Der Begriff der Angst und die Theologie

Fears have increased in recent years, both individually and collectively. Such fears about one’s own existence can be interpreted in different ways: psychologically, sociologically or politically, but also philosophically or theologically. The article deals with the phenomenon of fear/anxiety from three perspectives on the border of philosophy and theology. In 20th century philosophy, Martin Heidegger defined anxiety as the basic human mood in which man is brought before the nothingness of his existence and thus before himself. This situation of anxiety gives rise to the question of one’s own authentic existence. Heidegger’s theory has become an essential theory of anxiety, not only within phenomenology, and has significantly influenced further discussion. Emmanuel Levinas reacted to Heidegger with frontal criticism. He placed anxiety in an ethical context and thus gave the term a new meaning. The article presents and contrasts both approaches by Heidegger and Levinas. This is followed by questions for theological thinking that arise from the two thinkers’ conceptions of anxiety. These are then discussed and explained theologically against the background of Rahner’s way of thinking and taken further. It can be seen that fear is not only a negative phenomenon that needs to be overcome, but that it can also be interpreted in a positive way. Anxiety is that which throws people back on themselves and thus poses the question of the meaning of their own lives with existential urgency. The need for meaning could therefore be seen as the source of the search for a personal God.