Future as Transcendence: On a Central Problem in Ernst Bloch’s Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

The question of the relationship between transcendence and immanence no doubt belongs to the most important problems in philosophy and theology. God, world and man in their interrelations are rendered in significantly different ways. Fundamental differences in the various definitions of these relations, developed in tradition, crucially depend on the conceptual determination of what is meant by transcendence and immanence respectively in each case. Ernst Bloch’s thesis of a “transcending without transcendence” criticizes the traditional spatial conception of transcendence and transforms the corresponding question temporally: into a task within the horizon of the future. In this way, the meta-religious self-understanding of Bloch’s thought opens up new paths for today’s concept of transcendence; nonetheless, the classical issues need further consideration as they shape the idea of transcendence as future no less than the traditional one.