Phenomenology, teleology, and theology

This chapter will investigate Husserl’s conception of God in relation to his project of a metaphysics of the “higher and ultimate questions,” which follows and presupposes the metaphysics of worldly facticity resulting from the elucidation of empirical sciences. In conformity with Husserl’s own claim that his reflections on the matter have only accomplished the preliminary task of framing the problem of God and do not amount to the formulation of a systematic, rational theology, I will explore the resources that are available to phenomenology to address this issue. Three themes will appear to be of paramount significance: (1) the distinction between a priori and factual disciplines; (2) the teleological reconsideration of factual reality, which points to God as the ultimate teleological source; and (3) the necessity to understand the notion of God in non-objectivistic terms, and, thus, within the framework provided by the phenomenological monadology. This analysis will stress that in matters of theology too, Husserl intended to replace the objectivistic metaphysical style of modernity, which relied on illegitimate metaphysical substructions, with a new non-objectivistic form of elucidation of being. It will thus appear that Husserl’s theological considerations contribute to illuminate his entire project to reform rationalism and to lay new foundations for philosophy as the universal science of being.