Human identity is coherent, yet any definition, which is birthed from the perspective of what humanity has done or what humanity can do, is without substance. Human identity is more than flesh, bone and thought; human identity can only be constructed by the work of God because God is the sole progenitor of human identity. This is not a research paper that deals with metaphysics, nor a research paper that deals with human nature, this is a research paper that deals with the work of God and where human identity discovers its true origin. The focus of this paper is to articulate that humanity is defined by the actions of God; we are defined in this world solely by the work of Christ. This allows us to become a fully human and gives us permission to live as creatures. Human Identity is not about any action that we have preformed, that is assumed identity (Assumed identity is an identity that is given to us not by any authority but from either ourselves or other human beings. It is an identity that we assume to ourselves either because it is something that we have always been told or always thought about ourselves. An example of an assumed identity is; I am not good at sports like my brother Jim, because Jim is good at sports my father loves him more, thus I am not as loved or as valuable as my brother Jim. etc.), but to the contrary human identity is what has been done to us in Christ. This research paper will focus on Christ breaking through sinful flesh to transform the world by the hands of God’s people, thus fundamentally transforming human identity by discovering its derivative. Restated, the purpose of this research paper to simply to describe the actualized eschatology of the crucified and glorious resurrected Christ, which is simply a retelling of what God has done in the world and what God is doing to sanctify humanity.
First let us being by stating that human identity can only be defined communally(Human identity can only be discovered in community, as the individual has no authority to define him or herself. By community here I mean the Church, the physically present Crucified and Resurrected Christ among God’s people, only here by grace are we defined and given access to our identity, through our trust in Christ.); human identity is defined only by something outside the individual, this something outside of that individual defines them in the most fundamental way. Humanity can only be defined communally because humanity was created to be defined in relation to the other and not in isolation from the other. The individual cannot be defined in the singular as humanity and thus has no autonomy towards an individualistic human identity. An individual cannot contain within themselves their own definition just as a sentence that defines a word cannot have that self-referential word within the definition. Humanity cannot contain its own definition within itself because it is not its own progenitor and thus humanity does not have the authority to do so. The creator, the progenitor of human identity, holds this authority to definition and it is the creator’s definition that informs us of our identity, rather than the creature’s opinion of themselves, which forms their identity or their identification of others.
A human being is a complex web of interconnected thoughts and actions that describe them, however, this complex web has no authority to define humanity. Some actions do not originate out of cognitive rational thought, rather they spring from a form of control whether sub-consciously or directed (by themselves of others), these actions are manifested in impulses, which are birthed out of these and take flight from potential action into the realm of the actualized. Some of these actions that are not in the strictest sense of the word “chosen” and thus cannot be appropriated to define an individual, i.e. land of origin, family structure that an individual was born into, social class or mental abilities. These are things that describe an individual but they do not have any authority in the arena of definition. Human identity is found in free actions and free choices, but it is not the culmination of actions and choices that constitute identity, rather the triune God ultimately defines it by having progenitorial authority. We discover our human identity in our creator, not by what we do in the creation or by others in the creation that we inhabit. This definition finds its fulfillment, authority and composition in Christ. This fundamentally alters human identity because one can no longer be defined by their own thoughts. Humanity cannot be defined by the speech of other created beings, or the actions of created beings, a human initiated definition is only transitory and cannot encapsulate the revelation of Christ toward human identity. Human language is not an authority in itself, rather it is that shadow of authority, this is the misplacement of authority. This human initiated definition is the assumed identity that is given by the world; it has no authority but attempts to give itself the authority of definition that is not it’s authority to give. The work of Christ and the promises of Christ are the only authority toward a definition of the individual due once again to the progenitorial authority of Christ. This is Christocentric existentialism of autonomous and communal authenticity
The implications of human identity taking its rightful definition from Christ and being fundamentally grounded in the work of Christ are as vast as they are beautiful. In this model I am proposing human identify is so inextricably linked to the work of Christ that it cannot be separated from Christ. The propensity of many is to confuse this liberation of Christ with an attachment or adherence to a new ethic, a new law, a new system, but this is a false and assumed identity. The liberation of Christ is much more magnificent than any liberation that the world could construct. The work of Christ on the Cross is the transformative actualization of the eschaton that liberates our imagination to discover a new way to live. The liberation of Christ can never be the mere accumulation of knowledge that may lead the way by mere volition or by the adherence of an individual to a particular life strategy, rather it is an actualized end generated by Christ and given to humanity. The liberation of Christ is at the most fundamentally level the death of the individual’s assumed identity which must be destroyed. This takes place in order to for sinful humanity to be re-born, reformed, and recreated definition of the individual to break through the assumed identity into the transforming power of Christ and ultimately into the liberating human identity of being in Christ. However, the regenerated are intrepid, they are both the actualized new humanity, and not the actualized new humanity at the same instance in their worldly life. They are liberated from judgment and the knowledge of good and evil, however, they still retain the ability to violate their own freedom and return to sin. This is life in the penultimate hoping for the ultimate. The liberation of humanity to be wholly in this world as full humanity but understanding the ultimate in a way that exclusively identifies them. We have been actualized by Christ to become the actualized full humanity thus the story of Jesus is our story, we are grafted to God by the work of Jesus and thus we are grounded in a transformed reality with a Christocentric existential human identity.
