Philosophy of Religion: Between Onto-theology and Onto-Cosmology Cover Image

Filozofija religije: između onto-teologije i onto-kozmologije
Philosophy of Religion: Between Onto-theology and Onto-Cosmology

Author(s): Janko M. Lozar
Subject(s): Existentialism, Philosophy of Religion, Ontology
Published by: Hrvatsko Filozofsko Društvo
Keywords: philosophy; theology;onto-theology; onto-cosmology; play; gift;

Summary/Abstract: The paper tackles the complex relationship between philosophy and theology, especially given Heidegger’s criticism of onto-theology. Special attention is paid to Heidegger’s paper “Phenomenology and Theology”, where a strong divide is set between philosophy and theology, where the latter is to be understood as a positive science of Christianity, of Dasein as believing. The paper attempts to undermine the absoluteness of this difference by claiming that Dasein as such cannot be compellingly distinguished from Dasein as believing based on the criterion of faith. If faith – understood in the primordial sense of pistis, as basic trust in being – belongs among fundamental existentiales of Dasein, and if Heidegger’s Dasein is always open to the openness of the world, which is why his philosophy could be strictly understood as onto-cosmology, then a difference between onto-cosmology and onto-theology needs to be articulated. Two authors stand out in this context, who have managed to avoid the trap of the oblivion of being: Eugen Fink with his philosophical phenomenological analysis of the world and Jean-Luc Marion with his theological phenomenological treatise on God without being. The difference between the philosophical and theological approach to the non-ontic ground (be it in the form of the world or God) should, therefore, be tackled employing the concept of play and gift. Both these concepts and phenomena, as the paper shows, manage to avoid the metaphysics of presence. The question then remains how are we to think the common ground of philosophy and theology without losing their distinctive features. One possible way is to address the difference between, as well as the intertwining of, gratitude (for the giving of the gift) and joviality (in playing the play of the world).

  • Issue Year: 38/2018
  • Issue No: 04/152
  • Page Range: 863-872
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Croatian