Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 96 No. 2, 2026.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.53745/bs.96.2.6
Critique of Christianity in the Ethics by Davorin Trstenjak
Ivan Macut
Abstract
The paper analyses the critique of Christianity in Davorin Trstenjak’s Etika (1910) and situates it within the context of early twentieth-century naturalistic and evolutionary currents. Proceeding from his monistic philosophy, the author illustrates how Trstenjak seeks to ground morality in natural, social, and rational processes, independently of revelation and the supernatural order. Within this framework, he develops a systematic critique of Christianity: he relativizes the originality of Christian morality, questions ecclesiastical authority and the morality of obedience, reduces religion to ethics and inner spirituality, and historically challenges the credibility of Church practice. A theological assessment demonstrates that, although partly valid, such an approach remains marked by a reduction of Christianity’s revelatory and soteriological dimensions. The paper concludes that, despite its analytical rigour, Trstenjak’s ethics fails to adequately ground the normative binding force of morality, thereby raising the fundamental question of the relationship between nature, reason, and revelation in the foundation of ethics.
Keywords
Davorin Trstenjak; ethics; Christianity; critique; naturalism
Hrčak ID:
350596
URI
Publication date:
7.9.2026.
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