The Incarnation of God in the Age of Globalization. Marx's critique of economics in Enrique Dussel’s thinking and the draft of a structural format of Christology and Soteriology
Final Report Abstract
In Christian theology, Jesus of Nazareth with his message of the kingdom of God is understood as Christ, Messiah and bringer or mediator of salvation. This creed is discussed in the two theological disciplines of Christology and soteriology. Traditionally, the salvific meaning of said creed focuses on human beings and their freedom in relation to God and other human beings. The incarnation of God focuses on the humanity to which all human beings are called. However, the conventional approach ignores the question of inhumane global structures, their humanisation and thus the shaping of the global community as the content and goal of Christological or soteriological considerations. The lack of reference to the unjust global structures ultimately prevents a realistic answer to the question what the salvation that is promised by God means. In order to elaborate such a structural and community-based Christology, which is still outstanding, the project takes up the reflections of the Argentinean-Mexican liberation theologian and philosopher Enrique Dussel. In a first step, Dussel asks for the basic principles of an "ethics of community" that is fundamentally based on respect for the dignity of "the other". In a second step, Dussel recognises this Other not only as an individual neighbour, but also in the global relationships of peoples, cultures and nations. In the field of capitalist economy, he tries to apply and extend this ethic of community to global capitalism with the help of Karl Marx's critique of economy. The aim is to discover this exploited Other in the exploitation of Latin American cultures and nations, which can already be found in Marx's explanation of exploitation. While Dussel did not elaborate a community-ethical or structural Christology, this project applies Dussel's reflections to the field of Christology. In the tradition of liberation theology, the incarnation of God is understood primarily as the incarnation of God in the poor, whereby God not only becomes human in an abstract way, but can also be identified with the concrete sufferer under prevailing systems. The reference to God creates an external perspective on the earthly systems of oppression, exposing them for what they are. It is precisely the revelation-theological or incarnation-Christological justification that concretises the content of an ethic of community: The poor cannot be reduced to the role of the exploited inside the system, but are also qualified as someone beyond the system which is made possible through the incarnation of God. Their humanity and dignity form the critical standard of the Kingdom of God for the world. Thus, Christology aims at a practice of liberation from oppression and receives a contour that is both realistic and soteriological.
Publications
- 2018. Ökonomie des Heils. Warum die marxistische Theorie des Geldes und seiner Verwertung einen Verständnishorizont für das Evangelium eröffnet, in: Konstantin Lindner, Konstantin/ Thomas Laubach (Hg.): »Geld regiert die Welt!?« Ökonomisches Denken als Herausforderung für die Theologie (Bamberger Theologisches Forum 17). Berlin, 125–155
Jürgen Bründl
- 2020. »Christus der neue Mensch« (GS 22) – Konzeptionelle Überlegungen zum Format strukturaler Christologie als öffentlicher Theologie, in: Katharina Eberlein-Braun (Hg.), Im Laboratorium. Öffentliche Theologie und das Beschreiben ihrer Gegenwart. Leipzig, 111–135
Jürgen Bründl
- 2021. Die Städte der Apokalypse – urbane Topographien von Gericht und Vollendung. Zum geschichtstheologischen Potenzial der Johannes-Offenbarung und ihrer spezifischen Raumkonstruktion, in: Jürgen Bründl/Thomas Laubach/Konstantin Lindner (Hg.), Zeichenlandschaften. Religiöse Semiotisierungen im interdisziplinären Diskurs. Bamberg (Bamberger Theologische Studien 42), 611–648
Jürgen Bründl
(See online at https://doi.org/10.20378/irb-58859) - 2021. Religion zwischen Wahrheit und Ideologie. Das Ideologie- und Kritikverständnis Karl Marx’ und die Methodologie der Theologie der Befreiung, Jürgen Bründl/ Alexander Schmitt/ Konstantin Lindner (Hg.), Zählt Wahrheit heute noch? Theologische und interdisziplinäre Sondierungen in postfaktischer Zeit. Bamberg (Bamberger Theologische Studien 42), 121–229
Alexander Schmitt
(See online at https://doi.org/10.20378/irb-52991) - 2021. Wahrheit der Erlösung. Zur theologischen Kritik der Heilsökonomie des Glaubens, in: Jürgen Bründl/Alexander Schmitt/Konstantin Lindner (Hg.), Zählt Wahrheit heute noch? Theologische und interdisziplinäre Sondierungen in postfaktischer Zeit. Bamberg (Bamberger Theologische Studien 42), 291–385
Jürgen Bründl
(See online at https://doi.org/10.20378/irb-56806) - 2021. »Der Klassenkampf ist eine Tatsache und Neutralität in dieser Sache unmöglich«. Das Klassenkampf-Kapitel aus Gustavo Gutiérrez’ Theologie der Befreiung und seine Reformulierung, in: Michelle Becka/Franz Gmainer-Pranzl (Hg.), Gustavo Gutiérrez: Theologie der Befreiung (1971/2021). Der bleibende Impuls eines theologischen Klassikers. Innsbruck-Wien, 221–265
Alexander Schmitt
- Zählt Wahrheit heute noch? Theologische und interdisziplinäre Sondierungen in postfaktischer Zeit. Bamberg (Bamberger Theologische Studien 42)
Jürgen Bründl/Alexander Schmitt/Konstantin Lindner (Hg.)
(See online at https://doi.org/10.20378/irb-52283)
