The Philosophical Christology of Antonio Rosmini

Abstract

The aim of Xavier Tilliette’s essay is not to render Rosmini’s Christology in all its breadth, but to question it from a philosophical point of view (in order to show its originality). According to Tilliette, Rosmini is convincing and original precisely at the intersection point between philosophy and theology. In this sense, his philosophical Christology (like any authentic philosophical Christology) bases on a Christian philosophy; and Rosmini’s thought is from top to bottom a Christian one. For the French philosopher, Rosmini’s originality consists in showing that Christianity does not furnish a stock of immutable, eternal contents; Christianity is, rather, full of philosophy of its own, a “philosophy born in the bowels of Christianity” (according to the successful Rosminian formula). In this perspective, it is philosophy itself that “takes from Christ”: “there is no true philosophy that about Christ”. Thus, Christ becomes the living archetype, the personified wisdom, the object and purpose of philosophy. For Tilliette, Rosmini put his philosophy at the service of a true ontology of Christ. Moreover, for Tilliette (similarly to Blondel), Rosmini’s merit lies in not separating, nor isolating, the different aspects of Christ. Rosmini’s Christocentrism is a form of pan-Christism.