturated phenomenon

Abstract

The article analyzes the ‘saturated phenomenon’—a phenomenological project of the French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion. A saturated phenomenon differs from a poor one in that its potential schematization essentially does not correspond to intentionally filled evidence. These phenomena include ideal objects and habitual objects. Saturated phenomena are also of two types. First, this is an unpredictable and unique historical event. Second, it is a theophany—a revelation that reveals God in the course of ordinary contemplation. Theophany is understood not as a given, or a miracle, but as surrender, i. e., as a special interpretation of the profane world in the horizon of the meaning of the sacred world. Devotion requires a believer to have a special focus on attention and understanding in order to discover the manifestation of God in the contemplation of the everyday world. The article attempts to prove that a saturated phenomenon does not fundamentally differ from a poor one. In particular, the discovery of a unique historical event is possible in the course of reconfiguring attention to the everyday world and does not require special events that happen independently of the subject. The phenomenon of theophany cannot be called a phenomenon at all since the appearance of God as a special semantic given does not occur, instead, the same reconfiguration of the interpretation of the everyday poor phenomenon takes place. In this sense, a historical event that is distinguished by unforeseen uniqueness and unpredictable richness of meaning is even more apt to be defined as a rich phenomenon. Thus, not the phenomenal, but the hermeneutic aspect of consciousness is decisive in determining a phenomenon as rich or poor.