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teayge: Pate Fe 87S The Division of the Moral Person Br Rosen W. Jao Loo : - 1 want to gin with « pititide; of what ought toe a plattde The mor value ofan act—ay distinc, perhaps, fom other sorts of vale—de. fod on communal jdgment,on the shared elit ofthe a do what oy then Ushareany act wth you In that you say what my at. My acta themselves simply are what they are. If they are ako good” “worthy.” “i ‘respon r whatever, thats because they are judged tobe oI pel ‘each, that Wulf meas that T peel a peach, which means that pel peach, which means that I peels peach But you may come along and ‘that was my peach, and you souk have peeled I” Thereupon my telacgiters mors meaning. “The moral reality of all man ation has ts home in commonicton, An ct hus moral valve ony. in rome interpersonal ooo, some arena af Jolgment.Therrth we sets fundantental problem of kamen existence: ‘when | fum-my st over to other for judgment, hele judgments may not "Merely acetal dsgecements we cn dal with. While you and fare discussing the peach, itmay happen that « third party comer long and ys toon," bog yeu pardon that was my pesch. And | fold Hi he could ext TRA tha pint we sinply have an argument. Butt may happen that the Judgments on my act are not merely adentl degreemedt within some fone forum of udgrent, ut tat there moce than one court and that they Judge by difoent principles, ‘Suppose that wile we ae discussing the moter ofthe pech yet fourth party comes along and sys, “Pivate property ithe oot ofall evil anyway, that Jonson stole the pesch sa blowout this igus tation, ands 1 fod thing” Here there area plurality of cout «purity of forums of Jotgment. And this ithe station In whic, afecure, people egal od themselves. What, for example, of most member af the congregations to ‘which you belong and of whiehmany of youre pastors, who ws member of the congregation ae fudged by such standards as "Bleed ae the poo “Blawed ue the meth, "Blesed are the hungry:” but who. ae. tnultanconly members ofthe cai stern, whetln thy are judged by theirineome? How ae they to ive with that? ‘The Dion f the Mort Penoe © 48 lvoe al, mankind ha tall imes and inal paces ben riven bythe dt ference between two great courts: between judgment before God and Judgment before men, Usay mankind all times and places, becaute no mat ter-vhat God we hoaot, i we honor any, there ir aways the posility of having to obey that God rather than men, Conlder oly the ese of Socrates or Trotsky In fs), this possiblity became thematic, The very deity of I aol’ God is tha his judgments are not a ure All the ways of man ace food hiseyes"—or fr thet mater nhs weighbo's—"But the Lod judges the ese. “The dssion is more than a mere divhlon of opinion sbout me. For it is nother charactor of aman enltence—which ain fs ben obverved at ll Himes and al places—that a human being is what he doe. Tam what 1 do, td my vale the value of my aces "The good whan out of the treasure of his heart brings forth good deeds” but also vie vere, "Not everyone ho says to me Lord, Lord wil enter the kingdom of Gad but he who doe the Wiley father” A division inthe moral judgment omy deed divides me ‘Again consider yourselves: onthe one hand tans ofthe Christian cone sregation,fidged by its standard, and. on the other hand capital ‘onsumer, Judged by the standards ofthat sytem e there one sl here at I? Or are thee two? And if that difference In judginent ean wo divide you, ‘what then when the ferences between God's judgment and mankind's? 0, ‘A main and decisive charactor of the Lutheran Reformation ie that it peshed and explored ths difference between being judged by God and being Judged by mea, and the division ofthe moral person tat therein lest he fend The doctrine of jusifetion by faith says tht Gods last and fina Judgment ofthe value af olives ute independent ofall judgments we ‘make on ourselves and each other tn the discourse ofthe Reformation the Stondardthecoglal opie about "justification" acquired radia sense: the ‘question “Am I jstfied? came to mean, "Has my lfe any asifeation at all Is there en excuse for my tang uptime, space ai, and water? Is thre any reason fr me tobe?” Aad the doctrine of justification by Fath sys tat the chutch i ent nto the world to answer "yes" to tat question always, only and ever "yes" no mater what answers tothe quetion other may ‘make. The question, “Ts my ife worth t?, isan appel to G's judgment ‘The Reformation said that In answering that question Gad ignores all ‘works that sto uy all the ign by which we necesuly judge ourselves and eachother. “Thus