Abstract

Karl-Heinz Menke:
The Liberarian Interpretation of Faith and Revelation
Saskia Wendel’s Plea for an Undogmatic Christianity
(FKTh 2022-2, p. 116–134)

The theological scene is currently splitting into two wings: libertarians and compatibilists. It is about the not merely academic question of whether human freedom is either self-commitment to the truth predefined by the Creator or autonomous self-determination. Whereas the thesis of the compatibility of genuine freedom with predefined truth knows many varieties, consistent libertarianism (Magnus Striet and Saskia Wendel) lets go of the commitment of reason to a revelation (coming from the outside) as well as of the commitment of faith to certain beliefs. In her work (“In Freiheit glauben”), published in 2021, Saskia Wendel calls for an undogmatic Christianity of self-determined practice and for the dismantling of doctrine and dogma, whose authority she identifies primarily with Joseph Ratzinger’s way of thinking as well as with his theological works.