The Plasticity of Thinking about God: The Thorn of Historicity in the Relationship between Faith and Reason

Tradition is a key concept in Catholic theology. At first glance, this concept insinuates a sort of continuity. In reality, tradition is a chain of discontinuities from the beginning of Christian history, including the so-called hellenisation of Christian thinking; the rediscovery of the whole work of Aristotle in the Middle Ages; the challenge of modern philosophy from Kant to Fichte, Holderlin, Hegel and Schelling; and the Second Vatican Council. Systematic tradition and historicity are products of self-consciousness and subjectivity. The analysis of the latter exposes the structures of the philosophical concepts involved.