I say existential because in Christ we have a new existence or a new authenticity through the work of Christ. I will briefly describe Existentialism, it is an ontology where there are two fundamental asymmetrical “regions of being,” being-in-itself and being-for-itself, the latter having no definable essence and hence, as “nothing” in itself, serving as the ground for freedom, creativity and action, serves well as a theoretical framework for an existentialist approach to human existence. However, it would be a mistake to treat even Sartre’s existentialist insights much less those of others, as dependent on this ontology, to which Sartre himself made little direct reference. Rather it is the implications of the common central claim that we human beings exist without justification (hence “absurdly”) in a world into which we are ‘thrown,’ condemned to assume full responsibility for our free actions and for the very values according to which we act. In one of its various forms, (we are talking about Sartre here) existentialism describes human identity as being defined by the thoughts of other people and what they perceive of an individual and at the same time of what an individual things about themselves. In the model, which I am proposing humanity does not have the authority to define the other nor the authority to define the self, the only authority that humanity has in the art of definition is to agree with Christ regarding our identity, chiefly that all individuals have unsurpassable worth because the work of Christ and Christ himself defines them. The work of Christ turns and pulls the rug out from under this existential approach because it alters what is ultimately authentic. To be human is to be defined by the work of Christ alone and thus we are left with the term Christocentric existentialism.
This brings our discussion to head for we are getting to the center of the center, which is Christ’s authority, supremacy and finality in the definition of human identity. As Bonhoeffer would say, Christ defines us in the penultimate as full humanity despite the fact that we are we are still waiting for our final revelation in the ultimate. This final revelation is where we will become perfect creatures with God in a new creation as a new creation. The indwelling of Christ in the penultimate is the gift of Christ to humanity where humanity is now given not only permission to live, but access to becoming fully human. What brings this permission is the ultimate, which is the work of God in the incarnation; this gift is made available through the life, death and resurrection of the glorious Christ. This incarnation makes the possibility of an existentially actualized new reality truly potential. In the penultimate the indwelling of Christ breaks through our flesh so that humanity is given this actualized end to be Christ in community. While this is actualized in the world and available for humanity, the final revelation of our being made in the likeness of Christ will not be perfected in our life-time on earth. To become truly Christ like is to be finally and irreversibly transformed into the likeness of Christ by the work of Christ transforming our constitution until a new being becomes fully actualized. Our authentic end in Christ now defines humanity in totality. This Christocentric existentialism is birthed out of an actualized eschatology where we are give permission to live, to love and to be experienced by others as a new creation utterly free for the other and at the same time freed from the other. We are free for the other so that Christ can be physically present in community, but we are freed from the others that would attempt to define us, at long last our definition can only be given by the authority of Christ the creator, and not by any creation we are freed from the other.
Our definition in Christ is a glorious mystery that cannot be adequately described by human language, but a solid attempt is made by Paul: “It is by him that you exist in Christ Jesus, who for us was made wisdom from God, and saving justice and holiness and redemption. (You who formerly, in the eyes of the world, did not exist now exist in Jesus Christ, while those who in the eyes of the world exist are reduced to nothing. It is about this new existence in Jesus Christ, and this alone, that you should boast.) As scripture says; if anyone wants to boast, let him boast of the Lord. Now when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with any brilliance of oratory or wise argument to announce to you the mystery of God. I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ. I came among you in weakness, in fear and great trembling and I spoke and proclaimed was not meant to convince by philosophical argument, but to demonstrate the convincing power of the Spirit, so that your faith should depend not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:29-2:5) Paul is attempting to tell the people of Corinth that they are no longer bound to the authority of the other, they have been freed from their assumed identities, they are once and for all liberated by Christ in order to be free for God’s purposes in the world. Our weakness is our assumed identity, it breeds fear, insecurity and shame, it is in this assumed identity, our weakness that Christ is with us in this world. In Christ humanity is given back its identity of simply being creatures under the authority of God, defined by God.
