The self is not merely a creator of human history, but is also a creature of the web of events, in which it participates in the creation. But that definition will not necessarily do justice to the endless nuances and levels of the dialogue of the self with others.
The Self and the Dramas of History by Reinhold Niebuhr
The Dialogue Between the Will and Conscience of the Self
They try to eliminate the difference between what is wanted and what is desirable in their view of themselves. Reflection can foster greater self-concern than unreflective self-engagement with one's responsibilities and emotions.
The Dialogues of the Self with Itself, with Others, and with God
The Ladder of the Self’s Ambitions, Desires and Qualms of Conscience
In this enterprise, both the creative desire to master nature and the more selfish impulse to achieve comfort and power are complicated in different ways. Human anxieties increase with achievement, and anxieties include concern about the appropriateness of social or artistic achievement and about the social prestige that may follow the achievement either simultaneously or at the end.
The Self in Space and Time
In fact, this answer is not the right solution to the problem of the self, which is more complex than the mind and has a more complete and discrete existence. The fact is that the "rational absurdity" of the true self cannot be escaped because it is both in time and beyond time.
The Self and Its Body
This is as enlightening an account of the constant inner dialogue of the self as we have in. 34;spirit" can be considered the ultimate freedom of the self over its inner divisions.
The Dialogue Between the Self and Others
The self cannot be truly fulfilled unless it is drawn out of itself into the life of another. 34;falling in love" to begin the most intimate and mutual of all relationships.
The Self and Its Communities
No historical progress can change the twofold relationship of the individual to the community in the vertical dimension. At other times, the individual is embarrassed by the morally mediocre standards of the community.
The Self as Creator and Creature in Historical Drama
But one of them, George Sand, also expressed a very individual attitude within the general standards of the period. People's freedom from their status as creations of historical drama is not necessarily expressed in conscious efforts to determine historical destiny.
The Self and the Dramas of History
The two ideas of cycle and development actually define two basic facts of historical events. The cycle determines the birth, life and death of organisms that participate in the historical flow.
The Problem of Historical Knowledge
The collapse of medieval culture resulted in the emergence of two religio-cultural forces generally described as the "Reformation" and the "Renaissance". The interpretations of the breakdown of the synthesis are therefore partly contradictory and partly similar.
The Self and Its Search for Ultimate Meaning
The dialogue between the self and God leads to the conviction of the self, but not because of its finitude. It clearly taught from biblical faith about the unique freedom of the individual and the distinction between the self's reason and personality.
Two Components of Western Culture and Their Attitudes Toward the Self
The Hebraic and the Hellenic
Approaches to the Problem of Selfhood and History
Faith and Dogma in the New Covenant Community
When will the tension between the law and the inclination of the human heart be overcome by the "new covenant" that sets forth the law written in the human heart. This dramatic action was "anticipated" in the sense that it seemed to flow inevitably from the "constancy" of God's mercy. Since such faith is covenantal, the explanation of faith cannot follow as a rational deduction from given facts.
It is all the more impressive because some of the expectations hoped for fulfillment and vindication are forces and factors in history (the nation and the "righteous") that do not deserve to be designated as bearers of historical fulfillment. Thus, in the eyes of faith, the suffering Messiah became a clue to the mystery of God's mercy and justice, and the reconciliation became the actual content of the revelation. The answer to this problem was the establishment of the authority of the covenant community, the Christian church, which would try to reach an agreement on the interpretation of.
Dogma and Ontology in the Christian Consensus
The current dogma of the "two natures of Christ" was intended to emphasize both. This Platonic transformation of the Christian concept of the drama of history is, however, a grave error. the "goodness of creation" and the importance of the entire temporal and historical process is questioned.
Thus Augustine restored the biblical narratives of creation, self and sin and grace in the dimension of human freedom. For redemption was, on the one hand, the emancipation of himself from himself through his devotion to God. The Aristotelianism of the Middle Ages was progressively challenged as the discoveries of historical development.
