Abstract

This work is an attempt to think the essential nature of the interrelationships among religion, science, and theology out of Heidegger's engagement with the question of Being. Three primary questions initially motivated this inquiry: First, how are the interrelations among religion, science, and theology to be understood? Second, is a relation of "dialogue," in some sense, possible among the three elements of the RST triad? And third, does theology have a rightful place in the public square dominated by the view that science serves as the "gold standard" for rationality and truth? The inquiry interweaves five threads, or lines of inquiry, which are posited as pertinent in the current RST discourse and central to Heidegger's thought. The first thread consists of the chapter themes: phenomenology, truth, technology, and ethics. The other four threads--comportment toward things, reflection, thinking, and destiny--each "cross-cut," or traverse, the chapter themes. By Heidegger's lights, each cross-cutting thread harbors a duality: comportment toward things as objectification or non-objectification; reflection as Reflexion or Besinnung ; thinking as calculative or meditative; and destiny as fate or the sending of Being . Heidegger's critique of each duality--and the expanded global context suggested here for thinking the RST relation--offer fresh opportunities for reinscribing the customary formulation of theology as a basis for a compelling dialogue among religion, science, and theology today