Realist Phenomenology and Philosophy of Religion. A Critical Reflection

Authors

  • Balázs M. Mezei Pázmány Péter Catholic University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15633/lie.2121

Keywords:

Phenomenological realism, realist phenomenology, faith and reason, Catholicism and philosophy, entanglement, Josef Seifert

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to show that Catholicism is not a closed segment of contemporary philosophy but rather a rich source of traditions and developments which are alive even today and can help to understand our philosophical situation and contribute to a renaissance of influential philosophy in our culture. In more detail, I shall focus on the importance of Catholic philosophy in its history and present day situation as part and parcel of our general philosophical traditions. I offer a list of models describing the possible relationships between Catholicism and philosophy. I identify the unity model as a model connected to phenomenological realism; and I will detail the important contribution of Josef Seifert to such a phenomenological realism. Phenomenological realism as an expression is offered here as a modification of realist phenomenology, a modification based on the recognition of what I term the entangled nature of reality.

Author Biography

  • Balázs M. Mezei, Pázmány Péter Catholic University
    Balázs M. Mezei – Professor of Philosophy at Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary. He published more than 30 books and 150 scholarly articles on philosophy of religion, phenomenology, political and literary criticism. He organized master and doctoral programs at his home university. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Notre Dame, Georgetown University, Loyola University in Maryland, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, the Husserl Archives in Leuven, the Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, and other institutions. He is vice‑­president of the Hungarian Society for the Study of Religion. He has been a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the University of Notre Dame in 2015. He published Religion and Revelation after Auschwitz (Bloomsbury, 2013); he authored Illuminating Faith and Christian Wisdom Meets Modernity (both with Fran­cesca Murphy and Kenneth Oakes, 2015 and 2016). His Radical Revelation: A Philosophical Approach is forthcoming with Bloomsbury in 2017. Currently, he is editor‑­in‑­chief of The Oxford Handbook of Divine Revelation.

References

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Mezei B. M., Demythologizing Christian Philosophy: An Outline, “Logos i Ethos” 2013 nr 2 (35), p. 109–146.

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Seifert J., What is Life? On the Originality, Irreducibility and Value of Life, Amsterdam 1997.

Taylor Ch., A Secular Age, Cambridge–Massachusetts–London 2007.

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Published

2017-06-01

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Articles

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