Prethodno priopćenje
THE CHALLENGES OF CONTEMPORARY GNOSIS FOR PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY
Veronika s. Nela Gašpar
; Teologija u Rijeci, područni studij Katoličkog bogoslovnog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Rijeka, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The 2nd Vatican Council indicated that in the contemporary society an historical turnover has taken place, i.e. the “scientification” of the entire culture, so that the “scientific mentality“ became anattribute of the contemporary culture, as well as the context of the theological pondering (Gaudium et spes, 5). But, many consider the word “science” only in relation to natural sciences. Many scientists, building on evolutionism permeated with a certain sociological and biological perspective, believe that an organic reconstruction of the entire field of knowledge is possible. Inside this field different manners of thought, as the religious, philosophical and the ethical one, are only mere epiphenomena, expressions of biological necessity, without a sound relationship with the reality and truth. Thus the natural science - beside describing facts, results, methods and possibilities – tries also to explain the meaning, motivation and the orientation of the reality as a whole, in an attempt to impose itself as the ultimate giver of meaning and structure.
Hence, in comparison to this science, everything else is “penultimate”. Such a concept of science implies the danger of a scientistic understanding of science, which elevates the science to the level of religion, i.e. the instrumental rationality of the science is declared to be the only entitled interpreter of the human existence. Such an understanding of science reduces the human person, observing it in only one dimension, inside only one perspective: the scientific one. Such a reductionism is called “contemporary gnosis”, through which man has limited the meaning of his own existence and the whole reality to gnosis – knowledge: only the knowledge can save him. But, the only thing really known is what the man himself produces with his hands.
In such a mentality, in the contemporary society theology and philosophy are in a great danger to become themselves “gnostic”, if they want to be exact exclusively like the natural sciences, without questioning the meaning of the entire reality. Martin Heidegger noticed this gnostic danger not only in philosophy and theology, but also in the manner in which the contemporary man thinks: avoiding to ponder the reality as a whole, i.e. the meaning that “rules everything that is”, but instrumentalizes everything and subordinates it to his own calculations.
The “exclusive humanism” is the usual expression for the modern age gnosis, where the “exclusive humanism” almost always is represented as the ultimate sense, capable of filling human necessities. Charles Taylor, in his extensive study “A Secular Age” has showed how the modern age man in his “exclusive humanism” is not released from a “cross pressures”, i.e., the “exclusive humanism” is perceived as constraint, so that an exit is looked for - in some new expressions of transcendence.
What is the mission of theology in this quest for the new expressions of transcendence, why philosophy is important for theology, and why theology is important for philosophy in front of the challenges of the contemporary “gnosis”: these are the questions examined in this article.
Ključne riječi
gnosis; philosophy; theology; dialogue; reality; meaning; mystery; God; man
Hrčak ID:
120056
URI
Datum izdavanja:
7.1.2013.
Posjeta: 1.217 *