Husserl: Philosophy of Religion

In my paper, I want to focus not only on the notions of givenness and evidence in Husserl’s phenomenology, but also on phenomenological work “after” Husserl. I will elaborate on how these phenomenological key ideas can methodologically be made fruitful, especially for an investigation into religious phenomena. After giving an outline of Husserl’s notions of givenness, evidence, and original intuition, I want to portray key elements of Steinbock’s discovery of a generative dimension in Husserl’s phenomenology and show how this approach (...) correlates to the field of religious experiences. Subsequently, I want to focus on Steinbock’s book Phenomenology of Mysticism: The Verticality of Religious Experience, and elucidate how for Steinbock different historical examples of mystical experiences can serve as leading clues for the revelation of the essential, eidetic structures of “vertical experiences”—or, phenomenologically speaking, the eidos of religious experience, which turns out to be “epiphany”. The expression “verticality,” as opposed to “horizontality,” denotes the existential and dynamic dimension of experiences which are oriented toward a new height “beyond” ourselves. (shrink)

In the natural attitude, and in the ordinary language, religion is strictly bound to transcendence. In this paper I ask whether the concept of “transcendence” is legitimate in the phenomenological dimension, which is opened by the methodological operation of reduction to the immanence of transcendental consciousness. By examining how “transcendence” gains increasingly importance in Husserl’s thought, the necessity emerges to distinguish three levels of it: intentional transcendence, intersubjective transcendence and transcendence as “superposition”. Such distinction allows to rethink the sense, the (...) possibilities and the limits of phenomenology of religion. Keywords: Husserl, transcendence, epoché, reduction, intersubjectivity, religion. (shrink)

Defending the ancient thesis, that being and the true, or being and manifestation, are necessarily inseparable, is at the heart of transcendental phenomenology. The transcendental “reduction” disengages the basic “natural” naïve doxastic belief which permits the world to appear as essentially indifferent to the agency of manifestation. The massive work of transcendental phenomenology is showing the agency of manifestation of “absolute consciousness.” Yet the foundations of this agency of manifestation are pervaded by issues which, when addressed, reveal that the question (...) of a “second absolute” is basic and opens Husserlian phenomenology to metaphysical questions. This has to do not merely with the teleology of the agency of manifestation, i.e., the “whither” of the teleology of presencing, but also, in some sense, with the constituting “whence” of the transcendental I. Husserl argues for the teleology of truth pointing to both a divine subject as well as a divine entelechy. (shrink)

The depiction of the relation of God and man is one of the most difficult challenges of religious philosophy and even more the understanding of God and the human self-conception are deeply entwined. Trying an access to both questions starting from subjectivity, the idea of God is investigated in Descartes, Feuerbach and Husserl. After a discussion of the idea of God in Descartes and its consequences for human aspiration, the opposite standpoint of Feuerbach and his so-called theory of projection will (...) be examined. Finally, aspects from both thinkers are brought together in Husserl’s phenomenological ethics. The idea of God is the entelechy of reason and self-realizing goodness, in which the searching person can realize its own potentials as much as its own abyss, yet is always called to advance beyond herself and toward the ever-beyond God within. (shrink)

This article discusses the theoretical issues and findings of a recent trend in phenomenology of religion: the manifestation of the Trinity. Section one highlights the classical model of the Trinity as mystery. The Trinity is as an elusive phenomenon that can be grasped only as an article of faith. Section two outlines important features of manifestation and experience in Husserl's phenomenology, which lays the conceptual groundwork for the phenomenology of religion. Section three discusses two proposals of a phenomenology of the (...) Trinity, in which faith can be understood as an intentional stance may make possible the Trinity's manifestation as a subjective phenomenon. The conclusion locates the principal weakness of the phenomenology of the Trinity in the proponents' tendency to ignore doctrinal development and theological debate, especially of the fourth and fifth‐centuries, which gave shape to the Trinity as a doctrine as such. (shrink)

