From proto-theology to phenomenology

pp. 31-49

in: Peter S. Dillard, Non-metaphysical theology after Heidegger, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

Between the mid-1930s and mid-1940s, Heidegger describes the non-metaphysical event of being as a strife between world and earth; from the mid-1940s onward, he describes it as a tranquil "fourfold" dwelling. Dillard exploits this striking ambiguity to endow Heidegger's third proto-theology with rich phenomenological content—albeit in two very different ways. Gelassenheit theology relates the experience of strife to our painful struggle to overcome metaphysical perplexity and relates the experience of tranquil dwelling to our encounter with divinity. Streit theology inverts this picture by relating tranquil dwelling to our freedom from metaphysical perplexity and the experience of struggle to our encounter with an obscure and even paradoxical divinity. Dillard argues that the holy "needs' non-metaphysical being in order to deconstruct antinomies that distort our thinking about divinity. It is emphasized that ongoing dialog between Gelassenheit and Streit theologies manifests a common core of faith.