Theology Versus Metaphysics

The question of the meaning of life did not arise for the traditional man as it does for us today. A look at modernity allows us to see and understand that the philosophers of that time returned the description of the meaning of life to the private sphere, that is to say to the free choice of each person. They led man to believe that he could realize himself alone and that for this he did not need the help of any entity outside of mankind, whether conceived as a transcendent being, a divinity or a revealed God. As a result, the human person stands up against the Sacred (God), promoting his autonomy. Now, the image of God had been more or less stable for a long time, until the modern era when this double movement of protest against God and religion, secularization and atheism, developed. Two movements which are close and yet distinct: the first consisted, for man, in becoming aware of his autonomy in relation to God and Religion, which is par excellence the domain of dogmatic truths. The second, to contest them purely and simply.