Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31823/d.28.4.1
Prayer of Silence, Speech and Cult as Ways of Practicing Religion in the Philosophy of Bernhard Welte. An Overview of Fundamental Aspects
Suzana Maslać
; Catholic Faculty of Theology in Đakovo, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek
Abstract
In his philosophy of religion, Welte paid particular attention to the consideration of what he called the »practice of religion.« Since this practice is prompted, among other things, by man’s search for meaning, the article begins with Welte’s exposition on the inseparable connection of meaning and religion. This, in turn, necessarily leads to the concept of God because He is the bearer of meaning. Following in the footsteps of German mysticism, and especially M. Eckhart, Welte refrains from subjecting God to any categoricalness and describes Him with the terms unspeakable, infinite, hidden. As one who is unspeakable and hidden, God is approached by prayer and its forms, which shows that these are the authentic ways of man’s relationship toward God: thus we come to the central component of the article, which is contained in presenting the fundamental aspects of Welte’s vision of prayer – prayer as silence, as speech, and as cult. Each of these approaches contains its own peculiarity: the prayer of silence is by no means a negation of true speech; the prayer of speech, on the other hand, is essentially characterized by bipolarity, while in the cult the notion of community and with it the unifying dimension of speech comes to the fore in a special way. The article concludes by considering the dangers into which the practice of religion may slip regarding prayer and cult. This perversion of religion, as the German philosopher calls it, is the old and always new problem of every religion: »These people honor me with their lips, and their hearts are far from me.« (Mark 7:6)
Keywords
Bernhard Welte; God; religion; meaning; prayer; silence; speech; cult; perversion
Hrčak ID:
249152
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2020.
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