Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam > Blaise Pascal Instituut > Girard Studiekring > COV&R 2007 > Abstracts Papers 

Willibald Sandler

How to lose and to regain authentic identity

An outline of biblical-Christian theology as a basis for a way out of the dilemma of tolerance in the face of violence

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ABSTRACT

The paper will provide a concise overview on central aspects of biblical-Christian anthropology and soteriology, focussing especially on creation, the Fall of Man, a dramatic Christology beginning with Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God , and the Eucharist.

1. The narrative of the Fall of Man shows that the loss of authentic identity is based on a refusal to receive the core of personality as a gift from God. Already small aberrations trigger a desperate search for substitute forms to safeguard identity, and so the alienation of Self, Others and God is reinforced. As these vicious circles work also on a social level, an escape is actually impossible. Mimetic theory shows up this entanglement, but neither comprehension nor moral strain leads automatically to overcoming. Rather it may drive into even deeper entanglement, as can also be shown by mimetic theory.

2. Theology claims that apart from recognition and effort of will the experience of grace proves to be a third factor which is constitutive for the act of faith. Jesus paves a way out of the vicious circles of lost identity by providing a strong experience of grace and so by making possible an act of faith, which enables man to regain an authentic identity. This process proves all substitute forms of safeguarding identity to be needless, but at the same time it threatens the manifestations of substitute identity on an individual as well as on a social level. Hence the severe resistance against Jesus, which ultimately leads to his crucifixion. The paper will have to show that the cross is not only an unintentional consequence of Jesus̓ engagement but also a means to overcome the vicious circles of substitute identity (even in its social dimensions), and this not only on a cognitive level by uncovering mechanisms, or on a moralistic level by showing prescriptions which no-one can follow authentically, but also on a soteriological level, by providing the experience of grace in contexts where grace has already been refused. From there the Eucharist proves to be a space for transformation and renewal of communal identity. And to this end sacrifice and meal are no more concurring aspects of Eucharist, but mutually dependent.

3. In this soteriological context the terms tolerance and vulnerability will be reconstructed in differentiated ways (in fact each in two totally different meanings). The paper will claim that there ARE ways out of the dilemma of tolerance in the face of violence. But as these resorts depend also on the experience of grace which is not feasible, they cannot be guaranteed by political or legal interventions. All attempts to do so will threaten only to enhance the vicious circles instead of escaping them. The impulses of renewed action, released by the experience of grace, are to be provided on a communal level by communities of faith, being centred on the transforming power of Eucharist. Political action has to provide regulations which do not block but leave space for a de-escalating communal acting, empowered by the experience of grace.