Berdyaev on Christology of humanity
Back when I was in seminary and writing on Dostoevsky’s theory about personality, Suzy introduced me to a biography written by Nikolai Berdyaev that she had from high school (she’s so cool). As it turns out, this is one of the best thematic biographies out there on Dostoevsky. He makes an excellent attempt to capture some of the common threads and lays them out for you in a way that makes you want to read Brothers Karamazov over and over again.
Anyway, I ran across this quote tonight and it really struck me:
Christianity has always taught of the weakness and fall of humanity, of the sinfulness and weakness of human nature. At the same time, Christian anthropology recognizes the absolute and royal significance of humanity, since it teaches the incarnation of God and the divine possibilities in humans, the mutual inter-penetration of divine and human natures. But for some deep reason, hidden in the secret of times and seasons, Christianity never revealed in its fullest what one might venture to call a Christology of humanity, that is the secret of humanity’s divine nature, a dogma of humanity, analogous to the dogma of Christ. Christianity has revealed the nature of the Holy Trinity and the nature of Christ, but very little of the nature of humanity. … And yet in Christian revelation the truth about humanity’s divine nature is really only the reverse of the medal of truth about Christ’s human nature. The Christology of humanity is inseparable from that of the Son of God: Christ’s self-consciousness is inseparable from that of humanity. The Christological revelation is also an anthropological revelation. And the task of humanity’s religious consciousness is to reveal the Christological consciousness of humanity.
Most of his books aren’t even in print anymore, but you can still get them used. Anything that mentions him these days just lumps him in with other existentialist theologians like Tillich, Buber and Maritain. I remember when I was studying to write that paper that I had about four of Berdyaev’s books and I couldn’t stop reading long enough to write my paper. That seemed to be a trend throughout my entire education. At least now I can read without have to worry about turning a paper in on time!
April 25, 2008 at 8:40 am
Hey Tim!
I share the same past trend. It never failed – all the interesting reads as a means to writing a paper desperately strove to be the ultimate goal of exploration and discovery. When my time at seminary ended I was catapulted into a deadline free reading zone… it was heavenly.
The Christology of humanity sounds intriguing. I’ve often felt that the systematic theology that I studied ignored something important about who we are. I think you’ve put your finger on it. “Self-awareness” has been a passion of mine (just ask Becky). To me, there’s tremendous potential in these types of pursuits. I think they can affirm some of the things we’ve been doing and reveal in what ways we have not been ourselves.
Some may think this line of thought to be somewhat narcissistic, but I don’t think Narcissus went wrong when he explored an appreciation of himself. (By the way, I often thought of the Narcissus story to be an interesting parallel of the divine looking down, falling in love with an image of himself, wanting to become “one” with the image, dying as a result, and resurrecting into a new form. Sound cheesy? Maybe. But that’s where my mind goes sometimes.)
By the way, I enjoyed catching up on your posts. And I’m so happy for the new addition in your lives! It’s quite a ride! Congratulations again, and looking forward to seeing you face to face in a month. Cheers.