LFU:online

1. Familiarity with a range of issues that are fundamental to theology, including a range of philosophical, historical and theological problems that have been characteristic of the engagement with atheism, the modern concept of revelation and the discussion on the concept of infallibility.
2. Broadening perspectives with a view to the challenges of the 21st century.

A successful student will be able to:

• Engage with primary texts without the guidance of handbooks.
• Understand, and have an ability to make use of, various texts and ideas studied.
• Link and critically assess ideas from diverse historical and theological contexts.
  

Criticism of idolatry as a key to the Christian concept of God and to the encounter with atheism. Consideration of the changing significance of the concept of ‘revelation’ in history, its linkage with the specific rationality of the Christian form of life and secular concepts of rationality, and its relationship to basic ideas of Christian belief.

Relevant matters include:

• The nature of Christian Doctrine
• Sources of Christian Doctrine (scripture, tradition, reason)
• The ‘extrinsecist’ concept of revelation in early modernity
• The ‘intrinsecist’ paradigm shift of the Second Vatican council
• Examination of Dei Verbum and comparison with the Vatican I text Dei Filius
• Classical accounts of the modern paradigm shift (Karl Barth, Karl Rahner, Wolfhart Pannenberg)
• Critical perspectives on the modern innovation
• The presence of God in the context of the Christian form of life
• Tradition and the authority of the church
• Infallibility and Grace

Lecture with discussion of central theses and texts.

Oral examination.

General information on exams, dates and sign-on at the department:  https://www.uibk.ac.at/systheol/lehre/pruefungen.html.en.

Johannes Hoff, "The Rise and the Fall of the Kantian Paradigm of Modern Theology". In: Conor Cunningham; Peter M. Candler (Ed.), The Grandeur of Reason: Religion, Tradition and Universalism (London: SCM-Press 2010), 167-196.

None.