Autor: Voegelin, Eric

Buch: Israel and Revelation

Titel: Israel and Revelation

Stichwort: Ägyptische Religion, Johannes

Kurzinhalt: Joh 1:6-7; Unterschied zw. ägyptischer und biblischer Logos-Theologie

Textausschnitt: The creation of the world by the word of Ptah reminded Breasted [eg: sic] of the divine word that created the world in Genesis, and of the Logos speculation of St. John. Ever since, the Memphite Theology has remained the pride of Egyptologists. Egyptian thought, they maintained, showed itself from the very beginning on the spiritual and moral level of the Hebrews and of St. John; and by its search for a first principle of order, as well as by the discovery of the principle in a creative, divine intelligence, it gained the intellectual level of the Greeks. While undeniably there is a core of truth in such reflections, they require some critical qualification in order to become tenable; for as they stand they are all too obviously on the defensive against progressivist notions of history in so far as they argue in substance: Anybody who still believes that the beginnings of human civilization are 'primitive,' and that only with Israel and Hellas do we rise to a level of serious interest for Western man, should consider the achievement that speaks from the oldest extant document in human history. (94; Fs)
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99/3 Against that argument must be held that it makes sense only if the idea of a progress with regard to 'doctrines' be accepted at all. If, however, we replace the principle of progress in the history of ideas by the principle of compactness and differentiation with regard to experiences, there is nothing extraordinary about the appearance of particular ideas and techniques of thought in an ancient civilization. The Egyptian Logos speculation should cause no surprise, since differentiations of this kind are possible within every civilizational form. It would be surprising only if 'a man had appeared, sent by God, whose name was John: who came for the purpose of witnessing, to bear testimony to the Light, so that all men might believe by means of him' (John 1:6-7). For that would not have been a matter of speculation within the form of the myth, but an experiential break with the cosmological form and an opening of the soul toward transcendence. The Logos of the Memphite Theology created a world that was consubstantial with Egypt; but the Logos of John created a world with a mankind immediate under God. The Johannine Logos would have broken the Pharaonic mediation; it could not have unified and founded Egypt, but would have destroyed its order. Breasted, we may say, has rightly seen the parallel speculations on the level of 'doctrine'; but since life is not a matter of doctrine, they do not touch the form, or essence, of a civilization. As far as the experiences of order are concerned, the parallel cannot be maintained. (94f; Fs)