Theology
Philipp Stoellger
Passivität aus Passion
Zur Problemgeschichte einer 'categoria non grata'
[Passivity by Passion. The History of the Problem of a categoria non grata.]
unrevised e-book edition 2023; original edition 2010; 2010. XIV, 546 pages.
Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Theologie 56
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Published in German.
Philipp Stoellger looks into the origins of theology by passion. What is the point of talking about passivity when theology originated as an interpretation of passion? Passivity (Greek: pathos), a category which is fundamental not only to theology, can be seen as a third element in the relationship between ethos and logos. In a turnabout from the history of the disappearance of this unloved category, the concept of pathos is drawn into the engrossing relationship between ethos and pathos, based on Aristotle, in a study of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, German mysticism and the Lutheran theology of the Reformation as well as in a dialogue with the phenomenology of Husserl and Waldenfels, among others. In a »passive reduction,« Philipp Stoellger traces ethos and logos hermeneutically back to the pathos which preceded them. The »vita passiva« is shown to be a life of »creative passivity,« a passivity by passion.