Christian Humanism*
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CHRISTIAN HUMANISM* I. A THEOLOGY FOR MAN It is already trite to say that theology finds itself today in a state of transition and upheaval. This upheaval is so fast, indeed so hectic, that the state of theology seems chaotic to many both inside and outside of theological circles. They no longer see the forest for the trees. Therefore they either lose nerve in face of their own courage or run aimlessly and breathlessly after whatever happens to be the latest theological rage. The question arises therefore what would be the focus and the goal of a theology which seeks to renew itself. What should be the guiding concern of such a theology? I would like to propose the following thesis: a renewed theology, which is deserving of the name, is a theology for man. Obviously a theology for angels or for sparrows never existed. But there existed and still exists a "theology in itself." Such a "theology in itself" is continually occupied with the question, who is God "in himself" or who is Christ "in himself" without asking what all of this means for us. Such a "theology in itself" can be very scientific and learned; but it moves within an academic ghetto; such a theology can also be accurate and correct, so accurate in fact, that it is no longer true, for truth is concrete; such a theology moves, moreover, in an eccle- siastical ghetto. It forgets that man does not exist for the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath exists for man. The world without God, with which we are confronted, is a reaction against a God apart from the world and apart from man.1 A "theology for man" is nevertheless not simply anthropology * [The addresses delivered at the plenary sessions of the International Con- gress of Learned Societies in the Field of Religion have already been published in Religion and the Humanizing of Man, James M. Robinson, ed. (copies avail- able at $3.00 from the Council on the Study of Religion, Waterloo Lutheran University, Waterloo, Canada). This paper of Doctor Kasper is reprinted here since his participation in the Congress was due to the initiative of the CTSA. —Ed.] 1 Cf. Y. Congar, "Christus in der Heilsgeschichte und in unseren dogma- tischen Traktaten," Concilium II (1966), 10. 1 2 Christian Humanism. S and sociology. If man were the ultimate value for man and if politics were to become religion, then this world would constitute a new form of mythology which would not free man but rather enclose him. A "theology for man" is therefore theology first of all. But wherever there is talk about God there is, at least tendentiously and implicitly, talk not only about man but also about reality as a whole. A "theol- ogy for man" therefore cannot be a theology which has been nar- rowed down and reduced to anthropology. Man is not an abstract being who sits comfortably apart from the world; the word man always implies the world of man as well. "Theology for man" is therefore not only transcendental and personal theology, but also "theology of the world," "theology of history," and "political theology." If understood in this way, a "theology for man" is not an abso- lutely new bill of fare. Such a theology would have to be the basic goal of any theology which is oriented toward the Bible. The canon of the biblical writings was drawn up in the second century in opposition to Marcion, who separated the God of Creation from the God of Redemption. In that the early Church set up the Bible as canon, it wanted to say the following: the Christian message is a message of redemption, that is, of liberation for the world and not a message of redemption and liberation from the world. The unity of creation and redemption is therefore the basic principle of inter- pretation in biblical theology. But even from a systematic viewpoint man and his world are constitutively situated in the Gospel. The Word of God comes forth as human word; it reaches its goal where it is humanly heard, understood, and accepted; God meets us as a man and through men. The world which is always the world of man becomes such at its point of contact with the Gospel (locus theologicus).2 This statement says more than that the world is the goal of the Gospel or that the world is the object of missionary activity. The world of man is not only the destination but also the source of theological statements. This does not need to be misunderstood in a liberalistic 2 Cf. W. Kasper, "Die Welt als Ort des Evangeliums," Glaube und Ge- schichte, 1970, pp. 209-23. Christian Humanism. S or modernistic way. The Gospel is not merely a symbolic codifica- tion of common human experience. That would not be theology but rather mythology and ideology. The Word of God nevertheless never encounters us as a naked reality; it has its own Sitz im Leben; it has human form. If this is so, then the question arises: What is man? II. WHAT IS MAN? Theology cannot answer the question "What is man?" without taking seriously all those things which the present-day sciences of man have to say about him. In order to be able to speak about man in such a complicated and disturbed situation as our own, good common sense—as important as it normally is—is not sufficient. Information about man is for us today no longer as available as it previously was in a commonly accepted philosophy. If a "theology of man" does not want to proceed in a manner characteristic of a dilettante—and the danger of dilettantism is presently a great one in theology—then it must be interdisciplinary theology.3 Interdis- cipline is a fashionable word. But as soon as one earnestly agrees to it, the real difficulty of theology first comes to light. However, no- where else are the anguishing problems of contemporary theology so clear, as when one asks: "What is man?" Never before in history has man known so much about himself. Never before has the amount of information about himself made him so insecure. Bit by bit the self-understanding which has been handed down to man is being de-mythologized. If man saw himself previously as the center, the crown and the lord of creation, he now finds him- self, since he began at the start of the modern age to penetrate searchingly into the cosmos—in the words of Pascal—alone in an isolated corner of the universe.4 The grade of difference between man and animal, to which man attributed his exceptional position, has slowly but surely been abolished by modern biology. Since Darwin the boundaries have become fluid. Man has had to realize that from 3 Cf. Die Theologie in der interdisziplinären Forschung, ed. J. B Metz and T. Rendtorff, 1971; W. Kasper, "Die Theologie im interdisziplinären Gespräch —Gesichtspunkte und Fragen," Evangelische Theologie XXXII (1972) 292-300 4 B. Pascal, Pensies, 72. 4 Christian Humanism. S a biological point of view he makes up only a small corner of the animal world.® Finally with the depth-psychology of Sigmund Freud the disillusionment with and the destruction of the former concept of man have been completed. The long-lasting, painful, and furious protest against this de-mythologizing of man is only too understandable. Today this protest has for the most part become silent. Even the churches, which indeed over the centuries have condemned almost every fundamental break-through of man, are leaving themselves open. They have no other choice. Modern science has plainly won the victory. And so the protest has been silenced; only the universal perplexity has remained: "What then is man?" We have acquired an amazing amount of knowledge with which to approach this question. Yet the more answers there are to this question the less man seems to know with which answer he should identify himself. The greater the number of possible answers be- comes the more man comes up against himself as if he were in a hall of a thousand mirrors and masks and finds that he has no clear image of himself.8 Or do we know more today than before about the meaning of human existence, the meaning of love, of suffering, of death? "To raise this question is to torture ourselves, for the answer is so painfully clear. While we created wonderful things, we neglected to make ourselves into beings who were worthy of this powerful exertion. Our life resembles a state of spiritual chaos and confusion which comes very close to madness."7 The more we know about man, the more we ask whether we also know that which is really worth knowing. The more we are able to manipulate our human existence, the more we ask what we are permitted to do and what we ought to do. Here the topical interest of a theology which understands itself as a theology for man becomes evident in an almost unexpected manner. And this is so even if much, even if most of the traditional theological statements about man need correction. Religion and 6 M Scheler, Man's Place in Nature, tr. H. Meyerhoff, 1961, p. 6. e T. Moltmann, Mensch: Christliche Anthropologie in den Konflikten den Gegenwart (Themen der Theologie 11), 1971, p. 12. 7 E. Fromm, Psychoanalysis and Religion, 19S0, p. 1. Christian Humanism. S theology have a purpose as long as they continually confront man with the question: "What is man?" It is precisely this question which really makes man human.8 Man is bound up in his environment in so many ways; in so many ways he is manipulated and determined.