This paper proposes a revision of Girard’s interpretation of Satan, along traditional theological lines. Appreciating the essential correctness of the Girardian characterization of mimēsis, it is an argument, contra Girard, that (1) Satan cannot be reduced to a mimetic process but is a hypostatic spiritual reality and, following from this, that (2) the origins of mimetic rivalry go back before the emergence of humankind and provide a model for human rivalry. Employing concepts drawn from Husserlian phenomenological psychology, Thomist theology, and (...) psychoanalysis, it hypothesizes Satan’s psychological state, prior to his fall, as metastable anxiety and trauma and his state, afterwards, as a narcissistic, malicious, self-induced pathology in order to explain Satan’s impossible rivalry with God, a rivalry that precedes hominization and has always endangered human existence. (shrink)

My purpose in this paper is to determine if there is still a place for God, in Husserl’s phenomenology, after the achievement of the phenomenological reduction. There are several different ways to address this issue. One can begin by asserting that there is no place in phenomenology, after bracketing the natural world of our lived experience, for any transcendence that is not, either the transcendence of the noema regarding the stream of consciousness in which it was generated, or the worldly (...) or mundane transcendence. One can also stress that the absolute consciousness that constitutes all kinds of objectivities – real or ideal – cannot tolerate at his side another absolute like the Christian God. Against these views, one can oppose the following: 1) in the intersubjective experience, the process of constitution of its specific noemata – the alter egos – goes beyond what seemed admissible in the standard intentional analysis of the process of constitution of worldly objectivities; 2) intentional consciousness shows an overall teleological structure that points beyond the simply given. In this paper, I try to explore the possibilities this opens in the core of intentional analysis to a phenomenological approach to God. (shrink)

The paper deals with the ways in which Edmund Husserl develops the question of God. Six ways to reach God are shown as present in Husserl’s writings, some of them seem to be very close to the traditional philosophical ways to go as far as God (the objective and the subjective ways) others are very original, in particular the way that starts from the analysis of the hyletic sphere of the human being, a sphere which is present in all the (...) reality too. At last it is possible to notice Husserl’s interest in the mystical approach to God. (shrink)

In this book, Jim Ruddy has proceeded deep into the hub-center of Husserl's transcendental subjectivity and unearthed an utterly new phenomenological method. A vast, originative a priori science emerges for the reader. Ruddy presents a unique and powerful eidetic science wherein the object consciousness of Husserl is suddenly shown to point beyond itself to the ultimate theme of the pure subject consciousness of God as He is in Himself. Thus, the book opens up an endlessly new, unrestricted realm of objective (...) material for phenomenology to exfoliate and describe. This is an important work for both general phenomenologists and for scholars of Husserl, Aquinas, and Edith Stein. (shrink)

This paper aims to provide a brief presentation of Husserl’s lectures dedicated to the philosophy of Fichte, specifically the discussion of the relationship between ethics and religion that the fichtian texts develop in its intermediate phase. The course taught by Husserl, divided into three lessons and presented in the chair of Freiburg between the years 1917 and 1918, seems to clearly show the intimate connection between Husserl proposals on an absolute foundation of ethics and the theory advocated by Fichte about (...) the different stages or degrees of moral development of mankind. More than that, both idealistic philosophical positions conceive a close relation between the conception of an ethical ideal and the defense of a view about human nature that understands it as a pure acting of consciousness. In this regard, the paper aims to indicate, albeit incipiently, how epistemology, ethics, and religion appear intertwined in a systematic manner in the two theories. (shrink)

Where does it bring us, today, the question-God, which phenomenology has not ceased to discuss? What we can say is that this is a controversial issue, which has divided both who has tried to practise in first person phenomenology and who has carefully read Husserl’s works on the topic. If the question-God can be repeated today, it must be done according to Husserl’s gesture that starts any opening of new fields of knowledge, that is the reduction and the epoché. It (...) is practising these two gestures that it is possible to discover what can be reduced and what remains as irreducible. Does the question-God remain irreducible? Yes, on condition that, through the practice of the epoché, the sense itself of transcendence is called into question again in order to identify any givenness of God. This givenness of God, through the epoché, is discovered in the possibility of the free suspension. This is a gesture “of” God that also the human being can execute while discovering that the possibility that what is given is freely suspended to allow further considerations on other freedoms is more originating than every givenness. Thus, another manner of transcendence could manifest itself, that is a manner of transcendence not thought as “presence” to be suspended, but as discovery of the completely free root of what is given. This manifestation of transcendence would allow to repeat phenomenologically the question-God. (shrink)

