02/07/2026 15:00 - 17:10

HALL: Pola - A104

Contact: Telser A.

Chair: Telser A.

While David Tracy's (1939-2025) work is frequently considered serious, demanding, and capacious, this can hamper the creative reception of his theology and philosophy of religion. This panel strives to remedy this by uncovering the relevance of Tracy's theology today in its correlations with a wide range of current concerns.
A central approach to any reception of Tracy's work is understanding his theology as conversation. While this may seem mundane, conversations worthy of the name are rare, as they require certain attitudes on the part of its participants. One such attitude is ›playfulness‹ for genuine conversations are only possible if they are ›game-like‹ in the sense of being played by the questions that occur and by the texts, persons, rituals, situations, etc. that one is engaged with.
Whether you are a Tracy connoisseur or intrigued by his thought from a distance, the panel aims to provide opportunities to engage in a creative conversation between your own questions and aspects of Tracy's philosophical and theological texts:
• How can we do and understand theology in times that fluctuate between secularization and edifying religion that is politicized or privatized?
• How must such a theology be structured to prove itself critically, both intellectually and as a way of life, while using its rich sources for the transformation of society toward a ›justice to come‹?
• What form of discourse on ultimate reality, whatever name it may be given, is appropriate to do justice to the incomprehensibility of this reality and to avoid any kind of closure?
• How should suffering be dealt with so that its raw inexplicability is not ›sublated‹ or absorbed in the bosom of a God or ultimate reality, while yet disallowing this suffering from having the last word?
• In overly complex lives, how can we hold together and maintain a resistance that seeks justice and a connection to everything imbued with overwhelming beauty?