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- Herausgeber: via tolino media
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
In this essay, an attempt is made to understand "faith" as enthusiasm, passion for "God" as the fictional image of the creative human being. This fictional God is existentially needed by man. This is how faith becomes a play: 1. Man, who longs for meaning and security, has invented the God of the Bible, with his human and supernatural qualities, as his creative image. 2. The fictitious God and eternal, almighty Creator, who can be addressed as a person, gives meaning, love and security to the human being, who is also created by him as a creative image. 3. Man believes in this fictional God insofar as he realistically defines "faith" as "enthusiasm for something" or "passion for something." 4. Man and the fictitious God, the whole of nature, presumably possess an identical creative essence, through which they share in an infinite creative principle in everything. 5. For this reason, the equal partners of man and God are able to create, recognize and love themselves and the other again and again in a new and harmonious way, whereby the reading of the Bible also becomes an unceasing process of understanding and interpretation. 6. The dignity of God, of man and of nature is respected where they are allowed to be freely creative, in other words, creative, in accordance with their creative essence. 7. Through the realistic conception of God as a being invented by human beings, it is possible to solve some theological problems and disputes and to make a life in and with the fictitious world of the Bible playfully acceptable and sustainable in the Age of Enlightenment. The popular wish "May the Force be with you!" from the fictional world of the Star Wars films gives hope. 8. Some chapter headings: Being a fool and childlike as protection and opportunity/Doubt about doubts about faith/Paradise and eternal life are always already now/Why does God allow suffering?The problem of theodicy/Christian rules of the play of faith in daily life/When the fictional God is too brutal/"Chain reaction of good" – start of a new play/Love for enemies - start of a new play/Enabling charity and long-distance love – start of a new play/The right of man and nature to free creative activity/An enlightened preliminary remark to a Christian creed/Telling young people about faith and God/What could I say now to the desperate, sick or dying?/And if nothing works anymore?
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Inhaltsverzeichnis
The Fictional Creation of God and Man. Faith as Passion and Play
About author and text
Motto
The Fictional Creation of God and Man. Faith as Passion and Play
Abstract
1.0 The Fictional Creation of God and Man. Faith as Passion and Play
2.0 Execution of the play of faith
3.0 An enlightened preliminary remark to a Christian creed
4.0 Telling young people about faith and God
5.0 What could I say now to the desperate, sick or dying?
6.0 And if nothing works anymore?
Imprint
The Fictional Creation of God and Man. Faith as Passion and Play
Essay by Michael Süsterhenn
About author and text
As a convinced agnostic, the author has been dealing with the topics of "faith" and "God" for many years.
In this book, an attempt is made to understand "faith" as enthusiasm, passion for "God" as the fictional image of the creative human being that existentially needs this God. In this way, faith becomes a play, which could solve some traditional theological problems.
Motto
“Man only plays when he is in the fullest sense of the word a human being, and he is only fully a human being when he plays.” (Friedrich Schiller, On the Aesthetic Education of Man, 1795)
The Fictional Creation of God and Man. Faith as Passion and Play
Essay by Michael Süsterhenn
Abstract
In this essay, an attempt is made to understand "faith" as enthusiasm, passion for "God" as the fictional image of the creative human being. This fictional God is existentially needed by man. This is how faith becomes a play:
1. Man, who longs for meaning and security, has invented the God of the Bible, with his human and supernatural qualities, as his creative image.
2. The fictitious God and eternal, almighty Creator, who can be addressed as a person, gives meaning, love and security to the human being, who is also created by him as a creative image.
3. Man believes in this fictional God insofar as he realistically defines "faith" as "enthusiasm for something" or "passion for something."
4. Man and the fictitious God, the whole of nature, presumably possess an identical creative essence, through which they share in an infinite creative principle in everything.
5. For this reason, the equal partners of man and God are able to create, recognize and love themselves and the other again and again in a new and harmonious way, whereby the reading of the Bible also becomes an unceasing process of understanding and interpretation.
6. The dignity of God, of man and of nature is respected where they are allowed to be freely creative, in other words, creative, in accordance with their creative essence.
7. Through the realistic conception of God as a being invented by human beings, it is possible to solve some theological problems and disputes and to make a life in and with the fictitious world of the Bible playfully acceptable and sustainable in the Age of Enlightenment. The popular wish "May the Force be with you!" from the fictional world of the Star Wars films gives hope.
