Weber, Edmund

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_____________________________________  Journal of Religious Culture Journal für Religionskultur  Ed. by / Hrsg. von Edmund Weber in Association with / in Zusammenarbeit mit Matthias Benad Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main  ISSN 1434-5935 - © E.Weber – E-mail: e.weber@em.uni-frankfurt.de - web.uni-frankfurt.de/irenik _____________________________________  No. 145 (2010)  Salvation and Faith With Special Reference to Martin Luther’s and John Calvin’s Ideas A Theological Contribution to a General Theory of Religion1  By  Edmund Weber   Introduction  The human being is forced to interpret its existence by itself. Reason is that its con-sciousness is free and not determined by given objects. More than that, the human consciousness is free to produce its own objects and contents. Therefore it is also free to determine itself. But this self-determination does not suspend its origin, the free-dom  of  the  human  consciousness.  There  is  no  natural  determination  of  self-understanding, and it is a sham idea to suppose that any product of self-determination is an irreversible fact. The self-consciousness does not depend on external parameters or on its own self-interpretive definitions. It is its fate to live out of its freedom, its in-determinability, and its utopian essence.                                                   1 This article is based on the keynote given to the Symposium in Commemoration of the 500th Birthday of John Calvin at the Evangelical Theological Seminary, Cairo, 15th of April, 2010.   2 Although the human being lives out of the infinite, it has - in order to realise its con-crete life - to define it all the time. In this way all the non-defined existential possi-bilities are destroyed, and the defined ones do not have the power of eternity.     As pure constructions of an ultimately unbound consciousness all the self-definitions are extremely fragile and instable. Under any circumstances existential security can-not be guaranteed by them.  The traditional term of the conscious experience of this dialectic structure of the hu-man existence, the conscious reflection of the unsolvable oscillation between infinite and definite, is religion.  Under this perspective religion is the common, basic, necessary, and greatest project of all the human beings. Reducing religion to traditional forms of that experience leads to the split of mankind into two antagonistic groups: religious and non-religious people. However, that split does not make any sense. It is theoretically useless because it ig-nores that both the groups have the same existential problem: the necessity of con-structing a particular concept of existence and the knowledge of its indisputable in-stability. Therefore, and in accordance with Thomas Luckmann's theory of modern religion, we use the traditional term religion for all these kinds of existential discourses.2    In religion the human consciousness confronts itself with its infinite basis as creative and dissolving power. The most general traditional terms of that ambiguous power are the Holy, God, and Transcendence.   All religions are dealing with that all concrete self-definitions transcending power of human consciousness. It is a power no human culture has been able to withstand. However, religions deal with the Holy in different manners.  There are two basic streaming: The first and most powerful one dogmatizes that succeeding in a perfect life depends on the human beings' culture or using our traditional term on human work. The sec-ond one completely denies that idea because no human work is able to withstand the creative and dissolving power of the Holy or the infinite ground of human existence.  Considering Luther’s and Calvin’s Ideas  In the history of the Christian religion this antagonism started from its beginning.   Its greatest historical clash, however, happened in the time of the so-called reforma-tion when the reformers Martin Luther, John Calvin and other theologians protested the late mediaeval religion which favored concrete human work as the proper means ultimately defining a felicitous existence.  Both the reformers definitely denied that concept, i. e. denying that any human nor-mative self-definition or work has the power to give an ultimate meaning of human existence.                                                   2 It is the proper task of serious religious studies to conceptualize that dialectical basic structure of human consciousness as a result of evolution.   3 Therefore, the ultimate meaning of human existence is neither intellectually identifi-able nor practically manageable, nor emotionally palpable. As such it can’t be ac-tively or passively experienced at all.  That is the reason the Bible calls the human being God's image, reminding the human creatures that their essence is basically not at their intellectual, practical or emotional disposal.  Both the reformers decidedly fought the idea of human self-dependence which is the reverse of the ideology that human beings' identity is constituted by their 'works' or by their 'culture'.  The creature is in its essence absolutely free from its own work, it is essentially not self-dependent.  The opposite self-interpretation which is traditionally called 'original sin' means noth-ing else than human self-dependence.  Behind the idea of self-dependence we see the hidden self-idolization. The necessity of self-idolization is the logical consequence of the principal denegation that the hu-man being is God’s image a priori. The fight against self-dependence of every description - that is the central and com-mon subject of both the reformers. Their religious interest consisted in the liberation of the objectively free human con-sciousness from the irrational idea that the human being’s essence depends on its ri-diculous fantasies, acts and emotions. The most important argument of the reformers is: The human being does not depend on its own merits but on the grace of the Holy only.   If the essence of human existence is a gracious gift, then it does not belong to the competence of the human being at all.  The human beings have to live and die in this world according to the reason. Law as the materialized reason does not decide about the ultimate essence of the humans. Both the reformers deal with this whole existential problem under the title 'salvation'.   Salvation means nothing else than the liberation of human consciousness from the tyranny  of  the  idea of  the so-called  justification by  work  will  say  from  the  self-delusion of self-dependence.  Instead of acknowledging itself as God's image the work-religion forces the human being to self-idolization.  But if the humans are not able and competent to set up their salvation, and salvation is given graciously by the Holy, what would be the correct relation to that gift?  Both the reformers agree: the gift of salvation can not be worked out but can be be-lieved – can be believed only. Reason is: salvation is a promise, and a promise can only be an object of faith.  