Can theology talk about God beyond theology?

heritage and promise of the 20th century theology

Abstract

It was Ludwig Feuerbach’s criticism of religion that urged reconsideration in historical study of modern Protestant theology. Theology since then has been aware of the problem in some way or another, “what can theology talk about God after Feuerbach’s criticism of religion?”. Theological confrontation with Feuerbach can be summarised into the following three types. The first type is “psychological approach in theology,” which is an attempt to prove truthfulness of religiosity in human despite Feuerbach’s criticism. The second type presents a new method in theological epistemology, criticising such psychological approach and developing a paradoxical criticism to Feuerbach. This was established by K. Barth, which can be called “modernization of theological method” by reinterpreting the concept of revelation. The third type is a critical integration of those two types above, which we can find in the methods by W. Pannenberg and D. Korsch. Upon the recognition of these three types of attempts, I shall suggest a new viewpoint in order to work on the current problems over God, reconstructing the second type of discussion. That is, in particular, to regard Karl Barth’s theological attempt as a “theological deconstruction”.