Autor: Walsh, David

Buch: The Third Millenium

Titel: The Third Millenium

Stichwort: Einbruch der Transzendenz: verschiedene geschichtliche Entfaltungen; Moses, Griechen, Konfuzianismu, Taoismus, Hinduismus, Islam

Kurzinhalt: It can be expressed as an utter gulf between the transcendent divinity and the rest of reality, as in the Mosaic definitiveness of the I AM ...

Textausschnitt: 168b The line by which the implications are unfolded is never smooth or uniform. It can be expressed as an utter gulf between the transcendent divinity and the rest of reality, as in the Mosaic definitiveness of the I AM, yet never succeed in extending beyond the confines of the Chosen People to the chosenness of each individual human soul. The break with the divine reality of the cosmos may be far less radical, such as in classical philosophy, in which the movement of the soul toward the Beyond is differentiated, but no countermovement from the transcendent can be conceived of a divine source whose paradigmatic ikon remains the cosmos itself. Friendship between man and God is, according to Aristotle, impossible. A fully transcendent and self-revealing God, indispensable for such a relationship, has not yet been experienced by him. The break with the cosmic reality can be so tenuous that the movement toward the Beyond is still expressed hierarchically, as in Confucianism, or has been concentrated into itself as the Way, which is simultaneously the way of the cosmos and the way beyond it, as in Taoism. Or the transcending movement can remain so tied to the struggle against the cosmos that it can only be conceived in terms of the dichotomy of illusion and liberation, as in Hinduism. By contrast, the focus on the movement itself can become so intense that it can become its own justification eclipsing all other reality, as in the Buddhist attainment of Boddhisatva. Even when the maximum differentiation is beheld in the self-revelation of transcendent Being within time, as in Christianity, there is no guarantee that the full amplitude of differentiation will be maintained. Islam arises, to a considerable extent, out of the demand for simplification of the mystery of the incarnation, and Gnosticism flourishes because of the perennial demand to overleap the distance that separates us from its consummation. (Fs) (notabene)