Metaphysics of Mystery

Revisiting the Question of Universality through Rahner and Schillebeeckx

Marijn de Jong

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780567698971
• eBook ISBN: 9780567689368
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Philosophical Metaphysics

How can we theologically reflect on universality in a world that increasingly focuses on particularities and differences? Marijn de Jong argues that the question of universality calls for a reconceptualized form of metaphysical theology, which he finds in the work of Karl Rahner and Edward Schillebeeckx. Casting a new light on these theologians, de Jong demonstrates that their methods contain a dialectical interrelation of hermeneutics and metaphysics – an interrelation which seemingly has been lost in more recent hermeneutical theology. Rahner and Schillebeeckx carefully balance particularity and universality without falling prey to relativist or absolutist ways of reasoning. By analyzing fundamental themes such as experience and interpretation, nature and grace, faith and reason, and intelligibility and mystery, de Jong reveals the modest theological metaphysics that lies at the heart of their methods. This critical retrieval demonstrates the enduring relevance of these thinkers and opens up new avenues of thought for theologians that do not want to shy away from the difficult question of the universality of God.

1

Metaphysical and hermeneutical theology: Retrieving a dialectical interrelation

1 Introduction

A central and long-standing tenet of the Christian tradition of faith is the conviction that the salvific truth which is revealed in history – most fully in the person of Jesus Christ – is a universal truth intended for each and every person. Theology has traditionally employed metaphysical reflection to understand and explain the content of Christian faith. However, the rise of postmodern thought has problematized all claims to universality and has, thereby, resulted in a demise of metaphysical forms of theology. Accordingly, new forms of fundamental theology have been suggested.

Two contemporary theologians, Francis Schüssler Fiorenza and David Tracy, have played a major role in the recent debates on fundamental theology. Appropriating the insights of hermeneutical theory, their theological methods are highly attentive to historicity, cultural contextuality, linguistic mediation and ideological distortion. However, as Fiorenza and Tracy have themselves noted, this focus on particularity leaves the question of how we are to account for the universal dimension of Christian faith unaddressed. As will be explained below, it is precisely this issue of universality and the question of metaphysics that have made a remarkable return in actual philosophical and theological debates. Fiorenza and Tracy suggest that a reconceptualized form of metaphysical or transcendental reflection is necessary for theology today, but they do not offer a substantial proposal for such a reconceptualization. Confronted with this lacuna in fundamental theology, I propose to retrieve the work of Rahner and Schillebeeckx.

2 Theology and the challenges of postmodernity

Theology today is confronted with the multifaceted challenges of a postmodern world. It is notoriously difficult to provide a proper definition of the concept of postmodernity. As Kevin Vanhoozer notes, one characteristic feature of postmodernity is precisely the resistance to neutral or comprehensive descriptions and definitions.¹ Following Jean-François Lyotard, it may be better to describe postmodernity in terms of a ‘condition’.² This condition is ‘at once intellectual/theoretical and cultural/practical’ and ‘affects modes of thought as well as modes of embodiment’.³ The nature of this postmodern condition can be further clarified by contrasting it with the – equally difficult to define – notion of modernity. Thus, a series of postmodern turns can be distinguished in a variety of fields and domains, ranging from architecture and the arts to society and social organization. Particularly relevant for theology is the postmodern turn in philosophy. Postmodern philosophers are highly critical of the so-called modern Enlightenment project. The European Enlightenment sought universal human emancipation by putting considerable trust in the capacities of human reason. By contrast, postmodern thinkers reject this modern preoccupation with certainty and universality and criticize it as leading to totalitarian oppression and as being forgetful of difference.⁴

The confrontation with postmodern thought has introduced multiple challenges to theology. More concretely, it has called long accepted traditional theological understandings and methodologies into question. A particularly pertinent issue concerns the relationship between particularity and universality. The conviction that the Christian message mediates a universal truth, intended for all people of every time and place, forms a crucial and long-standing aspect of the Christian tradition of faith. Scripture attests to this fundamental belief by connecting the universality of truth to God’s universal salvific will:

This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all – this was attested at the right time.⁵

The truth to which the Christian tradition of faith bears witness is not restricted to the intellectual domain, but concerns what is theologically termed ‘salvation’. This revelatory truth of Christian faith ultimately concerns the salvific and felicitous fulfilment of human life. The Second Vatican Council reaffirmed this universal dimension of the salvific truth of Christian faith in Dei Verbum, stating that the words and deeds of revelation are aimed at ‘the salvation of all nations’.⁶

