877. addendum

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Addendum to "Theology for Freedom and Responsibility"
Theology is not "right believing/, or "orthodoxy/' that simply transmits traditional dogmatic teaching, but rather asks by way of free research (= freies Forschen) about the expression of Christian truth that will be valid for today.
This means that the task of theology is translation/interpretationnamely, of Christian truth (= das Wort del' Gnade!das vVort vom Kreuz) from the language of the outdated world picture in terms of which it is expressed in scripture and tradition into a language inJelligible to modern women and men.
The right translation/interpretation of the Bible consists in showing what understanding of human existence is expressed in the Bible.
But in thus translating/interpreting the understanding of human existence that comes to expression in the Bible, theology is in effect explicating what it means to exist Christianly. And this it has to do by also entering into critical discussion with other ways of understanding human existencephilosophical as well as religious.
21 February 1996