NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion - Volume 63, Issue 4, 2009

This article explores Gerardus van der Leeuw’s view of phenomenology of religion and analyses the intricate relationship between his phenomenological and anthropological work. The conclusion is that the phenomenological method he defended is basically an hermeneutical approach in which an observer relates personally and even existentially to the ‘phenomena’ (s)he studies in order to determine their essence (Wesensschau). In his anthropology (that reflects on the basic structure of human beings) a similar way of relating to the world is discussed: the ‘primitive mentality’ that is characterized by the the besoin de participation. Both phenomenology and mentalité primitive imply a critique of modern scholarship, which is ultimately theologically motivated. This fundamental criticism of the prevailing (historical) approach in the humanities including religious studies explains the growing distance between Van der Leeuw and the majority of students of religion in the decades after his untimely death in 1950.

This article argues that gender and historical research are indispensable in theological research. The author concentrates on a major subject in feminist theology: the construction of the female subject. Traditionally, feminists regarded medieval holy women and mysticae as models for female subjectivity. Often, this led to superficial assessments, caused by a lack of genuine interest in the past. The author argues for meticulous research that takes gender into account, in order to explore history’s full possibilities as a source of inspiration for contemporary theology. Such research challenges current views of God and of fixed categories like ‘male’ and ‘female’.

In offering a reading of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Creation and Fall from a gender-theoretical perspective, my main thesis is that Bonhoeffer, in his interpretation of the biblical creation stories turns out to be a theoretician of sexual difference avant la lettre. I will show this by giving an analysis of the different use of the terms ‘boundary’ and ‘middle’, which turn out to be key terms not only for the description of the relationship between God and man, but for the relationship between men and women as well.

The author offers a reconstruction of the discussion on the creation of the human soul between Lutheran and reformed theologians in the period of orthodoxy (ca. 1550-1700). Most Lutherans defended the traducianist view that the soul is transferred from parents to children. Their Reformed opponents supported the creatianist view that the soul is created ex nihilo. Both views depend heavily on dualistic, (neo-)platonistic assumptions about the ontological status of the human soul. The conceptual problems caused by these presuppositions form an incentive for contemporary theologians to develop alternatives for these dualistic approaches.