235 - The Hinge Of History; An Existential Approach To the Christian Faith

The Hinge Of History;
An Existential Approach To the Christian Faith
By Carl Michalson
256 pp. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1959. $3.95.

This book announces itself as an introduction to theology. It proposes a method of thinking about the Christian faith which is existential, and that means in this case that the "historical" nature, not only of the faith, but also of its theology, is taken seriously.

The Introduction develops four kinds of history. First, world history, that is to say, something which happens and is past, something which is irrevocable, and has to be recorded. Second, existential history, the compelling concern for meaning within world history. This way of looking at history rises from the anxiety about the "gaps" in history, the "holes," the "cracks in things," what can be called the paratactic structure in history. Existential history refuses to accept this structure, in which meaning is in danger of getting lost. The third kind of history, Biblical history, supplies what existential history finds lacking, for it witnesses to the occurrence of paradigmatic events which fill the paratactic: gaps. Biblical history, however, is finally superseded by eschatological history. Now that God is present in Christ, Biblical history has lost its meaning as saving history. For now it has been made clear that Christ is the hinge. Everything, all times hinge on him. It is in Christ that all things now cohere.

The main body of the book is divided in two parts. In Part One the superiority of existential history to world history is demonstrated, in Part Two the superiority of eschatological history to Biblical history is shown. Part One discusses the relation between religion and science, several problems connected with the concept of freedom, and the attitude of the twentieth century existentialists toward God. Part Two considers the historicity of Christ, the reality of the resurrection, myth and mythologizing in the New Testament, and the nature of preaching.

This is a very stimulating book. It says some very good things, and it has also some serious defects. All together it is thought-provoking.

One of the great merits of the book is its being one of the first theologies (or perhaps the first) in the States which unblushingly claims that theology must be approached from an existentialist point of view, especially from that of Heidegger and Bultmann. It is strange that this has not been admitted by the author from the outset. The Preface claims that this

236 - The Hinge Of History; An Existential Approach To the Christian Faith

introduction to theology distinguishes itself from the traditional kind by not leaning upon philosophy or science but by taking history as its guide. This claim betrays a fundamental confusion. Michalson's theologizing is not guided by history, but by history as understood by Heidegger and Bultmann. The subtitle should therefore not speak of an "existential," but of an "existentialist" approach.

This criticism reveals that the methodological considerations do not form the strongest part of the book. The basic philosophical position of the author is not brought into the open, but treated casually in two footnotes (pp. 28, 32). Here Michalson places himself in the line of the hermeneutical school (Dilthey, Wach, Bultmann) and adheres with the qualification of Husserl's phenomenology by people like Scheler and Heidegger. It is a pity that the author does not elaborate. Why? He should not be ashamed of his adherence to these schools, for his position in these matters makes for the refreshing character of his work. Finally, it should be remarked about the method of this book that it does not offer a "Biblical" theology. It quite frankly claims that the problems of an introduction to theology have to be raised by existentialist philosophy, and not by Scripture.

However, Michalson's book contains many discussions which are illuminating and enjoyable. He suggests something like an existentialist epistemology, and an understanding of faith and theology based upon this epistemology. There is "a self more basic than rationality" (p, 121), and the "historical, meaning-seeking urges in man are ultimately more authentic than any other cognitive urges" (p. 58). Hence, the propositions of theology "are not invitations to intellectual assent but invocations to a new form of existence, a new history. . . . The test of the validity of a history inheres in the luminousness which it confers upon life at the dark limit of the world's hopes" (p. 149).

The most valuable part of the book seems to be the discussion of contemporary existentialism (pp. 103-124). Michalson here discusses "The Christian uses of existentialism" and claims that its service to the Christian faith lies in its fierce attack upon Christianity. This means that Michalson rejects the possibility of a "Christian philosophy," and sides with the atheistic existentialists. The tragic atheism of Nietzsche, the insolent atheism of Sartre, the reverent atheism of Heidegger, all this is interpreted as "an open confession by the man as philosopher that he does not have access to the authentic God beyond all inauthentic half-gods." Furthermore, the Christian sympathizer with existentialism is not allowed "to make existential yearning for ultimate meaning . . . the human presupposition for Christian faith." This means that besides Christian philosophy Christian apologetics is rejected,

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These valuable insights into the structure of Christian thinking are based upon an analysis of existentialism which is centered around the notion of "a discipline of thirst." It is the greatness of existentialism that it refuses to "drink with satisfaction from . . . sources that are not deep enough to be pure." One could call this discipline a combination of courage and patience. The greatest philosophical sin is to be satisfied with a meaning which announces itself, but which is not bitter enough, not profound enough, not difficult enough. It is better to live and philosophize without the help of ultimate meanings than to hail meanings which do not fully deserve the admiration of an honest and most critical man.

