The Late Heidegger and a Post-Theistic Understanding of Religion

Abstract

The relation of Heideggerʼs philosophy to theology is a problem that remains of current interest, particularly because Heideggerʼs later philosophy offers some hints towards an interpretation of religious language between theism and non-cognitivism. According to this post-theistic reading, the talk about god neither refers to an existent being, nor simply expresses religious feelings. Instead, religious language can be interpreted as describing in its own way the groundlessness of the world. This paper discusses Heideggerʼs later philosophy against this background. In what follows, I will draw upon the work of Wittgenstein and refer to the cosmological argument to read Heidegger in terms of a post-theistic account of religion. This not only contributes to a philosophical understanding of religious language, but also yields a new interpretation of Heideggerʼs later philosophy, which, in spite of its hermeticism, has a specific relevance to the philosophy of religion that still needs to be explored.