PHENOMENOLOGY AND THEOLOGY

by Dai Takeuchi
My newest interest is the relationship between phenomenology and theology. It
is my intent to inquire from a viewpoint of phenomenology into significance of
the theology at the present age. Indeed Edmund Husserl who was the founder
of phenomen-ology was primarily an anti-metaphysicist. But even
phenomenology could not escape from the tradition of metaphysics. Martin
Heidegger posited phenomen-ology into the metaphysical tradition, and after
that, he criticied metaphysics as !"nto-#heo-logy!.
But some $rench phenomenologists, Emanuel %evinas, &ean-%uc Marion, etc.
claimed independence of theology from ontology. #his is called !theological turn
of phenomenology!. 'hat they made much of then were &udaism, negative
theology etc.. #hat (od is not being, but beyond being, meon in (ree). In
(ermany Eugen $in) who was a disciple of Husserl and Heidegger had
already developed !Meontology! under the influence of negative theology in
*eoplatonism. But his meontology is not simply transcendence-theory. He
understood, following Hegel, the absolute as life +%eben,. (erman Idealism in
general criticied -pinoa.s substance as static, and grasped it rather as
dynamic. #hat.s to say, transcendence and immanence could be unified in a
temporal becoming of the absolute. -uch as a temporal meontic dimension is
the horion from which being is to be understood.
%ater, $in) gets the opinion that (od is immanent throughout in the world. #hat
is called !cosmological phenomenology!. But he did not get into theological
controversy, and engaged in study of Mythos. Both pantheism and mythos
assert immanence of (od. In my opinion this cosmological thought leads to
(illes /eluee.s. -ure it loo)s atheistic, but the thought by which /eluee was
influenced is the univocatio entis of /uns -cottus. He was a mon) of the
$ranciscan order which advocated the direct 0elationship between Individuality
and (od.
I thin) ontology or theology has 1 types.
2. analogia entis +affirmative theology, 3 -t. #homas 4quinas, Husserl, Heidegger
5. aequivocatio entis +negative theology, 3 *eoplatonist, $in).s meontology
1. univocatio entis3 /uns -cottus, -pinoa, /eleue, $in).s cosmology
0oughly spea)ing, phenomenology in Husserl and Heidegger tacitly premises
the thought of the analogia entis. $in) opened two other possibilities for the
development of phenomenology.
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* I'd like to express my thanks to Mr. Vaughan for proofreading this article, and to Dr. Angell de
la Sierra for discussion aout this theme on the fire list.