the Reformation distinguished radially between the two courts of iucgment: Our acts on the one hand have moral vale coram dea, before God, snd onthe ether hand have moral vlue coram hominis, before men; snd ihe two values have no diet connection. . MMR 6 nae W, Jenn tn the one frum, before God, our deeds are what they morally are as Cot finde them good or ba for his purposes, ashe sable to accept and ue them. G's purpose re those which ae established in hat the Lad Jesu sen; ‘which means that God accepts all erentd realities, iteludiog our deeds, os ‘jects and mater forthe promises ofthe gospel fi other cours oar deeds Se some of thers good and some of them bad but inthis eourtcbey ae all of them the matter ef the promise, They arp allof them tht which we heap up Inorder that God may afr some of them and forgive others of them; nd slike with his afliation and with his forgseness create his kingdom. ‘Therefor, in this forum all we cado.isturnouF deeds ver to Gas the ras material ofthe Kingdom. Our evening prayers" Lad, here are my sets tk the day. Keep them in jour memory, Jor the Kingdom, fr Joss sake’ hropoogial anon: we ae what se do. Before God, Uerelor, re whatever ite that Godin bis exchatlogiel wisdom proposes to make of ur in the kingdom; tht ill there isto us before God. The Reformation ter forthe marl slthood posited in thi wnconditonal alfee ‘mation by Gad, wae "faith." The self of faith i transcendent to all moral Judgments. Th sf of futh ext only by God's unconditional wil to use us inand forthe Kingdom. As this lf, therefor, a th Jenson fam “fee Lord tall" subjet too person's eitique-—not your, ot anyother human's ot ‘even the devils and not even my own. If Go ays Lam his daly beloved ‘hl then tam, no matter what you may—evenjstibly—call me ‘Inthe other forum, before men, our deeds are what they morally areas ko hte they are Jada. They are what they morally areas they find thelr goal in, and are judged by the neighbor. And in this court everything U have Just base spesking of so grandiloquenty, counts for nothing. In this court my sellin to God orto whatever establishes ny inal worth, is quite ireevant For inthis court the only relevent question i, "Is my neighbor in fat Lenelted?” In thls cout Teannot plod that I meant wel and i also cannot beheld gaint tne tat I meant Ml, unless my il wll becomes public and 50 Aiel « deed performed upon my neighbor. Not even my faith has any televance here. Tho unbriiever's bread is good in this cout, and the beliover's faith and meve wishes are evi. Ifthe neighbor's bell is ful, the reightbor wil aim that that is good, and inthis cour that ends the die ‘sion If fled that belly then my ded is good inthis court. And in his ‘court even God makes no private Judgments of his awn—He simply confirms the judgment of the neighbor. "We are again at tht athropologtel axiom: we are what we do, Before men, therefore; we are what we workout a nthe tory ofthe communis to which we belong. We are what we work out at in the lives of our feighbors. The Latheran word for the moral self posited inthe forum of hu ‘maniy, was the word “servant.” Before men Iam “bound servant of ‘bjt othe cold and practical judgment of my fellows and jasfied by my ‘The Division of the Men Pason * 7 sctal contsibutlon and by nothing ele whatsoever ‘Now: of course, the chit thing I, that the sl before God and the sf bétore men, when these two are grasped in the radial fashion of the Fefetiation, donot necesrily coincide. That Tshall be one sl, the same before God and before ten, is in Lutheran teaching and indeed in the Ntaching ofthe whole Reformation, what T have to avalt from the last Jilgment when we wil be feed to judge ech ather a does God For now 1 bang betwen two solves entelfied in my moval seffllilment ean never itchy grap myself asa moral subject for at a moral subject Tam in the ‘Schaabgial making teanno guarantee whet really” am for really am Soxany one thing etal {cannot guarantee why Trealy do what do; for 1 feally do what {do for contadiclory reasons. 