AGGRESSION AND SIN: AMBIGUITY IN THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Abstract
Wolfhart Pannenberg developed a theological anthropology which enables us to understand acts of violence and aggression. He rejects the traditional doctrine of man’s original state and fall and tries to reformulate the Christian doctrine of sin. According to philosophical anthropology man is an exocentrical being, open to the world, directed outward and constituted by otherness, but at the same time he is selfcentered and concerned with himself. Pannenberg defines sin as the inevitable dominancy of man’s self-centeredness over his outward direction. If we take responsibility for ourselves and acknowledge that we have not yet arrived at our destiny, which is given in Christ, we can overcome our self-centeredness by means of an outward directed self-transcendence. Acts of violence and aggression mainly result from the subject’s failure to open up to the otherness that is constitutive of its own self, which leads to an offensive self-maintenance.Downloads
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