Given life: The phenomenology of Michel Henry

This study looks at the phenomenological work of 20th century French thinker Michel Henry (1922-2002). Not yet widely known to an English audience, his work has recently been attracting a growing readership among students of phenomenology as well as among those interested in the so-called 'return of religion' since the last quarter of the 20th century. For those interested in the relation of the phenomenological method to this return of religion, one of the main issues is how phenomenology itself is being (re)defined and expanded to address new modes of phenomenality, including what has been called by Henry and others 'invisible phenomenality'. Building upon a key insight of Husserl as established in his famous "principle of principles", Henry seeks to articulate this 'invisible' phenomenality largely in response to the work of Heidegger---as the core of fundamental ontology.;This study carefully considers the unfolding of this 'new phenomenology' in Henry's work in its various dimensions: in its situatedness within the Western philosophical tradition, especially in its relation to Heidegger's critique of onto-theology; in its dialogue with classic philosophies of the subject and its interior life; in its relation to the question of language and the problem of representation; with regards to ethics, the problem of intersubjectivity and contemporary philosophies of 'otherness'; and finally, in terms of its possible contribution to theological thinking today. Throughout a discussion of these dimensions of his work, certain implicit aspects of Henry's thinking will be made more clear by reading them through the work of contemporary phenomenologist Jean-Luc Marion, whose own work is admittedly heavily indebted to Henry, and whose own articulation and extension of Husserl's "principle of principles" plays a crucial role.