Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe: | Juli/August/2018 |
Spalte: | 816–818 |
Kategorie: | Systematische Theologie: Dogmatik |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Böttigheimer, Christoph |
Titel/Untertitel: | Lehrbuch der Fundamentaltheologie. Die Rationalität der Gottes-, Offenbarungs- und Kirchenfrage. 3., erw. u. aktualis. Aufl. |
Verlag: | Freiburg i. Br. u. a.: Verlag Herder 2016. 840 S. Geb. EUR 68,00. ISBN 978-3-451-34991-1. |
Rezensent: | Christophe Chalamet |
This is the third edition of Christoph Böttigheimer’s manual, which was first published in 2009 (2nd ed. 2012). As its subtitle indicates, it covers the questions of God, revelation and the church – three vast fields whose »rationality« the author seeks to present.
The author is a Roman Catholic theologian, trained in Innsbruck, Tübingen and München, who teaches fundamental theol-ogy at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Most of his references come from Roman Catholic theology, the traditional threefold demonstratio religiosa/christiana/catholica apologetic approach (going back to Pierre Charron, 1541–1603, not a household name) makes several appearances, and yet the ecumenical approach is remarkable, especially in the third part of the book, on the church. At over 800 pages, this is a massive resource – 100 pages longer than the previous editions.
What is different, in this third edition, compared to the earlier ones? Recent literature has been taken into account. Several themes, such as theodicy, the question of God in contemporary philosophy, have been slightly revised; sections on the question of ministry, including papal infallibility, and the comparative theology of religion have been reworked (21).
In the Preface, the author raises the question of the present difficulties, in the West, of transmitting the Christian faith. And so »a conscious accounting for the faith option before the forum of reason is all the more urgent« (19). The goal is thus to consider how, and through what kind of rational arguments, faith in God may be »rendered plausible« (19). Fundamental theology is about exhib-iting the rationality of the Christian faith, as 1 Peter 3:15 enjoins (19.65.89, passim).
In the first part, on the question of God (193–403), one finds detailed sections, among other topics, on the proofs of God’s exis-tence, the modern critique of religion, theodicy, the idea of God in contemporary philosophy, and the relation between theology and science. Insightful, critical questions are raised in the conclusions to some of these sections.
The second part, on the question of revelation (405–609), comprises (among other topics) presentations of revelation in the Old and New Testaments, Jesus’ death as »expiation« and »sacrifice,« revelation in the documents of Vatican I and II, as well as the contested issue of interreligious dialogue and the question of salva-tion. On this last topic, the author stands by Vatican II’s christocentrism (a discussion of Jacques Dupuis’ and Gavin D’Costa’s theses could have been included): we should not »follow the liberalistic tendencies« of John Hick and others (574).
In the third part, on the question of the church (611–810), one finds sections on the kingdom of God, the sacramentality of the church, conciliar and post-conciliar communio-ecclesiology, and a final section on the ecumenical movement and ecumenical issues, since the »treatise on the church can no longer, after the Second Vatican Council, be conceived in a confessionalistic way« (744). In the final pages, the author endorses the model of »unity in diver-sity« (809–810).
The author emphasizes both the quest for the rationality of faith, i.e. the notion that theology is a »reflection of faith about faith« which is »led« by reason (47), and the idea that Christian theology is located within the Church: the ecclesiality of theology is a »basic presupposition« (58–59; see also 616). The author adds: the gospel of God’s liberating and salvific act in Jesus-Christ exists »only in the testimony and through the testimony of the church« (59). One may wish to ask whether it is not, conversely, the church which exists »only in and through« the gospel of Jesus-Christ, and then – and then only – as a (more than contingent) communal witness to the gospel. Theology may well be constitutively bound to the church, but is the gospel related to the church to the point of wholly depending on it?
A similar question arises when the author concludes a survey of various fundamental theological proposals by stating that the »ultimate validity of Christianity and the absoluteness of the Chris-tian religion depend on the experience and decision, or the confessing, of the human« (128). Besides the fact that modern reflections (Troeltsch!) on the »absoluteness« of the »Christian religion« have not lost any of their significance, isn’t it rather inadequate to suggest that the »ultimate validity« of a given religious tradition depends purely and simply on human »experience and decision«? Can we human beings be the guarantors of the truth? And how does that fit in with the claims, found later in the book, that God’s word is self-authenticating, that it are not human beings who deter-mine which word is God’s word (133), that knowing God wholly depends on God making Godself known (434), or that the Bible, in its spir-itual pronouncements, »contains the truth« (169)?
The manual opts for an intrinsecist approach. Roman Catholic theology has been battling »extrinsecism« for over a century, but with »intrinsecism,« understood as taking into account human beings in their quests and questions and as focusing on »faith contents« (96.419), what happens to the »extra« dimension (a dimen-sion the author mentions, see 681)? Is it not crucial to examine »faith contents« in relation not only to existential questions, but also in relation to what these contents point to theo-logically, and whether this relationality is adequately accounted for in the term »intrinsecism.«
Will it do to present dialectical theology as positing that faith and reason stand in a »negative« relation, and that for these theologians faith is »pure risk« (111)? Is faith »groundless« according to K. Barth (and did Greek thought distort the original message, in his opinion; 177)? Not at all! It is grounded in God’s faithfulness, and reason of course has its place in considering these matters. The author is opposed to »fideism,« which he sees in much Protestant theology. But when presenting Easter, it appears that »only in faith« does it become possible to discern the presence of the risen one; and here the idea that faith entails an element of »risk« reappears, as a positive, unavoidable dimension of faith (475.535.685).
On theology and the natural sciences, a mention of Ian Barbour’s four models, in addition to Armin Kreiner’s proposal (372–373), and a discussion of »panentheism« among the various cos-mologies (374–379), would have been useful.
Is it the case that human beings are intrinsically »open« to revel-ation (434). This is a topos in modern, Rahnerian Roman Catholic theology. But is it true? How does this fit in with sin, with Jesus’ own ministry and the resistance it provoked? Is a call to »conver-sion« not part of the proclamation of the gospel? Is the cross merely a »question« (467)? Is it not also a »judgment«?
This manual is impressive in scope and in its synthetic presentation of so many topics. Brief concluding sections should perhaps have been added at the close of each of the three main parts. The well-known Hebrew formula of Exod. 3:14 is not quoted accurately (444). Some of thinkers mentioned have since died, their dates should have been updated (W. Alston, 115; J. Hick, 117; C. Hitchens, 380; J. Boisset, 414; R. Panikkar, 551). David Tracy, George Lindbeck, Claude Geffré, Joseph Moingt and Christoph Theobald are, strangely, absent. All in all, this manual may serve as a very useful introduction to the three fields it presents and to ecumenical discus-sions related to them.