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Dehellenization [derationalization] first emerges in connection with the postulates of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Looking at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers thought they were confronted with a faith system totally conditioned by [what they thought was Greek] philosophy, that is to say an [rational systematic] articulation of the faith based on [Greek philosophy seen as a rationalistic system, as used by papacy becoming also] an alien system of thought. As a result, faith [continued to be alienation from the Holy Trinity, with the difference that now] no longer appeared as [at least] a living [objective] historical Word but as one element of [what was seen as Greek thinking, that is of papal aristotelianism and love for doctrine and ideology, faith as metaphysics,] an overarching philosophical system. The principle of sola scriptura, on the other hand, sought faith in its pure [clean from papal metaphysics], primordial form, as originally found in the biblical Word. Metaphysics appeared as a premise derived from another source, from which faith had to be liberated in order to become once more fully itself. When Kant stated that he needed to set thinking aside in order to make room for faith, he carried this programme forward with a radicalism that the Reformers could never have foreseen [in spite of the fact that it was present already in the scholastic credo quia absurdum]. He thus anchored faith exclusively in practical reason, denying it access to reality as a whole [that is, papal metaphysical totalitarianism was becoming a self-regulated individualistic appetite].

The liberal theology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ushered in a second stage in the process of dehellenization [derationalization], with Adolf von Harnack as its outstanding representative. When I was a student, and in the early years of my teaching, this programme was highly influential in Catholic theology too. It took as its point of departure Pascal's distinction between the God of the philosophers and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In my inaugural lecture at Bonn in 1959, I tried to address the issue, and I do not intend to repeat here what I said on that occasion, but I would like to describe at least briefly what was new about this second stage of dehellenization [derationalization]. Harnack's central idea was to return simply to the man Jesus and to his simple message, underneath the accretions of theology and indeed of hellenization [rationalization]: this simple message was seen as the culmination of the religious development of humanity. Jesus was said to have put an end to worship in favour of [self-constructed individualistic] morality. In the end he was presented as the father of a humanitarian moral message. Fundamentally, Harnack's goal was to bring Christianity back into harmony with modern reason [that is, into another rationalization, this time being individualistic instead of catholic], liberating it, that is to say, from seemingly philosophical and theological elements [defined and defended by papal metaphysics], such as faith in Christ's divinity and the triune God. In this sense, historical-critical exegesis of the New Testament, as he saw it, restored to theology its place within the university: theology, for Harnack, is something essentially historical and therefore strictly scientific. What it is able to say critically about Jesus is, so to speak, an expression of practical reason and consequently it can take its rightful place within the university. Behind this thinking lies [at least a consistent worship of reason, but also, and this is most important, a worship in] the modern self-limitation of reason, classically expressed in Kant's "Critiques", but in the meantime further radicalized by the impact of the natural sciences.

This modern concept of reason is based, to put it briefly, on a synthesis between Platonism (Cartesianism) and empiricism, a synthesis confirmed by the success of technology. On the one hand it presupposes the mathematical structure of matter, its intrinsic rationality, which makes it possible to understand how matter works and use it efficiently: this basic premise is, so to speak, the Platonic element in the modern understanding of nature. On the other hand, there is nature's capacity to be exploited for our purposes, and here only the possibility of verification or falsification through experimentation can yield ultimate certainty. The weight between the two poles can, depending on the circumstances, shift from one side to the other. As strongly positivistic a thinker as J. Monod has declared himself a convinced Platonist/Cartesian.

 

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Cf.  Manuel II Palaeologus Resources * The Papal Chrislamism * What have we done to Christianity..
Orthodoxy and Science : A changing relationship? * Papacy * Constantinople

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