Vertrauen und Versuchung

Claudia Welz explores the meaning and forms, the potential, the limits of trust as a phenomenon and a concept. She discusses biblical, poetical, theological and philosophical texts in the light of current interdisciplinary debates, focusing on trials that put trust to the test. Comparing religious approaches to trust (Luther, Kierkegaard, Rosenzweig, Levinas, Benyoëtz) with prominent approaches from developmental psychology (Erikson, Rochat), neuroscience (Kosfeld, Zak), sociology (Luhmann, Giddens), and philosophy (Kant, Husserl, Heidegger, Ricoeur, Løgstrup, Austin, Wittgenstein etc), she distinguishes between trustful faith in God, inter-human trust, and the everyday certainties on which we rely in orienting ourselves in our world.