(Spalding) and have the feeling of absolute dependence that gives the
opportunity of religious recognition to the self-consciousness
(Schleiermacher).
The crucial role of relationality is also strongly argued by both
Spalding and Schleiermacher. In this sense, the second paradigm is
continued to some extent. However, the third paradigm proceeds
more from the given reality of the recognizer, assuming that the
recognizee is concealed and needs to be revealed through anthropo-
logical or epistemic considerations. In keeping with this observation,
the basic doctrinal loci of the third paradigm are found in theological
anthropology, hermeneutics, and existential theology. In the first
place, the status of the recognized object, not the religious subject,
becomes transformed in the event of recognition.
This observation should not lead to easy conclusions regarding the
emergence of Cartesian subjectivity, an anthropological turn, or Kier-
kegaardian existential thinking. Such flat generalizations remain
uninformative. Many aspects of existential attachment are present in
thefirst and second paradigms. The present study argues that the roots
of this feature may be found in the Stoic oikeiosisrather than in
Descartes or Kierkegaard. When Bultmann argues for the prominence
of existential attachment in the New Testament, he is rehabilitating
this long history rather than making a modernist adaptation on the
basis of Heidegger.
A more extensive study of the notion of subjectivity in early
modernity would be necessary to grasp the background of the third
paradigm properly. Udo Thiel’s recent book offers a differentiated
account, showing that a great variety of concepts describing personal
identity existed in the period from Descartes to Hume.^17 Philosoph-
ically, the present study claims that religious authors opt for a some-
what neo-Stoic account of personal attachment until Spalding. From
Spalding and Schleiermacher onwards, this view is complemented
by Kantian and Hegelian ideas of consciousness.
Given this, the third paradigm of existential attachment describes
how the recognizer performs an act that unfolds and transforms the
recognizee. This move also allows for the reversal of the roles of
the recognizer and the recognizee in Schleiermacher’sdogmatics,
where God occupies the position of the recognizer. Before
(^17) Thiel 2011.
Recognition in Religion 213