Philosophy of Religion in the
Tradition of Christian Confessions
Prof. Dr. Michael Schulz
Arbeitsbereich Philosophie und Theorie der Religionen
Philosophische Fakultät, Universität Bonn
Brühlerstrasse 7
D-53119 BONN
Tel. 0228-735030
Mobile: 01788683225
[email protected]
www.ptr.uni-bonn.de
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Confessional question
and philosophy
1 Cor 1 – no philo-sophia!?
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20 Where is the wise man? … Has not God made foolish the
wisdom (sophia) of the world?
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom
did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the
foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to
Gentiles foolishness,
24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God.
• Martin Luther: Philosophia est perversus amor sciendi, nisi assit
gratia Dei (WA 59,410)
1 Petr 3,15 philo-logia; philo-sophia!
• 1 Petr 3,15 …always be ready to give a defense (apologia) to
everyone who asks you a reason (logos) for the hope that is in
you…”
• Anselm von Canterbury (+1109): fides quaerens intellectum
• I. Vatican Council, Dogm. Constitution Dei Filius (April 24th 1870): …
Holy Mother Church holds and teaches that God, the source and
end of all things, can be known
– with certainty from the consideration of created things,
– by the natural power of human reason: ever since the creation of the
world, his invisible nature has been clearly perceived in the things that
have been made.
– CF. Rm 1,20: “For since the creation of the world His invisible
attributes are clearly seen, being understood noou,mena kaqora/tai(by the
things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.”
Confessional differences concerning
justification in reference to reason and
philosophy
• Cath. sanctificatio, cooperatio – by redeemed
reason
• Luth. Justification forensically understood,
Gerechtsprechung; declaration of
righteousness – no substantial change of the
fallen reason
• 4. Explicating the Common Understanding of Justification
• 4.1 Human Powerlessness and Sin in Relation to
Justification
• 19.We confess together that all persons depend completely
on the saving grace of God for their salvation. The freedom
they possess in relation to persons and the things of this
world is no freedom in relation to salvation, for as sinners
they stand under God's judgment and are incapable of
turning by themselves to God to seek deliverance, of
meriting their justification before God, or of attaining
salvation by their own abilities. Justification takes place
solely by God's grace. Because Catholics and Lutherans
confess this together, it is true to say:
• 20.When Catholics say that persons "cooperate" in preparing for
and accepting justification by consenting to God's justifying action,
they see such personal consent as itself an effect of grace, not as an
action arising from innate human abilities.
• 21.According to Lutheran teaching, human beings are incapable of
cooperating in their salvation, because as sinners they actively
oppose God and his saving action. Lutherans do not deny that a
person can reject the working of grace. When they emphasize that
a person can only receive (mere passive) justification, they mean
thereby to exclude any possibility of contributing to one's own
justification, but do not deny that believers are fully involved
personally in their faith, which is effected by God's Word. [cf.
Sources for 4.1].
Confessional differences concerning
the form and range of philosophy
Pope Benedict XVI Sept. 12th 2006
Liberation from scholastic philosophy as a need of faith….
Is there another philosophical form in correspondence with faith?
• “Dehellenization first emerges in connection with the postulates of the
Reformation in the sixteenth century. Looking at the tradition of scholastic
theology, the Reformers thought they were confronted with a faith system
totally conditioned by philosophy, that is to say an articulation of the faith
based on an alien system of thought. As a result, faith no longer appeared
as a living historical Word but as one element of an overarching
philosophical system. The principle of sola scriptura, on the other hand,
sought faith in its pure, primordial form, as originally found in the biblical
Word. Metaphysics appeared as a premise derived from another source,
from which faith had to be liberated in order to become once more fully
itself. When Kant stated that he needed to set thinking aside in order to
make room for faith, he carried this programme forward with a radicalism
that the Reformers could never have foreseen. He thus anchored faith
exclusively in practical reason, denying it access to reality as a whole.”
Is Kant‘s philosophy more protestant
than catholic?
Friedrich Paulsen (1846-1908)
Philosopher, Pedagogue
Opera
• Immanuel Kant. Sein Leben und seine Lehre
(1898);
• Kant - der Philosoph des Protestantismus
(1899).
Friedrich Paulsen (1846-1908)
• Kant‘s understanding of religion
1) as something „anti-intellectual“,
2) as a religion of conscience, morality
• Anti-intellectualism: Kant‘s critique blocks a
dogmatic rationalism which Paulsen identifies
with Cath. Theology (Neothomism).
• Kant‘s concept of a practical faith of reason
corresponds to Luther‘s concept of religion as
pertaining to one’s inner conviction.
Julius Kaftan (1848-1926)
• Kant‘s concept of morality corresponds to
Protestantism and distinguishes from Cath.
and Orthodoxy.
• The internal experience of morality leads to
God and not the cognition of the external
world (= cf. five ways to God in Thomas
Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae which start with
external world-experience: movement,
causality….).
Bruno Bauch (1877-1942)
philosopher, Neokantianism
Kant and Luther coincide in the idea of ethics
of conviction (Gesinnungsethik); therefore
both put the focus on tow things:
• 1) subjectivity and sensitivity
• 2) morality as the decisive factor in relation to
God
Protestant rejection of foundational
function of philosophy
Emil Brunner: Natur und Gnade.
Zum Gespräch mit Karl Barth (1934)
Summary of Barth‘s thesis:
1. Destruction of human nature by sin
2. No universal revelation in nature, conscience…
3. No points of contact of redemption in human nature
and misery.
4. Negation of: gratia non tollit sed perficit naturam, no
fulfillment of human nature, but its negation.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/109899/emil_brunne
r_and_karl_barth_lets_get_pg4.html?cat=34
Wolfhart Pannenberg
new protestant philosophy
Born 2 October 1928 in Stettin, Germany
(now Szczecin, Poland)
Lutheran Theologian (Mainz, Munich)
He interprets history as revelation,
centering on the Resurrection of Christ.
Important for the dialogue between
Protestant and Catholic theology, and with
non-Christian thinkers because of his
philosophical mediation of faith and
theology.
Cath. Philosophy – no-scholastic
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P. John Paul II
Encyclica Fides et ratio 14-09-1998
He recommends:
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“This is true of both the Fathers of the
Church, among whom at least Saint Gregory
of Nazianzus and Saint Augustine should be
mentioned, and the Medieval Doctors with
the great triad of Saint Anselm, Saint
Bonaventure and Saint Thomas Aquinas. We
see the same fruitful relationship between
philosophy and the word of God in the
courageous research pursued by more recent
thinkers, among whom I gladly mention, in a
Western context, figures such as John Henry
Newman, Antonio Rosmini, Jacques Maritain,
Étienne Gilson and Edith Stein and, in an
Eastern context, eminent scholars such as
Vladimir S. Soloviev, Pavel A. Florensky, Petr
Chaadaev and Vladimir N. Lossky.” Nr. 74
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P. Benedict XVI
1959 Bonn, inaugural lecture:
Conclusion
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Necessity and risk of human wisdom
Justification and Philosophy
Philosophy as a prison of faith?
Pure faith against philosophy?
New forms of philosophy in protestant and
catholic tradition