This volume examines a number of landmark conceptual shifts that have shaped our understanding of the body in its profane and sacred dimensions as site of conflicting discourses on presence and absence, subjectivity, mortality, resurrection and eternal life. Drawing together some of the best international scholars in the field, the volume provides for the first time a representative cross-section of influential trends in the philosophy of religion today (e.g. phenomenology, existential thought, Biblical hermeneutics, deconstruction), illustrated through original critical interpretations and (...) previously unpublished writings by three major contemporary philosophers of religion: Michel Henry, Jean-Luc Marion and Jean-Luc Nancy. (shrink)

Phenomenology of religion is among the oldest branches of the discipline founded by Husserl. It has always been difficult to define its outlines: from the very first essays of Scheler, Reinach and Heidegger to the so-called “theological turn” of French phenomenology, one has always feared the transformation of the phenomenology of religion in a religious philosophy that would give up the sacred principle of neutrality. This situation is perhaps behind us thanks to the recent endeavors to renew the field of (...) research. French and American specialists of Husserl’s thought Natalie Depraz and Anthony J. Steinbock try to push back the limits of and to explore new ways in genetic phenomenology by describing religious attitudes by mean of a philosophical-existential methodology especially designed for this task. This paper introduces what might open of a new era of the phenomenology of religion. (shrink)

This article attempts to "God" and "time" two concepts to explain Augustine and Husserl on the theological point of view of theoretical relationships. Discussion focused on the following: First, Augustine describes how the "theory of light," "Memory" and "spiritual" and "time" issues such as thinking there is away to grasp the eternal God, and by God's revealed truth; In addition, that Augustine's theological point of view of the problem, then leads to Husserl the transcendental subject of "time consciousness" and "God" (...) of the relevant thinking; Finally, Husserl's point of view to illustrate the divine and human nature between the corresponding relationship, thinking through the rehabilitation of relations between God and man the possibility of separation. In this article, I intend to clarify the theoretical relationship between Augustine's theology and Husserl's theological thought by analyzing the idea of ​​"God" and of "time." There are three main points in my research: Firstly, I will explain how Augustine can comprehend God's eternal Being and Truth with his reflections on the theory of illumination and the problems of "memory," of "mind" and of "time." Furthermore, by criticizing Augustine's theological ideas mentioned above, I will introduce Husserl's thought on "time- consciousness "of the phenomenological subject and" God. "Finally, based upon Husserl's phenomenological inquire into the essential relationship between divinity and humanity, I will try to propose a possible reconstruction of the disconnected relationship between God and human beings. (shrink)

In this paper, to Hannah Arendt's philosophy of Husserl and represented to illustrate the possible implications of philosophical theology: the Christian meaning of Husserl Han built on the basis of Greek philosophy, which is a tone of surprise as the starting point of philosophy of factors; Arendt secularization of Christianity in philosophy, and this is the metaphorical language of the philosophy of language for both factors. This then raised the image of the language of Western philosophy may be, and from (...) this perspective, a non-philosophical theology. Finally, Heidegger's philosophy in this paper with the image from the Plaza of the tone and language to explain their philosophy as a kind of theological philosophy. This article at first explains some possible meanings of philosophical theology, represented by Edmund Husserl's and Hannah Arendt's philosophy: Husserl lays the foundation of the significance of Christianity in the Greek philosophy, and bases this consideration in the attunement of surprise as the begin of philosophy; Arendt secularizes Christianity in philosophy, and realizes this idea in her understanding of the metaphor language as philosophical language. The article then proposes a possibility of the image language in the Western philosophy, and from this point of view understands a non philosophical theology. Lastly, the article, based on the attunement of evasion and image language in Heidegger's philosophy, interprets his philosophy as a kind of theological philosophy. (shrink)

