The influence of Christian gnosticism on Michel Henry’s philosophy

Abstract

Michel Henry was a French philosopher born in Vietnam who constructed a philosophy of Christianity based on a phenomenological framework. His reflections on the Christian religion appear especially in a trilogy comprising the following works: “I Am the Truth”; “Incarnation”; and “Words of Christ”. A reading of these works reveals that the author has an understanding of Christianity that distances itself from the orthodox view. As a result, commentators on the philosopher such as Jad Hatem, Joseph Rivera and Kevin Hart argue that there is a Gnostic orientation in his thinking. Gnosticism is a movement that emerged in the second century and that defends the thesis that the material world is evil, having been created by an inferior god. From a comparison between Henry’s intuitions and Gnostic ideas, this article highlights a set of common theses shared by Henry’s philosophy of Christianity and Gnosticism. It concludes, therefore, that these theses indicate at least a Gnostic influence on the author’s philosophy.