Il semblerait que la recherche d’un premier principe ne puisse ni aboutir une fois pour toutes ni être abandonnée. L’objectif est de montrer, d’une part, que cette tension travaille l’apophatisme de Plotin et la déconstruction de Derrida en y induisant des difficultés symétriques, et, d’autre part, que l’exploration de ces difficultés suggère une doctrine « intermédiaire » du premier principe intégrant la tension en question. Leurs philosophies reposent toutes deux sur une instance que son excès radical conduit à déborder l’être et l’originarité, mais le néoplatonicien et le déconstructeur interprètent ce débordement de façons diamétralement opposées. Le premier la comprend comme un aboutissement de la quête d’origine, tandis que le second y voit une invitation à dépasser cette quête. D’un côté, Plotin pense une arkhè que sa transcendance radicale rend difficile à déconstruire, mais qui devrait aussi interdire d’en garantir l’existence et la fonction. Sa volonté de maintenir cette garantie induit une série de perturbations, notamment autour du thème de la matière. D’un autre côté, la déconstruction du principe repose sur l’usage d’un schème principiel dénié. Pour le montrer, il faut élaborer une présentation générale de la pensée derridienne, qui révèle une tension culminant avec l’occultation de cet usage par un positionnement anti-principiel. Il s’agit de montrer que l’auto-dépassement de l’arkhè ne représente ni une garantie ni une abolition, qu’il peut être intégré dans une conception originale fondée sur certains éléments propres à chacun de nos auteurs, et qui articule un premier principe métaphysique à une ontologie et à une éthique. / It would seem that the search for a first metaphysical principle cannot either succeed once for all or be abandoned. The objective is to show, on one hand, that this tension works Plotinus’ apophatism and Derrida’s deconstruction by causing in it symmetric difficulties, and, on the other hand, that the exploration of these difficulties suggests an "intermediate" doctrine of the first principle, integrating the tension. Their philosophies rest both on something that its radical excess drives beyond being and origin, but they give diametrically opposite interpretations of this situation.The Neoplatonist understands it as a success of the quest for the first principle, whereas the deconstructionist sees it as an invitation to give up this quest. On one side, Plotinus tries to think an arkhè which its radical transcendence makes difficult to deconstruct, but that should also forbid guaranteeing its existence and its function. His will to maintain this guarantee causes disturbances, in particular in his theory of matter. On the other hand, the deconstruction of the first principle requires the use of a transcendental schema, which is yet partially denied by Derrida. To show this, it is necessary to elaborate a general presentation of derridean thought, which reveals a tension, peaking with the attempt to conceal the use of foundational methods.Our aim is to show that the auto-exceeding of the arkhè is neither a guarantee nor an abolition, and that it can be integrated into an original conception based on certain elements from each of our authors, which associates a first metaphysical principle with an ontology and an ethics.

The Lofoten Maelström in Norway, one of the world’s most powerful systems of tidal eddies, has been a locus of terror and imagination for centuries. First depicted in renaissance cartography, the myth of the vortex was propagated through the occult science of Athanasius Kircher and found its most current expression in Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelström”. This thesis is a work of exegesis. That is, a work of interpretation that leads out of a text, or a site, towards another level of meaning. Poe’s text refers to the geographic site of the thesis but also becomes a site in itself. It is out of this text/site that the author unfolds a series of exegetical pathways, constructing an ambiguous ground between the real and imaginary dimensions of the Maelström. This thesis is also a work of synthesis. It explores how the speculative architectural proposition can crystallize subtle conceptual material in ways that text and image alone cannot. While the thesis is heavily invested in various modes of representation, architectural and otherwise, it also acts as a critical investigation into the nature of representation itself. The document is composed as a performance in three parts. Each part broadly engages a fundamental binary that is latent in the work of architecture: 1) history and fiction 2) figure and ground 3) ritual and design. Part I introduces the site through various historical and fictional portrayals of the Maelström which have contributed to the co-authorship of its mythologized identity. Part II consists of a suite of three discursive essays that address the sublime, the death instinct, romanticism, negative theology, the chora, and 20th century performance theory. This material is organized under the umbrella of three figure/ground conditions: the figure against the sublime ground of the romantic-era painting, the negative ground of medieval mysticism, and the ritual ground of the Greek chorus and its spatial counterpart, the chora. Finally, Part III includes two movements: the design of a wave energy research facility, and a series of episodic vignettes that subvert the intentions of the designer by re-casting the facility as a place of ritual. With the Maelström as a backdrop, the architectural proposition offers itself as the stage upon which this struggle between design and ritual is enacted.

