Von innen, von aussen : Das Christentum als Gegenstand der Theologie und der Philosophie

This article correlates theology and philosophy as an inner perspective on Christian religious practice and as a perspective from he outside respectively, and affirms theology not so much as a system of propositions or contents but essentially as a habitus, i.e. an individual (though not individualistic) competence of Christian (re)-orientation in a concrete religious situation. In this respect, (I) the copula in the title of the review NZSTh does not connect two given realms of cognition, academic institutions, careers, etc., but signifies a distinction emerging only in a normational process starting from the situation of vagueness and inarticulate mixture. Systematic theology therefore (II) requires competence of empirical and historical analysis and theory of religion; as distinguished from philosophy of religion, she is normative with regard to the intention of participating in Christian religion. Because theology and philosophy are not in a symmetrical proportion, neither in case of conflict nor in case of convergence, theology (III) cannot prescribe what philosophy of religion means. Theologians should strive for an autonomous interest of the philosophers in religious practice and its explicit or implicit claims of validity and truth ; they have to support the self-critical reflection of philosophers upon their external perspective which, of course, represents by itself an internal perspective. Philosophers ought to reflect on the cultural (and religious) traditions from which their external perspective stems, as well as on the type of rationality to which it belongs. Theologians (IV) communicate with philosophers on grounds of a - in heuristic terms - common interest in religion, presupposing the apriori (i.e. self-iterating) difference of an inner and an outer perspective, and intentionally determine an actually substantial concept of Christian religion.