The question that arises in this article is whether we can find elements of phenomenology in Bernard Lonergan’s Trinitarian theology.With help of other Lonergan scholars, I have discovered that modern thinking plays an important role in the theology and philosophy ofthis Jesuit author. Moreover, the terminology of modern philosophy coexists with the terminology of classical and especially Tomisticthought. This article is interested in the elements that Lonergan takes from the modern philosophy and emphasizes the centrality ofHusserlian phenomenology among the other (...) modern authors used by Lonergan. Following the research of the Jesuit thinker, I speakabout two parallel realities coexisting in his Trinitarian theology. Lonergan tries to realize their synthesis, but at the same time healso recognizes their distinctiveness. The most relevant result of this coexistence is obtained through the replacement of the metaphysical differentiation between the level of substance and the level of the three Persons, so that, instead of having the elements of classical theology, Lonergan predicates at the same time that God subsists as well as the Trinitarian Persons subsist. Through this assertion he emphasizes the identity between God’s existence and the existence of the three divine Persons, and eliminates the classical differentiation that might be closer to the danger of subordinating the three Persons to the one God. (shrink)

Como em qualquer área do conhecimento, os estudos realizados pelas Ciências das Religiões viram-se marcados por revoluções histórico-paradigmáticas determinantes, que favoreceram o surgimento do método da Fenomenologia da Religião. O objetivo deste trabalho constitui-se, portanto, na tentativa de apresentar esse processo de revolução paradigmática, como também a caracterização do contexto favorável ao seu surgimento. Para tanto, retomaremos momentos históricos, estudiosos importantes e superações metodológicas, procurando conferir destaque ao método fenomenológico de Husserl como o possibilitador das condições de surgimento da fenomenologia (...) do sagrado de Otto, que, por sua vez, põe a experiência religiosa como fenômeno originário suficiente para descrição e avaliação do que nasce da relação do ser humano com o sagrado. A análise fenomenológica proposta por Rudolf Otto, além de superar metodologias de cunho positivista, abriu novos caminhos. Ao introduzir os conceitos de Mysterium tremendum et fascinans , o autor possibilitou aos estudos desenvolvidos na área das Ciências das Religiões, o contato, a valorização e a investigação das experiências puramente antropológicas resultantes da relação entre o humano e o sagrado. Palavras-chave: Husserl, Otto, Fenomenologia.As well as in any area of knowledge, the studies made by the Sciences of the Religions were marked by many determinant historical paradigmatic revolutions, which came to aid the rise of the Religion’s Phenomenology’s method. The goal of this study is to attempt, therefore, not only the presentation of this process of paradigmatic revolution but also to reveal the characterization of the favorable context of its emergence. For all that, we will bring back historical moments and important studious man, methodological overcomes; bestowing in focus Husserl’s phenomenological method as a facilitator of the emergence conditions of Otto’s sacred phenomenology, who in turn, grants the religious experience originating as a sufficient phenomenon to the description and evaluation of what comes from the relationship between the human being and the sacred. The phenomenological analysis proposed by Rudolf Otto, it overcomes positivist methodologies imprint, broke new ground. By introducing the concepts of Mysterium tremendum et fascinans , the author made it possible for studies in the area of Sciences of Religions, contact, recovery and research experiences purely anthropological as a relationship between the human and sacred. Key Words : Husserl, Otto, Phenomenology. (shrink)

Out of the wide variety of themes covered by Husserl's phenomenology and later developed by Heidegger, Merleau Ponty, and others in different possible directions, the present work attempts to indicate the few features of the method that derives from Edmund Husserl's basic themes of the phenomenological movement and its methodology. Barua explores the manner in which this method has been applied to the study of art and religion by other phenomenologists and accordingly introduces the problem of this profound bulk, namely, (...) the phenomenological approach to religion, mostly in their terms. (shrink)

John Henry Newman has rightly been hailed as a giant in the Catholic intellectual tradition. His contributions to theology, literature, and education have been studied at length; however, his contribution to philosophy has not received appropriate attention. This essay 1) explores Newman’s unique philosophical insights in terms of the phenomenological tradition of Edmund Husserl; 2) analyzes the transcendental approach of certain British scientists—notably Ronald Knox and Charles Darwin; and 3) discusses how Newman might be considered a phenomenologist.