The Lofoten Maelström in Norway, one of the world’s most powerful systems of tidal eddies, has been a locus of terror and imagination for centuries. First depicted in renaissance cartography, the myth of the vortex was propagated through the occult science of Athanasius Kircher and found its most current expression in Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Descent into the Maelström”. This thesis is a work of exegesis. That is, a work of interpretation that leads out of a text, or a site, towards another level of meaning. Poe’s text refers to the geographic site of the thesis but also becomes a site in itself. It is out of this text/site that the author unfolds a series of exegetical pathways, constructing an ambiguous ground between the real and imaginary dimensions of the Maelström. This thesis is also a work of synthesis. It explores how the speculative architectural proposition can crystallize subtle conceptual material in ways that text and image alone cannot. While the thesis is heavily invested in various modes of representation, architectural and otherwise, it also acts as a critical investigation into the nature of representation itself. The document is composed as a performance in three parts. Each part broadly engages a fundamental binary that is latent in the work of architecture: 1) history and fiction 2) figure and ground 3) ritual and design. Part I introduces the site through various historical and fictional portrayals of the Maelström which have contributed to the co-authorship of its mythologized identity. Part II consists of a suite of three discursive essays that address the sublime, the death instinct, romanticism, negative theology, the chora, and 20th century performance theory. This material is organized under the umbrella of three figure/ground conditions: the figure against the sublime ground of the romantic-era painting, the negative ground of medieval mysticism, and the ritual ground of the Greek chorus and its spatial counterpart, the chora. Finally, Part III includes two movements: the design of a wave energy research facility, and a series of episodic vignettes that subvert the intentions of the designer by re-casting the facility as a place of ritual. With the Maelström as a backdrop, the architectural proposition offers itself as the stage upon which this struggle between design and ritual is enacted.

Peut-on dire Dieu ? Dieu lui-même parle-t-il et se dit-il ? Les deuxquestions semblent intimement liées : si le langage est tenu pour une réalité étrangèreà la nature divine, il est en effet susceptible d’être jugé inapte à son expression. Cettethèse est consacrée à l’exploration d’une question qui a rencontré un intérêt sansprécédent dans le platonisme des débuts de l’époque impériale : celle de l’articulationentre le discours (λόγος) et le divin (θεός). Le signe le plus évident de cet intérêtnouveau pour la question du rapport entre discursivité et divinité est l’essor queconnaît alors le motif du « dieu ineffable » (θεὸς ἄρρητος). Les trois auteurs surlesquels porte cette étude – Philon, Plutarque et l’auteur présenté dans l’Élenchos(VII, 14-27, X, 14) comme « Basilide » – se caractérisent par une commune adhésionà l’idée que Dieu échappe à l’appréhension verbale, mais cette idée est loin des’exprimer chez eux de façon uniforme : si Plutarque semble réticent à déclarer Dieu« ineffable », Philon, lui, le reconnaît tel avec insistance, tandis que « Basilide »,considérant que le dire « ineffable » revient encore à en dire quelque chose,surenchérit en le déclarant « pas même ineffable ». Pour comprendre ces divergences,il s’agira d’examiner les données ontologiques, gnoséologiques et linguistiques quiexpliquent les positions respectives de ces auteurs sur la question de l’expression dudivin. Cette enquête débutera par un chapitre préliminaire où l’on situera dans soncontexte – celui du médioplatonisme – le débat sur le divorce entre λόγος et θεός etoù l’on en recherchera les prémisses chez Platon, Aristote et dans la spéculationpythagorisante. / Can one make statements about God ? Does God speak and does hemake statements about himself ? These two questions are intimately related: iflanguage is taken to be a reality extraneous to God’s nature, it might be consideredunsuitable for expression of his nature. This dissertation explores the question of thearticulation between discourse (λόγος) and the divine (θεός) that became a prominentlocus of debate in early imperial Platonism. The clearest sign of this new-foundinterest in the relationship between discursivity and divinity is the growth in the motifof “ineffable God” (θεὸς ἄρρητος). The study looks at three authors – Philo,Plutarch, and the author presented in the Elenchos (VII, 14-27, X, 14) as “Basilides” –linked by a common adherence to the idea that God escapes verbal apprehension.Their respective way of expressing this idea is by no means uniform, however : ifPlutarch seems reticent to declare God “ineffable”, Philo declares this moreemphatically; “Basilides”, meanwhile, reckoning that declaring God “ineffable” isstill saying something about him, goes even further by declaring him “not evenineffable”. In order to understand these differences we must examine the ontological,gnoseological, and linguistic facts that explain the respective positions of theseauthors on the expression of the divine. This inquiry starts with a preliminary chapterwhich situates the debate about the gulf between discourse and God in its context –Middle Platonism – and seeks its premises in the thinking of Plato, Aristotle andPythagoreanizing speculation.

