Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
In the later twentieth-century, the phenomenological method in continental philosophy has provided considerable resources for the analysis of religious experience in human life, especially as it pertains to the ‘horizontal realm’ of what might be said to be capable of being grasped. Such phenomenological analysis, in turn, is capable of supplying evidence and a certain horizontal ‘givenness’ for those engaged in the study of religion, especially if it is employed as a complement to more the traditional methodologies in that field. Nevertheless, both phenomenology and religious studies, in their differing ways, overlook the unique dimension of human experience which possesses a ‘vertical’ rather than a horizonal structure, and which specifies that which is oriented beyond the present realm. By contrast, the Christian theological tradition has held to the notion that the human in her experience is possessed of an innate, natural desire for the transcendent, known as the ‘natural desire to see God’. In this paper, it is proposed to argue that the current concentration on the ‘horizonal realm’ of experience in both phenomenology and religious studies also requires a further, complementary focus on the ‘verticality’ of human experience, especially as it manifests in the phenomenon of human desiring. It is the principal contention here that the tradition of the ‘natural desire to see God’ indicates a crucial example of ‘verticality’ for religious studies, and this paper explores how this might be plausibly said to be also true for the contemporary era.
Revd Dr Philip Moller SJ is a Junior Research Fellow in philosophical theology, working at the intersections of philosophy and modern theology, especially as these arise in the context of contemporary society. He is particularly interested in the arenas of ‘natural theology’, metaphysics, epistemology, and human knowledge of God; philosophical and theological anthropology; modern Catholic theology; the nature and method of Christian theology; and religious belief, law, and public policy. The Ressourcement project and methodology of the French Jesuits, especially Henri de Lubac, are central to his researches.
In the later twentieth-century, the phenomenological method in continental philosophy has provided considerable resources for the analysis of religious experience in human life, especially as it pertains to the ‘horizontal realm’ of what might be said to be capable of being grasped. Such phenomenological analysis, in turn, is capable of supplying evidence and a certain horizontal ‘givenness’ for those engaged in the study of religion, especially if it is employed as a complement to more the traditional methodologies in that field. Nevertheless, both phenomenology and religious studies, in their differing ways, overlook the unique dimension of human experience which possesses a ‘vertical’ rather than a horizonal structure, and which specifies that which is oriented beyond the present realm. By contrast, the Christian theological tradition has held to the notion that the human in her experience is possessed of an innate, natural desire for the transcendent, known as the ‘natural desire to see God’. In this paper, it is proposed to argue that the current concentration on the ‘horizonal realm’ of experience in both phenomenology and religious studies also requires a further, complementary focus on the ‘verticality’ of human experience, especially as it manifests in the phenomenon of human desiring. It is the principal contention here that the tradition of the ‘natural desire to see God’ indicates a crucial example of ‘verticality’ for religious studies, and this paper explores how this might be plausibly said to be also true for the contemporary era.
Revd Dr Philip Moller SJ is a Junior Research Fellow in philosophical theology, working at the intersections of philosophy and modern theology, especially as these arise in the context of contemporary society. He is particularly interested in the arenas of ‘natural theology’, metaphysics, epistemology, and human knowledge of God; philosophical and theological anthropology; modern Catholic theology; the nature and method of Christian theology; and religious belief, law, and public policy. The Ressourcement project and methodology of the French Jesuits, especially Henri de Lubac, are central to his researches.
