Bernhard Casper
Comprendere al momento giusto

The idea that truth is completely time-independent is one of the central notions of western thought. The author of this contribution focuses on the main intellectual experiences that from the end of the XIXth century have rehersed the terms of the identity between the "true" and the "eternal". That is, the whole reflection on history as the constitutive dimension of mankind and on the contents of religious experience (especially hebrew and christian). He thus takes into account a whole variety of philosophers: Rosenzweig, Heidegger, Levinas, and also Benjamin and Adorno. The acknowledgement of a notion of truth as linked with time would be an extremely important step forward especially within the field of religious phenomenology. This is because it would help to confirm the thesis about the historical (rather than natural) structure of religions, thus fighting any fundamentalism concerning the "eternal" and incontrovertible contents of religious doctrine.