Fellows 2020

Ingolf Dalferth

Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Claremont Graduate University, USA

Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

September–November 2020

Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»Deus praesens: Gott und Gegenwart in der philosophischen Theologie«

Project outline:

In a major strand of Western philosophical theology, God and the present are dynamically linked. The present cannot be thought without God, and God cannot be thought without his presence. Only a present God deserves to be called »God«, and a God who is not present cannot be God. Without God's presence nothing would be possible, and nothing would be actual, nothing would be there and no one else would be present. If there is a God, then God is to be thought in such a way that God is present to every presence. But what does this mean? How is God's presence different from other presences? How does this go together with the widespread feeling that God is not present, but absent, not accessible, but hidden? What do we understand by »presence« (Präsenz) and »the present« (Gegenwart), and how does this relate to presence (Anwesenheit) and absence (Abwesenheit), to givenness and perceivability, to accessibility and hiddenness? These are some of the questions I want to pursue during my stay at the FKH. (Ingolf Dalferth)

Research partner:

Ingolf Dalferth follows the invitation of Thomas M. Schmidt, Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, the Frankfurt Institute for Research in Philosophy of Religion (IRF) and the Frankfurt Forschungsverbund »Normative Orders«.

Scholarly profile of Ingolf Dalferth

Ingolf Dalferth is Danforth Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Claremont Graduate University and Professor emeritus at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Zurich. From 1998 to 2012 he was Director of the Institute for Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Zurich.

His studies led him to renowned research institutions; he was Hulsean Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, Samuel Ferguson Lecturer at Manchester University, Bapsybanoo Marchioness of Winchester Lecturer at Oxford University, Fellow at the Collegium Helveticum in Zurich and at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. The University of Copenhagen and the University of Uppsala awarded him honorary doctorates.

Dalferth is the editor of many journals and book series, including the Theologische Literaturzeitung, Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Theologie, Philosophy of Religion and Theology, and Claremont Studies in Religion.

Website:
Please find more information about Ingolf Dalferth here.

Main areas of research:

Philosophical and theological hermeneutics in the 20th century, systematic theology in the 19th and 20th centuries, philosophy of orientation, emotion, evil.

Selected publications:

Sünde: Die Entdeckung der Menschlichkeit. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 2020.
Die Kunst des Verstehens. Grundzüge einer Hermeneutik der Kommunikation durch Texte. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2018.
Creatures of Possibility: The Theological Basis of Human Freedom. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic 2016.
Transzendenz und säkulare Welt, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2015 (engl.: Transcendence and the Secular World: Life in orientation to ultimate presence, übersetzt von Jo Bennet, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2018).
Radikale Theologie. Glauben im 21. Jahrhundert. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 2010 (engl.: Radical Theology: An Essay on Faith and Theology in the Twenty-First Century. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press 2016).
Hoffnung (Grundthemen der Philosophie). Berlin: de Gruyter 2016.
Selbstlose Leidenschaften. Christlicher Glaube und menschliche Passionen. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2013.
Malum. Theologische Hermeneutik des Bösen. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2008.
Die Wirklichkeit des Möglichen. Hermeneutische Religionsphilosophie. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2003

Ingolf Dalferth

Scholarly profile of Ingolf Dalferth

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