The Divine Attribute of Transcendence in Schopenhauer’s Work

This article undertakes an extensive examination of the concept of transcendence within the philosophical framework of Arthur Schopenhauer. While Schopenhauer is renowned for his immanent metaphysics, which posits the world as the self-objectification of a blind, striving Will, this paper argues that his system contains a unique and profound form of “immanent transcendence”. The analysis begins by establishing Schopenhauer’s explicit and trenchant critique of traditional, theistic notions of a transcendent Creator-God, which he dismisses as “popular metaphysics” incompatible with his Kantian- inspired epistemology. The core of the article then pivots to explore the three primary pathways through which Schopenhauer offers an escape, or a transcendence, from the suffering inherent in the phenomenal world governed by the Will and the principium individuationis. These pathways are: (1) aesthetic contemplation, where the subject becomes a “pure, will-less subject of knowledge,” momentarily transcending individuality to grasp the eternal Platonic Ideas; (2) ethical action rooted in compassion (Mitleid), which pierces the “veil of Maya” to recognize the shared suffering and fundamental unity of all beings; and (3) asceticism, the ultimate denial of the Will-to-live, which represents the final and most complete form of self-transcendence, leading to a state of nothingness or Nirvana. By analyzing these avenues, the article demonstrates that Schopenhauer does not merely negate transcendence but rather re-conceptualizes it, shifting its locus from an external, divine realm to an internal, experiential liberation from the deterministic chains of the Will. This secularized soteriology provides a powerful, albeit pessimistic, response to the fundamental human need to find meaning and relief from the existential condition.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/WYIH7179

Dialog 55-10 Benescu

Il Figlio è «homooúsios del Padre» e «nato dal Padre». Analisi di alcuni testi biblici che esprimono questa realtà dogmatica in altri termini

Is Jesus Christ God or not? This is the great dilemma that has kept many people’s minds and hearts burning in the centuries that followed the appearance of Arius’ teaching in the 4th century. This article aims to analyse some biblical texts that support and express in other terms the truth proclaimed by the Council of Nicaea in 325 that the Son is homooúsios with the Father and is born of the Father, but not before briefly presenting the teachings of Arius.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/GIFE1656

Dialog 55-5 Ciobanu

Le Comunità Gerachiche “abituali”

At a time when the Italian Church is suffering from a drastic decline in the number of priests, when for decades the pastoral care of parish Units has been tried, when pastoral conversion is necessary to develop existing ministries and create new ones so as to witness a concrete synodality and active co-responsibility, this study on Hierarchical Communities fits in. Conceived by Prof. Valdrini, Hierarchical Communities, habitual and intermediate, become valuable tools for a structural organization of dioceses. Moreover, a characteristic feature of them is that they consider not only the territorial aspect, but also the theological aspect of Communities gathered around the Risen One. They help to set up an organization in “concentric circles” so as to make visible both the hierarchical and the co-responsible and synodal aspects. What the study attempts to do, besides reaffirming the substantial importance of dioceses and parishes, is to give a universal norm to Pastoral Zones, Foranies and Pastoral Units. This becomes, thus, a practical solution, not only for the decline in priests, but for a rethinking of Church as a Community of believers.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/QEAR4654

Dialog 55-4 Buzziol

La reciprocità come principio costitutivo della volontà:la prospettiva fenomenologica dell’opera Il volontario e l’involontario di Paul Ricoeur

The approach with which Marion approaches Thomas’s Aquinas theology at the beginning of his phenomenological journey bears the imprint of Heidegger’s critique of onto-theology, but also of his personal hostility to the conceptual idolatry and atheism manifested in Nietzsche’s philosophy. What Marion contrasts with the conceptual idol is the icon and iconic thought. If the idol comes from looking at it, the icon looks at us, calls forth the vision, letting the visible become saturated with the Invisible. According to Marion, conceptual idolatry still seems a dangerous temptation in our times. Metaphysical categories, concepts can function as idols if they are generated by thought as objects appropriate to ‘God’ on the basis of its divine founding function.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/XJUW7074

Dialog 55-3 Pitreți

The mechanisms of religion assimilated into the political-economic culture of modernity

Can we axiomatically define that the Christian’s Sisyphean striving for reconciliation with the world is part of divine oikonomia, as the Fourth Gospel, that of St John, explicitly states? Or can we view the development of human history as a divine pedagogy of social cohesion, as some Pauline or Acts of Apostles readings might suggest? In order to avoid simplistic interpretations, the answer can only be nuanced, or even susceptible to a certain duplicity, if formulated within the paradigm of a superhuman understanding beyond the power of understanding.
It is not uncommon for secular researchers who have studied Council Vatican II to equate the change in attitude towards the world with a kind of theology of compromise. Aggiornamento, a neologism that would be adopted by almost every language on this occasion, appeared to denote an adaptation of the Church to the contents of the world, as E. Voegelin termed them. However, a more thorough investigation into the origins of modernity reveals a process that mirrors the developments of the latter half of the 20th century, albeit in the opposite direction. This earlier period can be characterised as a subversive appropriation of a series of cultural and symbolic elements that were specific to a world order based on a religious vision.
The present study will focus on investigating those elements in the economic field, which are considered to be among the innovative elements of modernity. The advent of the Industrial Revolution, concomitant with the rise of liberalism, signifies the initial phase in the genesis of the new economy. Consequently, both the centralized economy and autarchy, despite their inherent challenges to liberalism, will become avatars of the new economy. The concept of an intramundane ecclesia is proposed as a theoretical framework underpinning various proposals for reordering the world on new foundations, including the invisible hand, catallaxy, historical determinism, or variants of political-economic Gnosticism, and will constitute veritabile epiphanies of it.
Nevertheless, when considered within the overarching framework of the Economy of Redemption – a framework that is often overlooked – the newly proposed economic systems will expose their inherent limitations rather than demonstrating their efficacy.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/IRFH4069

Dialog 55-2 Grigore