Now the focus of Michalson's illumination of this discipline of thirst is his remark that the atheistic existentialists are in this regard more authentic than the theistic ones. Jaspers and Berdyaev, Marcel, and even Buber "break the discipline of thirst too soon." Sartre, Camus, and Heidegger have the courage to remain atheists until the bitter end.

Michalson's praise of atheism leads him finally to the claim that also Christianity is an atheism! Atheism here means Nietzsche's cry of anguish "God is dead!" That means the passionate protest that if God would be as man thinks him to be, as man wants to use him for his own purposes, as man wants to catch him in the bloodless terms of philosophy" that such a God, if he ever existed at all, must be dead, must have been killed by his own followers! Michalson makes clear that if this is atheism, Luther, Bonhoeffer, and Bultmann are atheists just as well as Nietzsche and the existentialists.

These twenty pages must be read by every minister, by every seminary student, by every thinking Christian.

It is a riddle that Michalson follows up his profound analysis of Christian atheism by the construction of a Gnostic ontology. In the Second Part of his book he develops an Ontological Drama. In his theologizing on this issue he rudely jeers at the tough discipline which guided his thinking earlier in the book. The title of the Drama runs "Love Crosses the Boundary" (p. 163). Its presuppositions are (i) a limit of being separates God and man, (ii) this limit is overcome by Christ. "God hurts himself in the act of overcoming the structure that separates him from man" (p. 166). The most complete expression of this Gnostic myth runs "In the freedom of his transcendent being God plunges across the ontological barrier, stretches himself from heaven to earth in the life-time of Jesus of Nazareth, to bring to man the good news... (p. 168).

This last sentence also discloses that the purpose of the breaking of the barrier is: to bring man gnosis, to liberate him from his "ignorance"

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(p.168), to "communicate the one bit of redemptive news . . ." (p. 166), to grant man "divine illumination" (p. 219).

A Biblical objection to this Gnostic myth is the remark that according to the New Testament Christ came on earth, to overcome not limits of being, but the Evil One. Christ came, not in order to replace ignorance by gnosis, but in order to conquer sin. It would seem that a Christology has a big chance to go wrong if it does not start with the recognition that according to the New Testament Christ comes to establish God's Kingdom, against and in spite of those powers which rebel against God, in spite of Satan and the stoicheia tou kosmou.

The philosophical criticisms of this ontological construction are many. We formulate only two. First, the root of this Gnostic speculation seems to lie in the notion of possibility. From page 73 on this concept is used again and again, and from page 124 on it rules the discussion. Possibility is contrasted with necessity, and a conception of God is developed on the claim that God is not necessary, but possible (p. 125). Man merely has possibility, but God is Possibility (p. 129). In the following pages Michalson sets forth how Heidegger has revived the notion of possibility. Plato had already entertained this way of thinking. "The idea of the good was regarded by Plato as the source, the possibility of all good, truth, and beauty, and of all existence." Furthermore, "Aristotle employed the same kind of thinking in his concept of the arche, the beginning or source." Also the Church Fathers thought in this way, according to the author. The place where Michalson makes most clear to us why he entertains this concept of God is the passage where he denounces natural theology "Natural theology is dedicated to finding out something about God through realities other than God . . . such as nature and history" (p. 139). This is a misunderstanding, claims Michalson, for "God is not in nature or history. He is their possibility" (p. 140).

Later on we find assertions that God is man's possibility (p. 158), and the possibility of history (p. 159). Also, God is the source and possibility, both of knowledge and law (p. 161). Christ is the source of the new age (p. 180), and the final form of human existence (p. 189). The Resurrection is called the source of the life of the Church (p. 194).

It seems to me a requirement of sound theology first to investigate whether the notions of possibility of Plato and Aristotle, of Heidegger, and of the Church Fathers are so identical as Michalson assumes, and further, whether there is any guarantee that this notion is in any way akin to Biblical manners of thinking about God. The way in which Dr. Michalson handles the notion of possibility suggests Platonism. The Platonic contrast between the realm of ideas and the visible world seems

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to be a parallel to Michalson's concept of the limit between two realms of being. This concept is the presupposition of the Ontological Drama of Love Crossing the Boundary.

Willem F. Zuurdeeg
McCormick Theological Seminary
Chicago, Illinois