Called by beauty: Paul ricoeur’s (late) liturgical turn

We are now witnessing a great renewal of philosophical interest in the material aspects of religiosity. In this article I show that we have resources for this work in the very late philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, resources that are equally unexpected and deeply moving. In particular, in Ricoeur’s late turn we see the promising beginnings of a sacramental philosophy that links Baptism and the Song of Songs to show how liturgical practice is fundamentally tied to the beauty and sacredness of the natural world. The result is the realization that an ethics of hope is only truly completed in a philosophy of praise, eschatology pointing toward doxology.