ABSTRACT
Contemporary philosophical discourse on the religious can generally fall into three categories: protest, prophecy and sacrament. In terms of mainstream Western philosophy, the author argues, take Husserl and the modern phenomenological revolution to bring Western philosophy back to the experience of 'sacramental flesh', that is, the possibility of acknowledging Spirit in our most basic pre-reflective lived experience. Edmund Husserl blazed a path towards a phenomenology of the flesh when he broached the crucial theme of the living body. Max Scheler is of special relevance here, given his close links with phenomenology. Scheler's work was informed by Edmund Husserl's phenomenological investigations but lacked the rigor of the phenomenological method, opting instead for a more romantic, eclectic and holistic view of the subject in his writings on feeling and sympathy On Feeling, Knowing and Valuing. In other words, the consecration of the mundane which, characterizes Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the flesh allows the author's to re-conceive eschatology.
