Theologie als Religionskritik in der Europäischen Religionsgeschichte
The topic involves a thesis which is initially surprising: it is precisely the professional functionaries of religion, for example theologians in a Christian context, who are the agents of criticism of religion. Maintaining a critical attitude toward religion as a religious professional would seem t...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Diagonal-Verlag
2012
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
Year: 2007, Volume: 15, Issue: 1, Pages: 5-27 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | The topic involves a thesis which is initially surprising: it is precisely the professional functionaries of religion, for example theologians in a Christian context, who are the agents of criticism of religion. Maintaining a critical attitude toward religion as a religious professional would seem to be a matter of painting oneself into a corner. This essay develops the following thesis: as intellectuals, theologians cut themselves off socially from lay people. This social separateness is a parallel to their secondary socialisation in the form of lifestyle, an education which includes acquisition of cultic discourse, and control by a centralised institution. Social alienation brings with it the opportunity and the authority to criticize religion ›from outside‹ on the basis of worldly and otherworldly criteria. Systematic ›theologic‹ is among the worldly criteria, with which a logical and internally coherent system can be constructed from historical contingencies. An otherworldly ›unknown‹ (in the mathematical sense) offers spatial or temporal transcendence. This ›unknown‹ provides a means to supercede the world of experience and includes an unfalsifiable element in every logical conclusion, much like an a priori principle or a decisive argument forbids and terminates discussion. The essay inquires into the conditions under which theology arises and functions, and further, whether the critical distance maintained in relation to lived religion is a specifically Christian phenomenon or one typical of European religious history. |
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| ISSN: | 2194-508X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zfr.2007.15.1.5 |