Not much ink has been spilled over John Donne’s relationship to negative, or apophatic, theology. A few scholars have written about apophatic discourse in Donne’s poetry and sermons, but, in general, the subject continues to be overlooked. This thesis seeks to (re)start the conversation by shedding light on Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, a text which has yet to be linked to the negative tradition despite its clear engagement in apophatic discourse. Indeed, throughout Devotions, Donne wields several apophatic strategies when speaking of God including via negativa, predicates of action, linguistic regress, paradox, and a consistent reliance upon metaphorical language. Each of these strategies uphold the two guiding principles of negative theology: the epistemic thesis which asserts that God is incomprehensible, and the semantic thesis which asserts that God is unspeakable therefore can only stand as the subject term in negative propositions. Significantly, my objective is not merely to qualify Devotions as an example of apophatic discourse; I also intend to contemplate the implications of qualifying it as such, namely how Devotions challenges the long-held assumption that apophasis requires the user to relinquish the body. Across the text, Donne’s apophasis does not lead him to un-body; on the contrary, the body gains new importance as Donne imagines the risen body, the interpersonal body, the body that cannot be lost because it is an inextricable facet of selfhood. Again, my hope is that this thesis will (re)start or (re)energize the conversation around Donne’s relationship to negative theology, a relationship that is much richer and more extensive than current scholarship suggests.

This thesis reveals the considerable influence of contemplation (sometimes referred to as mysticism) on Anglo-Saxon literature, manifested through the arrangement of narratives according to the theological concepts of apophasis and kenosis. This is demonstrated through a lengthy contextual discussion of the place of contemplation in Anglo-Saxon spirituality, and close analysis of four poems and a prose text. Although English mysticism is commonly thought to start in the High Middle Ages, this thesis will suggest that this terminus post quem should instead be resituated to the Anglo-Saxon period. The first chapter seeks to reveal the centrality of contemplation to Anglo-Saxon spirituality through analysing a range of diverse material, to evidence the monastic reader borne from this culture capable of reading and composing the texts that make up the rest of the thesis in the manner suggested. The thesis places chronologically diverse Anglo-Saxon texts in a contemplative context, with close reference to theology, phenomenology, and narrative structure, to suggest that our interpretation of them should be revised to apprehend the contemplative scheme that they advocate: to cleanse the reader of sin through inspiring penitence and kenosis (humility and emptying of one's will) and direct the mind intellectually beyond the words, images and knowledge of the terrestrial sphere (apophasis), so as to prepare them for the potential coming of God's grace in the form of a vision. This reading is supported by the close taxonomical resemblance of each text's narrative structure. The thesis thus suggests that contemplation was central to Anglo-Saxon spirituality, producing an elite contemplative audience for whom certain texts were designed as preparative apparatus.

