“Our time, too, should have its own concept of God” : reimagining the divine in conversation with Titus Brandsma, Ken Wilber, Kevin Hart, and Jean-Luc Marion

Abstract

When Titus Brandsma delivered his 1932 inaugural address Godsbegrip (Concept of God), Europe stood on the precipice of terrifying ideological currents. The rise of National Socialism, with its racist idolatry of race and nation, was for Brandsma a renewed form of paganism“neo-paganism” in his words, threatening Christian spirituality and human dignity alike. Brandsma saw in Nazi ideology a perversion of authentic religious experience, a false god-image wielded to justify violence and oppression. His theological inter - vention was not merely academic; it was a prophetic call to articulate a concept of God rooted in human dignity, love, and mystery, capable of challenging totalitarian idols. Schoonenberg comments that “his recognition of God shaped his philosophy.