Religious-Philosophical Contingency and Empirical Theology

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-187
Author(s):  
Kurt Wuchterl
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Central Point ◽  
Empirical Theology ◽  
The Individual

Abstract The existentially important problem of contingency has in recent times been the topic of discussion not only in the philosophy of religion, but also in psychology, in sociology and especially in empirical theology. In the theory of the experience of contingency developed here, “contingency” is first clarified by differentiating the meanings of “necessity”, which makes it possible to distinguish several fundamental personal patterns of behaviour in dealing with contingencies. Since both the purely scientific considerations as well as those relating to reason have reached their limits, the focus is on the meaning of contingency in religion. The central point at issue is what lies beyond the limits of reason. Naturalists and immanent agnostics judge responses to contingency differently from religious agnostics and adherents of institutionalised religions.—Finally, by applying the notion of a latent philosophy as a basis for these religious-philosophical reflections, it becomes a bridge to empirical theology, which attempts to mold the individual ways of dealing with contingency into being practically applicable.

„Zurück zur Individualität!“ Die Rezeption moderner Religionsphilosophie im Hochland in der Weimarer Zeit

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-241
Author(s):  
Paul Silas Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
German Language ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Small Minority ◽  
Interpretive Analysis ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
The Individual

Abstract The monthly magazine Hochland was probably the most influential Catholic cultural periodical in Germany in the Weimar Period. According to Georg Cardinal von Kopp’s assessment in 1911, it was “unfortunately the most read periodical in all of the educated circles of Germany, Austria and German Switzerland”. Moving beyond the simple rejection of modern culture in Germany, the journal tried to follow a new program of mediatory engagement, although it did continue to hold to traditional positions in many regards. In this article the reception of modern, Enlightenment-affirmative philosophy of religion in the journal is introduced with reference to reviews and essays from the later 1910s to the early 1930s. The journal’s treatment of a few critical subject areas is given close interpretive analysis, including the journal’s treatment of Gertrud Simmel’s Über das Religiöse, individually conceptualized forms of personalist moral theory, and the general shift to phenomenological discourses and the individual in the philosophy of religion. The fundamental rejections of these ideas and these schools of thought in reviews and essays, which are also found in the journal at this time (as in most all German language Catholic cultural journals of the period), are not addressed in this article. The article thus sheds light on an often-forgotten and relatively small minority phenomenon in German Catholic intellectual circles of the Weimar Period, namely the positive embrace of Enlightenment-oriented modern thought. By promoting these ideas at this time, this group made themselves highly vulnerable to disciplinary measures by the Catholic Church. (The journal was put on the Index in 1911.)

From Augustine’s to Hegel’s theory of Trinity

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-465
Author(s):  
Vittorio Hösle
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Trinity

SummaryThe essay compares the two most original philosophical doctrines of the Trinity, namely the Augustinian and the Hegelian one. It focuses on their concepts of the philosophy of religion, their epistemologies of religion, their doctrines of the mind, and their conceptions of the immanent Trinity. It ends with a sketch of an alternative theory of Trinity that finds the best approach to the Trinity not in the individual mind but in intersubjective relations.

The State as “a Consequence of the Curse of Humanity”: The Late Schelling’s Philosophy of Religion and of the State

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Danz
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
The State ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
The Individual

AbstractThis paper analyzes the hitherto neglected political philosophy (Staatsphilosophie) contained in Schelling’s Berlin lectures on the philosophy of mythology and of revelation in the context of the complex and politically charged debates of the German Vormärz period. It will be shown that, in his political philosophy, the Berlin Schelling rejects social contract models of the state and follows conservative theorists who conceive of the state as a collective order that supersedes the individual, while at the same time preserving the freedom of the individual and rejecting religious legitimizations of the state. Schelling’s theory of the state is characterized by its distinctive internal tensions and by its multidimensionality. This complexity of his theory of the state helps to account for the diverse range of receptions and assessments of his political philosophy, both among his contemporaries and by subsequent commentators

An Evolutionary Explanation for Change in Religious Institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Andrea Lavazza
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Evolutionary Explanation ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Limited Time ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Culture Model ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Theology And Philosophy

