From the religious a priori to intending the absolute: Reflections on the methodological principles in Otto and Tillich against the backdrop of their historical problematic

Abstract

This contribution examines Rudolf Otto’s and Paul Tillich’s theories of religion against the background of the debates around 1900. Beginning with Wilhelm Windelband’s motifs and Ernst Troeltsch’s philosophies of religion, it is shown that Otto and Tillich alike elaborate on a performance-bound conception of religion from transcendental-philosophical and phenomenological motifs. Tillich, following Edmund Husserl, ultimately resolves the idea of a religious a priori as a concept of religion elaborated in terms of the theory of intentionality.