Theology has traditionally looked to metaphysics in order to explicate this universal dimension of Christian faith, thereby being faithful to its task of fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding). The appropriation of classical Greek philosophy by patristic theologians and the incorporation of Aristotle’s philosophy into scholastic theology are examples in this instance. In his encyclical Fides et Ratio, Pope John Paul II elaborates on the necessary role played by philosophy in the theological reflection on the universal truth of Christian faith.⁷ This divine truth is affirmed as enjoying ‘an innate intelligibility’.⁸ Theology has the task of contributing to the understanding of this faith, so as to bring its salvific meaning for humankind to light.⁹ Importantly, the universality of faith demands a specific mode of reflection that goes beyond the particular and concrete. Theology needs ‘a philosophy of genuinely metaphysical range’ in order to provide a coherent and plausible account of ‘the universal and transcendent value of revealed truth’.¹⁰ John Paul recognizes that such claims to universality and absoluteness prompt the question of how this can be reconciled with the unavoidable historical and cultural factors that condition the mediation of this universal truth. In order to avoid relativism and historicism, he pleads for a hermeneutics that is open to metaphysics:

the use of a hermeneutic open to the appeal of metaphysics can show how it is possible to move from the historical and contingent circumstances in which the texts developed to the truth which they express, a truth transcending those circumstances.

Human language may be conditioned by history and constricted in other ways, but the human being can still express truths which surpass the phenomenon of language. Truth can never be confined to time and culture; in history it is known, but it also reaches beyond history.¹¹

In 2012, the International Theological Commission reiterated the same point in the document Theology Today.¹² The commission observes that the ‘post-modern crisis of reason’, especially the crisis of metaphysics, poses a serious challenge to contemporary theology.¹³ However, the commission warns that theology should not abandon reason and philosophy in the face of these challenges. On the contrary, theology must continue to seek the dialogue with philosophy so as to give ‘a scientifically and rationally argued presentation of the truths of the Christian faith’.¹⁴ As such, theology can help to overcome the crisis of rationality and ‘revitalise an authentic metaphysics’.¹⁵ Yet, insofar as postmodern thinkers have strongly pushed for a focus on particularity, precisely the metaphysical and transcendental forms of theology that seek to account for this universal dimension of Christian faith and theology have come under pressure. This raises the question of whether it is possible to revitalize metaphysics in theology while also paying due attention to the questions and issues raised by postmodern thinkers. Or, put differently: Are theological metaphysics and postmodernity compatible with each other?

2.1 Sceptical theological responses to postmodernity

Some theologians, such as Thomas Guarino and Saskia Wendel, argue that postmodern thought is difficult to reconcile with theology, especially with a theology that focuses on the universal aspects of Christian faith. Accordingly, they express serious doubts about the reception of postmodern ideas and intuitions into theology.

In Foundations of Systematic Theology, Guarino outlines his view on the challenges that postmodernism presents to theology.¹⁶ He is interested particularly in the consequences for the understanding of Christian doctrine, more precisely the question of the continuity and universality of the doctrinal teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. How can the church maintain today that her doctrines are ‘what the church has believed and continues to believe’?¹⁷ The fact that church teachings have developed historically, and the consequent demand for continual reinterpretation, is generally recognized these days. Yet, Guarino points out that the Christian church has traditionally characterized her doctrinal teachings using notions such as ‘continuity’, ‘perpetuity’, ‘objectivity’ and ‘universality’.¹⁸ These claims to universality and continuity have become highly problematic due to the rise of postmodern thought, which he describes as

a type of thinking that rebels against any totalizing understanding of reality, against any ‘grand metanarrative’. It is opposed to universalization, rationalization, systematization, and the establishment of consistent criteria for the evaluation of truth-claims. It is characterized by an abiding concern for the radicalness of historicity, the pervasiveness of ideology, the decentered subject, and the rejection of transcendentalism.¹⁹

Falsely claiming universality and neutrality, modern appeals to reason ignore and suppress otherness and plurality, and reduce reason to instrumental and technocratic rationality. Postmodernism, instead, seeks to reintroduce notions such as ‘incommensurability’, ‘historicity’, ‘fissure’, ‘otherness’, ‘finitude’ and ‘difference’ and emphasizes the embedded and contextual nature of every rationality.²⁰ Consequently, metaphysical or transcendental types of thinking are rejected, because they seek to close down or to reify history and historical consciousness.

According to Guarino, Martin Heidegger is the primary progenitor of postmodern thought. Heidegger’s main thrust is that t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Metaphysical and hermeneutical theology: Retrieving a dialectical interrelation
• Part I
• Part II
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright