Introduction

what has Jerusalem to do with Todtnauberg?

pp. 1-11

in: Peter S. Dillard, Non-metaphysical theology after Heidegger, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

Dillard revisits Heinrich Ott's thesis that there is a structural "correspondence" between Heidegger's later philosophy and the theology of Karl Barth. Contra Ott, Dillard argues that Heidegger's conflicting claims about the relation between being and the holy initially make it highly doubtful whether any coherent body of thought can be recovered from Heidegger's later philosophy. Thus, it is premature to conclude that any interesting correspondence exists between what Heidegger says and Barthian or some other kind of theology without closer consideration of the relevant texts from Heidegger, some of which were not yet available to Ott and his contemporaries. A more optimistic conjecture is that Heidegger suggests several contrasting views of the relation between being and the holy, one of which may turn out to be preferable to the others. Dillard substantiates this conjecture in the next chapter.