Die “ander” : Lukaanse Jesus en Lévinas

Abstract

Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy of the “other” is investigated and brought into conversation with how Jesus regarded his “other” through a Lukan perspective of Jesus. The main focus of Levinas's philosophical works is the primacy of an ethical relationship of the "self" towards the "other". Using the social scientific method, Jesus’ attitude and actions towards his “other” in the Gospel of Luke are considered. Jesus proposes new values to include “otherness” in the kingdom of God. In the new kingdom of God, boundaries and advantages created by ethnicity, gender, status, and age are nullified. A comparison between Jesus’s actions from the Gospel of Luke and Levinas's philosophy of the “other” is explored. A proposal towards what South Africans can learn about otherness, equality, and diversity and an approach to embracing outsiders is made.