Research Project: “Changes in Faith from a Systematic-Theological Perspective”
Project management: JProf. Br. Dr. Stefan Walser OFMCap
Beyond the reasonableness and communicability of the content of faith, the act of faith itself—the very capacity to believe—has emerged as one of the unresolved questions currently confronting theology and the Church. Changes in faith in both modern and postmodern contexts do not merely affect individual doctrines or dogmas; they impact “faith” itself in its existential and intellectual, personal and societal dimensions.
A timeless or static concept of faith—such as one expressed through the classical terminology of the analysis fidei—hardly does justice to the current situation of faith and believers. From a historical-theological perspective, it also becomes evident that shifts in the theology of faith are often closely linked to changes in the social conditions under which faith is lived and understood.
On the philosophical and (religious) sociological levels, extensive studies have challenged the thesis of a linear process of secularization. Instead, scholars such as Charles Taylor and Hans Joas interpret current developments in terms of the individualization and optionalization of faith. While these insights have already been acknowledged in pastoral theology, their reception within a systematic theology of the act of faith remains pending. This calls for a preliminary methodological reflection and interdisciplinary clarification of the relationship between “religiosity” and a theological concept of “faith.”
Accordingly, the project focuses on changes in faith in a twofold sense: On the one hand, it seeks to explore potential developments in the theology of the act of faith. On the other hand, it aims to give greater consideration to the existential and biographical dynamics of faith itself—such as processes of conversion and deconversion—in order to remain theologically attuned to the lived phenomena of contemporary forms of faith.
The ultimate goal of the project is thus a dynamic reformulation and updating of the doctrine of fides qua.
Prekärer Glaube, in: Lebendige Seelsorge 74 (5/2023), 353–357.
Die Sinnfrage als Gottesfrage? Über ein ambiges Verhältnis, in: Christian Blumenthal / Christian Hornung / Bert Roebben / Jochen Sautermeister (Hg.): Ambiguitäten – Identitäten – Sinnentwürfe. Theologische Analysen und Perspektiven (Ambiguitäten – Identitäten – Sinnentwürfe 1), Freiburg i. Br. 2023, 89–107.
cf. Stefan Walser, Identitätsfindung und Glaubensdynamik. Implikationen für die systematische Theologie, in: Klaus von Stosch / Stefan Walser / Anne Weber (Hg.): Theologie im Übergang. Identität – Digitalisierung – Dialog (Kirche in Zeiten der Veränderung 12) Freiburg i. Br. 2022, 89–113.
cf. Ders., Glaubens(un)sicherheit. Erkundungen im Feld von Individualisierung, Authentizitätsideal und Identitätsbildung, in: Thomas Möllenbeck / Ludger Schulte (Hg.): Frieden. Spiritualität in verunsicherten Zeiten, Münster 2020, 270–291.