Let us say it in a different manner: life and death have got a positive meaning but there can not be any worldly evidence. In this perspective that meaning is an indefin-able mystery; therefore we can only believe it. Faith is not carrying out salvation. It subjectively registers the objectively given sal-vation;  a  salvation  which  was  brought  about  by  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ  (opus Christi) only.    4 For this purpose Martin Luther developed the formulas: salvation is made 'extra nos', 'outside our reference', and salvation is 'umsonst' ('free of charge'). John Calvin inten-sified this concept by insisting on the doctrine that salvation is pre-destined by the will of the Holy. Both the reformers' primary, definite, and common position was clear and plain: the complete eradication of the doctrine of justification by work or of self-idolisation. That is the reason why they so uncompromisingly insisted on the doctrine that even faith has nothing to do with work. Faith is - like salvation - an unmerited gift or a re-sult of God's pre-destination. Faith like salvation is under no circumstances at the disposal of man; it is not a bit manageable.  In order to avoid any misuse of faith as work which happened very often even in Protestantism John Calvin leaves no doubt that not only faith but also lack of faith is not at the human disposal; it is God's predestination, too. The proofs of the reformers may be different; however, the basic argument is the same:  There is no doubt, the Lutheran doctrine of salvation as Christ's work only, excluding any  meritorious  value  of  faith,  and  the  Calvinist  doctrine  of  undisputable  pre-destination of salvation and faith, both the doctrines jointly and uncompromisingly contradict the mediaeval Roman Catholic ideology that salvation would depend to some degree on human experience.  The reformers' sometimes divergent concepts are not so much directed against one another; they share one basic message which has only one spiritual enemy: the relig-ion of self-dependence or self-idolization. However, Protestantism, particularly of the 19th century, fell back into the religion of self-depending. Calvinism was even misinterpreted as the spiritual root of modern capitalism propagating that worldly success would be a sign of eternal election. In contrast to that ideology Luther and Calvin had told the people to stay in their tra-ditional profession not trying to change their position.  Martin Luther favored the traditional agrarian culture, and John Calvin told the Chris-tians to remain in their positions because it is God's will: to be rich or poor was pre-destined, too. John Calvin explicitly denied the right of a poor man to better his social position with the help of industry and hard work because his lasting poverty has been God's will.   The relapse into the religion of self-dependence is wide spread to-day.  Many Christians are of the opinion to become a right Christian one has to be a good citizen, a hard and ascetic worker in his profession, and a person who takes worldly care of the needy people, and is engaged in other progressive activities.  Protestant Pietism and to-day's charismatic movements think that faith has to be a deep or even overwhelming emotion. And many orthodox and evangelical people tell us that believe in their doctrines is absolutely necessary for salvation.  All these Christian ideologies are only fragile cultural self-stabilizations which re-build the illusion of self-dependence, and are completely contradictory to the doctrine of Martin Luther and John Calvin.     5 It is the proper function of religion to remind the human beings - whatever cultural behavior they may realize - of the rule of the free and unbound Holy, of the basic in-definability of human existence. Both the reformers' doctrines fulfilled that function by attacking the self-idolization of - as the Genesis says – God's very good creature.  In spite of the fact that the self-depending religion, will say the illusionary counter-creation, dominates the human history Martin Luther precisely rediscovered and John Calvin rigorously defended the non-meritorious faith in unconditioned salvation.  Facing the inscrutable constitution of God's image, they did not fall into the trap of self-dependence or as our tradition says 'justification by work'.3   Concluding Remarks  Self-consciousness as faith admits the truth that all self-definitions are ultimately un-tenable; by this way faith does not misuse itself as means to get salvation or a suc-cessful existence.  It is obvious that all orthodoxies whether they are atheist or not have nothing to do with faith. In vain they try to deface faith as 'saving work' i.e. as an act by which hu-man existence gets an ultimate meaning. However, salvation as it is seen by faith means nothing else than that the human consciousness is free, so that all concepts of ultimate meaning of human existence are completely illusionary. Human conscious-ness by its very nature transcends all its own creations including its noblest or most horrible self-interpretations.  Work-consciousness is always eager to produce pseudo-security by self-imposed so-called ultimate meaning of human existence.  Faith however recognizes the vital necessity of self-imposition of existence defini-tions, and it endures the basic instability of all these normative self-concepts. In con-trast to work which justifies these self-concepts as substantiation of an ultimate desti-nation faith radically denies its capacity and competence to justify any in reality only self-imposed so-called ultimate meaning of human existence. Faith restores work as non-justifying realization of the human being.  Faith is that formation of self-consciousness which respects the freedom or the in-definability or traditionally spoken the Holy as truth of human existence. It perceives all definitions of existence as self-imposed and therefore corruptive constructions. That is why 'failure' and 'fulfillment' as judgments on self-imposed and wrongly per-ceived ultimate existence definitions are in no way appropriate terms and categories to evaluate human life and death. The faith-consciousness is fully aware of the im-possibility that a human being adjudicates an ultimate judgment upon its existence; it knows that last judgment is not left at a human being's disposal; beyond that it con-cludes that abandon oneself to a self-imposed ultimate meaning giving only breeds wrongly perceived but nevertheless most powerful ultimate despair or pride. In this                                                  3 In the light of the evolutionary induced basic in-determination of human consciousness it is the proper task of Protes-tant theology to conceptualize faith as in this concern the only appropriate self-interpretation, and work as an illusion-ary but inevitable one.    6 way it tries to suppress the consciousness that the human being is unchangeably at the mercy of the Holy i.e. radically free. However that self-imposed suppression does not last long: in the history of human self-consciousness the Holy, the basic freedom, over and over again provokes people to opposition against orthodoxism and incites them to break out of the self-imposed fetters of work-illusion, and in this way they get the chance of consciously enjoying salvation, their original nature. Nevertheless, all human beings objectively share that nature even if they - turned to illusionary work-consciousness - do not subjectively enjoy it.   

Salvation and faith : with special reference to Martin Luther’s and John Calvin’s ideas ; a theological contribution to a general theory of religion

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