Autor: Voegelin, Eric

Buch: Israel and Revelation

Titel: Israel and Revelation

Stichwort: Decline; 'Dispute of a Man, Who Contemplates Suicide, with His Soul.'; Konsubstantialität

Kurzinhalt: Isolation eines geistigen Menschen in der Zeit einer moralischen disorder; die geistige Gemeinschaft ist zerstört

Textausschnitt: To whom can I speak today?
One's fellows are evil;
The friends of today do not love.
To whom can I speak today?
Faces have disappeared:
Every man has a downcast face toward his fellow.
To whom can I speak today?
A man should arouse wrath by his evil character,
But he stirs everyone to laughter, in spite of the wickedness of his sin.
To whom can I speak today?
There are no righteous;
The land is left to those who do wrong.
To whom can I speak today?
The sin that afflicts the land,
It has no end.
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... The impasse which precedes a suicide is caused by the impossibility of spiritual and moral life in community with others. That is not a matter of discomforts and dangers as they are inevitable in a time of social upheaval; it is rather a question of the moral disintegration of the people with whom one is compelled to live. The essence of the misery is formulated in the line 'Every man has a downcast face toward his fellow.' The community of the spirit (or, for Egypt, we should say, of the maat) is destroyed. The fellow man casts down his eyes so that you will not read in them the deal he has made with evil and know that he has become a conniver. The isolation of the spiritual man among contemporaries who have committed moral suicide lets death appear as the friend who opens the gate from the prison of life. ... It is not a mere escape from an unbearable situation but the way to redeeming action. In the beyond, the man will be a living god who can help in repairing the evils of society by punishing criminals, restoring worship and offerings in the temples, and effectively appealing to the god.