Translator’s Note xiii
Preface to the English-Language Edition xv
Opening: The Isenheim Altarpiece or “The Taking on Board of Suffering” xvii
Introduction: Shifting Understandings of Anxiety 1
PART I: THE FACE-TO-FACE OF FINITUDE
1 From the Burden of Death to Flight before Death 7
§1 The Burden of Death, 7 ■ §2 Fleeing from Death, 8
2 The Face of Death or Anxiety over Finitude 10
§3 Death “for Us” Humans, 10 ■ §4 Genesis and Its
Symbolism, 11 ■ §5 The Mask of Perfection, 12 ■ §6 The Image
of Finitude in Man, 13 ■ §7 Finitude: Finite and Infinite, 16 ■
§8 Finitude and Anxiety, 16 ■ §9 The Eclipse of Finitude, 17 ■
§10 The Face of Death, 18 ■ §11 To Die “with,” 19
3 The Temptation of Despair or Anxiety over Sin 22
§13 Inevitable Death, 22 ■ §14 The Conquest of Sin, 22 ■
§15 Sin and Anxiety, 23 ■ §16 The Temptation of Despair, 24
4 From the Affirmation of Meaninglessness to the Suspension of Meaning 26
§17 The Life Sentence, 26 ■ §18 The Christian Witness, 27 ■
§19 Meaninglessness and the Suspension of Meaning, 27
PART II: CHRIST FACED WITH ANXIETY OVER DEATH
§20 Two Meditations on Death, 29 ■ §21 Alarm and
Anxiety, 31
5 The Fear of Dying and Christ’s “Alarm” 33
§22 Taking on Fear and Abandonment, 33 ■ §23 The Cup,
Sadness, and Sleep, 34 ■ §24 Resignation, Waiting, and
Heroism, 35 ■ §25 The Silence at the End, 36 ■
§26 The Scenarios of Death, 37 ■ §27 The Triple
Failure of the Staging, 38 ■ §28 From Alarm to Anxiety, 39
6 God’s Vigil 41
§29 Remaining Always Awake, 41 ■ §30 The Passage of Death,
the Present of the Passion, the Future of the Resurrection, 42 ■
§31 Theological Actuality and Phenomenological Possibility, 43
7 The Narrow Road of Anxiety 45
§32 Indefiniteness, Reduction to Nothing, and Isolation, 45 ■
§33 The Strait Gate, 46 ■ §34 Anxiety over “Simply Death,” 47 ■
§35 Indefiniteness (Putting off the Cup) and the Powerless Power
of God, 47 ■ §36 Reduction to Nothing and Kenosis, 52 ■
§37 The Isolation of Humankind and Communion with the
Father, 54 ■ §38 Of Anxiety Endured on the Horizon of Death, 55
8 Death and Its Possibilities 57
§39 Manner of Living, Possibility of the Impossibility, and Death
as “Mineness,” 57 ■ §40 Being Vigilant at Gethsemane, 59 ■
§41 From the Actuality of the Corpse to Possibilities for
the Living, 60 ■ §42 The Death That Is Always His: Suffering in
God; The Gift of His Life and Refusal of Mastery, 63 ■
§43 The Flesh Forgotten, 66
PART III: THE BODY-TO-BODY OF SUFFERING AND DEATH
§44 Disappropriation and Incarnation, 69 ■ §45 Embedding in
the Flesh and Burial in the Earth, 70
9 From Self-Relinquishment to the Entry into the Flesh 73
§46 Suffering the World, 73 ■ §47 Living in the
World, 74 ■ §48 Otherness and Corruptibility, 74 ■
§49 Self-Relinquishment, 75 ■ §50 Passing to the Father,
76 ■ §51 Oneself as an Other, 77 ■ §52 Destitution and
Auto-Affection, 78 ■ §53 Alterity and Fraternity, 79 ■
§54 Entry into the Flesh, 80 ■ §55 The Anxiety “in”
the Flesh, 81 ■ §56 Toward Dumb Experience, 82
10 Suffering Occluded 84
§57 An Opportunity Thwarted, 84 ■ §58 Called into
Question, 86 ■ §59 Toward a Phenomenology of Suffering, 86
11 Suffering Incarnate 88
§60 Perceiving, or the Challenge of the Toucher-Touching,
88 ■ §61 The Modes of the Incarnate Being, 91 ■
§62 The Excess of the Suffering Body, 94
12 The Revealing Sword 97
§63 Sobbing and Tears, 97 ■ §64 Fleshly Exodus, 99 ■
§65 The Vulnerable Flesh, 100 ■ §66 The Non-Substitutable
Substitution, 101 ■ §67 The Act of Surrendering Oneself, 103 ■
§68 Toward a Revelation, 104 ■ §69 Useless Suffering, 104
Conclusion: The In-Fans [without-Speech] or the Silent Flesh 107
Epilogue: From One Triptych to Another 111
Notes 115
Index 157
