Philosophy — religion — theology

Abstract

This essay is a (meta)philosophical attempt to clarify the theoretical practice called ‘philosophy of religion’. It proceeds in stages. (1) Beginning with a very broad definition of `religion’, it claims (a) that the religious dimension is not only a necessary and basic topic of philosophy, but also its source, and (b) that all philosophers, in the practice of their life, rely on a basic ‘faith’. If this is true, the question arises as to whether they can abstract from their faith in practicing philosophy. (2) The existing ‘positive’ religions concretize the religious dimension, but it is universally realized and expressed, even in atheistic and agnostic attitudes and convictions. All humans rely on a basic faith. (3) The modern self-conception of philosophy rests on the assumption that because it is autonomous it can separate itself from the lived existence from which it springs. This conception is a dream that has not been and cannot be realized. It must therefore be replaced with a metaphilosophy that respects the faith-based essence of philosophy. (4) Religion (the religious dimension and its concretization in faith) is united with philosophy in at least two ways: (a) as its object, and (b) as the basic condition of the philosophical (re)search. (5) Philosophy is a relatively autonomous element of the self-aware and critical life of philosophers. Its language is simultaneously particular and universal. As an attempt to think in the name of and for all humans, it continues its traditional task. Insofar as it is done at the service of a religious community, it is a particular faith searching for understanding, both of the universe and of itself. In its latter function philosophy can be called theology; in its universal function, it brackets its theological character, though it neither can nor should repress it.