Transtheism refers to a system of thought or religious philosophy that is neither theistic nor atheistic, but is beyond them. The word was coined by either theologian Paul Tillich or Indologist Heinrich Zimmer.1
1. In published writings, the term appears in 1952 for Tillich and in 1953 for Zimmer. Since the two men were personally acquainted, it is difficult to say which of them coined the term. Note that the term transtheism is avoided by both.
1. In published writings, the term appears in 1952 for Tillich and in 1953 for Zimmer. Since the two men were personally acquainted, it is difficult to say which of them coined the term. Note that the term transtheism is avoided by both.
That makes no sense to me. But I know that since Heinrich Zimmer died in 1943, so his published work (1953, by Joseph Campbell) must have been composed before 1943. I don't know the source, so I cannot estimate when it was written.
I'm looking for the very earliest reference of this term (whether or not Zimmer is the coiner), which I suspect may be in German.
This suggests K. Barth is the source.
Jacob Taubes, The Journal of Religion, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Oct., 1954), pp. 231-243:
Barth's theology has written a new chapter in the history of dialectics. In the period of the Der Römerbrief [1919,1923] it was an attempt at theology without a theodicy, thus opening the possibility of a religious language in an age of the eclipse of the divine. This language of dialectical the ology seemed able even to absorb the atheism of Nietzsche and Overbeck as stages in the purification of man's image of God and could accept the realm of necessity as a veil of the divine. Karl Barth opened the gate to a transtheistic stage of consciousness, but he opened the gate to this stage as a theologian. Barth's commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Romans was 'expressionistic,' because it was an attempt to express a new, even unheard-of, situation in theological language: to interpret theologically the eclipse of God that became manifest post Hegel. ...
Paull Tillich, Der Mut zum Sein [1952], p.12:
Der Stoizismus in diesem Sinne ist eine religiöse Grundhaltung, mag sie nun in theistischen oder atheiscischen oder transtheistischen Formen erscheinen. Deshalb ist der Stoizismus in der abendländischen Welt die einzig wirkliche Alternative zum Christentum. Das ist eine überraschende Behauptung angesichts der Tatsache, daß es die Gnosis und der Neuplatonismus waren, mit denen das Christentum auf religiös-philosophischem Boden zu kämpfen hatte, und daß es das Römische Reich war, mit ....
Stoicism in this sense is a basic religious attitude, may it appear in theistic or atheistic or transtheistic forms. Therefore, Stoicism is the only real alternative to Christianity in the Western world. This is a surprising assertion in view of the fact that it was Gnosticism and Neoplatonism with which Christianity had to contend on religious-philosophical ground, and that it was the Roman Empire with ....
Stoicism in this sense is a basic religious attitude, may it appear in theistic or atheistic or transtheistic forms. Therefore, Stoicism is the only real alternative to Christianity in the Western world. This is a surprising assertion in view of the fact that it was Gnosticism and Neoplatonism with which Christianity had to contend on religious-philosophical ground, and that it was the Roman Empire with ....