In somewhat Kantian terms, Spalding transforms the traditional
upward recognition from being a social condition to being a tran-
scendental or existential condition.Anerkennungis needed to grasp
the world properly, that is, so that religion becomes relevant. This
move is no longer‘upward’in the sense of a power relationship,
but establishes an existential option through which the subject can
connect himself with the divine. Such an existential recognition is
preceded by God’s equipping the person with necessary feelings and it
is followed by the good gifts of well-being and virtue. Basically,
however, Spalding’s act of recognition is an existential move that
enables the epistemic content of the religious world view to emerge.
Some elements of Spalding’s view (feeling, highest value) may be
present in Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Herrmann. The full picture
of existential recognition is, however, apparent in the dialectical
theology of Rudolf Bultmann and Karl Barth (section 3.4). Bultmann
gives a biblical grounding to the view that recognition precedes
proper religious cognition. Barth criticizes the earlier orthodoxy for
placing cognitive content before the act of recognition. Remarkably,
both dialectic theologians here approach Axel Honneth’s later argu-
ment regarding the problematic reification (section 1.2).
In addition to this short history, one can ask whether the long
tradition of religious recognition before Spalding produces any coun-
terparts to this existential view. The answer is both yes and no. The
LatinRecognitions(section 2.1) presents the conversion experience in
recognition as the true alternative to the problematic teaching of
philosophers. In its sharp contrast to philosophical world views,
Recognitionscan be read in terms of existential decision-making.
On the other hand, this is a naive rather than epistemologically
based position. Martin Luther’s (section 2.6) view of the primary
verification of humanity in justification likewise contains aspects of
an existential decision that is different from the objective knowledge of
scholasticism. Luther and Calvin (section 2.7) stress the attachment
emerging in religious knowing.
WhileRecognitionsand Reformation theology offer some counter-
parts to Spalding and Bultmann, the post-Kantian existential variant
of religious recognition is nevertheless distinct in its philosophical
awareness of the requirements of modernity. The pre-Enlightenment
versions of existential recognition keep the interpersonal submission
and humility in focus, whereas the post-Enlightenment variants
emphasize epistemic or cognitive capability. Such differences between,
Recognition in Religion 189