Transcendental theology

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Transcendental theology is a methodological approach developed in Catholic theology in the middle of the 20th century , primarily by Maréchal and Rahner . The transcendental-philosophical ( transcendental from Latin transcendere "to exceed", in the sense of Kant not towards a beyond , but towards the conditions of possibility of knowledge ) method is transferred from the reflection of the intellectual knowledge to the reflection of the act of faith. If, in the wake of Kant, transcendental philosophy asks about the conditions for the possibility of pure intellectual knowledge, transcendental theology asks about anthropological conditions for the possibility of religious belief.

Differentiation from transcendental philosophy

Transcendental theology is not about proving God, but about showing how a religious experience can have a claim to truth at all . To this end, it must be explained how God can be known in this world, although his essence transcends (transcends) sensual reality - and at the same time should justify it.

"What we call transcendental knowledge or experience of God is [...] so far a posteriori knowledge as the transcendental experience of the people of his free subjectivity is only in the encounter with the world and especially the contemporary world occurred. […] Nevertheless, the knowledge of God is transcendental, because the original reference of man to the absolute mystery is a permanent existential of man as a spiritual subject. "

- Karl Rahner : Basic Course of Faith, 1976, p. 61

For the Kantian and idealistic transcendental philosophy, “I think” is a first foundation. The prerequisites given are the condition of possibility and the limit of knowledge. For transcendental theology, on the other hand, religious belief is constitutive as the horizon of understanding of human existence . For it is presupposed that God himself has set the openness of man to his reality as a condition for the possibility of his knowledge.

relevance

Karl Rahner therefore moves from a reflection on the conditions of knowledge to a reflection on the conditions of understanding of human existence . The general structures of human existence, called “ existentials ”, are a broader approach to human reality than the conditions for the possibility of theoretical and practical judgments of reason raised by Kant. For theology, this takes a so-called anthropological turnaround, which means that the theological interpretation is no longer the ontology (doctrine of being), but rather the finding of theories regarding the human. Historical and existential requirements can be taken into account. This also allows a different quality of bridging to atheistic and other religious understandings of the world. Because the starting point in anthropology enables a difference in the horizon of understanding and in the concrete structures of human being- in-the-world . So z. B. Rahner understood human redemption as acceptance of the mystery of his existence . This happens not only in an explicitly Christian life, but also implicitly in a life that takes place against other backgrounds .

See also

literature

  • Rudolf Heinz: French Kantian interpreters in the 20th century , Saarbrücken 1964 (Mainz philosophical research. Volume 5)
  • Reinhard Hoeps / Thomas Ruster (eds.): With your back to transcendental theology. Theological Passages , On the 65th birthday of Hans Jorissen , Würzburg 1991.
  • WJ Hoye: Transzendentaltheologie , in: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon , 3rd ed., Vol. 4 (1996), 941–943.
  • Nikolaus Knoepffler : The term “transcendental” in Karl Rahner. On the question of his Kantian origin , Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck / Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-7022-1880-7 .
  • Karsten Kreutzer: Transcendental versus hermeneutic thinking. On the genesis of the religious-philosophical approach in Karl Rahner and its reception by Johann Baptist Metz , Regensburg 2002.
  • Otto Muck : The transcendental method in the scholastic philosophy of the present , Innsbruck: Rauch 1964.
  • Gerd Neuhaus: Transcendental experience as a loss of history? The reproach of the lack of subjectivity in Rahner's concept of historical existence and a further perspective on transcendental theology , Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1982, ISBN 3-491-71057-X (also Univ.-Diss. 1981)
  • Mechthild Pfaffelhuber: The Kant reception at Marechal and its continued influence in the Catholic philosophy of religion , 1970.
  • Karl Rahner: Basic Course in Faith , 1976.
  • Ders .: Art. Transcendental Theology , in: Sacramentum Mundi , Volume 4, 986–992, also in: Ders .: Enzyklopädische Theologie. The lexicon contributions of the years 1956–1973, edit. v. Herbert Vorgrimler , Freiburg; Basel; Vienna 2002 (Complete Works 17/2), 1332–1337; and in: Herders theologisches Taschenlexikon, Vol. 7, Freiburg 1973, pp. 324–329.
  • Tobias Trappe: Art. Scholastik, II. In: TRE Volume 30, 366-370.
  • Hansjürgen Verweyen : God's last word. Grundriß der Fundamentaltheologie , Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1991, p. 156 ff. And passim
  • Hansjürgen Verweyen: How does an existential become supernatural? On a basic problem of the anthropology of K. Rahners , In: Trierer theologische Zeitschrift 95 (1986), pp. 115-131.
  • Aloysius Winter: The other Kant. On the philosophical theology of Immanuel Kant, with a foreword v. Norbert Hinske , Hildesheim-Zurich-New York 2000.

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