This gift culminates in living radical revolutionary lives; it beckons us to live eschatologically, being defined by the work of Christ and not by any other socially constructed boundary. This is freedom, living our lives encompassed by forgiveness, boasting not of ourselves or anything that we have attained but rather of what Christ has done. In this freedom we remain ever intrepid; we are becoming what we are not, but we are becoming like Christ, through the power of Christ and our submission to His call. Though we are not complete, we are defined, defined by what we will become and thus entirely defined by the work of God. This is our justification, which incorporates the individual into the church community; sanctification then preserves this church community together with the other. Justification liberates believers from their sin and prepares them for sanctification, which makes it possible to stay close to Christ, to preserve in faith and to grow in love thus being transformed to our Christ given identity.
This is living in freedom, Christ is our center, we are reconstituted and become a new creation, a new community and beyond that we are gifted and grafted to a new way of life. This culminates in making the story of Jesus our story. Where we do not simply have a new access point to this gift of new humanity, but we are an actualized new creation, a new humanity with a new reality, Christ the crucified, resurrected and glorious one, Christ the new and eternal reality. If we are to accept this new reality we are forced to place ourselves within the story of Jesus. This Christocentric existentialism is the reality of Christ indwelling our flesh. In this gift we are redefined, and thus correctly defined by the only authority that has the power of defining humanity. This redefinition begs us to ask how our context changes, we now acquire vicariously through Christ an all encompassing context, the narrative of resurrection and new life, put bluntly our context is the context of Jesus. The questions we as Christians face are no longer as simple as life and death but rather of living death. We face an entirely counter and subversive reality, this living death is a reorganization and transformation of our lives so much so that we exist in Christ. This renovation is what it is to be transformed to the mind of Christ, to be enveloped into the new reality that is secession from the lifeless ordinary to the living-death of the extraordinary. This subversive reconstitution of our lives is not simply a resurrection ethic, for it goes far past any ethic, it involves obedience, hardship suffering and leads us to a new life through death. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in Discipleship, whenever Christ calls us, that call always leads to death. When we recognize this call, we are liberated from a life of death into a living-death that allows us to truly live. But this new life in Christ though actualized is not fulfilled, beyond our identity we will also have everything revealed to us in the afterlife, which is not a new life as Barth says, but rather it is the full or the fuller revelation of this life or the ultimate revelation of Christ that we do not have access to in the penultimate. Ultimately we must come to realize that we are all dead, the sooner we actualize this death, the better, “we cannot hate it (death) as we used to, for we have discovered some good in it, and have almost come to terms with it, fundamentally we feel that we really belong to death already and that every new day is a miracle.” The appropriate response of the believer is simply to live gratefully in the knowledge that God has brought us true freedom and given us true permission to live as creatures, this freedom is Christocentric existentialism.
This realized Christocentric identity manifests itself most clearly in freedom. We are free both from others in the sense that we are free from their condemnation and their attempts to be God by defining one existentially, which in turn frees an individual for others. This identity liberates us so that we can be Christ to the world; it frees us so that the work of Christ in our lives can reach beyond ourselves and into the world. This radical and subversive call of discipleship that Bonhoeffer suggests is a stumbling block to Christianity as a religion, but it is by no means untruthful to the narrow way of Jesus. For Christ has nothing to do with religion, God is beyond religion; God is in the business of freedom not the business of oppression or self-sanctification. This is a radical call of Jesus to liberate us from our preconceptions of what holiness, truth, and the godliness that keep us from full submission to God in Christ an open us to the indwelling of the presence of Christ. To fully accept our definition is simply to believe that the full revelation of God in Christ is trustworthy.
To conclude I would simply state that to understand what our identity is we must come to recognize what the work of Christ has actualized in this world, if the story of Jesus is our story then we are an actualized new creation with a new identity. The reorganization of our lives can only come through the power of the crucified, resurrected and glorious Christ. This Christ is inextricably linked to whom we will be; we are defined by our eschatological future as the glorious bride of Christ but this can only happen through the death of the assumed identity. From this Christocentric existentialism emerges our true identity and thus we are able to inhabit a new way of life, a living-death where the indwelling of Christ is manifested in the “out-dwelling” of our lives. In short Christ is the center of our identity, lord of our identity, authority of our identity and origination of our identity and our occupation is to trust in Christ.
Joshua David Bau III fall 06
Works Cited
Barth, Karl. “The Humanity of God.” Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press. 1969.