Contemporary philosophy, to be useful to Orthodox Christian theology, must capture the “essence” of the divine and human activity in the world in the scientific sense of Edmund Husserl. Scholastic philosophy is no longer an academically privileged supporter of theology in the interpretation of the universe. In its place, this paper suggests that phenomenological philosophy becomes the unique and transcendent partner, as it were, in the interpretive dialogue. The methodological thinking of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger offers a way of (...) philosophical understanding that is more satisfactory than the traditional scholastic metaphysics in giving meaning to contemporary human experience. A phenomenological eco-theological approach captures the essences of a subject’s immediate and holistic perception of the environment. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology , September 2008, Volume 8, Edition 2. (shrink)

In this article, the author argues that the phenomenological revolution inaugurated by Husserl and Heidegger opens up new avenues for a radical rethinking of the God question. With Husserl's 'free variation of possibilities in imagination' and Heidegger's famous claim in Being and Time that 'for phenomenology possibility stands higher than actuality', the author discovers new resources for our understanding of both Being and God. In both cases, the article claims, we witness the surpassing of the traditional metaphysical priority of actuality (...) over possibility. Then, in a second moment, the paper explores the notion of the 'God of possibility' from the perspective of three different hermeneutic circles: scriptural, testimonial and literary. The essay concludes with an analysis of the positive implications of the notion of the 'possible' (as posse and possest) for a new understanding of the God of eschatology. /// No presente artigo, o autor defende que a revolução fenomenológica inaugurada por E. Husserl e M. Heidegger abre novas possibilidades para um repensar radical da questão de Deus. A partir da 'livre variação de possibilidades na imaginação' de Husserl e afamosa pretensão de Heidegger em Ser e Tempo de que para a 'fenomenologia a possibilidade está acima da actualidade', o autor descobre novos recursos para a nossa compreensão quer do Ser quer de Deus. Tanto num caso como no outro, diz-nos o artigo, podemos testemunhar a superação da tradicional prioridade metafisica da actualidade sobre a possibilidade. Em seguida, num segundo momento, o artigo explora também a noção de um 'Deus da possibilidade' a partir da perspectiva de três círculos hermenêuticos diferentes: o escriturístico, o testemonial e o literário. 0 ensaio conclui com uma análise das implicações positivas da noção de 'possível' (como posse e possest) para uma nova compreensão do Deus da escatologia. (shrink)

This essay is an attempt towards a phenomenology of God. The leading question in our analysis will be whether God could be given to consciousness as a phenomenon. First, we go back to Husserl and to his formulation of the possibility of phenomenality. Then, the discussion proceeds to the innovative reappropriation of Husserlian phenomenology by Jean-Luc Marion and his notion of the saturated phenomenon. Finally, I propose that God can “appear” only through an “inverted intentionality,” such as it is exemplified (...) in certain divine manifestations recorded in Scripture, in the techniques of depicting the divine in icons, and finally, in the human person. (shrink)

This article is the product of a critical engagement that I have orchestrated between Husserl’s phenomenology and Stoic epistemology. I argue that the Stoic theory of knowledge, which is based upon the idea that the individual human being is a logos spermatikos, or “rational seed” of God, precludes any authentic doctrine of freedom, insofar as it enslaves the individual to a constant reference back toward God, as the source of “fundanlent” of all knowledge. However, the similarities between the Stoic theory (...) and the phenomenology of Husserl call us toward a deeper reading, and an asking of the important question: what constitutes freedom? This question can only be answered by thinking beyond both Stoic epistemological schemas and Husserlian intentionality, toward a doctrine of freedom that is best described as demiurgic.Cet article est le produit d’une enterprise critique organisée autour de la phénoménologie husserlienne et de I’épistémologie stoïcienne. Je soutiens que la théorie stoïcienne de la connaissance, fondée sur I’idée qui veut que I’être humain individuel soit un logos spermatikos, un “germe rationnel” de Dieu, exclut toute doctrine authentique de la liberté, dans la mesure où elle contrait I’individu à référer constamment à Dieu en tant que source ou “fondement” de toute connaissance. Toutefois, les similarités entre la théorie stoïcienne et la phénoménologie husserlienne nous poussent à une interprétation plus profonde et à poser I’importante question: qu’est la liberté? Cette question ne peut être répondue qu’en dépassant et les schémes épistémologiques stoïciens, et I’intentionalité husserlienne, vers une doctrine de la liberté qui pourrait être qualtfiée de démiurgique. (shrink)

