Person and society

[John Walgrave, O.P]

unity and duality of the Christian view of life

The search for the Norm

A Christian view of man is regarding our social relations which includes the ideas about man, his nature, his life, to his fellow-man and to God, etc. It is a part of universal, embracing the whole world. It is not be equated with a collection of unchangeable supra-historical truths.

 Human minds cannot have complete understanding of the mystery of our faith or cannot succeeds complete possession of what is given to this. There is always a room for further searching or clarification. It is always subjected to criticism and raise questions regarding norm of judgment. At first sight, Christians see the norm in Revelation, i.e unveiled in Jesus and as preserved and unfolded now by church, Scripture, tradition of faith, etc.

Thinking existence in search of itself

Here the Revelation is not accurate for our Christian view of man and society. It presupposes another factors, i.e man and his conscious life. What is conscious life? It is a life, the aware of itself - precisely a being with one-self, It possesses an immediate experience of the existence in the world.

There are two worlds

Lived World Our own world Experienced world, Experience is immediate Cognitive, Original and fundamental, Background of thought, Thought World Not the real world, independently existing ideas,

gives meaning to the experienced world, intentional, complete human consciousness of the world of immediate experience.

 The human world is not a private world although it is a world shaped by thought but a common or social world. Thought is mental perception, restless attempts to conscious existence. In broader sense experience and thought are one. These are two aspects of whole of consciousness of life. Experience is given to us, originating and thought is made by us and originated. Both encompasses the whole of our conscious life.

 Unconsciously we partake in this world and shape by ourselves. It is also true to say that we can live in this world until our death without, without asking any asking any question or with criticism. Finally the world we live is not limited to thought. There are many things in heaven and earth than our thinking.

Existential need
The most profound driving power of our thinking and seeking existence, is existential need. Man ,then, is constantly faced with all sorts of problems that are difficult to solve. Varity of questions constantly arise regarding his existence. There is first the questions of self preservation in the material world. Secondly, on the level of self-conscious being, life as a whole, the contingent fact of existence ,ceases to be something to be taken for granted. thirdly ,for a conscious being not only existence itself but also any situation, as an invitation to action, loses its unquestionableness.

Historical dialects and freedom that creates culture

Human life is charecterized by historicity.the radical difference between instinctive existence and self-conscious. Self-conscious life is a free life. According to the universal and unsophisticated evidence of human consciousness, we do not perceive mere sense phenomena but real independent things which constitute a real world. Self-conscious standpoint he is aware of the world as an objective reality.

Independent historical existence and divine revelation

Mans existence is a self thinking existence ;that is why no Christian view of man can be a pure datum of revelation. Thus revalation presupposes an existence that,on the ground od certain self-understanding ,continues to seek and question itself. Gode revelation can be heard in history only when there is a living questionong on the part of man.that is why revelation itself manifests an historical character.

 If god's revelation is a kairos, a critical moment for man, definite moments in history are also a kairos. Revelation is historical .its course from Adam to Christ was marked by contingency. Gods word wrapped itself in the garments of historical situation. God spoke the language of the particular time. Christ himself appeared ,as the final revelation of god ,in the fullness of the times", that is historical kairos.

Dialectical development of understanding through faith.

We do not mean that new direct revelations were made to the church after Christ and the apostles. Through the understanding of faith bestowed upon the apostles the holy spirit, mankind has appropriated the apparition of god in Christ according to its true meaning.

Duality and unity of Christian thought

In that all encompassing movement and commitment ,Christian thought manifests two aspects; it is a reflection upon the faith and a reflection upon the earthly problems of life in the light of the faith. There is the work of theological reflection trying to unfold and explain revelation in a meaningful system. The light of faith also penetrates into the autonomous, self-thinking life of man.

 The presentation of revealed truth must of necessity follow he historical movement of our existence and our thought. Life on this earth is a perpetual development and movement.

Thought and reality

Guiding principles

Phase of social thinking

Culture and grace

Humanism, mysticism or eschatology Regarding the relation between our Christian view of man and our historical task of developing the earthly community is according to a moral idea. The good of salvation ,the life of grace is not of this world. It is a communion of life with god ,through Jesus Christ. The community of grace with god is the kingdom of god" or the kingdom of heaven.

 The church is truly an earthly society in which the community of the heavenly kingdom of god is realized, and the risen Christ is the karios,the lord and king of that society. What is the relation between the heavenly kingdom of god? The kingdom then is not so much an eternal kingdom that descends vertically, as it were ,into our earthly history. It is an ultimate kingdom that will be inaugurated at Christ's second coming and that ,in contrast with the horizontal course of time, will close earthly history and replace it.

The church ,kingdom of heaven and ultimate kingdom

Without having recourse to exegetical proof ,we think we are justified in saying that the kingdom of heaven preached by Christ is both supernatural and earthly, historical and eschatological. It is a true incarnation of the heavenly community into an earthly community, just Christ is the true incarnation of god in a historical figure.

 The divine kingdom on earth is subject to the earthly conditions of existence of sinful mankind.

Culture as the exercise of human existence

Man is not kind of princely being who, accomplished in his manhood by nature, has the choice of committing himself to culture or not. Everything human is spiritual acquisition in and through the body and the material world. this selfrealization of man in the world is called "culture. The great domain of culture are the principal aspects of a humanity that unfolds and develops through self-realization. this self-creating activity together with its objective results we call "culture.

The earthly bodily character of the kingdom of heaven

A divine revelation can be known only with in a life that realizes itself through thinking. No mater how much grace awakens our human answer to relation, this answer can be given only in terms of human life. In this historical life of humanity that develops itself through culture. gods heavenly kingdom did not come down into the earthly kingdom of man order to take its place or repress it ,but to save it.

 The salvation of man must therefore mean also the salvation of culture. Holiness is nit division but wholeness. Adam is not abolished in Christ but is renewed in him; he is recapitulated.

Thanks