Calvin Synod Herald, 1977 (77. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1977-03-01 / 3-4. szám
REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA 3 THE ULTIMATE REALITY Hans Küng, a Jesuit, is one of the most distinguished theologians in the world today, respected not only by Roman Catholics but by Christians of all denominations. He is presently professor of Dogmatic and Ecumenical Studies at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Among his well known published works are The Church, Infallible? and The Future of the Church. His latest book is titled On Being a Christian. It is a Christ-centered book. The death and resurrection of our Lord is in the center of existence. Here Küng examines the roots of Christian beliefs and affirms the vitality and uniqueness of Christianity in our age/ Here are a few excerpts from his chapter on resurrection: Resurrection means dying into God: death and resurrection are most closely connected. Resurrection occurs with death, in death, from death. This is brought out most clearly in early pre-Pauline hymns in which Jesus’ exaltation seems to follow immediately on the crucifixion. And in John’s Gospel especially Jesus’ “exaltation” means both his crucifixion and his “glorification” and both form the one return to the Father. But in the rest of the New Testament the exaltation comes after the humiliation of the cross. “Dying into God” is not something to be taken for granted, not a natural development, not a desideratum of human nature to be fulfilled at all costs. Death and resurrection must be seen as distinct, not necessarily in time but objectively. This is also emphasised by the ancient, presumably less historical than theological reference: “on the third day he rose again,” “third” being not a date in the calendar but a salvation date for a day of salvation. Death is man’s affair, resurrection can be only God’s. Man is taken up, called, brought home, and therefore finally accepted, saved, by God into himself as the incomprehensible, comprehensive ultimate reality. He is taken up in death or — better — from death as an event in itself, rooted in God’s act and fidelity. It is the hidden, unimaginable, new act of the Creator, of him who calls into existence the things that are not. And therefore — though not a supernatural “intervention” contrary to the laws of nature — it is a genuine gift and a true miracle... The resurrection faith therefore is not to be interpreted merely as existential interiorization or social change, but as a radicalizing of faith in God the Creator. Resurrection means the real conquest of death by God the Creator to whom the believer entrusts everything, even the ultimate, even the conquest of death. The end which is also a new beginning. Anyone who begins his creed with faith in “God the Almighty Creator” can be content to end it with faith in “eternal life.” Since God is the Alpha, he is also the Omega. The Almighty Creator who calls things from nothingness into being can also call men from death into life.. . The empty tomb never led anyone to faith in the risen Christ. As no one claims to have been present at the resurrection or to have known eyewitnesses of the resurrection, neither does anyone say that the empty tomb led him to faith in the risen Christ. The disciples never appeal to the evidence of the empty tomb in order to strengthen the faith of the Church or to refute and convince opponents. Faith in the risen Christ therefore is independent of the empty tomb. The empty tomb is not a condition, but at best an illustration, of the Easter event. It is not an article of faith, it is neither the ground nor the object of the Easter faith. According to the New Testament message itself, we do not need to believe either because of or — still less — in the empty tomb. Christian faith does not call us to the empty tomb but to encounter with the living Christ himself: “Why do you seek the living with the dead?” STANZAS AT EASTER Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall. It was not as the flowers, each soft Spring recurrent; it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the eleven apostles; it was as His flesh: ours. The same hinged thumbs and toes, the same valved heart that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then regathered out of enduring Might new strength to enclose. Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping, transcendence; making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages: let us walk through the door.. . John Updike
