“The man who understands himself from his possibilities understands himself from reflection on himself. Now, in revelation, man should be snatched away from his reflection and should obtain the answer to his question only from and before God. The foundation for the question of man is laid by the question of God. This is where the basic difference between theological and philosophical anthropology lies”[1]
Pondering on this Bonhoeffer lecture at the moment and particularly on these two extracts...
“… man understands himself not in reflection on himself, but in the act of reference to God, i.e. only at the point where he finds within himself possibilities by virtue of which he can stand before God…Man understands himself in the act of reference to God, which only God himself provides.”
[1]Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Inaugural Lecture: Man in Contemporary Philosophy and Theology – taken from No Rusty Swords (London: Collins,1971), p. 60.
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