The Self and Its Dramas: Reason and Nature in the Disintegration of the Medieval
Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the most important philosophers and theologians of the twentieth century, was a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York for many years. He is the author of many classics in his field, including Nature and Destiny of Man, Moral Man and Immoral Society, Children of Light and Children of Darkness, and Discerning the Signs of Our Times.
Synthesis
Understanding Nature and Misunderstanding Human Nature
This progressive view had its rise in the optimism of the Renaissance, which expected human reason to march toward the new. The discovery of the growth of historical forms, implicit in the thought of the Roman Lucretius, but incapable of breaking. This belief reduced history to the realm of necessity and obscured human freedom and the reality of the drama of history.
Descartes, the other and greater figure in the thought of the seventeenth century, was many. Herbert Spencer was the proponent of one theory and Auguste Comte of the other. 34; disinterested intelligence." In short, it learned nothing from the refutations throughout history of the illusions of the French Enlightenment.
The Climax of an Empirical Culture
Its Blindness to Some Obvious "Facts"
Freud was of course aware (as aware as Samuel Johnson) of the introspective evidence of the reality of free will. But the mixture of the self's concern for itself and its creative and responsible interests is infinitely varied. Lack of understanding of human nature is the primary cause of its disregard.
Naturally, a contradiction is established between the natural desires of the self and the moral command. Only one of the younger colleagues who envied his success was clearly neurotic. Any excessive self-concern is therefore the result of a lack of love in the child's childhood.
The Efforts of the Self to Build Communities
The Resources of the Christian Faith in a Dynamic Civilization and an Expanding Society
Ideally, a Christian faith brings humility and love because it submits the pretensions and claims of self to a final judgment. On the other hand, we must be aware of permanent factors that appear in ever new forms. Hebrew had a sense of divine providence ruling over history because it was aware of man's creation in the process.
The main issue between the two components develops in the question of the realization of the potentials of history. It prevented modern society from freeing itself from the tyranny of the older traditional forms of community. We shall trace this history in terms of the development of the political theory of modern democratic states; and.
Organism and Artifact in Democratic Government
Religious undertones in the establishment of order were explicit to the point of an idolatrous worship of the monarch in all ancient empires. The ruler is believed to have some relationship with the creator of the cosmic order. The idol worship of the ruler was of course impossible within the strict monotheistic framework of Bibles.
But the servant became the master of the papacy and the result was a long schism (captivity in Avignon). Likewise, the majority must properly respect the rights of the minority. It should be added that the very institution of constitutional monarchy was a product.
Property, Social Hierarchy and the Problem of Justice
The embryo of the later social contract theory of community is evident in this line of reasoning. In other words, they destroy the organic integrations of the community in the fierce will to adapt the order of the community to standards of justice. Igor Gouzenko provides a devastating account of the moral realities embodied in the new Russian oligarchy in his Fall of a Titan.).
This miscalculation contributed to the original tolerance of the "liberal" world towards the excesses of the Russians. This lack of consistency was undoubtedly due to the composition of the revolutionary forces of the. It is a method that prevents interested men from pursuing their interests to the detriment of the community.
The Integration of the World Community
This insight is that the world community is not sufficiently integrated to allow a majority to prevail over a minority in the councils of the nations. It is also clear that the preponderance of American power is as valuable to the unity of the free world as it is dangerous to justice. In that case, current growth rates could still contribute to the eventual integration of the world community.
One danger is the attractiveness of the communist creed in the non-technical civilizations, primarily in Asia. The injustices in such a world are the obvious consequences of the power imbalances in the traditional structure. It is therefore not surprising that we should believe that communities are the fruit of simple designs of the human will.
Individual and Collective Destinies in the Contemporary Situation
In the second case, history is regarded as the record of the gradual triumph of the community over the recalcitrant individual. We must now consider the resources of that faith for solving the problem of the individual and the community. Because the believer is challenged to become involved in the sorrows and sufferings of the world.
It also finally persuaded political society to have some reverence for the sanctity of the individual conscience. Yet the conscience of the individual is not as infallible as the strict libertarians suggest. Christian hope is derived from the Christian revelation of the meaning of the divine mystery.
