The Immanent Temporality in the Work of Michel Henry and Its Phenomenological Unfolding in Birth, Affectivity, and Bodily Habituality

Abstract

Michel Henry argues that subjectivity is phenomenologically revealed according to the structure of selfaffection, and that this does not admit any kind of temporal distance, with temporality being an exclusive mark of transcendence. However, starting in the nineties, Henry undertakes a phenomenological reading of certain aspects of Christian doctrine, through which he managed to find another type of temporality. This new, immanent temporality is the problematic that will be addressed in this article, with its main objective being to establish how it is effectively experienceable. In the first section, the dynamics of transcendental birth and the temporality that such birth entails will be specified. The doctrine of transcendental birth, which Henry elaborates inspired by Meister Eckhart and refers to the engendering of the living in Absolute Life, serves as a guide for thinking about an immanent relationship between eternity, the instant, and time. In the second section, we will see how, from the perspective of the living, immanent temporality is articulated as living present. The third and final section will be reserved for the study of affectivity and bodily habituality as concrete manifestations of immanent temporality. Thus, we can conclude that what is explained from the particular notes of Absolute Life not only accounts for an immanent temporality as a foundational dimension of subjective experience but also for a concrete dimension that is phenomenologically attestable for the living. These results will also lay the groundwork for future research linking immanent temporality with the transcendent