Shadow theology

George Steiner ( Martin Heidegger , 155-6) approaches the essence of Heidegger: ” Sein ist Sein and the rejection of paraphrase or logical exposition have their exact precedent in the ontological finality of theology . . . they are the absolute equivalent to the Self-utterance and Self-definition of the Deity – I am that which I am – and to the refusal, as complete in Kant as it is in the Old Testament itself, to anatomize, to decompose analytically the transcendent oneness of the divine. Heidegger is determined to think outside theology . . . . It is, however, my own experience that Heidegger’s paradigm and expression of Being, of the ontological cut between Being and beings, adapts at almost every point to the substitution of ‘God’ for the term Sein .” Steiner recognizes that Heidegger would reject the idea that theology is latent in his philosophy, but adds “the philosophy, the sociology, the poetics and, at some opaque level, the politics of Heidegger embody and articulate an ‘after-’ or ‘post-theology.’”

That comes close, but I think he pulls back at the last moment. Heidegger is not post-theological; he is doing shadow theology, retaining the structure of theology without God. This is most clearly seen in his late emphasis on teasing out the “giving” behind es gibt , a giving which is not a giving from anything or anyone but a sheer giving.