"Foundations of Christian faith? Karl Rahner's ‘transcendental hermeneu" by Jessica Wormley Murdoch
 

Foundations of Christian faith? Karl Rahner's ‘transcendental hermeneutics’ and the postmodern critique

Jessica Wormley Murdoch, Fordham University

Abstract

The dissertation underscores the critical importance of a continued appeal to the fundamental theology of Karl Rahner in a postmodern context. Specifically, it offers a defense of Rahner's fundamental theology in light of the critique leveled by Francis Schüssler Fiorenza. Fiorenza, who roots his own fundamental theology in a self-consciously nonfoundationalist stance, argues that Rahner's method fails to be appropriately hermeneutical. The dissertation demonstrates that precisely because Rahner always begins with historical experience, his fundamental theology is hermeneutical: it is a "transcendental hermeneutics" Rahner's epistemologically nonfoundationalist "transcendental hermeneutics" both grounds the normative claims of Christian faith and meets the exigencies of postmodernity as exemplified by Fiorenza.

Subject Area

Religion|Philosophy|Theology

Recommended Citation

Murdoch, Jessica Wormley, "Foundations of Christian faith? Karl Rahner's ‘transcendental hermeneutics’ and the postmodern critique" (2008). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3310429.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3310429

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