Levinas and the Philosophy of Religion

Acknowledgments

acknowle d g ments How difficult, probably impossible, to write or describe here what I seem on the verge of describing. Perhaps it is impossible to hold a discourse which holds itself at this moment saying, explaining, taking note of E. L.’s work. —Jacques Derrida, “En ce moment même dans cet ouvrage me voici” If it is so difficult for a reader as keen as Jacques Derrida to describe, explain , or take note of Levinas’s work, how much more so for one like myself , who can hardly claim the years of experience and a comparable reputation ! My task has been made much easier, however, by the fact that friends and family, teachers and peers have sustained me along the way. I was first put on that way by my professors as an undergraduate at Williams College, Mark C. Taylor and H. Ganse Little. I remain amazed by Taylor’s incomparable teaching and his dedication to students both during their time in class and well after they leave. In Little, I found someone who inspired me with a passion for questions, paradoxes, associations, and everything else that makes life much richer and more worth living. Having learned immensely from them as teachers, I am now fortunate to count them as friends and to have benefited from their advice and wisdom as I negotiated the many twists and turns that led me to this book and beyond it. Were it not for John D. Caputo and Merold Westphal, this book undoubtedly would not have seen the light of day. I offer my heartfelt thanks to them for that, though readers might offer them something else. Between the time this began as a dissertation project and the time it came to a close as a book, I had the happy occasion to meet and become friends with JeanLuc Marion. In his writings, his teaching, and his conversation, he brought philosophy alive in a way that opened immeasurable possibilities for me. I thank him for that expansive gift and more. The task itself, like all work of writing, was completed alone during long hours at the library or, more often, at my desk in a small circle of light illuminating myself and the words I read and wrote. The perhaps more important task of transforming this day-to-day accomplishment into cause for daily celebration was not, however, something that I did or could have done on my own. For that, I owe my gratitude to others: to my parents, Michael and Marsha Kosky, and my sister, Rachelle Kosky, who never let their incomprehension stand in the way of their love; to Tom Carlson for his good humor and, dare it be said, an optimism that I see each and every ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS x time I am with him; to Peter Struck and Natalie Dohrmann for the time we shared; to my friends at Redmoon Theater in Chicago—especially, Jim Lasko , Kristi Randall, Tria Smith, as well as Sheri Doyel and Blair Thomas— who knew more than enough to celebrate in me what they did not understand about what I was doing; and finally, to Stephanie Hodde, who came along when all seemed nearly said and done and showed me that the best was yet to come. May 2000 Williamstown, Massachusetts ...