By Schubert Ogden
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Bultmann argues that there is one assessment of Jesus' person that corresponds to his own intention-insofar, namely, as he is sent by God, "insofar as he is bearer ofthe word" (Jesus: 181). I take it to be clear that, in the purely formal concepts ofW. A. Christian's properly developed philosophy of religion, to be "bearer of the word \[sc. of God\]" is to function as "the vehicle of a religious suggestion" (Meaning and Truth in Religion: 99). According to Christian, "in the history of religion a great variety ofthings have functioned in thi sway.II "Any natural obj ect (like a vine, the sun, a stone), any human relationship (like sexual love, physical combat, parenthood, political authority), or any historical event (like a flood, the Exodus, Gotama's enlightenment, the death of Christ) might, logically speaking, function \[as the vehicle ofa suggestion\]. ...Such objects, relations, and events introduce, in a concrete way, answers to basic religious questions. They become paradigmatic \[religious\] symbols" (99). (What, I ask, is a "paradigmatic \[religious\] symbol" if not what I call "the explicit primal source ofreligious authority"?) Christian also distinguishes, significantly, between "the content ofthe suggestion" and "the way it is conveyed," the second presumably being simply another way of saying, "the vehicle of the suggestion.If It's likewise significant that he stresses that both "vary from faith to faith" (102). An "effective suggestion," Christian implies, is "a starting point for thought" (95). I wonder whether this isn't pretty much the sort ofthing Marxsen has in mind in analyzing the names, or, really, the naming, ofJesus. First, there is the encounter with Jesus' demand; then there is "reflection" on the significance of his demand-and, finally, of him himself as the demander. I also find it interesting that what Christian means by "a basic religious proposal" -- namely, a summary statement ofthe meaning of a religious suggestion (109)--sounds very much like what I mean by "the constitutive assertion" ofa religion. 9 November2008 |