Love in the Nothingness of Being: Musings on Ferdinand Ulrich’s Transnihilation of Being in Homo Abyssus

This paper aims to reflect on love in the light of Ferdinand Ulrich’s transnihilation of being. It is described that transnihilation of being is the fullness given away of being to pour itself abundantly in the movement of finitization. It presupposes that love in the state of nothingness “transforms distance into intimacy” and hence calls the human person to love amid the nothingness of being. To think of love in the nothingness of being grants the human person the knowledge to emancipate oneself from the temptation of making love an absolute thing in a relationship that has been fixed with expectation, conditions, and reciprocity. Love in the nothingness of being seeks love unconditionally for love has nothing to give but love itself. The notion of being’s transnihilation is the main theme of love in this paper as being draws its subsistence to God. Love in its manner of self-emptying gives being away so that another may come to be. In this metaphysical act of love being found its ultimate origin in the light of divine goodness. Thus, this paper hopes to contribute in the understanding of love as it partakes in the emerging discourse on the philosophical work of Ferdinand Ulrich’s Homo Abyssus: The Drama of the Question of Being.