ABSTRACT
The relation between theology and phenomenology has varied, and often (as in the case of Janicaud) been one of mutual suspicion. Phenomenology, as Spiegelberg, has shown was less a philosophical school than a movement that accommodated a plurality of viewpoints.1 Husserl – a Jew who converted to liberal Protestantism – had, writes Lacoste, ‘little to say about God who only appeared in his thought as a “limit”’, although Christianity became increasingly important to him at the end of his life (DCTh 1084). Scheler’s interest in ‘the God to come’ was, following his break from Catholicism, from within the confines of philosophy of religion rather than theology. Although Husserl’s assistant at Göttingen, Adolf Reinach, ‘displayed a distinct interest in philosophical theology’, his research was tragically cut short by the First World War. Edith Stein, Husserl’s research assistant at Freiburg, ultimately abandoned phenomenology, gradually slipping into Neo-Scholasticism and denying developments in Husserlian phenomenology. Heidegger’s own interest in theology during his initial period teaching at Freiburg manifested itself in the reading of texts by Luther and Augustine; although, while ‘the Christian experience interested Heidegger, it is not certain that he was really interested in Christianity’ (HQD 22).2
