Faith & Knowledge
Excerpts from “Faith & Knowledge” (1962)
The ‘homo-religiosus’ is precisely the person under the law. This is the new ‘post-Schleiermacher-knowledge’ which makes theology today the most exciting and important matter. If that be true, what is going to happen to atheism, what to the church, what to science?… Jesus Christ alone stands among us all as true human being – this is the significance of his incarnation… Therefore, the incarnation of Christ is the very opposite of the deification of Adam. The crucified, ‘as true human being,’ stands in a world whose people gave up their own truth, the truth of the their existence, depriving themselves of the knowledge of God. Hence, he stands as true human being amidst ‘unfortunate, arrogant gods…’ Justification is the ‘incomprehensible,’ profoundly ‘scandalous,’ and at the same time absolutely ‘unpractical’ and ethically ‘contestable’ in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Justification is not ‘there’ for achieving ‘something,’ as thought by Ritschl and his school, such as giving the human being a good conscience that enables him, as an ethical person, to continue the struggle against his instincts and false inclinations. Hence, it is not the motivating force within the entire ethical process, but is itself a terminus, an end, the ultimate power and purpose of all purposes.
‘Faith and Unbelief’ – That in particular is the great and overwhelming significance of Luther’s doctrine of justification: it begins with an all-embracing ‘all-or nothing’ which cancels all casuistry. Just as nothing but faith justifies, so also nothing is sin but unbelief. One who believes has everything; one who disbelieves loses even that which he has.
‘The Word of God and Faith’ – Faith, however, means: he will be Lord. Thus God finds the person who even now, in the invisibleness of not-seeing, yet believing, takes him in faith to be the all-embracing fullness of reality. Whoever believes in God,
believes in the truth of his word. Then, all reality, experience, conscience, and the law stand in opposition to it, his word, nonetheless, remains true. In the believer, the word has found its ally – the only one whom God accepts.