Autor: Schmitz, Kenneth L.

Buch: The Gift: Creation

Titel: The Gift: Creation

Stichwort: Schöpfung - Geschenk; Beispiel: Eltern - Kind (E. als Geben und Empfänger); creatio ex nihilo (absolut unbedingte Ungleichheit zw. Geben und Empfänger)

Kurzinhalt: d: (g - sg - r = d)... D: [ (g - sg - r = D) ]... creation ex nihilo ... the Lord is the donor who institutes the order within which the thing has its value, within which the giver gives, and within which the recipient receives.

Textausschnitt: 61a Suppose now that we modify the simple gift situation by introducing into it a complicating factor. We have already pointed out the inveterate non-parity between donor and recipient; but let us introduce an additional inequality between giver and receiver. Let the receiver be the original donor who makes it possible for the giver to give a gift. The situation becomes that of donor, giver, gift and receiver who is the original donor:
d: (g - sg - r = d).

61b An everyday family example will illustrate the modified situation. The parents of a small child provide it with the very means by which it can give them some little gift. Now, in giving the gift the child actualizes the possibility which its parents have provided. Of course, the child subsumes their endowment and fashions its own characteristic response which can be made only by it, and so it has further determined the possibility through its own initiative and character.1 (Fs)

61c What are we to make of this? Is such a "giving" genuine? It would be quite mistaken, I think, to look upon it as empty sham and mere childish play-acting on the grounds that nothing is actually given to the parents which they did not already have or could easily have; or to see its only value in the formation of habits of generosity for later life. Quite to the contrary, the very "nullity" of the little gift as a value in and of itself renders it transparent, so that perceptive parents can see the true value of the gift to lie in the child's expression of affection. The child gives nothing of value except itself. The gift is the symbolic delivery of itself into the receiving hands of its parents, the "return" of its life to them. Of course, the child may well expect their continuing favour and support, and its motives may be unclear; but in that it is not so unlike an adult. Ontologically, then, the situation reveals these three characteristics: (1) There is inequality in the ontological status and power of the child and its parents; for the parents play a double role, that of setting up the conditions for the child being able to give and that of receiving the gift from it. (2) In many situations the subsistence or independent value of the gift renders it opaque. In this situation the relative "nullity" of the thing given renders the gift transparent, since it has no independent value for the parents. (3) It symbolizes the giver, therefore, making the child present with its love. (Fs)

62a We have been considering a relative inequality so far. Although the parents are the principal causes of the life of the child, they are not its only causes, for the child draws continuing life from other persons and things about it. That is why the child can bring to the parents something they have not given to it, flowers from the field, a water-colour of its own making, or even a smile that reveals its growing personality. But suppose now that we imagine a situation in which there is absolute unconditioned inequality. Here the donor would be the founder of the entire order within which the giver gives and within which the recipient receives. And suppose further that, as in the previous situation, the recipient were the same original donor. Thus,
D: [ (g - sg - r = D) ].

63a The donor institutes the whole order which includes the giver who gives something to the recipient who is the original donor. The donor creates the context within which the giver can give back to the donor something already received from the donor. Now, in this situation nothing can be introduced from outside as from an independent source; the situation is creation ex nihilo. To put it in terms of the Biblical religions, the Lord is the donor who institutes the order within which the thing has its value, within which the giver gives, and within which the recipient receives. "O God, you give that I may give." (Fs)