Generally speaking, the Department of the religious phenomenon to study the phenomenology of religion. Job is, therefore, phenomenology of religion but part of the phenomenological movement. However, from the view of human experience, observation, collection, like the phenomenon of religion as the ancient religion. Is to discuss the issue of religious phenomenology, is bound to start from the basic face, caught in a one-sided in order to avoid arbitrary position. This paper describes Husserl phenomenological method and the main factors and (...) structure, and explore the theme of Hu rarely mentioned: religion. Although Husserl Otto have stressed religion's "sui generis" , but Hu's philosophy of non-God attitude of religion; while Austria's thought that the phenomenon of religion is only for believers have their true meaning. Thus, both on the religious "nature" is clearly a different view. Second, we explore the context of the religious phenomenon to Schultz , Berg and Luckmann as representatives of anthropology and sociology. Finally, our reconstruction of religious phenomenology of the "essence" and "context" of the foundation, they not only can not be separated or opposed, but complementary and interactive. Phenomenology of religion such as filial piety were taught to talk before it can become the basis of: the depth have the breadth, which contains the "insiders" and "outsiders" understanding. (shrink)

This paper is an attempt to relate Husserl’s thought about God to his published philosophy. Since the manuscript sources are few, with many gaps, usually brief and often rather cryptic, they do not reflect all of his thinking on the problem. This interpretation cannot, then, claim to be definitive. Most of the sources are published inZur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität: Texte aus dem Nachlass, hrsg. von Iso Kern, The Hague, 1973. An anonymous reader forSophia is to be thanked for his helpful (...) comments on an earlier submitted draft of the paper. (shrink)

Robert Sokolowski's theological method, based on the philosophical insights of Edmund Husserl, effectively addresses two important theological problems: naive realism, which assumes that an objective world stands in stark opposition to a self-aware subject; and a defective understanding of the doctrine of Creation, which expands naive realism into a metaphysics of presence. If God and the world do not share a context in common, then the problem of God becomes first and foremost a problem of disclosure: how is the Creator (...) God made manifest in the created world? An examination of the ways presence and absence are at play in the disclosure of ordinary things affords insight into the way the Paschal Mystery of Christ's life, death and resurrection discloses the reality of a God who is not merely the most excellent part of the whole. The methodology of the dissertation is conversational. Philosophical aspects of the theology of disclosure are placed in dialogue with Bernard Lonergan, Paul Ricoeur and Mary Douglas; practical application of the method according to three major theological topics is facilitated by the introduction of conversation partners: Hans Frei and Robert Alter : Rene Girard and Gil Bailie ; Dom Anscar Vonier and Edward Kilmartin . The conclusion of the thesis is that the communal practice of Christianity by the Church is essential to the knowledge of God and reality. (shrink)

The dialogue between Blondel and Husserl carried on by Maréchal and Duméry and other thinkers has been silent for almost fifty years. Yet Husserl's Nachlass provides reasons for deepening the dialogue, especially in the area of the basic Blondelian themes: the willing-will and the teleological and religious nature of consciousness. Nevertheless there are intriguing differences in their respective philosophical theologies.

