Meta-narratives are governed by a literary
form which requires their authors to weave narratives recording historical
events into a coherent account of the entire course of human history. On its part, the literary form provides the
arena in which meta-narratives view for authority.
Few authors intend to construct a
meta-narrative. But every reading of the
western literary tradition enshrines a meta-narrative which guides and even
governs the self-understanding of adherents of a particular strand in that
tradition.
Nietzche and Heidegger
Heidegger's use of a hermeneutical theory
forged by Nietzsche to assert his authority over readings of the western
literary tradition offers a paradigm example of the contention between
meta-narratives. Thus, to frame which
own meta-narrative, Heidegger implicitly acknowledged that readings generated
by Nietzsche's archeology of knowledge and genealogy of morals forced
rationalists to admit that a literary construct, "reason", could not
provide a detached, god-like perspective on language, experience and
reality. And the force of Nietzsche's
critique was enhanced by his accusation that rationalism was propelled by a
hidden will to power. To counter
Nietzsche without contributing to the assumption that "reason" spoke
with authority, Heidegger centered his re-reading of the western literary
tradition in a conviction that "reason" became conscious of itself in
and through the notion of Being forged by an inter-textual dialogue among the
so-called pre-Socratics. As the god-term
governing his re-readings of the transition from orality to literacy as the
foundation of western culture, Being accommodated a metaphor which described
languages generated by a literary tradition as abodes in which individuals
dwell suspended over an abyss. Since the
abyss in question is clearly the Cartesian chasm between subjectivity and objectivity,
languages function as vehicles for the revelation of the meaning of Being, and
an authentic human existence is defined as a stance of open responsiveness to
the creative and gracious activity of an all-pervasive Being.
I suggest, however, that the depiction of
the human quest framed by the pre-Socratic notion of Being cannot be reconciled
with the delineation of human existence in the Hebrew narrative tradition. The difference: Since the pre-Socratics forged the notion of
Being prior to the emergence of significant distinctions among language,
experience and reality, Heidegger could use it to recover a participative
existence from the sterility of reason's dispassionate, disinterested
stance. But the literary form of the
prose narrative forged by the Hebrew narrative tradition rejected the
distinction between a participative and a detached existence. Its import is evident in the metaphors of
intimacy designed to evoke the longing for intimacy on the part of unique
individuals and to transform that longing into a realizable quest.
Meta-Narratives in the Christian
Tradition
Though the powers-that-be in Rome refuse to
acknowledge the fact, the Christian tradition transmits two irreconcilable
meta-narratives.
The dominant meta-narrative continues to
provide the stage for the misplaced debate between Catholic and Protestant
theologians. For its starting point, it
canonizes the harsh doctrine of original sin which Augustine extracted from the
story of Adam and Eve. According to
Augustine, this story is an historical account which asserts (1) that God
originally intended a purely natural relationship with human beings, (2) that
Adam's sin severed this natural relationship and condemned his descendants to a
self-centered existence, (3) that divine justice had to demand fitting
reparation for this offence, and (4) that no mere human could make such
reparation.
For the transforming moment in the story,
the meta-narrative invoked the understanding of the Incarnation inscribed in
Anselm's Cur Deus Homo (which can be
loosely translated as "Why did God become a man?") Presumably, divine mercy intervened and,
together, justice and mercy determined that the cruel and humiliating death of
the Word made flesh would not only restore the severed relationship, but
elevate those who are saved to a supernatural state of existence. (The import of Augustine's description of
Adam's sin as "a happy fault".)
Note well:
This meta-narrative (1) implies that the Word would not have become
incarnate if Adam had not sinned, (2) enshrines the hierarchical structure
implicit in the metaphor of power and judgment in a theology of transcendence,
and (3) places Jesus at the center of that structure as a mediator between God
and sinful humans.
Inexorably, the meta-narrative generated a
sin-centered theology which reduced Jesus's saving activity to an emphasis on
reparation to God and redemption for humans (or later, in Luther, on
justification by faith alone). Even
worse, once Aquinas situated the meta-narrative in a baptized Aristotelianism,
the metaphor of power and judgment which framed the western philosophical
tradition led theologians to depict God as Lord, Lawgiver and Judge, and the
language of redemption was burdened with the supposition that Jesus'
sacrificial death merited something called "sanctifying grace." In this context, this created grace was
somehow conferred by the reception of the seven Sacraments or merited by good
works or performance of the terms set for gaining Indulgences.
COMMENTARY:
I cannot believe in a God who would demand the cruel and humiliating
death on the cross of his own divine Son in reparation for human sinfulness. Please do not remind me that God's ways are
not our ways. I would respond with the
reminder that the stories in the Old Testament cannot be read as historical
accounts of how God acted in the past.
And I would suggest that Jesus, fully God and fully human, reveals God's
ever-faithful and all-inclusive love.
The second meta-narrative frames the
incarnational theology indebted to Scotus.
It begins with the vision inscribed in the Hymn in the Prologue of John
and the Johannine formula which presents God simply as Love, not with
Augustine's doctrine of original sin.
The understanding of these biblical passages awaited the emergence of
the doctrine of the Trinity in the fourth century, CE. And when this doctrine was interpreted
through a code derived from the metaphors of intimacy projected by Israel's
great prophets, it implied that the three divine Persons shared so intimately
in the lives of one another that there was only one divine life. (That life was also individuating.)
Scotus' reading of the Prologue of John
presented creation as an out-pouring of divine love. In short, he insisted that love always
over-flows. (His formula: Amor
est diffusivus sui; translated
literally: "Love diffuses
itself.") When this passage is read
through a code derived from the doctrine of the Trinity, the eternal Word is
central to life within the Trinity, the act of creation, the course of human
history and the lives of human beings.
Quite obviously, then, the Incarnation was not a response to human
sinfulness.
According to this meta-narrative,
therefore, the Incarnation reveals that each of the three divine Persons longs
to be intimately involved with us on our journeys through life. Jesus, the Word incarnate, reveals how the
Father and the Spirit were involved with him in distinctive ways on his
journey. And on his part, he dwells among
us as a tremendous lover and wounded Healer, not a mediator between God and us.
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