Articles varia
- REYMOND Bernard - Lettre ouverte à feu F. D. E. SCHLEIERMACHER
- PICON Raphaël - L’église ou le théâtre de la grâce, de la subversion et du désir
- BESSET-LAMOINE Claudine - Une double « hypothèse » théâtrale. Lecture dramaturgique de l’Adversus Haereses d’Irénée de Lyon
Bernard Reymond writes to his « old friend » Schleiermacher. An old friend who when he was a student held his attention on three particular themes or notions : « religion », « virtuosity » applied to the communication of religion and « arts » when tightly linked to religion. He goes back to the these three themes wondering whether Schleiermacher if he was coming back would find them still valuable or if he would modify them. He then points to some aspects of Schleiermacher’s thought he muses upon : how he conceives devotion coined by Moravian revivalism ; his assertion that Christianity is « the religion of the religions » ; his christologic argument. He notes eventually that Schleiermacher today would probably insist on his theological views rather than on his philosophical ones that are now focussed on.
The church is shaped by the same tensions that build the theatre such as the visible and the invisible, the inside and the elsewhere, hope and agreement. Raphaël Picon shows how through those tensions, the church itself becomes the theatre of grace, the grace of having been possible, the theatre of subversion that challenges our certitudes, the theatre of desire that opens us to the unexpected.
In the first volume of Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons uses the ambiguities of the word « hypothesis » to associate the doctrines of his gnostic opponents with the dramas performed in Roman amphitheatres. Claudine Besset-Lamoine first analyses various uses of the term, then proposes a dramatic reading of Irenaeus, based on the fundamental opposition between pseudegoria and kerygma.
Dossier
- GOUNELLE André - Une éthique sociale pour aujourd’hui ?
- EHRWEIN Céline - Forces et faiblesses de la réflexion politique de Paul Tillich. Évaluation critique du socialisme religieux à partir de Hannah Arendt
- GABUS Jean-Paul - Ontologie, théologie et politique dans les causeries radiophoniques de Paul Tillich durant la seconde guerre mondiale
Secularity (laïcité) has currently become again a crucial issue in France. First, because of the imminent hundredth anniversary of the 1905 law which establishes the Separation of the Churches and the State ; but also because of the problems raised in France by the situation of the Muslim communities. Addressing these political issues on a moral and theological level, André Gounelle’s paper examines three questions. First, do societies need an ethics in addition of their legal rules ? Second, do believers have to participate to its definition on grounds of their religious convictions ? Third, what might be the orientations, contents and limits of a Christian social ethics ?
Confronting Paul Tillich’s and Hannah Arendt’s works, Céline Ehrwein analyses the problems raised by the confusion between political, social and spiritual fields, not only in religious socialism, but also more generally in various 20th century theologies. Her paper stresses the risks associated with the eviction of religion from the public sphere, and shows that Tillich’s reflections on the demonic support – over against Arendt and the liberals – a critical thematisation of our systems of beliefs and values on the political scene.
Paul Tillich’s radio addresses that were broadcast into Nazi Germany to his « German friends » during WWII, demonstrate his persistent expectation of a new kairos which was supposed to generate a decisive renewal for the German people as well as a worldwide social revolution after the victory of the Allied Forces. Jean-Paul Gabus analyses the ontological, theological and political implications of theses speeches.
Notules et Péricopes
- GOSSE Bernard - L’influence du Psautier sur la présentation du prophète Jérémie en Jr 15,10-21 et ses liens avec Jr 17,1-18
- GUILLAUME Philippe - Le Shabbat comme base d’un nouveau calendrier
- PFITZMANN Fabian - Paiement des impôts et obéissance aux autorités. Le défi d’une foi incarnée selon Paul (Rm 13, 1-7)
Founding his analysis on the presentation of Jeremiah in the Psalms, Bernard Gosse shows that they influence Jer 15:10-21 and 17:1-18 as well as the relationship between the two passages. The situation of the prophet is seen as closely connected with that of Jerusalem - in particular, as far as sin is concerned -, but Jeremiah’s conversion will let him experience salvation before the people of the Holy City (Jer: 17,14).
As a critical reaction to the definition of the Sabbath as « a temple in time » proposed in a recent article by Michaela Bauks, Philippe Guillaume analyses the Sabbath in the context of Persian history. He shows that it is the structure of a calendar based on the model of the Zoroastrian calendar whose specificity is to celebrate a new era, and that this calendar is probably the 364 day calendar which is to be found in the Book of the Jubilees (2nd Century B. C.).
Starting from an analysis of Rom 13: 6-8, Fabian Pfitzmann shows why Paul speaks of civil obedience when he deals with the importance of Christian love in a daily context (Rom 12-13). If verses 6-8 are to be understood as the hermeneutic key to Rom 13, they also form its historical starting point. Thus, it is the question of taxes and debts which leads Paul to deal with civil obedience in connection with Christian spiritual worship: this « debt » theme places obedience in the context of the dialectics in Pauline ethics between attachment and detachment, this dialectics being essential for Christian love to flourish. The question of debt allows Paul to preach obedience to the authorities whilst situating obedience in the perspective of Christian detachment. This detachment can be realised only if the structures of this world are respected (« Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another » Rm 13: 8).