1 cannot guarantee my satbentcty.” oe! get my bead togelhes” or get bald of mel” or any ‘ther tam of tat Iony. And if you ee! me as you would an onfon, when Jo get tothe coe of Jenson, what you wil fad is two cores of diferent Tair tis not possible forte to take judgment into my own hand and ‘world as an avtotomeus moral person, for there is no one of me ford that {can only, tose Lthe's phrase, "sn bravely.” Tan aly actin hope and fear and tembling. fn "That the Reformatlons doctsne; and SC 1s fue f 38 ot fot the eology ofthe Lateran cult, bat a et of tro affirmations about mankind lind the werld then tbelgs othe reality of uman beings, that none of weLtutheran, Calvinist, Cale, Anis, Buddhist or whatever—is yet te mort sel Then the wholeness and coherence and srenes In which ‘Toul ike to fic myself in fat alvays jst around the corner and never yet quit found, m1 Morsoves, if this that the reformers taught is true, then i sbould be pone tou this understanding of the moral person to interpret some part rite cal story of hurt, end peshps even to make some predictions Shout i rom thi polnt of view the tory of humanity canbe sen ase eee of sttempts to bridge the if by some tick or means or ater, 0 grasp ‘Rout aiftwere «single moral peron. What I ill do nest brefy sketch ‘ew such attempts, following no particular sce, Povhaps the fst device the tat, in Hs representative capacity. On the cone han the state speaks tome with the woio of my fellow men, ithe “lot fran cora hemtnus, On theater hand, i the state's power af ie ‘Gnd death and the way in which the sate ft chooses can envelope all pect olf, the tate can very plausibly claim to speak tome asthe oie of God. Thos in the state we have an agency which can seem to judge me inanimously withthe judgment of men and with the judgment of Cod Eb tet W, Jom Morcover—and here ithe neat polat—howevertotalitaan or primitive the state may be, it nevertheless la some fashion laludes mes T can prop i Judgments as my oun, as an expression of my wil, Therefe spd therewith the whole matter tes tself neatly togather. we have « moral judgment of ‘men, and « moral Judgment of Ged, which I cam afin as my odgment on snysell. Therewth 1 grasp that which the Reformation says I cant rasp iyself before God and man arene coherent, mre person "mention this rick bonus ts by no aeans a thing ofthe past. Curr ‘American disillusion ith police ie a aisle of Iwo very aiferent phenomens: On the one hand its, of eure, fstration ofthe attempt to et Ss ciizens of a democracy: todo what we have ben told todo ince we were five years od and patcpate in ermal decison about the fare of our ‘ommunty—fustetion when we Find that wei fat int stem which '5 very lite democratic and which offers very light posit of doing any such thing. But onthe other hand, America disilison with polis also ‘m utterly undemocratic iteress atthe covery that the tates nt holy. in Ise, the trick of using the state to bridge the rift in the moral person wat made imposible, And even-more, the followers of crete. Lor, ‘elie by the state, are surly not able to take the sat a the vole of God ‘We may take the states the tol of Gad, or asthe agent of Gad, but never es the voice of Ga . ‘A second mov, andthe claslally Christian move, slanply replaces the stat withthe church ere agln therein collective which judges both with the judgment of my fallow men and with the judgment of God Here egain this collective to which I belong, so that Tan ake gents as my + sutonomonsmoralselfundestanding The church, however, inet net) 30 satisfactory inthis function asthe state, For unlike the sate It ot whey cenveloping. These are large areas of most person lives which remain am biguous by the chores judgment. "To takes medieval instance, the church ‘ha tosay: “It good to mary, ut better att.” But what doe that meen? Ieelerly means nothing; which sto sey it ewes the moral valu ofthis aren of human entence ambiguous does nat envelop And in thatthe church ‘compelled to leave areas of human experience and action morally ae. biguous, there isa hole trough which the experience of mor dlvidednets ‘an flood back The chure, unlike the state, iat bes pata patch ove the sys. And I would like very tentatively to sugges hat this isthe reson why the great church-sytem of medieval Christendom had eventually to break down. That system wasn Half magnificent. All churchmen want, afer al to have technique to deal with every posible splitual trouble "The medieval church actully had something ike that and yet, more a more, ‘srelgious arrangements let thelr platy, and lost pees fo hone who were religiously most concerned, However itmay be with my diagnosis ofthe medicval synthe ellase, ‘The Divison of he Mor Penon © 49 the Reformation sandoned the oe ofthe church a «plc or the Ghd of te mera person And within Chritendom Wat hd oes ‘Randonee waning etre pineal tempt ode the dvson of the ur enon, From sur pant of vw, we may derstand the Tomato ta final ae aseptnce ofthe that vein Wo forums os enmot yt ‘feet, “Nor dined to sythesz them, For thoy ee en In Chast" Crs oman ling tm sol abandonment his Ape nt ori alice bt for og fst ho Cols a fugent of tne thu am aspen ade by Gd nd by man nat