God or the Divine? Human Relationship to Transcendence. Systematic reflection of present religious transformation processes.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bernhard Nitsche
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: from 2015 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 275624326

For some time now, religious sociology has described a crisis of traditional monotheism of the Jewish-Christian and the European-philosophical tradition. A decisive objective of this research project is to illuminate the reasons for this crisis and the change regarding religious attitudes of human beings in the light of social transformation processes. On that account economic control logics are also considered. In view of a fluid, fragile and fragmentary identity construction of modern self-empowered subjects and a far-reaching blending and flattening of religious codes in the field of popularized religion, classical clear differentiations (theism versus deism, pantheism), taken in isolation, are losing their analytical power. Thus the same which is indispensable for empirical enquiry can be demonstrated for the systematic theological discussion. A modified differentiated typology is required for the analysis of structural patterns and religious forms in order to be able to not only clarify the content-related (religious) overlap analytically and sociographically in rather vague hints and in the sense of an open systematic thinking, but also to process them theologically for adequate judgments. Against this background the central hypothesis is developed and tested according to which religios phenomena are characterized as (a) nature-related-cosmological, (b) anthropological-subject-centered, (c) anthropological-socially-oriented and d) mystic-apophatic approaches to transcendence. These approaches have to be backed up religio-philosophically and in a second step can be combined with developmental-psychological forms of relationship which can be termed (a) heteronomous-dependent, (b) mutually-intervening, (c) narcissistic-self-affirming, (d) autonomous-emancipative, (e) homonomous and corresponding to the subject, (f) aprioristic-presubjective. Thus a differentiated model is developed in order to be able to appropriately perceive notions of transcendence of traditional religions and individual compositions and to analyze them systematically. Thereby simple, excluding alternatives of theism and pantheism or personality and impersonality become fluent. In view of religious self-exploration and existing studies, the heuristic opportunities of this hypothesis are exemplarily validated. A theological assessment which is alert to problems will ask for immanent reasons which make the developmental processes of reflexive modernity comprehensible out of the implications of Christian self-understanding. The new typology which correlates religious modes of relationship to transcendence to developmental-psychological categories opens up new plausibilities and modified capabilities to connect it to patchwork-like, popularized spiritualities of the present.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partner: Privatdozent Dr. Hermann-Josef Wagener