Panel: GOD AS MYSTERY OF THE WORLD? CONCEPTIONS OF THE WORLD IN HERMENEUTICAL THEOLOGY



281.9 - THE WORLD AS PLACE OF GOD'S MYSTERY - CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT A THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONCEPT OF WORLD IN CONVERSATION WITH WILHELM HERRMANN, RUDOLF BULTMANN AND EBERHARD JÜNGEL

AUTHORS:
Turck J.P. (University of Münster ~ Münster ~ Germany)
Text:
The idea to describe the reality of God in the context of the world as a mystery appears not only in Jüngel's influential monograph from 1977. It is also found in Rudolf Bultmann and even his teacher Wilhelm Herrmann - albeit not in the same conceptually elaborated way as in Jüngel. What all three thinkers have in common is the paradoxical endeavor to link the concept of mystery very closely with the concept of revelation. In their view, the place where the mystery and the revelation of God meet is the world: it conceals and reveals God at the same time. In this respect, its nature is deeply ambivalent. However, the lecture attempts to discuss the thesis that this ambivalence is not so much a problem, but rather an enabling ground for a true understanding of God as well as a true understanding of one's own self. Thus, the concept of the world has a central role for Christian Hermeneutics, which will be explored in conversation with Herrmann, Bultmann and Jüngel. Specific points of reference will be Herrmann's Christologically determined concept of "Geschichte", Bultmann's concept of existential interpretation and Jüngel's doctrine of Gods self-interpreting nature.