Hans Waldenfels

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Johannes Bernhard Maria Waldenfels (born October 20, 1931 in Essen ) is a German Jesuit and fundamental theologian . He is the older brother of the phenomenological philosopher Bernhard Waldenfels .

1951 Waldenfels entered the Jesuit order. From 1953 to 1956 he studied philosophy at the Philosophical College Berchmanskolleg in Pullach near Munich, from 1960 to 1964 theology at the Catholic Sophia University in Tokyo. In 1963 he was in Tokyo by Cardinal Tatsuo Doi for ordained priests . As a guest student at the Imperial University of Kyoto with Takeuchi Yoshinori and Nishitani Keiji , he became acquainted with the philosophy of the Kyoto School .

From 1965 to 1968 Waldenfels studied for doctoral purposes at the Gregoriana (Rome) and the University of Münster . His dissertation , published in 1969, is based on a suggestion by Karl Rahner and is entitled “ Revelation . The Second Vatican Council on the Background of Modern Theology ”. In 1976 his habilitation followed at the University of Würzburg .

In 1977 Waldenfels was appointed professor for fundamental theology, theology of religions and the philosophy of religion at the University of Bonn , where he held the office of dean of the Catholic theological faculty from 1979 to 1980 and from 1988 to 1990 and was retired in 1997.

From 1991/1992 to 2006 Waldenfels was also parish administrator in the parish of St. Remigius in Düsseldorf-Wittlaer .

In 1993 he was awarded the Dr. theol. hc awarded in Warsaw, 2003 the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon. In 2006/2007 Waldenfels was a visiting professor at Marquette University .

On May 25, 2010, the Waldenfels Born Foundation was founded, which is dedicated to promoting the contextual theology represented by Waldenfels.

Teaching

In his “Contextual Fundamental Theology ” Waldenfels starts from the principle: “God has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ ”. For him, this christocentric principle sums up the peculiar Christianity in a pointed form, on the one hand, and on the other hand it allows him to deal with the current challenges of Christianity in a problem-oriented, context-related dialogical manner within a broad horizon of questions .

For Waldenfels, contextuality is becoming a key concept because in the "post-Christian modernity", in which Christianity is no longer the sole normative instance, a future-open theology can no longer be practiced in an internal theological manner without time and place. It is therefore important to contextualize Christian theology in such a way that it can also be understood in foreign, non-Christian contexts, i.e. also by atheists and those of different faiths. His contextual-dialogical approach allows him, on the one hand, to remain committed to his fundamental theological starting position and, on the other hand, to perceive this position “with strange eyes”, whereby the studies he began in Japan on Buddhism and the world of religions proved to be very helpful. Against this background, it comes as no surprise that Waldenfels always pleaded for close cooperation with non-theological disciplines, especially with religious studies, and that he practiced it himself in his work, for example in the graduate school “Intercultural Religious and Religious History Studies”, and especially in the has presented numerous cross-border mediation and pioneering work in the interdisciplinary border area of ​​theology, religious studies and religious philosophy . In this context, his fundamental contribution to the conversation between Christianity and Buddhism (“absolute nothing”) should be mentioned in particular. The conversation with Buddhism is only a selected example of the many new perspectives that Waldenfels has opened up in the context of the increasingly important intercultural and interreligious theology, whereby he repeatedly pointed out that the European Church is only a small part of the universal Church , which is why a “contextual fundamental theology” has to be practiced today within the horizon of the universal church and the world religions. Even after going through the church criticism and the non-religious and interreligious criticism of religion , which Waldenfels always duly considered in his contextual approach, he is convinced that the Christian faith has a future.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Autobiographical sketch on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2011 [1] (PDF; 39 kB)
  2. ↑ waldenfels-born-stiftung.de: purpose of the foundation.
  3. ↑ Hans Waldenfels: Contextual Fundamental Theology. Paderborn u. a., 1985, 4th edition 2005
  4. ↑ Hans Waldenfels: Absolute Nothing. On the foundation of the dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity. Freiburg u. a., 1976 (updated new edition 2013)
  5. ^ Based on: Wolfgang Gantke: Art. Hans Waldenfels. In: Michael Klöcker / Udo Tworuschka (ed.): Handbuch der Religionen 34 EL 2012, I-14.9.8, 1-7
personal data
SURNAME Waldenfels, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Waldenfels, Johannes Bernhard Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit and fundamental theologian
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH eat