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Lokalisierung und Apologetik

  • Georg Kalinna
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Abstract

The article analyzes Wolfhart Pannenberg’s reading of the philosophies of Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner, and Arnold Gehlen to shed light on the contemporary challenges to an interdisciplinary approach in theological anthropology. It assumes that the ‘localization’ of human beings is a central task both of philosophical and of theological anthropology and argues that Pannenberg uses the theories of the German tradition of philosophical anthropology to localize human beings in relation to society, animals, nature, the universe and God. It will show that Pannenberg’s reading is not only motivated by the need to localize human beings, but also follows an apologetic logic because he uses these theories to establish that, firstly, traditional distinctions between humans and other animal species are legitimate, and, secondly, that religion is natural and necessary for human beings. The article will come to the conclusion that theology would do well to avoid these preconceptions and to draw upon recent theories such as those proposed by Michael Tomasello to rewrite its own traditions in a creative way

Abstract

The article analyzes Wolfhart Pannenberg’s reading of the philosophies of Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner, and Arnold Gehlen to shed light on the contemporary challenges to an interdisciplinary approach in theological anthropology. It assumes that the ‘localization’ of human beings is a central task both of philosophical and of theological anthropology and argues that Pannenberg uses the theories of the German tradition of philosophical anthropology to localize human beings in relation to society, animals, nature, the universe and God. It will show that Pannenberg’s reading is not only motivated by the need to localize human beings, but also follows an apologetic logic because he uses these theories to establish that, firstly, traditional distinctions between humans and other animal species are legitimate, and, secondly, that religion is natural and necessary for human beings. The article will come to the conclusion that theology would do well to avoid these preconceptions and to draw upon recent theories such as those proposed by Michael Tomasello to rewrite its own traditions in a creative way

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