NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion - Volume 34, Issue 4, 1980

‘Creation’ is a religious concept but Levinas uses it in his philosophy. According to him, God enters philosophy as her in-finition and her transcendance. Without Him, immanence is only ‘il y a’, the senseless event of nature, society and history. Creation is ‘il y a’ brought under the impact of transcendance by man. Man is chosen to bear creation’s evil by substituting himself for his neighbour’s (fr.:autrui) suffering and guilt, even if it costs his identity. – Here three questions arise: is there no ethics in joy, art and eros? Is man creation’s aim? Is creation only ‘material for his duty’? – L. Acknowledges man’s self-defence only in a secondary, derived sense: in society, where justice is to reign. Social, distributive justice has its roots in the infinite giving of personal ethics, but the two remain separate – So ethics is twofold, personal and social, never to influence one another?