Heidegger as a “Christian theologian”?
The article considers one of Heidegger’s statements presented in a letter to his friend K. Lowit dated August 19, 1921, in which he defines himself as a “Christian theologian”. The main existing perspectives on Heidegger’s “religiosity” being listed, the question arises, can we, and if so, in which sense, call Heidegger a “faithful Christian”? To answer this question, one needs to distinguish between “ontic theology” and “onto-theology”, the latter concept being very close to Heidegger’s own project of “fundamental ontology”. Then one needs to understand what Heidegger meant by “being a Christian theologian”. That includes objectivity, “radical involvedness” and historical consciousness. The correlation between scientific objectivity of the modern natural sciences and the "objectivity" of a Christian theologian is the next question. One of the conclusions is the possibility to draw Heidegger’s “radical involvedness” and “true faith” close to each other in an onto-theological sense. Hence, the ability for faith in the highest sense may be considered as an essential distinctive quality of a human mode of being.
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