The problem of God is tackled by E. Husserl and can be found in some passages of his phenomenological analysis. Though he is interested more to perform his method of research than to discuss that particular topic, it is possible to pinpoint that for him teo-logy -in the sense of the rational way to deal with the problem of the Absolute- is linked up with teleo-logy. As in Kant's speculation, but more under the influence of Leibnitz and Fichte, in Husserl's (...) inquiry we find that the finality of natural processes and the ultimate meaning of human being's behavior compelles us to admit an absolute aim and a goal of all things. And that can be nothing else than God. (shrink)

The Absolute in Husserl's phenomenology. In this first part I review Husserl's phenomenology and his concept of Absolute as well as the role this concept played in his philosophical thought. I also present the rationale for my choice of Husserl's phenomenological method as a tool for this research. ;The Absolute as experienced through natural knowledge. Having evaluated Husserl's stand on the notion of the Absolute as well as its importance in his thought, I distance myself from his philosophical thought retaining (...) only the phenomenological method as a tool in my attempt to ground the experience of the Absolute stressing altogether the importance and the fundamental role of the intuition and experience in the cognitive process. ;The Absolute as the Metaphysical object of our experience. In this section of my research I argue that the Absolute is experienced on a Metaphysical level, thus reaching beyond natural knowledge. The concept of the Absolute brings forth a disclosure of the self. ;The Absolute as the principle and the finitude of human experience. Having dealt with the experience of the Absolute in 'Natural Knowledge' and with the experience of the Absolute as a 'Metaphysical experience' I will ascertain my position and attempt to clarify the contention that the experience of the Absolute is the principle and the end of human experience, altogether remaining aware of the lacunae present in different approaches. (shrink)

This dissertation demonstrates that the life-world, as understood within existential phenomenology, will prove fruitful for theological method. Reading Edmund Husserl's The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology in light of and with the help of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, I introduce phenomenology as "seeing" and as "radical," and develop an understanding of consciousness in terms of intentionality, correlativity and constitution. This sets the stage for presenting an understanding of the life-world, followed by a discussion of the epoche. I then explore how (...) this understanding of the life-world intersects with theological method. ;Chapters three and four give examples of this way of doing theology. A reading of David Tracy's Blessed Rage for Order, The Analogical Imagination, and Plurality and Ambiguity provides a basis for exploring specific ways in which a life-world perspective might contribute to theology. A commentary of the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution, Dei Verbum, illustrates reading from within a phenomenological attitude, attentive to the disclosure of the life-world. ;Chapter five presents a multi-layered self-critique. First, I compare my reading of Dei Verbum with the now classic Vorgrimler commentary on this text. I then compare my way of relating theology and phenomenology to the work of Steven Laycock and James Hart, and to the work of Edward Farley, showing how my approach differs from theirs. Finally, in an internal self-critique, I examine my own traditions and presuppositions. ;Chapter six presents the life-world as a paradigm candidate, briefly indicating what this might mean for: the saying of "is" and "as"; interpretation and description; truth and relativism; locating meaning; evaluating positions and perspectives; and a nonfoundationalist approach to reality. I conclude by stressing the need for radical respect for and appreciation of difference and otherness, the importance of dialogue, and the primacy of love, which, taken together suggest an asceticism of the theologian. (shrink)

The work deals with Husserl's phenomenology of religion. The God of phenomenology in comparative contrast to that of philosophy and theology has to be a noematic correlate of a noetically lived experience. To this extend the idea of God is phenomenologically meaningful. Still the chasm between the God of phenomenology and that of theology remains unbridged. Husserl might have reconciled the two in his own person. Still there is some evidence that Husserl lived through the tension between his being a (...) radical phenomenologist and his being a believing Christian. (shrink)

