German phenomenology on the religious crisis of the 1st half of the 20th century

Abstract

The paper is a case-study, fulfilled as a part of the research project, which aims to investigate philosophical background of the “religious crisis” narrative which was actively used by German theologians of the 1st half of the 20th century. The study concentrates on the material of phenomenological philosophy of the 1900–1930s. Analyzing explicit mentions in the works of Husserl, Reinach, Stein and Scheler and considering biographical and historical context of their thought, the paper tries to observe connections between the considerations of “spiritual crisis” and philosophical programme of the phenomenological movement. The paper analyses as well original projects of refounding the Christian theology, offered by each of the above mentioned authors. As a result, it is possible to distinguish three aspects of criticism of the contemporary religious situation: 1) the conviction that there is a fundamental conflict between the Christian tradition and the intellectual situation of the New Age, 2) concern about the common for science as well European culture as a whole forgetting the essential foundations of all spheres of action, 3) indicating the need to update the theological language andtoclarify the key dogmatic statements. The results of the review can be used to formulate the categories hypothetically inherent in the concept of “religious crisis”.