HEIDEGGER’S BEING, RAHNER’S GOD: IS THE QUESTION STILL RELEVANT OR ALREADY ANSWERED?

Abstract

The secularized and rational-oriented mindset of the Western civilization does not preclude important elements of a religious worldview. The objective of the present study is to come to understand the role the categories of Being and God play in the present day spiritual situation. Heidegger’s and Rahner’s views are considered here within the prospective of the paradigmatic process. The latter marks the fading away of the classical understanding of God and search for new and divine meanings. Therefore I suggest considering some of the most significant motifs in the two philosophers’ reflection as regards the history of western civilization and our epoch in the context of the categories of God and Being. Among these motifs there are such attitudes as subjectivism, self-suggestion, disposal of beings, planetarism, oblivion of Being, loss of origins, groundlessness, alienation, situation of meaninglessness. It is due to these attitudes, especially owing to meaninglessness, that many people tend to raise again the issue of the concealed, the encompassing, God or Being. Or perhaps speaking about “Being” and “God” can be interpreted as something that leads to the oblivion of Being and to atheism. “Being” in Heidegger and “God” in Rahner single out the existential centre to which forms of life are related. Nowadays it is forgotten or even vanishes. “God” or “Being” hold everything together and confer meaning thereto.