Abstract

This dissertation demonstrates that the life-world, as understood within existential phenomenology, will prove fruitful for theological method. Reading Edmund Husserl's The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology in light of and with the help of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, I introduce phenomenology as "seeing" and as "radical," and develop an understanding of consciousness in terms of intentionality, correlativity and constitution. This sets the stage for presenting an understanding of the life-world, followed by a discussion of the epoche. I then explore how this understanding of the life-world intersects with theological method. ;Chapters three and four give examples of this way of doing theology. A reading of David Tracy's Blessed Rage for Order, The Analogical Imagination, and Plurality and Ambiguity provides a basis for exploring specific ways in which a life-world perspective might contribute to theology. A commentary of the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution, Dei Verbum, illustrates reading from within a phenomenological attitude, attentive to the disclosure of the life-world. ;Chapter five presents a multi-layered self-critique. First, I compare my reading of Dei Verbum with the now classic Vorgrimler commentary on this text. I then compare my way of relating theology and phenomenology to the work of Steven Laycock and James Hart, and to the work of Edward Farley, showing how my approach differs from theirs. Finally, in an internal self-critique, I examine my own traditions and presuppositions. ;Chapter six presents the life-world as a paradigm candidate, briefly indicating what this might mean for: the saying of "is" and "as"; interpretation and description; truth and relativism; locating meaning; evaluating positions and perspectives; and a nonfoundationalist approach to reality. I conclude by stressing the need for radical respect for and appreciation of difference and otherness, the importance of dialogue, and the primacy of love, which, taken together suggest an asceticism of the theologian