Abstract

The philosophical turn to the letters of Saint Paul in the 1990s can also be read as a critical assessment of the concept of κόσμος, especially in the philosophical sense of order. In this article, it is shown that especially the so-called “meontological passages” to which philosophers such as Heidegger, Agamben, Badiou and Taubes equally turn, can be read in terms of such a critical assessment. The article opens with exploring the stakes of present-day philosophical interpretations of Saint Paul, namely to move beyond onto-theology towards meontology. Subsequently, it is argued why the meontological emphasis of these interpretations are neither crypto-Marcionite nor nihilistic. Finally, an in-depth reading of two meontological passages is offered showing how an interpretation organized around the concepts of κατάργησις and χρῆσις indeed lives up to the stakes of the present-day philosophical interest in Paul’s letters.