Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия (Dec 2021)
Ontology and sophiology of death: transformations of thanatological discourse in philosophical and theological thought of the 20th century
Abstract
The paper is devoted to the transformation of concept of death in philosophy and theology of XX century. We analyze the influence of Martin Heidegger’s version of the statement about human mortality on Christian theology. For Heidegger, death is the "existential of totality" in the structure of Dasein; death determines and embraces the totality of human existence. Death leaves man "open," or necessarily pointing to something beyond himself, ultimately to being itself. In Christian theology the new understanding of death is presented in theology of Karl Rahner, Eberhard J?ngel and Sergei Bulgakov. Death, for Rahner, is a personal act embodying our personhood and freedom and our responsibility of love and faithfulness. We recognize the notion "theonomous death". It is both an act of freedom and an act of Grace, for as the fullest self-communication of God, it is the Grace of Christ that, as one existentially open to divine self-communication, exposes the hearer of the word. Eberhard J?ngel seeks an understanding of man's death which is not concerned with his preservation but with the presence of God to man in death. The meaning of man's death lies not within himself and his survival, but beyond him, in God who is all in all. Death is "an anthropological passive". We discuss also the problem of theological language about death. According J?ngel Christian language about death is a "word from beyond death". In the analysis of the problem of death in the theology of S.N. Bulgakov, we note his attempts to develop a positive attitude towards death. Death is understood not as "some ontological misunderstanding", but as arising from the foundation of the universe. The centre of Bulgakov's understanding of death is its incorporation in the antinomy of the divine kenosis. We argue that if Heidegger accentuates Being toward death as running ahead of possibility , Christian theologians conceptualize death as dying with Christ.
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