Many attempts have been made to explain the rise of religious phenomena based on evolutionary models, which attempt to account for the way in which religion can constitute a useful system to increase the fitness of both the individual and the group. These models implicitly mean that beliefs are simply effective adaptations to the environment and in this sense they cannot be truly accepted by those who adhere to the religions in question. In this paper, I use the evolution of culture model elaborated by Cavalli Sforza to propose an approach that can explain the change of institutionalized religions over a more limited time frame than the long times of biological evolution. This model could be heuristically effective in the study of religious phenomena and could also be applicable in terms of theology and philosophy of religion. Given the limits of space, I will only try to take a few steps in this direction, trying to answer some of the major questions that arise about such an approach. In particular, one may ask whether, unlike others, the evolution of culture model applied to religions can make it possible to put into brackets - or to remain agnostic about - the value and the truth of the beliefs and precepts of the religion which is studied.

Two Arguments Against Some Critics of Religion Based on Feeling and Emotion Following William James

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-224
Author(s):  
Katja Thörner
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
William James ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Ludwig Feuerbach ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
The Individual

In this paper I will show that you can distinguish two main types of argumentation in respect to feeling and emotions in the philosophy of religion of William James, which point to two different kind of criticism of religion. Especially in his early works, James argues that you may lawfully adopt religious beliefs on the basis of passional grounds. This argumentation points to a type of criticism of religion, which denies that beliefs based on such emotional grounds may be justified. In his famous study The Varieties of Religious Experience, James defines religious experience as an experience of inner conversion, where the individual gets in touch with a higher self. The philosophical interpretation of religious experience points not at least to a type of criticism of religion in the tradition of Ludwig Feuerbach, which is known as the theory of projection.

scholarly journals ON THE “POSITIVITY” OF THE ROMANTIC PHILOSOPHY OF REVELATION AS AN ELEMENT OF A SUPREME KNOWLEDGE

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
N.N. Misyurov
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Objective Knowledge ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Methodological Question ◽  
Religious Consciousness ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Key Aspects

The article examines the problem of the potential possibilities of the “positive” philosophy of cognition of the “original content” of being — in connection with the romantic thesis about the need for self-determination of the individual. It is argued that this is a methodological question of the dialectic of the “opposition” of objective knowledge to subjective religious consciousness, which is fundamental for the whole of classical German philosophy. It is proved that the key aspects of the philosophy of religion are conditioned by the paradigm of “classical rationality”.

Theological Originality

1976 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
T. E. Burke
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
The Individual

In contemporary discussion of the philosophy of religion, or for that matter of any branch of philosophy, the names of Whitehead and Wittgenstein are not often linked. Whitehead's later work is, for the most part, treated as a rather specialized interest, an attractively under-cultivated field for the enterprising thesis-writer perhaps, but well away from the main centres of current philosophical activity. And what he has to say about specifically religious or theological issues (apart from the often quoted or misquoted ‘Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness‘)1 becomes simply one ramification of an ingenious but somewhat eccentric system. Nonetheless, there is at least this much justification for considering it in relation to the much more influential and widely discussed views of Wittgenstein. Whitehead has some original things to say about God, Wittgenstein some original reasons for thinking that Whitehead's brand of originality is here radically misplaced. And the possibility or otherwise of such theological originality is an issue of very considerable importance for the philosophy of religion.

scholarly journals El hombre: una singularidad en el universo físico ockhamista

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Olga LARRE
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Central Point ◽  
William Of Ockham ◽  
Main Constituent ◽  
Ockham’S Razor ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Ockham's Razor ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

Since William of Ockham has never made a systematic and thorough analysis of the anthropological issue, the author reconstructs the theme on the basis of considerations taken from his several physical and theological works. The Ockhamist methodological approach is the same used to study the natural world: experience-based knowledge, individual- based terminist logic and the principle of economy (Ockham’s razor). However, Ockham stresses the individual against the deterministic universe of matter. It is a privileged entity: with its nature of material being, it takes part of the features and perfections of the natural world- both inanimate and animate beings; and with its freedom, it infinitely transcends the deterministic universe of physics. Taking the above as a starting point, the author considers, firstly, the physical and metaphysical definitions given by the philosopher; and she shows the consequences resulting from them and the specific limitations established by Ockham. Then, she analyzes the main constituent of both definitions: the spiritual soul; she does so by examining the main features is a central point in the Ockhamist anthropology where the mere reason is insufficient to reach the truth; it is the faith the one that should complete the scope of this knowledge.

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