Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Rahner on the non-presence of God in the world
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/lie.1048Keywords:
Karl Rahner, Ludwig Wittgenstein, God, world, revelationAbstract
It is an especially critical moment in religious thinking when someone claims that the world can and should be analyzed solely in terms of naturalist science, and at the same time believes in the existence of God who cannot be expressed in such terms. How can the determinism of the scientific image of the world be reconciled with the religious belief in the presence of God in such a world? In my paper I present views from two different domains which try to face that problem. On the one hand, there is Ludwig Wittgenstein with his mystical theses in Tractatus logico-philosophicus and, on the other, there is the german theologian Karl Rahner. The idea that can be found in their writings is that God’s actions in the world, supernatural in themselves, are always carried out by natural means. I discuss what follows from this and what differences there are between the thinkers.
References
Miłosz C., Świadectwo poezji. Sześć wykładów o dotkliwościach naszego wieku, Warszawa 1987.
Rahner K., Podstawowy wykład wiary, tł. T. Mieszkowski, Warszawa 1987.
Wittgenstein L., Tractatus logico-philosophicus, tł. B. Wolniewicz, Warszawa 1997.
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