Original scientific paper
The Problem of the Relationship Between Faith and Experience in the Theology of Walter Kasper
Davor Vuković
orcid.org/0000-0002-3496-2334
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Đakovo, Croatia
Abstract
In this paper, we want to analyze the question of the relationship between faith and experience in the theological thought of Walter Kasper. In the modern world, the Christian faith is in deep crisis. However, it is also a matter of the crisis of faith in general, as well as the situation of relativism, secularism and atheism, which characterize the modern world. In such an environment the Christian faith is less and less associated with human experience. Faith, however, which is not grounded in experience, becomes an external supplement of life and as such is meaningless. Kasper thus enters into the analysis of the concept of experience, pointing to its original historical dimension. Experience is always realized historically and concretely, in the tension between objective reality and subjective experience. Christian faith is, in this sense, also notably historical. It is born and carried in history, in contact with the living and concrete experience. The German theologian, therefore, points out that the renewal of Christian faith must be based on historical, everyday human experience. It is possible to reacquire the experience of faith in the modern world, yet not in some abstract sense but precisely in, with and through the experiences that people acquire in everyday life. Within the historical human experience, especially within the experience of finality, limitedness and mortality, we find open space for the experience of faith. The path to the renewal of faith also includes taking into serious consideration of the fundamental existential questions, the reading of the signs of the times, as well as the dialogue with the modern world, and also with atheism and secularism.
Keywords
faith; experience; historicity; history; crisis; modern world; atheism; relativism
Hrčak ID:
104756
URI
Publication date:
5.7.2013.
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