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177 seven Levinas Beyond Onto-theology to Love of Neighbor We can easily enough imagine a kind of theological ‘‘gotcha!’’ game in which Barth insists that he has a more radical account of sin and grace as epistemic categories than Aquinas and his analogia entis. To which Aquinas then replies that in spite of Barth’s emphasis on the Scripture principle, he, Aquinas, is closer to biblical thinking, both with reference to Being as the first name of God in the light of Exodus 3:14 and with reference to natural theology in the light Romans 1:20. Barth will have a long and learned reply, which will provoke an equally long and learned reply from the doctor angelicus. Even in the ecumenical atmosphere of Vatican II, to which we have transported the two of them, it will not be easy to stop the debate. But let us try, if not to stop the debate entirely, which is both important and legitimate, at least to sidetrack it long enough to notice the striking and surprising agreement between the two. With Pseudo-Dionysius, their common ancestor (another surprise), they affirm that only God knows God and, correspondingly , that we must say no to the onto-theological project in order to open ourselves to the genuinely theological gift. In other words, we can have saving and healing knowledge of God only as that knowledge is imparted to us by Ethical and Religious Transcendence 178 God, who remains hidden and mysterious in this revelation. The debate over the relation of nature to this grace occurs in the context of an agreement about grace that simultaneously affirms divine epistemic transcendence and calls for human self-transcendence in abandoning the ideal of autonomy and adequation and in humbly receiving the gift in gratitude and joy. Thus Barth writes that this knowledge ‘‘does not cease to transcend us, but we become immanent to it, so that obedience to it is our free will. But because God remains transcendent to us even in His revelation, the subjectivity of our acknowledgment of His revelation means our elevation above ourselves’’ (CD II/1, 219, emphasis added). Both Barth and Aquinas interpret this ‘‘becoming immanent’’ to God’s own self-knowledge in terms of participation, a term that nicely signifies both objective transcendence and subjective self-transcendence. The time has come, however, to turn our attention from knowing to doing.1 Over against the autonomy and adequation ideals of the Enlightenment Project in both its ancient and modern forms, epistemic transcendence has signaled the double heteronomy of revelation and mystery. But the autonomy ideal was never restricted to the cognitive realm, and it would be surprising if genuine transcendence did not entail a heteronomy of behavior as well as a heteronomy of belief. That is surely the view of Barth. He writes, ‘‘Ethics so called I regard as the doctrine of God’s command and do not consider it right to treat it otherwise than as an integral part of dogmatics, or to produce a dogmatics which does not include it’’ (CD I/1, xiv). Once again, Aquinas would be in significant, if not total, agreement. If one gets past the anthologies’ excerpts on the Five Ways, one finds both a Treatise on Law and a Treatise on Virtue in the Summa Theologiae, a deontological and a teleological ethics that is in each case ineluctably theological. There will still be a nature-grace scheme that will make Barth uncomfortable, but once again the agreement is more fundamental. Our highest duty is obedience to God and our highest good is loving union with God. This union is always on God’s terms, not on ours, and this love has its origin in God and not in ourselves. So we could easily proceed with either Aquinas or Barth (or Augustine, for that matter). I turn rather to Levinas. On one hand, this is quite natural since transcendence is the central theme of his thought, that by virtue of which infinity exceeds every totality and that which is otherwise than being or beyond essence. For when thought and action are governed by the categories 1. Let us not say from theory to practice, for the knowing we have been talking about is not in the first instance theory. Theology as a reflective, even academic, activity is always secondary and derivative from the ‘‘theology’’ (God talk) of the community which has not yet generated systematic and critical re...

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