SCOPE OF ONTOLOGY IN THEOLOGICAL ISSUES THE PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY OF JOHN MACQUARRIE

According to English theologian John Macquarrie, the main target of Theology is to clarify foundations of religious belief. While realizing this conception Macquarrie meets difficulties, which enforce him turn to conceptual philosophical analysis. Concept of Being is key to both Philosophy and Theology, so it becomes the core of Macquarrie's meditations. As a result emerges original ontological theory, going back to Martin Heidegger's ontology and Rudolf Bultman's theological principles. Our intention is to demonstrate that Macquarrie's attempts to build a theological ontology go beyond Christian dogmas and therefore do not fulfil his mission. In this paper, we apply the hermeneutical approach to the analysis of philosophical, theological, and religious texts, which makes it possible to fully reveal the meaning of the fundamental categories (Being, God) in one sphere (Philosophy) through understanding their connection with other spheres (religion, Theology). It is shown that in John Macquarrie's symbolic theology, the connection between God and man acquires an ontological character, but the 'Living God' is replaced by an abstraction. According to Macquarrie 'god' manifests its pagan connotations overcoming the denominational confession. This work demonstrates that the Christian interpretation of Being is different from Heidegger's paganism, suggesting the rejection and transformation of things existent, their additional determinateness and the symbolic revelation of sacred being in human existence.