The Hermeneutic of Tradition in Joseph Kleutgen's <em>Vorzeit </em>Project

<p>Joseph Kleutgen (1811-1883) is arguably the most influential German Catholic theologian of the 19^th century. His major works—<i>The Theology of the Past</i> (<i>Die Theologie der Vorzeit</i>) and <i>The Philosophy of the Past </i>(<i>Die Philosophie der Vorzeit</i>)—provide the then-emerging Neo-Scholastic movement with its programmatic project. He is a watershed figure in modern Catholic theology and as such an examination of his thought is a condition of the possibility for any revisionist account of modern Catholic thought.</p><p>After providing an orienting sketch of Kleutgen’s life and times in Chapter 1, the first task consists of a descriptive analysis of Kleutgen’s dogmatic presentation in volumes 1-3 of <i>Die Theologie der Vorzeit</i> across two chapters. While attending to notable differences between the first and second editions, I expound their basic aspects and operations and extensively explicate their structure and content with a particular focus with argumentative strategies and historical sources. The second task is to treat his hermeneutic of tradition as articulated in part 2 of his <i>Theologie der Vorzeit, </i>particularly as it relates to competing historiographies in modernity and to his diagnostic posture vis-à-vis the tradition and modernity. </p>