Audi, Robert. “the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy” second edition P296-297
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. “Discipleship.” Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press. 2003
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. “A Testament to Freedom.” New York, New York: HarperSanFranciscon. 1995
Altizer, Thomas. J.J. and Hamilton. William. “Radical Theology and the Death of God.” USA: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc. 1954
Boyd, Gregory. “Repenting of Religion.” Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books. 2005
Kinlaw, Dennis. “Let’s Start with Jesus.” Grand Rapids Michigan: Zondervan: 2005
Hong, Howard. And Hong, Edna. “The Essential Keirkegaard.” Princeton, New Jersey” Princeton University Press. 2000
Bultmann, Rudolf. “Existence and Faith.” New York, New York: Meridian Books. 1968
Walsh, Brian and Keesmaat, Sylvia. “Colossians Remixed.” Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press. 2004
Biblical text taken from the New Jerusalem Translation.
First let us being by stating that human identity can only be defined communally(Human identity can only be discovered in community, as the individual has no authority to define him or herself. By community here I mean the Church, the physically present Crucified and Resurrected Christ among God’s people, only here by grace are we defined and given access to our identity, through our trust in Christ.); human identity is defined only by something outside the individual, this something outside of that individual defines them in the most fundamental way. Humanity can only be defined communally because humanity was created to be defined in relation to the other and not in isolation from the other. The individual cannot be defined in the singular as humanity and thus has no autonomy towards an individualistic human identity. An individual cannot contain within themselves their own definition just as a sentence that defines a word cannot have that self-referential word within the definition. Humanity cannot contain its own definition within itself because it is not its own progenitor and thus humanity does not have the authority to do so. The creator, the progenitor of human identity, holds this authority to definition and it is the creator’s definition that informs us of our identity, rather than the creature’s opinion of themselves, which forms their identity or their identification of others.
A human being is a complex web of interconnected thoughts and actions that describe them, however, this complex web has no authority to define humanity. Some actions do not originate out of cognitive rational thought, rather they spring from a form of control whether sub-consciously or directed (by themselves of others), these actions are manifested in impulses, which are birthed out of these and take flight from potential action into the realm of the actualized. Some of these actions that are not in the strictest sense of the word “chosen” and thus cannot be appropriated to define an individual, i.e. land of origin, family structure that an individual was born into, social class or mental abilities. These are things that describe an individual but they do not have any authority in the arena of definition. Human identity is found in free actions and free choices, but it is not the culmination of actions and choices that constitute identity, rather the triune God ultimately defines it by having progenitorial authority. We discover our human identity in our creator, not by what we do in the creation or by others in the creation that we inhabit. This definition finds its fulfillment, authority and composition in Christ. This fundamentally alters human identity because one can no longer be defined by their own thoughts. Humanity cannot be defined by the speech of other created beings, or the actions of created beings, a human initiated definition is only transitory and cannot encapsulate the revelation of Christ toward human identity. Human language is not an authority in itself, rather it is that shadow of authority, this is the misplacement of authority. This human initiated definition is the assumed identity that is given by the world; it has no authority but attempts to give itself the authority of definition that is not it’s authority to give. The work of Christ and the promises of Christ are the only authority toward a definition of the individual due once again to the progenitorial authority of Christ. This is Christocentric existentialism of autonomous and communal authenticity
The implications of human identity taking its rightful definition from Christ and being fundamentally grounded in the work of Christ are as vast as they are beautiful. In this model I am proposing human identify is so inextricably linked to the work of Christ that it cannot be separated from Christ. The propensity of many is to confuse this liberation of Christ with an attachment or adherence to a new ethic, a new law, a new system, but this is a false and assumed identity. The liberation of Christ is much more magnificent than any liberation that the world could construct. The work of Christ on the Cross is the transformative actualization of the eschaton that liberates our imagination to discover a new way to live. The liberation of Christ can never be the mere accumulation of knowledge that may lead the way by mere volition or by the adherence of an individual to a particular life strategy, rather it is an actualized end generated by Christ and given to humanity. The liberation of Christ is at the most fundamentally level the death of the individual’s assumed identity which must be destroyed. This takes place in order to for sinful humanity to be re-born, reformed, and recreated definition of the individual to break through the assumed identity into the transforming power of Christ and ultimately into the liberating human identity of being in Christ. However, the regenerated are intrepid, they are both the actualized new humanity, and not the actualized new humanity at the same instance in their worldly life. They are liberated from judgment and the knowledge of good and evil, however, they still retain the ability to violate their own freedom and return to sin. This is life in the penultimate hoping for the ultimate. The liberation of humanity to be wholly in this world as full humanity but understanding the ultimate in a way that exclusively identifies them. We have been actualized by Christ to become the actualized full humanity thus the story of Jesus is our story, we are grafted to God by the work of Jesus and thus we are grounded in a transformed reality with a Christocentric existential human identity.
