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Ontotheology

Philosophy
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Ontotheology is Heidegger’s critique of metaphysics that conflates being (ontology) with God (theology), grounding existence in a supreme being.

Detailed Definition
Poetry interrogates ontotheology by decentering divine guarantees—using absence, doubt, or immanent sacredness. Philosophically, it seeks meaning without ultimate foundations, where wonder arises not from command but from the sheer mystery of being itself.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Milton’s Paradise Lost grounds being in God as supreme entity; William Blake’s Urizen embodies ontotheological reason; Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies critique reliance on divine guarantees; Wallace Stevens’s “Sunday Morning” replaces God with earth as source of meaning; T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets seek divine ground beyond time; Heideggerian critiques appear in Jorie Graham’s questioning of metaphysical foundations in poetry.
Additional Notes
Ontotheology (Heidegger) critiques metaphysics grounding being in God. In poetry, it appears as questioning divine guarantees: Stevens’s “Sunday Morning,” Celan’s post-Holocaust doubt. Students should note poems that seek meaning without ultimate foundations. Related to nihilism, groundlessness, and post-secular thought. Professors can use it to discuss poetic theology after metaphysics.
Also Known As
Onto-theology Theology of Being Metaphysics of presence
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