The eschatological turn in German philosophy
Journal article
Wolfe, Judith. (2019). The eschatological turn in German philosophy. Modern Theology. 35(1), pp. 55-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12460
Authors | Wolfe, Judith |
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Abstract | This article argues that modern European philosophy was significantly shaped by the transposition of eschatology from a theological into a philosophical register. By ‘eschatology’, I here mean thought about the ‘last things’ as they relate to present systems of life and action; and about those systems as determined, at least in part, by their end. I take as my starting point the claim that the scepticism regarding revelation that was such a central characteristic of the Enlightenment did not eradicate the importance of eschatology as a structuring frame of historical and moral thought, but merely changed it. Modern theologians and philosophers tended to shift the ground of eschatology from revelation to the inner logic of a system; eschatology was seen as legitimated by, and in turn legitimating, the shape of a given philosophical account of history. The questions and challenges arising from this shift were important drivers of early twentieth-century European philosophy. This article works out this claim through indicative accounts of several large debates of early twentieth-century philosophies of history and of politics as contestations about the meaning of eschatology: the crisis of historicism, the rise of existentialism, and the surge of political religions. It concludes with a discussion of Martin Heidegger’s eschatological thought of the 1930s, illuminated by the recent publication of his Black Notebooks. |
Year | 2019 |
Journal | Modern Theology |
Journal citation | 35 (1), pp. 55-70 |
Publisher | John Wiley & Sons Ltd |
ISSN | 0266-7177 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12460 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-85057179401 |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Page range | 55-70 |
Publisher's version | License All rights reserved File Access Level Controlled |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 23 Nov 2018 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 25 Nov 2021 |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8x221/the-eschatological-turn-in-german-philosophy
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