Cette thèse propose une réflexion originale sur la construction d’une poétique de l’absence dans le Livro do desassossego (Livre de l’intranquillité) de Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). Plus grande œuvre en prose de l’écrivain portugais, le Livro est une œuvre inachevée et inachevable, en raison tant de sa forme que de son contenu. En fait, c’est la négation du livre, l’anti-livre. Attribuées par Pessoa à son demi-hétéronyme Bernardo Soares, les centaines de fragments tissent en filigrane une quête vers la compréhension de ce qu’est l’absence et des modalités de sa manifestation. Participe à cette quête la réflexion sur l’absence de l’être, dont l’interrogation mobilise le dialogue avec des sources anciennes, notamment chez Parménide, Héraclite et Augustin. L’absence se manifeste aussi dans le moyen entrepris pour l’investiguer : le langage. À ce sujet, l’analyse des piliers de la théologie négative, inaugurée par Pseudo-Denys l’Aréopagite et basée sur le lien avec ce qui est impossible à dire, apporte une perspective décisive pour illuminer la démarche de Pessoa. Pour réfléchir au mystère enfoui dans le Livro, mystère qui est aussi son moteur et l’essence de la parole, l’herméneutique de certains passages de la Bible s’avère un important atout, notamment dans la question concernant le nom de Dieu. Ma thèse démontre que, comme dans les Écritures, le Livro porte un nom secret. Dans ce contexte, en comprenant la place de l’absence dans le langage de Pessoa, la thèse évoque la théorie kabbalistique du langage chez Gershom Scholem, dans laquelle le nom de Dieu et l’essence de la parole recèlent et révèlent à la fois. Cette absence se déploie aussi dans le questionnement d’une subjectivité poreuse et plurielle, qui se heurte à des énigmes existentielles et articule l’absence du je. Cette thèse met en exergue également le lien explicite entre l’absence et l’amour : le rapport à l’absence, surtout l’absence de l’autre, produit des sentiments. Du rapport affectif à l’absence surgit l’amour, qui comporte un surplus, un élan. Comme chez Dante, l’amour chez Pessoa se déplie dans l’espace de la distance et dans la jouissance d’un affect irréalisable. À travers la parole poétique, Pessoa quête l’absence par, dans et du langage. / This thesis proposes an original interpretation regarding the construction of a poetics of absence in the Livro do desassossego (Book of Disquiet) by Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). A major prose work by the Portuguese writer, the Livro is a work unfinished and unfinishable, both in form and content. In fact, it runs counter to the book; it is an anti-book. Hundreds of fragments assigned by Pessoa to his half-heteronym Bernardo Soares weave a search towards the meaning of absence and the ways it manifests itself. Such searching includes thoughts on the absence of being, whose interrogation calls for a dialogue with ancient sources, especially Parmenides, Heraclitus and Augustine. The absence also manifests itself in the medium used to investigate it: language. In that regard, the analysis of negative theology’s main ideas, initially articulated by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and based on the link with what cannot be said, offers a decisive perspective for illuminating Pessoa’s project. In thinking about the hidden mystery in the Livro, a mystery that is both its source and the word’s essence, the hermeneutics of certain passages of the Bible offer a crucial advantage, in particular when the name of God is discussed. My thesis demonstrates that, as in the Scriptures, the Livro carries a secret name. In this context, in understanding the place of absence in Pessoa’s language, the thesis evokes Gershom Scholem’s kabbalistic theory of language in which the name of God and the word’s essence conceal and reveal at the same time. Such absence also appears in the questioning of a porous and plural subjectivity, which comes up against existential enigmas and articulates the absence of the self. In the same vein, this thesis emphasizes the link between absence and love: being attached to absence, mainly the absence of the beloved, produces feelings. From this affective link to absence comes love, which also leads to a surplus and an elan. As with Dante, for Pessoa love comes about at a distance and in the joy of unrealizable affect. By means of poetic expression, Pessoa searches the absence of language, through language and inside language. / Esta tese propõe uma reflexão original sobre a construção de uma poética da ausência no Livro do desassossego, de Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). Mais importante obra em prosa do escritor português, o Livro é uma obra inacabada e