ola sigurdsonbetween prayer and transcendence. My example will be taken from the
Christian tradition, but I would suppose it might — mutatis mutandis
— be valid for other religious traditions as well.
The point of departure for my argument is that the claim for truth,
transcendence, and universality in the Christian tradition should not
be understood as an attempt to explain God or the world without
regard to the position of the subject in the world or its position towards
God. Some theologies, especially modern theologies, could, to be sure,
be understood as attempts to describe a “world-picture” without
regard to the subjectivity of the human being, a picture of the world
that spreads out before her like an object to her inquiring gaze.^8 But
then you already assume a particular modern notion of the autonomous
subject as a self-centered and self-determined subject rather than a
created, socially responsive and wounded subject, more akin to the
historical theological tradition and also to several strands of con-
temporary philosophy.^9 Sometimes this takes place thanks to the more
or less naïve notion that theological reflection, or any other reflection,
takes place regardless of space and time, but from the hermeneutical
insight of the dependence of a particular context for a particular
theological inquiry follows the insight that any theoretical endeavor
implies a certain kind of attitude and/or comportment towards the
object of inquiry. In other words, a theological inquiry implies a
certain kind of subjectivity. A theoretical activity such as theology or
philosophy involves a certain way of being in the world. Any epistemol-
ogy implies a certain relation to the world as such.
Traditionally, theology has defended itself against the suspicion that
it is but a report from the seats for spectators, so to speak, where the
drama between God and human beings has been played out in front
of the theologian who only had to take notes on what is happening on
stage. The very concept of God has been an obstacle to any such atti-
- Cf. Martin Heidegger, “Die Zeit des Weltbildes,” Holzwege, Frankfurt am Main:
Vittorio Klostermann, Sixth edition, 1980, 73–94. - Cf. Sarah Coakley, Powers and Submission: Spirituality, Philosophy and Gender,
Challenges in Contemporary Theology, Oxford: Blackwell, 2002, and Judith But-
ler, Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence, London/New York: Verso,