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The Atheismusstreit · 1798–1800

God = Absolute?

God and the Absolute: On Fichte and Jacobi in the Atheismusstreit

YAN, Enwei Oven · THEO 5007 Faculty Student Seminar III

“Within the tradition of German Idealism there is a deep-seated equation: God is the Absolute.”

1

Research question · §5

“What differentiates God from the Absolute, given their common aspect of being unconditioned?”

God−Absolute=?

Both are unconditioned.

2

Thesis · Introduction

“This paper argues that God is not exhausted by the Absolute. Despite their shared character of being unconditioned, God exceeds the Absolute because God includes what reason cannot grasp – the paradox, that which stands in contradiction to rational necessity yet at the same time remains ontologically possible. Since the paradox can only be encountered after a contingent, empirical event, a moment where an arational content collides with rational form, it is given a posteriori. God, insofar as including paradoxes, is therefore an a posteriori God.”

God−Absolute=paradox

paradox←empirical event⇒a posteriori God

paradox = logically impossible, ontologically possible

a posteriori = given only after the event

3

Structure · §§1–4

Construct · Fichte · §1

“everything, God included, begins with the self-positing act, the Absolute Self.”

Critique · Jacobi · §2

“the will that wills nothing”

Nichts → nihilism

Construct · Jacobi · §3

“more than I!” “better than I!”

immediate givenness (Offenbarung) through Vernunft

Critique · §4

Jacobi’s alternative, tested on an infant.

God = Absolute Self→ moral order

God = Nichtsnihilism

God = the Otherimmediately given

3

Structure · §4.1 · the infant

An infant meets the representation of God for the first time.

From outside — or from within?

  1. ① aware of its constructive reason
  2. ② the representation comes from elsewhere
  3. ③ denies that conceiving can produce it
  4. ④ immediate givenness

“an Absolute that acquires its standing by rejecting its rival stands on its rival.”

3

Structure · §§4–6

Critique · §4.3

On the predicates of God

determinatio est negatio — “independent” needs “dependent” to mean anything.

Critique · §4.3

“what he has preserved is a God who can say no more of Himself than the Absolute Self might do.”

Back to Fichte’s starting point.

Construct · §§5–6

“God is greater than the Absolute, not quantitatively but qualitatively.”

“I am independent”= Fichte’s “I am”

God ⊋ Absolute

4

Toward an a posteriori God · §5 & Appendix II

A = A

I ought not to kill anyone.

unconditioned in form and content

“the contradiction is unconditioned only as to form, while conditioned as to content”

  • I ought to kill anyone?
  • I am not obligated to kill?
  • I ought to kill someone?
  • Anyone ought not to kill me?
  • I may not kill anyone?
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”Genesis 22:2 · NRSV

A = A cannot process the Aqedah.

Reason cannot even list this candidate; the content comes only from the event.

4

§6 · the ink drop

Before the event: only the condition — the paper, its whiteness.

An ink drop falls — by accident.

“This intuition is not a priori possible: it occurs after the event of the ink dropping.”

Reason tries to dissolve it; a rémanence always remains.

4

§6 · an a posteriori God

“What is given of God falls into two parts: what reason can reach, the Absolute, and what it cannot, the paradox.”

“God reveals Himself a posteriori, while God is open to us a priori.”

Rahner, Vorgriff — the a priori openness to God

5

Reason and the arational · §6 & Appendix II

content →manner ↓
rationalarational
rationallyarationally
rationally rationalKant / Fichteone faculty only
rationally arationalAbrahamteleological suspension of the ethicalboth faculties
arationally rationalHegelboth faculties
arationally arationalextreme fideism†one faculty only

† Not drawn in the paper; extrapolated to complete the grid.

6

For discussion

1

Faith does not transfer responsibility to God; Abraham is the father of faith because the full weight stays on him.

信心不是把責任交給上帝；亞伯拉罕之所以是信心之父，正因為全部重量都留在他自己身上。

1.1

“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” Matt 26:39 · NRSV

2

The Incarnation is the most powerful paradox, but not the only one.

道成肉身是最有力的悖論，但不是唯一的悖論。

2.1

Not a Trinity-God, but a God of paradoxy — the way I understand the ecumenical.

God ⊋ Absolute

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