Love and the Difference a Family Makes

Abstract

In Glas, Derrida’s seminal book on Hegel and Jean Genet from 1974, one finds a remarkable concept of gift cited from Hegel. The concept is remarkable not just for what it means to say but for the significance of the place it is quoted from. It belongs to the first moment of the chapter on ‘Natural Religion’ in the Phenomenology of Spirit, a moment called ‘God as Light.’ So brief and forthright is this description of Zoroastric fire rites that it passes almost directly into the next one, ‘Plant and Animal.’ Equally concise, this exposition of ancient totem cults is then followed by a somewhat more generous account of ‘The Artificer,’ outlining the earliest religious artforms as these began to exteriorize cultic expressions of the absolute as representations. With the gift, which appears at the opening of ‘God as Light,’ Spirit takes the first step toward assuming for philosophy the notion of forgiveness, ‘the word of reconciliation’ that concluded the previous major section. Notwithstanding its obvious ethical supremacy and later historical articulation, the Christian word of reconciliation has not found for itself its own proper and true mode of expression. As the highest ethical principle, it may have unified all self-consciousness and being, but only in a natural language that presents the union as mere substance. Hence, darkness is over the earth. But dawn is underway.