A Critical faith : a case for religion /
Gerd Theissen.
- Philadelphia : Fortress Press, c1979.
- viii, 101 p.; 21 cm.
Contents: Three Criticisms of religion 1. Relativity and historical consciousness -- (a) Relativity and the methods of historical criticism -- (b) Relativity and the results of historical criticism -- 2. Empiricism and truth claims -- 3. Religion and ideology -- (a) Four arguments -- (b) Criticism of the effects of religion -- (c) Criticism of the genesis of religion -- (d) Ideological criticism and the question of truth -- 4. Summary -- II. Religion and Ideological Criticism -- 1. Is religion pathological? -- (a) Transcendence in religious experience -- (b) The ambivalence of religious experience -- (c) The competitiveness of religious experience -- (e) Summary -- 2. Is religion obsolete? -- (a) The historicity of religion -- (b) The 'obsoleteness' of religion -- (c) The necessity of religion -- (d) summary -- III. Empiricist criticism -- 1. Are religious conceptions projections? -- (a) Religious and scientific experience -- (b) The structure of religious conceptions -- (c) The basis of religious conceptions in experience -- (d) Religious experience of the natural order: nomological resonance and experience of the absurd -- (e) Religious experience with other human beings: experience of resonance and absurdity in interpretation, society and love -- (f) Religious experience of life: organological experience of resonance and absurdity -- (g) Religious experience of the beautiful: aesthetic experience of resonance and absurdity -- (h) Religious experience of being: existential experience of resonance and absurdity -- (i) Religious experience and the understanding of God -- 2. Are religious commandments suggestions? -- (a) Religious experience as a motivating force for ethical conduct -- (b) Religious experience as the foundation of ethical norms -- (c) Religious experience and the crises of ethical action -- (d) Religious symbols and ethical conduct -- IV. The problem of historical relativity -- 1. The nature of tradition -- 2. The argument from historical influence -- 3. Condisderations based on the theory of religion -- (a) Five problems in dealing with the historical Jesus -- (b) The truth of New Testament Christology -- 4. Anthropological considerations.
Translation of Argumente fur einen kritischen Glauben. Published in 1979 by SCM Press, London, under title: On having a critical faith.