Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)

1968-06-01 / 2. szám

HCP. Vol XX Special Number ~ 14 - (07656)

1968 No 2

ers but men of action* Yet, political action as the work of love toward man is, according to Marxism; the Ultimate (in the Bonhoefforian sense); while;' according to Christian humanism; it is the Penultimate, Since Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World; we are responsible far man. It is not we that redeem man by the actions of our responsibility; yet we carry our responsibility to the end that man may live, and live under such material and cultural conditions as that are needed so that he may hear the Gospel of redemption. There is nothing above the political actions of Marxian; man being the ultimate reality; while, above the actions of Christian humanism; there is the Lord Jesus öhrist. The actions of Christian humanism are to witness to Him,

d) The Tasks of Evangelical Humanism

In view of the structural similarity - withal dissimilarity, as to the contents, - of the two, the common question of Christian and Marxist humanism is: what can we jointly do for man - to the end of realising the full and real humánum? What can we do for the man of today without sacrificing the man or tem^r-row. What can we do by joining our efforts to humanize the economio, social and political institutions without attaching more importance to the. ideas and plans of humanization than to man who exists in the reality of his body and soul?

S'

The humanism of. the Gospel places us under the obligation of two tasks, or, rather, there are two tasks we especially mention of the multitude of tasks which cannot be enumerated here0 Both tasks are within the scope of the prophetic ministry of the Church and their fulfillment calls for our cooperation with those types of humanism which are inspired by seoular motives*

It is our task to preserve the right criterion of social changes,that is, the real man who exists as body and soul. In other words, we must see to it that the saeculum rónáin secular, and there be no new myths and fetishes in the world that has become "profane", "secular" to supersede the importance of the living man0ll)

It is our task to relativize the conflicts vdiich arisec We do not understand this task in terms of liberálistic tolerance, neither in the sense Of historical relativism, but as the necessary consequence of the truth that not man but God is the Ultimate Reality; neither are man,s justice and his oonflicts the final reality but the justifying grace of God and His peace that passeth all understanding«. Faith in Jesus Christ is incompatible with the insist enoe on the absolute truth and .justice of cur own positions. The absolutizing tendency goes togetner with the demonizing tendency, for "wherever I make myself absolute there the other person must be considered as possessed of demons" God the Creator and Redeemer is absolute, and hence human conflicts are relative« This carries the implication that, for Christian humanism, there are no absolute