No estudo dedicado às relações entre teologia e filosofia, très modelos de compreensão são submetidos a exame; estes modelos apoiam-se respecti-vamente sobre Hegel, Husserl e Heidegger. Mas ao mesmo tempo aparece a limitaçâo interna de cada um des tes modelos: a relaçâo representaçâo--pensamento, a análise transcendental da consciência religiosa e o estudo da diferença do ser e do ente nâo podem fornecer do problema de Deus uma apresentaçâo que satisfaça quer o filôsofo quer o crente. É por isso que a (...) anâlise deve ser retomada com outras bases - o conceito de pessoa e o de desimplicaçâo - tendo em conta o resultado destes modelos. /// Dans l'étude consacrée aux relations entre théologie et philosophie, trois modèles de compréhension sont soumis à l'examen; ces modèles s'appuient respectivement en Hegel, Husserl et Heidegger. Mais en même temps appa-rait la limitation interne de chacun de ces modèles: le rapport représentation--pensée, l'analyse transcendantale de la conscience religieuse et l'étude de la différence de l'être et de l'étant ne peuvent donner du problème de Dieu une présentation qui satisfasse ni le philosophe ni le croyant. C'est pourquoi l'analyse doit être reprise sur de nouvelles bases - le concept de personne et celui de désimplication - en tenant compte du résultat de ces modèles. /// In this study dedicated to the relationship between theology and philosophy, three models of understanding are considered; these models are those of Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger. But there is an internal limitation within each one of these models: the relation between representation and thought, the transcendental analysis of religious consciousness, and the difference between Being and being cannot provide the problem of God with a satisfactory presentation for neider philosophers nor believers. For this reason the analysis has to be reconsidered from a new perspective - that of the concept of Person and that of "desimplication" - after studying the results of those models. (shrink)

Pellauer's programmatic study neatly differentiates what he takes to he a proper phenomenology of religion from the works of W. Bede Kristensen, Cornelius Bleeker and Gerhard van der Leeuw. Following Husser's lead, but leaving aside Husser's idealism, Pellauer suggests that Husserl provides a useful theoretical model of experience, one which is "hypothetically applicable to all human experience." Pellauer then critically explores Husser's model. This exploration opens the way for Pellauer to suggest important ways in which the phenomenon of silence should (...) he examined, ways not developed in Dauenhauer's study. What follows is the slightly edited second half of Pellauer's contribution. (shrink)

Governed by the rigorous methodological constraints of phenomenology, Intersubjectivity and the Divine Envisionment explores a hitherto sorely neglected theological theme: the relationship between the universal intersubjective community of finite minds and the field of consciousness of the divine mind. Nothing is presupposed concerning the extra-phenomenal existence of God. Rather, attention is directed exclusively to the "God-phenomenon." And it is shown that strictly derived phenomenological insights lead insistently to the conclusion that intersubjectivity and the divine envisionment are identical. ;The investigation is (...) undergirded by the fundamental assumption that the general necessities governing all phenomena govern equally the God-phenomenon. Hence, it is seen that the God-phenomenon exhibits the necessary features of intentionality, accessibility to phenomenological reflection, teleology and intersubjectivity. Each is taken up in a separate chapter. Chapter Two, "Intentionality and Objectivity," contends that, while logical criteria of intentionality fail, a phenomenological elucidation of intentionality as "ek-static" self-transcendence can be provided. Chapter Three, "Omniscience of Reduction," includes a demonstration of the phenomenological impossibility of a suitably standard version of omniscience from the irreducibly transparent functioning of the divine field of consciousness. And Chapter Four, "The Teleology of Presencing," shows that not only must God be seen as ek-statically self-transcendent and transparently self-accessible, but also as the fundamental entelechy and ultimate telos of all possible presencing acts. In the final chapter, "Intersubjectivity and the Divine Envisionment," maintains that all finite minds are internally related and that Sartre's theory of the "detotalized totality" of minds neglects the co-occurrence of apperception with perception. The chapter culminates in an examination of Husserl's speculation that the divine mind intends the world through the universal intersubjective community of finite minds, the latter serving as its field of consciousness or envisionment. (shrink)

This essay grows out of an interest in the phenomenology of religion. By that term I do not intend to encompass every descriptive approach to religious phenomena. What I have in mind is the more specific project of applying a basically Husserlian methodology to the task of understanding religious life and experience. In its basic essentials such an approach would involve focusing attention on the structures of the intentional acts, along with their intentional objects, which are understood in advance to (...) be religious; seeking to discover in them what is essential to religion as such, to particular religious traditions, and, in between these, what is essential to the basic types of religion; and rigorously bracketing all questions of the truthfulness and value of religion. As I understand it Paul Ricoeur’s Symbolism of Evil is an attempt to do phenomenology of religion in this way. (shrink)