Kurt Appel

The essence of Europe consists in pointing beyond itself

ABSTRACT This article pursues the question of the essence of Europe. It does not lie in the religious, cultural and geographical demarcations, but in the openness towards the other. The particular contribution of religion in this could lay in its apocalyptic tradition. This must not be understood as a violent end of history beset by fear. Rather it means the end of all virtual images and identities which serve to mask the fundamental vulnerability of man.

Mythologie und Liturgie als Manifestationen des Absoluten in Schellings Philosophie der Kunst. Versuch einer Standortbestimmung vor dem Hintergrund möglicher Anfragen mittels Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes

This text, an examination of Schelling’s Philosophy of Art, focuses on the meaning and the limit of mythology with regard to art and the Absolute as well as Schelling’s understanding of liturgy. For Schelling, Greek mythology is a cosmos of ideas in divine forms which points to the manifestation of the divine in the finite, whereas the finite in Christianity is only an allegory of the infinite. However, he conceives liturgy as a “living artwork” and as a practice opening itself up to the Absolute and therefore its meaning is not simply allegorical. The sacrament is bound to a historical moment and thus the saving act of Christ is present in it. Cult leaves the individualistic categories of the modern era behind and is a truly public act and a real-symbolic unity with the Absolute. The paper claims that liturgy can be seen as a common pivotal element in Schelling and Hegel. It develops Schellings concept of liturgy by taking into account important insights of Hegels Phenomenology of Spirit such as Hegels concept of transubstantiation. This concept implies that truth does not only present itself as substance but also as subject, which results in an understanding of substance as indisposable, free Otherness. Therefore our reality cannot be conceived as a world of objects, rather its subject-like character has to be seen. Finally, the author tries to show that liturgy can be understood as the event of the Absolute opening the recognition of the Other as fundament of our world.