8. Some chapter headings: Being a fool and childlike as protection and opportunity/Doubt about doubts about faith/Paradise and eternal life are always already now/Why does God allow suffering? The problem of theodicy/Christian rules of the play of faith in daily life/When the fictional God is too brutal/"Chain reaction of good" – start of a new play/Love for enemies - start of a new play/Enabling charity and long-distance love – start of a new play/The right of man and nature to free creative activity/An enlightened preliminary remark to a Christian creed/Telling young people about faith and God/What could I say now to the desperate, sick or dying?/And if nothing works anymore?
1.0 The Fictional Creation of God and Man. Faith as Passion and Play
For a long time I have been searching for "what holds the world together at its core". Like the frustrated scholar Faust, who then makes a pact with the devil to achieve this goal and, after many adventures and crimes, finally ends up in heaven after his sins are forgiven for the following reason: “Whoever strives hard, / We can redeem him.” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust – The Tragedy First Part, 1808, Faust – The Tragedy Second Part, 1832)
Sounds crazy, this claim! Or not? In any case, many natural scientists are similarly searching for the "world formula" or the "theory of everything", as it is called in modern physics. So it's all just a question of physics, chemistry or biology?
I wonder if the God of the Bible, who seems to have fallen victim to the Age of Enlightenment, can still be saved for me personally. All this always has to do with the so-called "faith" in certain teachings of Jesus and the Christian churches, which have summarized them in partly divergent "creeds". So far, I have not seen a confession that I could speak with conviction. So how can "God", "man", "Bible" and "faith" be reconciled for me? My idea and working hypothesis to solve this problem is that the God of the Bible needs man as his creative image and his willingness to engage in a play.
In his search for meaning and security, man has created the God of the Bible in his own image. We can read about this fictional literary figure and his history with people in the biblical narratives. There we learn that God is the groundless ground, the uncreated, eternal, omnipotent Being, the Creator of the world and unconditionally loves it as well as man created in His image. It is not possible to prove that this romantic depiction, born of a passionate longing, is something real, but here begins a beautiful, sometimes bumpy relationship between two people who love each other.
If I have problems in this relationship, I work on it. I classify the biblical narratives historically critically, express external criticism of them and adapt them to the present time, my current knowledge and my convictions by creatively interpreting, reinterpreting or expressing them differently.
I can and am allowed to do this, because man and God are presumably one in their creative essence. Both realize this, which also constitutes their dignity when they are creative. In this way, they can create, recognize and love themselves and the other again and again. These equal partners can't help but be creative and love each other again and again. The dignity of God, of man and of nature is respected where they are allowed to be freely creative, in other words, creative in peace, in accordance with their creative essence.
"Faith" here has the realistic meaning of "to be enthusiastic about", "passion for" and not the meanings of "I am sure that someone or something in particular exists", "I hope for" or "I trust in the words of Jesus and other witnesses", which distract from actual ignorance and later disappoint. In contradiction to this, however, this does not exclude the fact that I live in, with and after the fictitious stories about miracles, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of all those who died on the Day of Judgment, the coming kingdom of God, etc., and that I consciously immerse myself in them. At the same time, however, I do not fall into the assertion of a secure possession, which could seduce me into fanatical action and throw me back into a great disappointment.
Isn't it crazy to live as a human being in a relationship with a fictional person like God, just to feel the calming, joyful feeling of love, meaning, and security?
No, it is wise and not crazy as long as it does good and harms no one. And after all, this fictional person “God” is very similar to humans: 1. Her creative essence is probably identical to mine. 2. She is a constantly available, patient, loving contact with human qualities who is with me and hears me and teaches, admonishes and helps others in the biblical stories. 3. As “God” - like every human being and nature - she shares in a possibly infinite principle of creativity in everything.
The Bible itself gives instructions on how to deal with its texts:
“Don’t fool yourself. If some of you think they are worldly-wise, then they should become foolish so that they can become wise. This world’s wisdom is foolishness to God.” (1 Corinthians 3:18-19)
“But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and don't try to stop them! People who are like these children belong to God's kingdom.” After Jesus had placed his hands on the children, he left.” (Matthew 19:14-15)
“Job, if I were you, I would ask God for help. His miracles are marvelous, more than we can count. God sends showers on earth and waters the fields. He protects the sorrowful and lifts up those who have been disgraced. God swiftly traps the wicked in their own evil schemes, and their wisdom fails. Darkness is their only companion, hiding their path at noon.” (Job 5:8-14)
Without the relationship with the fictional God of the Bible, life for many would be scratchy, edgy, barren and cold. That is why they talk to him spontaneously and if necessary, saying prayers such as "Come, Holy Spirit!", "Not my will, but yours be done!" or, more briefly, "Thy will be done!" (Luke 22:42), "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10), also the whole "Our Father" (Matthew 6:9-13). They may remain silent for a while, as Meister Eckhart did, in order to be one with the “Deity” deep within their soul and to hear “what God is speaking in me.” Or they simply read some texts in the Bible and let themselves be carried by the "current" that seizes them to the "sea", into the peace, mercy and love of God, as Karl Barth says in his lecture "The New World in the Bible" (1917). He is convinced that the Bible interprets itself. And allowing yourself to be seized and carried by this current is already faith.
