Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: The Ontological and Psychological Constitution of Christ

Titel: The Ontological and Psychological Constitution of Christ

Stichwort: Person (Elemente d. Definition); Existenz; Erbsünde, Gnade; Unterschied zw. Philosophen (Existenz auf verschiedenen Ebenen); thomistische Theologie

Kurzinhalt: ...who disregard divine revelation and proceed empirically and concretely ... may appear to be considering human beings as they are, but in fact are ignoring what divine wisdom has devised and divine goodness has bestowed to alleviate the human condition.

Textausschnitt: 11 Existence theology (eü)

11 With all this well understood, the following points should also be noted.

39/1 First, what we have very briefly written about the meaning of Existenz merely touches the surface. There are many different intermediate stages between the extremes of a coherent sensism and an equally coherent intellectualism. And one must not think that each individual lives consistently at one fixed stage but rather that we more or less go back and forth between stages. Just as the surface of the ocean is disturbed now by smaller and now by larger waves, and just as the water level falls and rises with the ebb and flow of the tides, so ought we to think of the various levels of perfection at which persons may 'exist.' (29; Fs) (notabene)

40/1 Second, once the complexity of the matter and the obscurity of the problem are grasped, do not imagine that with these notes you are ready to understand those authors who go by the name of existentialists. For what each one of them means by 'being' can be determined only by a painstaking investigation of that particular thinker. (29; Fs)

41/1 Third, there are many arguments to prove that this question of Existenz is theological rather than philosophical. For whoever strives to understand human beings as they actually are is investigating creatures infected by original sin and helped by God's grace, and as either cooperating with or resisting that grace. But it is theologians and not philosophers whose task it is to seek an understanding of original sin and of divine grace. Furthermore, in the actual order of things, by the one remedy of revelation God had a twofold end in view, namely, that supernatural truths might become known and that natural truths could be known with relative ease, with certitude, and with no trace of error (DB 1786, DS 3005). Hence, those who disregard divine revelation and proceed empirically and concretely, who regard only the mass of humanity rather than what human nature can do by itself, may appear to be considering human beings as they are, but in fact are ignoring what divine wisdom has devised and divine goodness has bestowed to alleviate the human condition. (29; Fs)

42/1 Fourth, there is also another sense in which the question of Existenz belongs to the theologian. For the critical problem which has arisen from the many disagreements and opposing views of philosophers is not simply absent in theologians: the latter, in their investigation of almost every speculative question, take up different positions with the result that they argue fruitlessly and inconclusively. Furthermore, if philosophers disagree because they 'exist' at different levels, theologians not only can suspect that they have not been entirely free of the same malady, but also should strive to help both themselves and the philosophers, since they are investigating the deeper causes and reasons for the human condition as it actually is. (29f; Fs)

43/1 Fifth, we must not overlook the fact that the numerous objections which are usually brought up against Thomist theology are most serious for those who do not 'exist,' but completely disappear for those who do. While it is true that the old should be expanded and perfected by the new,1 it is crucial that we strive really to understand the old. I know of nothing that can lead to this more effectively than that interior and radical conversion whereby one emerges from the shadows and admits to oneself that the real is the intelligible, the true, being, the good. (31; Fs) (notabene)

44/1 That does not mean, of course, that the senses, imagination, and affectivity are of no account. For we understand nothing in this life unless we turn our intellects to phantasms. And although we conceive God by denying all materiality and all that is perceptible by the senses, we cannot approach our Lord Jesus Christ, a man individuated by matter, save by beginning from this particular time and place familiar to us through our senses and then proceeding by our imagination until we arrive at the Palestine, the Bethlehem, the Nazareth, and the Jerusalem of two thousand years ago. But after arriving at the corporeal reality of the Lord by means of our senses, we ought to grasp by our mind that he is a man animated by a rational soul and believe by faith that he is not just man but also God. And finally, by theology we ought to understand to some extent what it means to be one person subsisting in two natures and being aware of himself through two consciousnesses. (31; Fs)