ar hi Fegan am one pon, Bat a ne pen oly shat herken: tiers ailerons Between th uleton ofthe hana peony ‘Crist und the tiation ofthe hamen person stat rch: Chit rots cofalve cl wish cn toa member Hs vice snp ota) wy my vl I canst gi ia the cxteion of my wll purpose inning or achtvemest. ihe wie by whieh Ther myself natin Inge by Cal ard by man ints at we tht ster ome Tivol somebody ete me stetag oer apie me: the ec of tha ear ea rere neta yoy mel genom hiya ae thats ony nth Tet me interpalate evomak t or Gcosion of the lst period. ttotiman eens tm, ncoet a streing that mys a on Oe thing ti uk! em rs ty hinge lenlaresoe thing fr tieh the tempt unr aren wd tha not grasp the whens thd itegty of my pen by hiking ot, btn conmanty with nthe thane nh by he jen wll, nd at may neve andrtand ew the ed Jesu cul ue he des he poles gaint tons Inlvrof “un myites”eoms tome entry in Hace. ‘veto difence tween sation fhe merl eso by Christ and wlan nate och tht con do hat ale can Keven suffer. And sferig appenr rmbt uppers to those 9 whom Gots dent of manied and mankind's jadgment of mankind are Sought together, It prectely Between ad's det and mes Fda! tht Chis strange te gains nd that bab whatnot hwo, hapen tots Forever swe bere tthe neta uy ‘trol ecesin hi, wed not nv themes our possesion, We never et Acid cfthem a what no censure neler nd oes of Rather, ou sy {oun wy on wh we ese vera pln ng up between Galan nfm hs mega enson, wh your ang Tope line te courmge omy," and you ae my bang Let me laste hoy on se of afew yer ag sete th owe fo ‘whut God might hk feo war in tna Wht happened Jou Thea MR + ert W. Jenson w. ‘hat do not need to bring myself together, bot ony to hea the promises of Chest thewlorious mora iberty of faith, Threw I come to my ast ‘question: but what there thre isn faith? Then seems to ne there i pocalypse. The Reformation has decidedly been two-edgel sword inthe body of wester history. For, insofar as the Hefrmation’s versions of Chl tianity have remained the religion ofthe northern Europes peoples, wher, Shere nt to fat, ters ser dvdednan tk et den, tuk alienation, “The search fora synthesis for same way to paper over the division of the moral person, bey of cours again. But once that division has bec seen 36 Marky's twas seen by the Reformatin,stongersmedicines are need, ‘Again we try to snk ourselves into the tte Bt awit the despa thats the heart of modern fees colletvim. An abvious solution ito deny the Judgement of Go altogether and ve only bythe judgments of our neighbors land much of modern athetsm i probably bes seen merely as weary escape from inolerable tension. Anther move iso ignore the judgments of men and move nto reality inhabited by only God ad the soul, here ere people ‘who have done that on every tee corner of on te. The great Amercan device has buen t intitationalize the division. On the ‘one hon thee is religion, which ie dapented by the denemination- On the ‘ther hand there is Business which i always and only busines, the polite ‘which’ most not be "mised with religion; their separate inetittlonalization fragments humanity. The most dehumanizing move i allogeter to replace ioral judgements with parly predictive ones Even the eurch does this the ILC at ts recent convention, for example, did not inguie Into the “should,” “mays,” and “colds” ofthe problem of abortion, but inrtesd I ‘quired ofthe statisticians whether i was on the increase, discovered that it ‘was and then suddenly dscovered excellent goxpel-eaons forging along. Perhaps the most demonic expedient isthe romantic: by which I reverse the tik with the state othe church and instead of sinking ysl Into callective that can represent both God and man, expend myeel fo envelop (God and man. 1 turn the Judgment of say neighbor into what "U heat bit, saying,” and T tur the judgment of God into the unchallegesbiity of my ‘own felings and wishes. Therein am myself both preudo-Cod and the totality of mankind, and ean forget al anes the church st lp eurciviiation i ths apocalyptic period, and iit is to speak its own gospel in any way that citizens af that elation can best, then the fist end slaimum requirement i that we clay analyze and tnderstan the drastic alternatives tht face 1. Our civilization is heading Into aihilism: into permanently fascist political systems and faithless ‘xstentalistreligisty. If that i not to happen, sme new source of courage “he Division f thn Moral Ponan * 51 and of wllingnest to face moral judgements, mst be provide. ‘Herel wast fo ake up a question tht was led for Dr, Frell by Leopold ser Pater Bea oe feng not be that ate ould be 0 ‘Stent ieee, becuse