By Schubert Ogden
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One use of this distinction [sc. |
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between |
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explicit |
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and |
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implicit |
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Christian |
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witness |
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] |
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is |
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to |
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distinguish |
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between |
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the |
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explicit |
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Christian |
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witness |
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of |
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Christian |
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religious |
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praxis, |
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on |
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the |
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one |
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hand, |
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and |
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the |
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implicit |
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Christian |
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witness |
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of |
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all |
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the |
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rest |
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of |
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Christian |
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life-praxis |
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insofar |
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as |
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it, |
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too, |
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is |
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mediated |
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by |
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the |
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Christian |
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religion, |
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on |
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the |
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other. |
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On |
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this |
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use, |
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one's |
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witness |
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is |
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properly |
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said |
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to |
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be |
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implicitly |
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Christian |
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insofar |
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as |
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what |
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one |
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does, |
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or |
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how |
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one |
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does |
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it, |
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follows |
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from |
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one's |
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self-understanding |
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as |
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a |
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Christian |
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and |
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is |
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by |
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way |
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of |
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actualizing |
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this self-understanding [sc. |
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in |
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one's |
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immediate |
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situation |
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]. |
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Thus, |
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to |
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act |
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justly |
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in |
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relation |
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to |
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others, |
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both |
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within |
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society |
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and |
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culture |
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and |
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with |
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respect |
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to |
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maintaining |
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and/or |
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transforming |
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social |
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and |
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cultural |
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structures, |
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is |
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to |
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bear |
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implicit |
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Christian |
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witness, |
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insofar |
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as |
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acting |
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in |
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this |
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way |
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follows |
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from, |
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and |
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in |
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this |
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sense |
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is |
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implied |
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by, |
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one's |
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self-understanding |
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as |
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a |
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Christian. |
Having reflected further, however, I'm now convinced that the sense of "implicitly Christian" clarified in this passage is not really a third sense after all. On the contrary, if a witness can be said to be implicitly Christian if, and only if, it is a way of acting that "follows from, and in this sense is implied by, one's self-understanding as a Christian" -- and this is the condition explicitly stipulated in the passage -- then it necessarily presupposes the Christian proprium and can only be a Christian witness in the first of the two senses clarified, especially, in the second full paragraph of Notebooks, 13 December 2004. In this sense, I may be said to be implicitly a Christian because "I am so related to Jesus, mediately if not immediately, that he is of decisive significance for my life and for all human life, although I do not (yet) explicitly confess him to be so."
6 December 2004
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