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  • The Ethics of Time: A Phenomenology and Hermeneutics of Change by John Panteleimon Manoussakis
  • Sotiris Mitralexis
John Panteleimon Manoussakis. The Ethics of Time: A Phenomenology and Hermeneutics of Change. London: Bloomsbury, 2017. 209 pp.

Having chosen sides in the division limiting philosophy's scope in the Anglo-Saxon world, one might say that analytic philosophy works towards the resurrection of philosophy, one step at a time: first, by guaranteeing its death. In this sense, John Panteleimon Manoussakis's monograph The Ethics of Time: A Phenomenology and Hermeneutics of Change constitutes a double rebellion.

The book's first rebellion is precisely that it attempts to do philosophy—the centuries-old discipline for which analytic philosophers coined the geographical term "continental philosophy" from the mid-twentieth century onwards. The Ethics of Time is not a study of, exclusively, a specific subject, i.e. time—or ethics. Rather than that, John Panteleimon Manoussakis embarks on a vivid examination of an impressive spectrum of topics and problems, comprising cosmology, temporality, anthropology, death, selfhood, consciousness, the body, the problem of evil, etc., through the lens and with the help of a particular navigator: time as change, as the motion-kinesis of the ancients, and the fact that the question of ethics, i.e. of what is good, what is evil, and why, is dependent on time's and thus change's axis; the temporal horizon is disclosed as the place of ethics. Rather than sticking to the philosophical methodology of the forensic pathologist, Manoussakis spares, in an overflow of ideas and colors, no source and influence that could illuminate the problems he studies. Thus, he converses [End Page 105] in merited confidence with philosophers such as Anaxagoras, Aristotle and Plato, Kierkegaard, Levinas, Husserl and Heidegger—but is also inspired by an opening up of his inquiry to a wider variety of sources, from Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Mozart's Don Giovanni to Dostoyevsky, and from there through Freud and, most importantly, Lacan, to Lars von Trier's Dogville and his masterful analysis thereof as an alternative Christology. In doing so, philosophy is disclosed not as a carefully delimited method for looking at particular, objective subjects, but as an engaging way of seeing the world through a particular lens—the whole world, with and through all the rich impulses that it offers, from literature to cinema and beyond. Given the preeminence and preponderance of a very different style of philosophy in the English-speaking, and particularly American, academic environment in which the book's author operates—a style of philosophy with different goals, problems, sources, methods, style, and above all language than the one Manoussakis employs—this is indeed wonderfully rebellious.

The book's second rebellion consists in its challenging the philosophy/theology divide—in the footsteps and "tradition" of its author's teachers, Richard Kearney and Jean-Luc Marion, and the general "theological turn" of phenomenology as it is to be currently witnessed. Thus, within the philosophical outlook that characterizes the book, a number of core theological themes figure prominently, adding to the central problematic of the book: from the corporeality of the Incarnation to the Eucharist and, importantly, eschatology, which as the author argues is already present in "secular" philosophy under different names and guises. Great figures from the history of theology shed light on different angles of the problems Manoussakis addresses, such as Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor (thus adding to the peak of interest in Maximus' thought that we are currently witnessing), Origen, and above all Augustine, who hides behind every page of the book. It should be noted that while Augustine is a church father of both East and West, Manoussakis' reliance on his thought, coupled with the discipleship to his teachers in philosophy, grants the book a distinctive Roman Catholic hue; in this case, this cross-pollination is most interesting, as speaking with the other's voice can be seen as a rehearsal for a Pentecost, particularly when performed in the "theologically neutral" terrain of (continental, if we are to use redundant words) philosophy.

The book is structured in two parts: part 1 offers the reader a theoretical framework on time as movement and change, applying it...

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