inacabável, em razão tanto de sua forma quanto de seu conteúdo. É, na verdade, a negação do livro, um anti-livro. Atribuídas por Pessoa a seu semi-heterônimo Bernardo Soares, as centenas de fragmentos tecem em filigrana uma busca rumo à compreensão do que é a ausência e das modalidades de sua manifestação. Participa desta busca a reflexão sobre a ausência do ser, cuja interrogação mobiliza o diálogo com fontes antigas, notadamente Parmênides, Heráclito et Santo Agostinho. A ausência também se manifesta no meio utilizado para a investigar: a linguagem. Sobre este assunto, a análise dos pilares da teologia negativa, inaugurada por Pseudo-Dionísio Areopagita e baseada na relação com aquilo que é impossível dizer, oferece uma perspectiva decisiva para iluminar o projeto de Pessoa. Para refletir sobre o mistério escondido no Livro, mistério que é também seu motor e a essência da palavra, a hermenêutica de algumas passagens da Bíblia se confirma como uma importante vantagem, principalmente na discussão sobre o nome de Deus. Minha tese demonstra que, como nas Escrituras, o Livro carrega um nome secreto. Neste contexto, entendendo o lugar da ausência na linguagem de Pessoa, a tese evoca a teoria cabalística da linguagem segundo Gershom Scholem, na qual o nome de Deus e a essência da palavra tanto ocultam quanto revelam. Esta ausência se desenvolve também no questionamento sobre uma subjetividade porosa e plural, que se confronta com enigmas existenciais e articula a ausência do eu. Esta tese também destaca o elo explícito entre a ausência e o amor: a relação à ausência, sobretudo a ausência do outro, produz sentimentos. Da relação afetiva à ausência surge o amor, que comporta um excedente, um élan. Como se percebe em Dante, o amor em Pessoa se desdobra no espaço da distância e na experiência de um afeto irrealizável. Por meio da palavra poética, Pessoa busca a ausência da, dentro e através da linguagem.

The 'postmodern challenge' is increasingly felt in the 'end of modernity' to which Gianni Vattimo refers. The West and the world has hitherto been dominated by what Andrew Gamble characterises as the Modern or Western Ideology. But the validity of that worldview and its associated ways of thinking, going back to the 'Enlightenment' and beyond, has come to be radically questioned. It is within this context that the work and thought of CS Lewis is examined. Although Lewis is generally recognised, and regarded himself, as conservative and even reactionary, there is a paradoxical quality to his conservatism, the elements of which coexist with features which might be regarded as liberal and as radically socialist respectively. Similarly, his commitment to the religious and cultural tradition of Western Europe co-exists with a vehement anticolonialism. A paradoxical association of postmodermism with 'premodernity' has been widely noted in Buddhism and, by Derrida, in Eastern Christian theology. This thesis seeks to demonstrate that a paradoxical postmodernism is evident in the thought of Lewis. One source suggested for this is his interest in Eastern Christianity. Another is identified as the influence on Lewis of the opposition of Romanticism to 'Enlightenment' modernity. But Lewis's own engagement with modernity is also shown to be significant. Two broad trends in postmodernism are discussed. The affinities of Lewis's thought with the nihilistic tradition of postmodernism, going back to Nietzsche, is traced with regard to issues such as rationalism, science, the autonomy of the subject, and authorship. But the ambivalent relationship of Lewis to spiritually-oriented, affirmative postmodernism, and particularly Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy, is also analysed. The crucial role of Scholasticism in the development of Western thought is investigated in a comparison of Steiner's views with the Christian position of Lewis. It is concluded that there are grounds to regard Lewis as. 'prophet of postmodernism', and he is compared with Nietzsche and Pope John-Paul II in this regard. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

