Autor: Murray, John

Buch: The Problem of God: Yesterday and Today

Titel: The Problem of God: Yesterday and Today

Stichwort: Der Gottlose der Bibel; Typ 1 - der Narr, der ungläubige Gläubige; Wurzel: Leidenschaft

Kurzinhalt: The fool's denial does not concern God's existence in some metaphysical sense but his active existence in the midst of his people; Behind the denial of God's presence as judge clearly lies the will to libertinage ...

Textausschnitt: The Godless Man in the Bible

78a The Bible presents three major types of the godless man: the godless man within the people of God, the godless peoples outside the people of God, and the godless philosopher. All three are prototypes. (Fs)

78b The first type is called by the Psalmist the "fool," the senseless man: "The fool says to himself: 'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1). His meaning ought to be clear from what I have said about the existence of God as biblical thought understood it. The fool's denial does not concern God's existence in some metaphysical sense but his active existence in the midst of his people. The senseless man is saying to himself: "God is not here, now, with me." He is contrasted with the "man of sense" in the ensuing verse, the "man who seeks God" and actively recognizes his presence in the moment. More specifically, the fool's denial falls on the presence of God as his judge. He is the "stupid man," the "senseless man" of Psalm 92, who "knows nothing" and who "understands not at all" the terrible truth that, "if the wicked sprout like grass, and if evil-doers flourish, it is only to be destroyed forever" (92:7-8). The folly here is not innocent, a sheer vagary of the mind. The fool is the "wicked man" of another Psalm: "The wicked man applauds the desires of his soul; greedy for gain, the wicked man curses, renounces Yahweh [the God who is here]; high in passion, he does not seek him. 'God is not here!' This is his whole thought" (10:3-4). Behind the denial of God's presence as judge clearly lies the will to libertinage, to the passionate existence as we might call it. Because I will that what I do be permitted, says the senseless man, therefore I deny that God is here to tell me that it is not permitted. The denial, like the will behind it, is senseless-a violation of religious intelligence, a sinful defect of moral quality. (Fs)

79a The biblical fool is the prototype of the perennial godlessness of the people of God; he represents the archetype of the unbelief of believers. Of the people of God, Jeremiah's prophetic word, spoken in context of the house of Israel, is forever valid: "They have denied Yahweh; they have said, 'He is not [not Yahweh, not the Lord in their midst]'" (5:12). The denial is not of the theoretical order. It has the sense of an active ignoring of the presence of God, a refusal to abide his judgments. (Fs) (notabene)