2.0 Execution of the play of faith
2.1 God is needed
2.1.1 But where there is danger…
"Near is / And elusive is the God. / But where there is danger, / The saving also grows" (Friedrich Hölderlin, "Patmos", 1808).
In Woody Allen's film "Annie Hall" (USA 1977), a man tells his friend that he is worried about his brother. Because he is obviously crazy and thinks he is a chicken. When the friend suggests that his brother be sent to a psychiatrist to heal him, the man replies: "That would be reasonable, but then we wouldn't have any more eggs."
I think it's kind of the same with God as it is with the story about the crazy brother. Without the former, we would be missing something important, the warmth, love, mercy of another being with the corresponding capacities of a loving Father who protects me even after death in the Kingdom of God, feels with me, forgives me and to whom I can always turn in prayer.
But this only works if, like the second brother, but now with conscious intention, I live childlike in and with the world of the Bible and have the courage to temporarily forget the fictitious character of "God" again and again - every day anew. And then let "God" become God again.
2.1.2 Longing of the Three Wise Men and its fulfillment
Longing
CASPAR
Will he come, will he speak at last, the ultimate wisdom,
The unalterable truth behind and above the appearance?
I have studied all the philosophies, and now I am old;
Every day I care less about life and death, sorrow and happiness—
I ask only that what we see shall correspond to something,
Beautiful or terrible, but constant in some way or other.
…
And thus all knowledge is only a vicious circle
Ceaselessly spinning upon the axis of nothing.
Nor can I even be sure that everything,
Including myself, is nothing
…
MELCHIOR
I will accept the illusions;
I do not mind whether they are illusions or not,
I am not interested in dogma, I want a religion that works;
What I look for is good government,
A reasonable way of life, within the terms of the illusion.
If there is nothing at the end of it, be it so—there is nothing ;
But in the meantime, can we not achieve a little decency,
A little dignity,
A pattern of some kind, such as we make so easily
For a curtain or a cornice, which does not matter at all,
But cannot make for our lives, which matter a great deal,
Or, at any rate, seem to matter?
…
BALTHAZAR
How much you need to content you!
The wisdom that sets the soul beyond the reach of suffering,
The power to abolish suffering. I am more humble;
I do not mind being ignorant and unhappy—
All I ask is the assurance that I am not alone,
Some courage, some comfort against this burden of fear and pain.
…
I look out between the strangling branches of the vine and see
Fear in the east, fear in the west; armies
And banners marching and garments rolled in blood.
Yet this is nothing, if only God will not be indifferent,
If He is beside me, bearing the weight of His own creation;
If I may hear His voice among the voices of the vanquished,
If I may feel His hand touch mine in the darkness,
If I may look upon the hidden face of God
And read in the eyes of God
That He is acquainted with grief.
Fulfillment after the birth of Jesus seen in a crystal
CASPAR
I looked for wisdom—and behold! the wisdom of the innocent.
MELCHIOR
I looked for power—and behold! the power of the helpless.
BALTHAZAR
I looked for the manhood in God—and behold! A God made man.
CASPAR
Up and to horse! Make haste! for the Star has moved on before us And the east is pale with the dawn. We must ride by faith.
MELCHIOR
Following the light invisible.
BALTHAZAR
Following the Star.
(Dorothy L. Sayers, He That Should Come. A Nativity Play in One Act. Victor Gollancz LTD London 1939. 80 pages. Quotes from the frame story at the beginning and end of the nativity play.)
2.1.3 Available, emotionally important contact persons
For the future long-duration Mars missions, in which direct communication between the astronauts and their friends and relatives left behind on Earth is not possible due to the great distance, both sides will be able to communicate with a time delay via virtual avatars in order to maintain emotional stability on both sides. And if there should be conflicts between the members of the crew due to the confinement, an artificial intelligence called Cimon in the size of a floating ball should be available to each of them, they can talk to privately - as a time-out from the rest of the crew - to tell her about their own concerns, ask her for advice or medical assistance or joke with her, etc.
