Person and Society Lilly

8/2/2019 Person and Society Lilly

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Person and society[John Walgrave, O.P]

unity and duality of the Christian viewof life


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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.


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Human minds cannot have complete

understanding of the mystery of our faith or

cannot succeeds complete possession of whatis 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 aspreserved and unfolded now by church,Scripture, tradition of faith, etc.


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Thinking existence in search of itself

Here the Revelation is not accurate for ourChristian 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.


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There are two worlds

Lived World Thought World

Our own world Not the real world,

Experienced world, independently existing ideas,

Experience is immediate

Cognitive, gives meaning to the

Original and fundamental, experienced world,

Background of thought, intentional,complete human

consciousness of the

world of immediateexperience.


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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.


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Unconsciously we partake in this world and

shape by ourselves. It is also true to say thatwe 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 andearth than our thinking.


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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 selfpreservation 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 anysituation, as an invitation to action, loses its unquestionableness.


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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 theuniversal and unsophisticated evidence of human

consciousness, we do not perceive mere sense

phenomena but real independent things whichconstitute a real world.

Self-conscious standpoint he is aware of the

world as an objective reality.


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Independent historical existence and

divine revelation

Mans existence is a self thinking existence ;thatis why no Christian view of man can be a pure

datum of revelation.

Thus revalation presupposes an existence that,onthe ground od certain self-understanding

,continues to seek and question itself.

Gode revelation can be heard in history onlywhen there is a living questionong on the part of

man.that is why revelation itself manifests an

historical character.


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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 ofhistorical situation. God spoke the language

of the particular time.

Christ himself appeared ,as the final revelationof god ,in the fullness of the times", that is

historical kairos.


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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.


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Duality and unity of Christian thought

In that allencompassing movement andcommitment ,Christian thought manifests two

aspects; it is a reflection upon the faith and a

reflection upon the earthly problems of life in thelight 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.


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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.


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Thought and reality

Guiding principles


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Phase of social thinking


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Culture and graceHumanism, 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.


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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 lordand 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 inauguratedat Christ's second coming and that ,in contrast

with the horizontal course of time, will close

earthly history and replace it.


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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 andeschatological.

It is a true incarnation of the heavenly

community into an earthly community, justChrist is the true incarnation of god in a

historical figure.


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The divine kingdom on earth is subject to the

earthly conditions of existence of sinful

mankind.


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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 andthrough the body and the material world. this self-

realization of man in the world is called "culture.

The great domain of culture are the principal

aspects of a humanity that unfolds and developsthrough self-realization.

this self-creating activity together with its

objective results we call "culture.


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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 onlyin 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 itsplace or repress it ,but to save it.


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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.


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Thanks

Person and Society Lilly

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