Sárospataki Füzetek 2. (1998)

1998 / 1. szám - Dr. Frank Sawyer: Is there a place for God int he inn of Philosophy?

IS THERE A PLACE FOR.GOD IN THE INN OF PHILOSOPHY?- some thoughts on Kant and Fichte I

n Luke’s Gospel chapter two we read that there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn and so Jesus was to be found in a manger. How much room for God, how much room for divine revelation, is there in the great Inn of Philosophy? We know that philosophy has sometimes been tied very closely to theology. At other times it is careful to declare its autonomy as a science. And going beyond this in secular modernity, philosophy often rejects divine revelation and seeks autonomy from God. It then refuses to live coram deo. It refuses any salvation which does not come from an immanence (this-worldly) standpoint, whether from reason or the will, from existential choices which create their own meaning, or from faith in technology. In this article we look at Kant and Fichte, especially as to how their philosophy dealt with the question of God. It can be seen that moving from Kant’s caution to Fichte’s more radical choices, illustrates the movement from the Enlightenment to the Romantic movement, from reason to the will. At the same time it illustrates the change from the object toward the subject. This was the basis which prepared the way for Feuerbach’s idea that 'theology is merely anthropology’, and for Nietzsche’s conclusion: ’God is dead’. But we will reserve comments on these last mentioned philosophers for another occasion.

IMMANUEL KANT(1724-1804)

Kant is a typical spokesman of the Enlightenment (Aufklärung). The Enlightenment meant the breakdown of the dogmatic authority of the church. Philosophical thought then tried to decide between two directions: rationalism and empiricism. Philosophy was also being challenged by pietism. Rationalism deals with great abstract ideas; empiricism with sensory (tangible) experience; and pietism with the experience of Christian living. The strength of pietism is its concern to experience the reality of Christian faith; pietism’s weakness is its tendency to save one’s own soul and escape the world. Of course, there had been centuries of Christian thought which had taken philosophy very seriously, trying to work out a synthesis between philosophy and theology. We should not think that the possibilities have all been tried when we are confronted by such choices as

2)/'. Ji'an/i öaaiye/'

20