Post Metaphysical Theology

How does one begin to address the meaning of hope? On the one hand, there is no theme that goes more to the heart of life than that of hope. On the other hand, precisely because hope stands at the core of the human condition, there is no aspect of life that is unrelated to it. Our very birth is an affirmation of hope even when our parent(s) or guardian(s) despair of any. The fact that we rise each day is an affirmation of hope even if only with the smallest glimmer. The major life transitions of childhood to puberty, the relationship with a significant other, the pursuit of education and a career, the birth of our own children, and retirement are all expressions of hope. Despite the injustices, tragedies, and suffering of life, we can find even in the darkest hours a glimmer of hope. Death is no negation of hope. With the death of a loved one, we gather to celebrate life and to affirm the hope that makes any such celebration possible.

What is hope? Is it a grand illusion that we embrace willingly as a coping mechanism in the face of the overwhelming negativity in life and in face of the triumph of death over life? In what follows, I want to explore the "groundless ground" for hope in experience that stands behind, under, before, and ahead of any religious doctrine regarding hope. Perhaps then we can be sure that we are engaging "real" hope and are not being blinded by wishful thinking.

The strategy for exploring the "groundless ground" of hope will be to examine the human condition in the world for any indication that humanity is sustained by a limitless dimension that requires of us to affirm real possibilities in even the darkest hours of life. Hence, whereas this project does not deny the possibility of revelation, it is concerned with natural theology and not with revealed theology. The question whether or not revealed theology necessarily presupposes the natural theology of hope investigated here must remain open.

Die Religion ist nicht ein Sichhinausphantasiren aus dieser Welt in eine jenseitige Welt und aus dieser Zeit in ein nachheriges Leben, sondern sie ist die tatsächliche geistige Wechselbeziehung mit dem ewigen Himmel Gottes in jedem Moment und an jedem Ort unseres kreatürlichen Daseins. Ist Dieß nicht ihr realer Kern, so ist sie ein kernloses Träumen.

Alles wirklich religiöse Interesse konzentrirt sich darauf, wie der Mensch während seines zeitlichen Lebens zur wirklichen Aneignung des Ewigen zum persönlichen Lebensbesitz gelange und was er daran für sein zeitliches Leben habe ..., daß wir damit gar nichts Anderes beschreiben wollen, als ... den Prozeß der Erhebung des Menschen aus dem natürlich fleischlichen zum wahrhaft geistigen Leben ...

Heidegger is indebted in a profound fashion to Aristotle. This article employs Heinz Happ's analysis of Aristotle to propose that, whereas Joseph Owens' The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics neglects the Aristotelian "Material-Series" of "many", "other", "unequal" and "unlike", Heidegger neglects the Aristotelian "Form-Series" of "one", "same", "equal", and "similar". This is because Heidegger reads "matter" in the Aristotelian sense not as "stuff" but as "possibility". As a consequence Heidegger stresses the "situatedness" of "thrown Being-in-the-world" as the place where possibilities are experienced to the exclusion of the eidetic of actuality and mere static "presence". Two theological implications are drawn from this analysis: 1) Aristotle's "unification" of the Material and Form-Series in the Unmoved Mover suggests the inseparability of possibility and actuality and allows the contemplation of "God" as possibility above actuality. 2) A theological recovery of the "Form-Series" can aid us in understanding the Pauline Christian notions of "being in Christ" and "possessing the mind of Christ".

Again and again throughout the history of Christian thought theological apologetics has dissolved the great ironic paradox of Jesus Christ into binary oppositions. In these historical contexts cultural relevancy has prevailed, and the underlying philosophical ideology has generated a disastrous subversion of the apologentic formulations of Christology in the New Testament. By calling this dichotomization into question, this essay intends to promote a postmodern hermeneutics that preserves the christological paradox and orients the constituting consciousness of theologians and scholars to both a spirituality of "being-affected by" the biblical witness to Jesus Christ and a faith that will initiate action toward the transformation of society.