Aletheia and Unconcealment: Greek Antiquity, Judaism, and Christianity in Heidegger’s Reading of Time and Temporality

ABSTRACT

While the place of Greek antiquity and the poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin have been well documented in Heidegger’s philosophical endeavors to foreground being, the places of Judaism and Christianity as two pillars that have grounded the Heideggerian endeavor and inquiry have been neglected. This article claims that Heidegger’s reading of time and temporality as kairological cannot be separated from its Jewish and Christian traditions and brings this to light by engaging with Heidegger’s reading of Paul’s letters to the Church of Thessalonica. The article argues that Heidegger’s reading of Aletheia (αλήθεια) as truth via its unconcealment is to be found not merely in the Greek antiquity of the pre-Socratics but also in Judaism and Christianity. It is Judaism and Christianity, this article argues, that lays the foundation for a Heideggerian reading of time as temporality.