FRANZ ROSENZWEIG AND HIS CRITIQUE OF MODERN THEOLOGY

‘IN THEOLOGOS’ AS DIAGNOSIS AND RUPTURE

Abstract

This article sets out Franz Rosenzweig’s critique of modern theology as developed in the in theologos section of “Der Stern der Erlösung”. Rather than offering a comprehensive reconstruction, it focuses on a specific tension: the transformation of theology under the pressure of scientific rationality in the nineteenth century. Situating his thought within the intellectual crisis of the nineteenth century—marked by the rise of scientific rationality as the dominant paradigm of truth—it argues that theology, in attempting to constitute itself as a science, loses its proper object: revelation. Reconstructing Rosenzweig’s critique from Schleiermacher through German Idealism to nineteenth-century scientific theology, the article demonstrates how revelation is progressively transformed into concept. Drawing on Rosenzweig’s The Star of Redemption and Das neue Denken, as well as interpretations by Stéphane Mosès, Luca Bertolino and Reinhold Mayer, it further argues that Rosenzweig’s critique is not directed against theology as such, but against its submission to the epistemological norms of modern philosophy. The article concludes by indicating, in a preliminary manner, the reconfiguration of theology grounded in revelation as event.