La philosophie de la subjectivité culmine chez Husserl avec la paradoxale nécessité de fonder cette philosophie dans une communauté de sujets. Par un même mouvement, la phénoménologie husserlienne dévoile la personne cachée du philosophe, le moi phénoménologique, et autrui sur lequel le moi méditant cherche appui. Désormais, avec l’apparition de la phénoménologie, la problématique d’autrui s’installe au cœur de la philosophie directement liée à celle de la subjectivité. Sans être explicitement l’objet de sa philosophie, le problème d’autrui est constamment présent chez Merleau-Ponty. Si le plus grand problème concernant la question d’autrui de la Cinquième méditation husserlienne était celui de poser ce problème en partant de l’ego constituant, qui se pose comme une subjectivité autosuffisante, dans La structure du comportement, le comportement comme structure (Gestalt) pose un premier décentrement de la subjectivité, qui laisse ainsi de la place pour la question d’autrui. Ce travail de décentrement se poursuit avec l’analyse du corps propre, lequel dans la Phénoménologie de la perception, est entendu comme une subjectivité plus originaire que la conscience. Enfin, dans Le visible et l’invisible, Merleau-Ponty aborde la question d’autrui directement en lien avec la question de l’être. En réhabilitant la notion de forme, il ne s’agit plus seulement de revenir à la question de la subjectivité, mais de remettre en question la réflexion en quête l’être. L’incarnation présuppose une négativité constitutive, que la réflexion doit assumer et qui doit la conduire à refuser tout primat du sujet (ego). Dans l’être comme chair il n’y a plus de place privilégiée, ni pour moi, ni pour autrui, ni même pour notre rapport. Cette philosophie de la chair apparaît donc comme une ontologie indirecte, capable d’embrasser pleinement la question d’autrui dans tous ses paradoxes. / Husserl’s late philosophy is confronted with a paradoxical necessity: founding this philosophy on a community of subjects. At the same time, the Husserlian phenomenology shows out the person sitting behind phenomenological reflection but also the Other in which the phenomenological philosopher tries to find assistance. Thus, along with the emergence of the phenomenology, the problem of the Other is placed at the core of the philosophy directly connected to the question of the subjectivity. The question of the Other, despite not being the central point of his philosophy, is constantly present in the Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy. If in the Husserl’s Fifth Cartesian Mediation the most difficult problem concerning the question of the Other is precisely the fact that this question is being asked by what it seems to be an autosufficient subjectivity, in The Structure of Behavior, the notion of the behavior as structure (Gestalt) accomplishes already a decentering of the human subjectivity, freeing the ground for the question of the Other. In the Phenomenology of Perception, this work of decentering is being continued with the analysis of the body, showing that the corporeal subjectivity precedes the conscience. Finally, in The Visible and the Invisible, Merleau-Ponty investigates the question of the Other along with the question of Being. In reevaluating the notion of structure, it is now not only a question of subjectivity but of how the reflection limits itself to a positive questing of the Being. The incarnation implies a degree of negativity that reflection has to presume and the very consequence of that is there’s no longer a privileged place for a constitutive subject (ego). In the Being of flesh, there’s no longer a privileged place for me, or for the other, or for our relation. It’s only in its final philosophy of the flesh, the indirect ontology, that the question of the Other can be accepted with all its constitutives paradoxes.

L’ambition de cette thèse, qui se présente en sept chapitres regroupés en trois parties, est de reprendre l’ensemble du Corpus dionysien pour en définir un principe de cohérence : la théologie négative. Dans le sillage des recherches antérieures, souvent centrées sur une des œuvres qui lui sont attribuées ou sur une thématique particulière, on s’est interrogé sur l’histoire et la complexité de plusieurs concepts centraux de l’œuvre : théologie négative, symbole, hiérarchie. Et, en proposant de considérer la Hiérarchie ecclésiastique comme l’achèvement du Corpus – c’est au bref traité de la Théologie mystique qu’on attribuait volontiers cette place – nous montrons comment l’apophase ou la théologie négative s’enrichit, s’approfondit, d’une dimension liturgique, au-delà de l'affirmation et de la négation. / The purpose of this thesis, consisting of seven chapters grouped under three sections, is to reconsider the whole dionysian Corpus and to define the principle of its consistency, that is negative theology. Following the previous research, often focusing on one of the treatises or a main theme, we start with the history and the complexity of several key concepts within the Corpus: negative theology, symbol, hierarchy. We suggest that Ecclesiastical Hierarchy should be considered as the final step of Dionysius’ theology (rather than Mystical Theology as usually), and that leads us to study how the apophasis or the negative theology deepens into a liturgical dimension, beyond affirmation and negation.