Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 33 No. 1, 2013.
Review article
Development of the Ontological Proof of God’s Existence and Tillich’s Conception of the Ontological Type of Philosophy of Religion
Dubravko Arbanas
orcid.org/0000-0002-8597-0238
; Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
Throughout his life Paul Tillich balanced on “the middle ground” between philosophy and theology, or religion and culture, but philosophy of religion was the strongest and the most permanent impetus that propelled him through all the stages of his intellectual development, so this research will try to show the seminal determinants of the ontological type of the philosophy of religion. The research focuses on Tillich’s conception of philosophy of religion, which ispresented here with special emphasis on his well-known essay “The Two Types of Philosophy of Religion”, whereas the method of investigation also includes an analysis of the relevant ideas propounded by some of the most significant theologians in the history of humankind. By means of a critical analysis, the author has reached the conclusion that Tillich is more inclined to the ontological approach, since in this way “the problem of two absolutes” is resolved by the insight proving their identity in truth, that is by the “mystical” principle of the immediate awareness of “Being-itself”, which is both “truth in itself” and “good in itself”. This entails that, owing to self-awareness and immediately self-evident first principles, we also possess “the ontological awareness” of the unconditional nature of being, truth and goodness, and these transcendental categories, in turn, provide us with “the necessity of God” as “the principle of being” and the unconditional norm of our thinking.
Keywords
St. Augustine; St. Anselm; St. Bonaventura; Paul Tillich; illumination, first principles; knowledge of God; ontological proof, exemplarism; unconditioned
Hrčak ID:
101693
URI
Publication date:
17.4.2013.
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