Universität Wien

010009 VO Religion and Question of God in a postmetaphysical context (2025S)

3.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 1 - Theologien und Religionswiss.
MIXED
Moodle
We 30.04. 09:45-11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1

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Details

Language: German

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Wednesday 05.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 19.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 26.03. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 02.04. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 09.04. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 07.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 14.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 21.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 28.05. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 04.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 11.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 18.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Wednesday 25.06. 09:45 - 11:15 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The aim of the course is to grasp, as a first step, the shock of the God topic through the excesses of violence that the 20th and 21st centuries have brought and that have radically demystified the world, so that long-standing ideas and constructs of God have largely been lost in both religious cultures and religious theories. In a second step, the stages will be traced that have reacted or are reacting to this decline in the field of theory development and in the artistic field. Finally, thirdly, it should become clear what potential lies in biblical monotheism in the face of this problem, which cannot be sufficiently grasped and founded with Jan Assmann's “Mosaic Difference”, however powerful it has become. In this context, the relevance of biblical mediation with regard to the question of God should become just as clear as the theologically and philosophically meaningful transgression of all small-scale conceptions of God that continue to dominate religious interpretations.

Contents:
Speaking of God after the playing God
Godless world and atheistic confession
Leibniz' Theodicy and Voltaire's Candid
The impact of the Shoah
Jean Améry's negation and Elie Wiesel's rejection
Death of Christian way of talking about God and “Theology after Auschwitz”
Victim and idolatry
Deified market
Anti-semitic invention of the “Mosaic Distinction”: Jan Assmann
The One God of Israel – Themes of rabbinic discussion and early Christianity
Time and God?

Methods:
Lecture and presentations; discussions
Summaries of each topic will be available on Moodle platform.

Assessment and permitted materials

The oral exam consists of at least two independent questions or subject areas. A positive assessment of the examination is achieved if at least 50% of the respective questions or topics are presented or answered correctly; this rule applies to each individual question or topic; if one of them is below 50%, the overall examination is assessed negatively. – The examination performance is assessed as "sehr gut / very good" if the knowledge of the examination material clearly exceeds the average expected level of knowledge and if own, well based insights are brought in.
Exam language: German or English
Permitted aids during the examination:
None

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The oral exam consists of at least two independent questions or subject areas. A positive assessment of the examination is achieved if at least 50% of the respective questions or topics are presented or answered correctly; this rule applies to each individual question or topic; if one of them is below 50%, the overall examination is assessed negatively. – The examination performance is assessed as "sehr gut / very good" if the knowledge of the examination material clearly exceeds the average expected level of knowledge and if own, well based insights are brought in.
An examination in the subject area can be taken at the latest by the last examination date at the end of the winter semester 2025/26.

Examination topics

Content of the lecture series, or alternative literature.

Reading list

Alternative literature:
Appelfeld Aharon, Beyond Despair. Three Lectures and a Conversation with Philip Roth. Translated by Jeffrey M. Green, New York 1994.
Vermes Geza, Christian Beginnings. From Nazareth to Nicaea, Yale 2013, 1-86.
Treitler Wolfgang, Jesus, Josefs Sohn. Der Messias als Tor des Bundes, Paderborn 2023, 435-499 (pdf file of an English translation available only on the Moodle platform).
Treitler Wolfgang, Very Good. Novella. Drawings by Tamara Hallwirth, Perchtoldsdorf 2023.
Wiesel Elie, Ethics and Memory / Ethik und Erinnerung. Mit einer Vorrede von Wolf Lepeniens, Berlin-New York 1997.

Association in the course directory

für 011 (15W) FTH 24, 066 796 (17W) MRP 05krp, 066 795 (15W) M2a, M2b

Last modified: Fr 28.02.2025 14:25