Markus Knapp

Markus Knapp (* 1954 in Lambrecht / Pfalz ) is a German Catholic fundamental theologian .

biography

Education

Markus Knapp studied Catholic theology at the Philosophical-Theological University of Sankt Georgen and sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt / Main from 1973 to 1978 . He then moved to the doctoral studies at the University of Würzburg , where he in 1983 with a thesis on the possibility of a theological reception of the philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno Dr. theol. received his doctorate. In 1992 he completed his habilitation there with a thesis on theology of the Kingdom of God in dialogue with Jürgen Habermas ' theory of communicative action for the subject of dogmatics and the history of dogma .

Teaching

From 1995 to 2000 he was Professor of Dogmatics at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Ruhr University in Bochum . In 2000 he took over the chair for fundamental theology there until his retirement in 2020. The main question in his research is how theology can fulfill its obligation to give reasons given the premises of post-metaphysical thinking. The concept of recognition serves as the decisive category. It is first tried out in the context of a theology of marriage before it then becomes the basis of a theological form of thought in the context of secular modernity. This is made possible by the reception of the philosophical theory of recognition developed by the social philosopher Axel Honneth . Such a recognition-theoretical hermeneutics finally allows the philosophical and theological intuitions of Blaise Pascal from the formation phase of the modern age to be reformulated in such a way that they are pioneering in the face of advanced modernity and its problems.

Activities and memberships

• 1973 to 1995: theological editor at Echter Verlag
• 2001 to 2011: advisory member of Commission XI. Marriage and Family of the German Bishops' Conference

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

• "Only what does not fit into this world is true". The doctrine of original sin as a starting point for a dialogue with Theodor W. Adorno , Würzburg 1983.
• God's rule as the future of the world. Biblical theological, theological history and systematic studies on the foundation of a Kingdom of God theology dealing with Jürgen Habermas' theory of communicative action , (Bonner Dogmatische Studien 15), Würzburg 1993.
• Faith - love - marriage. A theological attempt in difficult times , Würzburg 1999.
• Responsible Christianity today. Theology between metaphysics and postmodernism , Freiburg / Breisgau 2006.
• The reason of belief. Introduction to Fundamental Theology , Freiburg / Breisgau 2009.
• Heart and Reason - Science and Religion. Blaise Pascal and the Modern Age , Paderborn 2014.
• World relationship and God relationship. Christianity in secular modernity - a recognition-theoretical disclosure, Freiburg / Breisgau 2020.

Editorships

• Together with Thomas Franke and Johannes Schmidt: Creatio ex amore. Contributions to a theology of love. Festschrift for Alexandre Canoczy on his 60th birthday , Würzburg 1989.
• Together with Theo Kobusch: Religion - Metaphysics (Criticism) - Theology in the Context of Modernity / Postmodernism , Berlin 2000.
• Together with Theo Kobusch: lateral thinkers, visionaries and outsiders in philosophy and theology , Darmstadt 2005.
• Together with Reinhard Göllner: Church of the Future - Future of the Church. Theology in Contact 14 , Berlin 2006.
• Together with Thomas Söding: Faith in community. Authority and Reception in the Church , Freiburg im Breisgau 2014.

Essays

• The concept of the spirit in Adorno's philosophy and the Christian discourse on the Holy Spirit , in: Theologie und Philosophie 61 (1986), 507-534.
• The theory of communicative action as a model of thought for the trinitarian concept of God? , in: Schreiner / Wittstadt (ed.): Communio Sanctorum. Unity of Christians - Unity of the Church, Würzburg 1988, 323–337.
• Fundamental theology as an epistemological foundation of theology. Reply to Jürgen Werbick , in: zu Schlochtern / Siebenrock (ed.): Why Fundamental Theology? On the foundation of theology in the claim of faith and reason, Paderborn 2010.
• Faith's understanding of reality. On the question of the ontological prerequisites of theology under post-metaphysical premises , in: Göcke / Pelz (ed.): Die Wissenschaftlichkeit der Theologie. Theology and Metaphysics, Münster 2019, 211–233.
• Conservative and innovative at the same time. On the logic of church-theological processes of tradition , in: Vokoun (ed.): Theory of Tradition in Discussion of the Sciences. Studies on Traditional Theory 13, Vienna / Zurich 2019, 70–84.

literature

• Stefan Seidel: For a culture of recognition. Contributions and barriers of religion. Würzburg 2018. pp. 161–168.

Web links

• Markus Knapp at the Ruhr University Bochum