Freedom in the knowing of God. An outline between epistemic uncertainty and political responsibility.

De Brouwer, Louis
(2022) The Anselm Moment: responding theologically to the current times. 39th International Barth Conference — Location: Münster (Germany) (5.October.2022)

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In times of existential risks, possessing the truth seems reassuring, permitting to be directly guided by an authoritarian, unquestionable power. Why then should an affirmation such as "Christ is the one and only Lord" not lead accordingly to the promotion of a kind of totalitarian theocracy? Contrary to this option, the 1934 Barmen’s declaration links the lordship of Christ to a refusal of any “totalitarian order of human life” – thus putting such an absolute power out of human hands. The reasons therefore are worth being outlined and form a program of research linking this political statement directly to Karl Barth’s theological work with Anselm of Canterbury (1931, "Fides quaerens intellectum: Anselms Beweis der Existenz Gottes im Zusammenhang seines theologischen Programms"). The claim of this presentation is the following: Anselm’s proof of the existence of God, as re-read by Karl Barth, is not a source of pure constraint on faith. It is not a mathematical proof, nor does it lead to a kind of obligation to believe, with its correlate of (false) personal certainty, but it is rather a source of freedom and responsibility in faith.
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De Brouwer, L. (2022). Freedom in the knowing of God. An outline between epistemic uncertainty and political responsibility. The Anselm Moment: responding theologically to the current times. 39th International Barth Conference, Münster (Germany). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/246638