Volume 59, Issue 2

Zusammenfassung Im Aufsatz wird die These vertreten, dass Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes eine religiöse Dynamik wesentlich eigen ist, selbst noch dem absoluten Wissen. Nicht nur steht die Religion auf gleicher Stufe mit dem absoluten Wissen, vielmehr nährt sich auch das absolute Wissen von einer dezidiert religiösen Dynamik. Während die absolute Religion als eine radikale Verzeihung gedeutet wird, wird das absolute Wissen als eine radikale Versöhnung aufgefasst.

Zusammenfassung Die Milieuperspektive schärft das Problembewusstsein für Ausgrenzung in der Kirche, doch soziale und politische Fragen nach Gerechtigkeit und milieubedingte Leiderfahrungen werden nicht thematisiert. Öffentliche Theologie hat ihr Problem dagegen mit der Unterstellung, soziale und politische Anliegen würden gegenüber Religiösem im Vordergrund stehen. Die Stellungnahmen der Kirche zu Fragen der Gerechtigkeit und zum Verhältnis der Religionen gewinnen spezifische Evidenz, wenn sie auf die Wahrnehmung und Anerkennung des Anderen im Kult oder im Kontext des Kultes bezogen sind und dies als Erschließungs- und Motivationshintergrund transparent machen. Die Theorie der Anerkennung sensibilisiert dafür, dass die kirchliche Kommunikation von Gesetz und Evangelium nur gelingt, wenn reflektiert wird, wer in ihr Anerkennung erfährt, welche Vorerfahrungen mit kirchlicher Anerkennung gemacht wurde und vor allem in welchem Kontext sie sich ereignet.

This article is an attempt to determine the grounds for an interdisciplinary conversation between anthropology and theology. The first section reflects on Ludwig Feuerbach’s infamous assertion that theology is no more than anthropology and the obstacle that presents for fruitful dialogue. The second section considers the writings of a contemporary social anthropologist and theologian, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Christoph Schwöbel, respectively, with the aim of identifying intellectual resources from within each discipline which would recommend a mutually beneficial exchange. In particular, attention is given to the distinct ways each develops a metaphysics of relationality that overcomes difficulties within their own fields of study. Building on their similar relational conceptual frameworks, the primary contribution this essay makes is to extend their thought to the question of interdisciplinary conversation itself by suggesting that a dialogue is possible and, in fact, necessary. The article concludes with a third section that revisits the Feuerbachian critique and responds with a brief consideration of the relationship between divine and created being.

Vito Mancuso, one of Italy’s most famous intellectuals and author of best-selling books on religion – such as L’anima e il suo destino [ The Soul and Its Destiny ] (2007) and Io e Dio. Una guida dei perplessi [ I and God. A Guide for the Perplexed ] (2011) – is a secular theologian and philosopher of religion who promotes an anti-traditional understanding of Christianity aimed at lay people influenced by contemporary secular ideas. Mancuso’s influence appears to have reached a pinnacle since he is present in the media with various TV and internet interviews as well as articles published in famous Italian newspapers such as La Repubblica and Corriere della sera . Moreover, his book The Soul and Its Destiny (2007) has been sold in over two hundred thousand copies which is a record for a theological work by any standards. Since he is still unknown to the English-speaking world, this paper investigates Mancuso’s notion of freedom, particularly freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, in the general context of his religious philosophy which focuses on the concept of soul. In Mancuso, a Catholic by (his own) confession, reality is essentially material, so everything which exists in the world and the universe is part of this material reality. The human being is no exception, thus its natural constitution is thoroughly material. Everything pertaining to the human being, including the idea of soul, is material. However, the fact that ideas, such as the soul, can be conceived within the materiality of the human being is indicative of the latter’s capacity for spiritualization; consequently, spirituality is also part of and constitutive of materiality. Hence, Mancuso’s belief that the soul is material, and so is everything traditionally accepted as spiritual, including ideas such as God and freedom. Since freedom can be connected to matter and materiality through the concept of soul, Mancuso argues that the reality of freedom is innate in every human being; men and women, however, must become aware of it and then live it out in their daily lives by promoting as well as defending freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. Both types of freedom are compulsory not only for the good of humankind in general, for peace, and security, but also for every particular human being who can lead an authentic life only by practicing freedom of conscience and freedom of religion without fearing repression of any sort.

In the following essay, I compare concrete and abstract theological logics, critiquing the latter in favor of a biblical-revelational version of the former. I then move the comparison to the specific issue of biblical interpretation. Abstraction bares its antinomies openly here. The biblical-revelational approach focuses on Son-condescension as the mode of God’s every act with regard to not-God. If Son-condescension is the mode of the Creature/creature relation, then it should also be the logic of understanding it. Therefore, I commend a Son-condescension model for explaining the Creator/creature relation and then more basically as the logic of Christian theism.

Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag versucht, Möglichkeiten zur Überwindung des fundamentalistischen Biblizismus zu entwickeln, was durch einen Rekurs auf das reformatorische Schriftverständnis ermöglicht werden soll. Dieser Versuch könnte eventuell auch einen Anstoß zum Versöhnungsprozess der gespaltenen presbyterianischen Kirchen in Korea leisten sowie anlässlich des Reformationsjubiläums im Jahr 2017 dazu beitragen, sich intensiver mit Luther zu beschäftigen, da dessen Theologie und Schriftverständnis hier bislang leider weitgehend unbeachtet geblieben ist.