Not without Skepticism: Metaphysics as a Metacritical Task of Theology
This essay explores the necessity of and limits of metaphysical thought, as well as theology’s necessary interaction with metaphysics. Metaphysics’ origin came through opposition to mythology, with which metaphysics is also intricately connected. Christian theology has a critical, but necessary, rel...
| Published in: | Lutheran quarterly |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
The Johns Hopkins University Press
2021
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| In: |
Lutheran quarterly
Year: 2021, Volume: 35, Issue: 4, Pages: 422-443 |
| RelBib Classification: | NAB Fundamental theology VA Philosophy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This essay explores the necessity of and limits of metaphysical thought, as well as theology’s necessary interaction with metaphysics. Metaphysics’ origin came through opposition to mythology, with which metaphysics is also intricately connected. Christian theology has a critical, but necessary, relationship with both. Metaphysics provides intellectual unity in the face of the diversity of human experience, which couples nicely with the mythological pantheon of gods. Aristotle’s Metaphysics equated the divine with the unifying foundation of all things (ἀρχή). Metaphysics brings order to the world’s chaos with a divinity that is not a subject, but a (neuter) predicate. Metaphysical questioning is necessary to human self-preservation but becomes problematic if divorced from other aspects of lived existence. Scripture itself raises metaphysical issues with its claims of God’s oneness., Christ, and the communication of attributes that occurs in him, contrasts sharply with traditional metaphysics. This contrast is explored here in the tradition of Luther and Hamann. A re-abstraction of the concrete truth of Christ began with Lessing and Kant, and was brought to consummation by Hegel and his speculative Good Friday, which became a new kind of metaphysics. However, the truly Christian answer to metaphysics’ longing for unity, is not Hegelian knowledge, but faith in the present, incarnate God’s promise. |
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| ISSN: | 2470-5616 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Lutheran quarterly
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/lut.2021.0091 |