The Finite in the Infinite. Subject-Theoretical and Action-Theoretical God-Thought in Dialogue

Abstract

Theology has the task of thinking God beyond anthropomorphic attributions, without reducing God’s reality to unknowable transcendence or the concept of God to an abstract figure of thought. Klaus Müller responds to this by arguing for a metaphysical monism and structuring it through the subject-theoretical difference between the founding and the founded. In face of this approach, it can be objected that it does not present the relation between the infinite and the finite in a conclusive way. The article argues that this desideratum can be addressed by supplementing Müller’s subject-theoretical considerations with an action-theoretical perspective. With this intention, it brings Müller’s critical panentheism into conversation with the philosophical pragmatism of John Dewey and the constructive theology of Gordon D. Kaufman.