Autor: Ormerod, Neil

Buch: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Titel: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Stichwort: Dialektik: Gnade - Sünde; Konversion, Augustinus (Confessiones, Retractationum); M. Luther, K. Barth vs. Gnade - Natur (keine "middle ground")

Kurzinhalt: Augustine's theology of grace focuses on the existential situation of the individual, caught between being either a "slave to sin" or a "slave to God's law" (see Rom 7:25). Faced with such a dialectic of sin and grace Augustine could find no middle ...

Textausschnitt: THE GRACE/SIN DIALECTIC

111d One of the most moving accounts of conversion found in Christian literature is that of Augustine in book 8 of his Confessions. In it he recounts his own struggle with continence or sexual purity. This was the last moral obstacle for him in coming to the Christian faith,1 and he felt powerless to do anything about his own weakness in this regard. In the end the radical change in his life did not come about through his own efforts at "self-control" but through the power of God's grace, initiated through the reading of a text from Romans. God produces a change in Augustine, and once that change occurred his problems with continence disappeared. It is clear that this pivotal experience shaped Augustine's whole theology of grace, and through him, the theology and doctrine of the Western church. (Fs) (notabene)

112a Augustine's theology of grace focuses on the existential situation of the individual, caught between being either a "slave to sin" or a "slave to God's law" (see Rom 7:25). Faced with such a dialectic of sin and grace Augustine could find no middle ground, no neutral place that was neither sin nor grace. Consequently Augustine could find nothing good in the life of a pagan-the virtues of the pagans are vices in disguise! Indeed, so extreme was this dialectical position that at one point Augustine even denied that pagans could know anything. Though he was later to retract this position (Retractationum 1.4), it was the logical outcome of the dialectic position he adopted. (Fs)

112b This difficulty points to an unresolved tension in the work of Augustine. On the one hand, his dialectic of grace and sin clearly identifies and highlights the healing qualities of grace. This is a lasting contribution of Augustine's theology of grace. On the other hand, this same dialectical approach paints a black and white account of the human condition. Either one is "all sin'or "all grace." The danger with such an account of the human condition is that it comes close to a form of dualism whereby the finitude of our human state becomes identified with sin itself. We have already seen this type of problem in relation to Augustine's blurring of the distinction between original sin and concupiscence. (Fs) (notabene)

112c Faced with such tensions, theological reflection can move in two distinct directions. One may seek to reinforce the dialectic, making it the fundamental starting point of one's theology. This is the direction taken by Martin Luther and the other reformers. One of the most powerful modern exponents of such a dialectical theology is the great Swiss theologian Karl Barth. For Barth all human reason is suspect, and all human motivation corrupt: "Faith ... grips reason by the throat and strangles the beast."2 Human nature of itself has nothing positive to contribute. (Fs)

113a The alternative is to seek to give some account of the "middle ground" between sin and grace, an arena of goodness that is "natural," not sin, but not yet the salvific goodness of divine grace. It is this line of development that led to the classical grace/nature distinction that became the foundation for the Catholic theology of Thomas Aquinas.3