fe ested that reson wou pete within 8 Se tee orl eo tht Lather wan egal cofdent nthe eee swt Tah state Yeti might be were pling ra the Turks mere ono a tat hs why Later could ‘ellie nthe. The poweof reason tosang the patil are rerio mune dos, seme toe spend wp tna wr “Retr Later eld ci ighterune i ave component hat an AF veld ese lgon od Sependd hereon, And 1 tik 0 Toca eat engi at he ify and pole of ur ev Eadeh ia geechy teases c elton Thiol sy that we te retin ecm the als Harvey Coral twit De Forel id he ever an hse pcre, and spn ve rote, Bt at Sidney elgs der mot nosy mcr that hey il Be = Teme Satay thee wi oma renon oth commonvealh What we teehee eect T ink, ban epson of ll rs of Brae re {Eatcwhia whever they may 8 for thoe who flow them, do weit fetytdy ce, nd which rove there no oan fo the rane ove eg ths experts, emo me tha the chars STG for an elon towne Gl slim to ty to find way of tance turnin some hope tat seling gon «wot eter ea anegs rapes forthe revel of commu pups, TE ance and mere ral forme appropri tothe iis which ‘eaten he chrls awa ath sow to be ea the sue aly tea Weim puny oalves eyo al evions ofthe ondamenta Cian ott we hve the stent and coburn ef ur prone staan hear fom Chr We st pony oumlves tery fli ween" ar pace ni ely athe words evaons o the {Weds f the Man peo v. ur cation mst tow lento waka veer knife ge We motion mpl grates severkarto mae rl ens SIUC by cee mot leo nie nd poy and ee crite todsamguh been once saigotcses We mes cee ees cts stcmbing ti We mt stn the far snd erica ns ot re ina or oe ed nt or pl i or come ur eee Pare ate puss and conenensto the poy nt God 7 AAD 6 ote W. Jin dlsporove of th lt We it do with» relat and consteny nat revs pracce by the man race, hnowgs reve tht all ‘testing and heartsearching and action we will be ino more secure than we ‘er before That the tak wich the gore ay, by i ng pelaton ong i won our soe. tan onprcedented tabu Prophecy: f we sont mater we wil try ety ences el hat ‘right soon, On the other hand—if the church can. only. bring: sell ‘levec=o age hasbeen 0 open tothe mat mel “Lathers re tations the gol so itarcosedoanythinglog ti DISCUSSION QUESTION: Fbaving Rouble with your conlsion. I'm tempted to call t ‘hetorle or evangelism. How workable st? “S JENSON: Erangelis it urly le Rhetore surely soo; Lhope not merely thetore: The pont Lwant to make i this a kind of mitigated version of the gorpel~as when we ss) for example, “On the one hand, tobe sure, four hope Fou in nothing les than Jers blood and sighteousness, bt ‘Sn the other hand we have to consider the neces to be reasonable, and ‘ot ao preach the gospel sto deve people out ofthe congregation” —msy tral be what ie called for In wertain historical stution. tna stuation ‘where the religious baile and apparatus of culture i functioning and ing you don't always need drastic preaching of (let me wse gage) "jutifieation by Chest and absolutely nothing ‘lo. only people who have expertnced Luther's hind of Anfechtung Sv need to have the goxpel preached sorwncat. What Tm suggesting is That the station into which cur eulture i headed js one ln which the ‘oneut gospel not only fora sprit elite as it was nthe eal stent “ont: there ae now inqumerable men-os-the-tvet for whom no mit ed version ofthe gospel wil da, 1 agre seit what Professor Forel sk is morning: that fone is willing to look end Iisten one can discover te rls everywhere Ifthe church to mean anything tall na situation Tike tat, then wea eat have tobe clear about the hopelessness ofall t= temps to paper over the divideiness of the moral sll. Tere i indeed Lind of Lithersiom for which ether Christians have rightly rebuked ws Ltherans often sneak around trying ote peopl who are pefety happy tnd prosperous and succesful that they aren't ely.” And yet theres funny sens in which tis posible tobe perfect happy and succesful and ‘prespeous, and fori not to mean a damn thing, That i the station in hich it seems to me neatly everbody 1 know finds himsel. This isnot ome kind of psychological secdent tBalongs tothe history of our eul- tore: It des no goad to say, "Well you lf s meaningful ad useful and Valuable if you do suchand-aich” Broruse the question is precisely nether i worth doing anything at all Then the valu of fe wil be Found outtde me or not at al GRITSCH: What sbout the relationship between this and cil religion? Renewal of cv religion might mea thatthe church may have to do Something thet i s not terbly ured to, that i help others tose the di ‘Vision between man and Cod. Not to paper I ver, but to show the rift

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