ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors consider the anthropological significance of the Lacanian subject in conversation with the self of Christianity. In the Orthodox Church, the self is a communal experience linked to the person of Christ the God-Man. This link, when pursued through the praxis of the Orthodox Church, is oriented toward theosis, or the union of the Christian with God, the Christian becoming by grace what God is by nature. The authors relate this transfiguration to Raul Moncayo’s development of narcissism and his elaboration of end-state narcissism. In considering the ultimate fate of the human person, heaven and hell are understood as phenomenological experiences of God’s love as jouissance. For the human person whose ego is sufficiently prepared (i.e., has become a nonego), the jouissance of God’s love is experienced as enjoyment (heaven). For the human person who is not so prepared, jouissance is experienced as pain (hell).
