Bearing Witness to God: Ricoeur and the Practice of Religious Testimony

Philosophers of religion and theologians have long debated one of the most fundamental features of religious life, namely, how humans are able to talk about God. More than others, Paul Ricoeur has offered a viable philosophical account for bearing witness to the Divine beyond the strictures of logical positivism. Nevertheless, ‘bearing witness’ (martureó) remains problematic for living religion because it is always already oriented toward a kind of death (martyr). While acknowledging the approbation Ricoeur deserves for enabling religious expression, this essay challenges Ricoeur’s Kantian and Naberian presuppositions in light of feminist philosophies (of religion). Scholars like Luce Irigaray and Grace Jantzen help us think beyond the a priori limits that structure God-talk as a burden to bear, opening thereby a discursive frame beyond the phallogocentric and necrophilic.