In its own contemporary context, Kant’s views on the relationship between reason and religion played a crucial role in debates about the nature of the Enlightenment. The terms of that debate, as they were most sharply formulated by F. H. Jacobi, posed an either/or choice of reason or faith, between which Kant offered a third option that would synthesize reason and faith. A newly published collection of essays, Kant’s Philosophy of Religion Reconsidered, not only echoes this debate in current terms but also suggests that the unfinished business of the Enlightenment in regard to morality, religion, and the historicity of reason is still with us.

In this study of Marshall’s Christology in Conflict, the author deals with three questions and issues which can be raised regarding Marshall’s argument: his account of the historical shape of the problem, his critique of Rahner, and his use of Barth’s christology.

Two models of person are discussed, and while it is noted that Rahner’s christology emphasizes person as subject and Barth’s person as self-agent, both christologies include the two models. Rather than view the two models as an either/or choice or as in conflict with one another as Bruce Marshall seems to do, they should be thought of as paradoxical, and as such, valuable for leading to new insights in christology.

Questions concerning issues in Christology in Conflict are addressed. James Buckley’s attention to Barth’s metaphysical account and Rahner’s notion of Jesus as Realsysmbol are highlighted and clarified. Criticisms by Robert Krieg are briefly discussed and answered. Finally, though Rahner’s transcendental account of the person of Jesus is shown to lead to certain logical inconsistencies, it is argued, nevertheless, that his christology, though internally incoherent, is valuable.

The emphasis on analytical reason may be insufficient to explain all of life’s enigmatic experiences. Imaginative myth can play an important role in the expression and explanation of an enigmatic occurrence. Symbols, developed from myth and the imagination, may also be useful in accepting and successfully coping with enigmas.

This paper is a study of Kierkegaard’s concept of despair. The Danish etymology of fortvivleslse is examined in order to argue that, for Kierkegaard, despair is not simply a feeling, but is more fundamentally a willed misrelation in the self.