Philosophical Theology in Transition, Vol. II/2

Philosophical theology, the former crown of European metaphysics, has declined in importance, and is now largely removed from the system of academic philosophical disciplines. The first volume of Philosophische Theologie im Umbruch (Philosophical Theology in Transition) dealt with the origins and the history of philosophical theology and its role within the history of philosophy in general. It was shown that as other branches of philosophy philosophical theology is based on the truth of being, understood as the inconspicious event that grants disclosedness to all that exists. As this openness of being is experienced in the open width and depth of our being in the world, a phenomenological philosophical theology should be based on the latter. The first part of the second volume analysed how philosophical theology was caught between two fronts: fideist theology and atheistic philosophy. The radical criticisms of metaphysics developed in both camps do have one thing in common: the intention to liberate mankind from an ungodly God. The positive dimension of this concern should be taken up by philosophical theology in a dialogical encounter with its adversaries that fosters its necessary transformation. The now available second part of the second volume comprises an in-depth dialogue with important atheistic philosophies focusing on positions which reject the existence of God to protect human dignity, independence and liberty. The author demonstrates that the atheistic philosophers after Hegel (especially Feuerbach, Marx and Sartre) are not postmetaphysical thinkers, as one can often read, but developed their own ontologies within the discourse of European metaphysics. While investigating the implicit ontological principles underlying modern atheistic philosophies, time and again Wucherer-Huldenfeld uncovers a relic from the history of the doctrine of the transcendentals (i. e. the doctrine of being as the one, the true, the good etc.): God conceived of as infinite and creation conceived of as being totally dependent on this God are defined as correlative parts and disjunctive modes of a univocal notion of being. This speculative presuppositon of modern atheism, is criticized from an ontological and biblical point of view. It is shown that the ontological distinction between essence (essentia) and existence (existentia) that is closely connected with this ontology is derived from an understanding of being that is only valid in the realm of producing things. If this understanding is generalized, as it happened within the history of European philosophy, a kind of ergological or technomorphic ontology emerges, which distorts the biblical notion of creation. Moreover, technomorphic ontology has disastrous ecological consequences, and it obscures an understanding of being as a gift. The ontology of the gift will be a primary topic of the third volume. As the authors philosophical theology is mainly based on ontology, this volume once again contains important ontological excursions which can be read separately as an introduction to ontology.