Heidegger's Ontological Difference in Light of Aristotle's Dynamis and Energeia

Heidegger is indebted in a profound fashion to Aristotle. This article employs Heinz Happ's analysis of Aristotle to propose that, whereas Joseph Owens' The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics neglects the Aristotelian "Material-Series" of "many", "other", "unequal" and "unlike", Heidegger neglects the Aristotelian "Form-Series" of "one", "same", "equal", and "similar". This is because Heidegger reads "matter" in the Aristotelian sense not as "stuff" but as "possibility". As a consequence Heidegger stresses the "situatedness" of "thrown Being-in-the-world" as the place where possibilities are experienced to the exclusion of the eidetic of actuality and mere static "presence". Two theological implications are drawn from this analysis: 1) Aristotle's "unification" of the Material and Form-Series in the Unmoved Mover suggests the inseparability of possibility and actuality and allows the contemplation of "God" as possibility above actuality. 2) A theological recovery of the "Form-Series" can aid us in understanding the Pauline Christian notions of "being in Christ" and "possessing the mind of Christ".