I say existential because in Christ we have a new existence or a new authenticity through the work of Christ. I will briefly describe Existentialism, it is an ontology where there are two fundamental asymmetrical “regions of being,” being-in-itself and being-for-itself, the latter having no definable essence and hence, as “nothing” in itself, serving as the ground for freedom, creativity and action, serves well as a theoretical framework for an existentialist approach to human existence. However, it would be a mistake to treat even Sartre’s existentialist insights much less those of others, as dependent on this ontology, to which Sartre himself made little direct reference. Rather it is the implications of the common central claim that we human beings exist without justification (hence “absurdly”) in a world into which we are ‘thrown,’ condemned to assume full responsibility for our free actions and for the very values according to which we act. In one of its various forms, (we are talking about Sartre here) existentialism describes human identity as being defined by the thoughts of other people and what they perceive of an individual and at the same time of what an individual things about themselves. In the model, which I am proposing humanity does not have the authority to define the other nor the authority to define the self, the only authority that humanity has in the art of definition is to agree with Christ regarding our identity, chiefly that all individuals have unsurpassable worth because the work of Christ and Christ himself defines them. The work of Christ turns and pulls the rug out from under this existential approach because it alters what is ultimately authentic. To be human is to be defined by the work of Christ alone and thus we are left with the term Christocentric existentialism.
This brings our discussion to head for we are getting to the center of the center, which is Christ’s authority, supremacy and finality in the definition of human identity. As Bonhoeffer would say, Christ defines us in the penultimate as full humanity despite the fact that we are we are still waiting for our final revelation in the ultimate. This final revelation is where we will become perfect creatures with God in a new creation as a new creation. The indwelling of Christ in the penultimate is the gift of Christ to humanity where humanity is now given not only permission to live, but access to becoming fully human. What brings this permission is the ultimate, which is the work of God in the incarnation; this gift is made available through the life, death and resurrection of the glorious Christ. This incarnation makes the possibility of an existentially actualized new reality truly potential. In the penultimate the indwelling of Christ breaks through our flesh so that humanity is given this actualized end to be Christ in community. While this is actualized in the world and available for humanity, the final revelation of our being made in the likeness of Christ will not be perfected in our life-time on earth. To become truly Christ like is to be finally and irreversibly transformed into the likeness of Christ by the work of Christ transforming our constitution until a new being becomes fully actualized. Our authentic end in Christ now defines humanity in totality. This Christocentric existentialism is birthed out of an actualized eschatology where we are give permission to live, to love and to be experienced by others as a new creation utterly free for the other and at the same time freed from the other. We are free for the other so that Christ can be physically present in community, but we are freed from the others that would attempt to define us, at long last our definition can only be given by the authority of Christ the creator, and not by any creation we are freed from the other.
Our definition in Christ is a glorious mystery that cannot be adequately described by human language, but a solid attempt is made by Paul: “It is by him that you exist in Christ Jesus, who for us was made wisdom from God, and saving justice and holiness and redemption. (You who formerly, in the eyes of the world, did not exist now exist in Jesus Christ, while those who in the eyes of the world exist are reduced to nothing. It is about this new existence in Jesus Christ, and this alone, that you should boast.) As scripture says; if anyone wants to boast, let him boast of the Lord. Now when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with any brilliance of oratory or wise argument to announce to you the mystery of God. I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ. I came among you in weakness, in fear and great trembling and I spoke and proclaimed was not meant to convince by philosophical argument, but to demonstrate the convincing power of the Spirit, so that your faith should depend not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:29-2:5) Paul is attempting to tell the people of Corinth that they are no longer bound to the authority of the other, they have been freed from their assumed identities, they are once and for all liberated by Christ in order to be free for God’s purposes in the world. Our weakness is our assumed identity, it breeds fear, insecurity and shame, it is in this assumed identity, our weakness that Christ is with us in this world. In Christ humanity is given back its identity of simply being creatures under the authority of God, defined by God.
This gift culminates in living radical revolutionary lives; it beckons us to live eschatologically, being defined by the work of Christ and not by any other socially constructed boundary. This is freedom, living our lives encompassed by forgiveness, boasting not of ourselves or anything that we have attained but rather of what Christ has done. In this freedom we remain ever intrepid; we are becoming what we are not, but we are becoming like Christ, through the power of Christ and our submission to His call. Though we are not complete, we are defined, defined by what we will become and thus entirely defined by the work of God. This is our justification, which incorporates the individual into the church community; sanctification then preserves this church community together with the other. Justification liberates believers from their sin and prepares them for sanctification, which makes it possible to stay close to Christ, to preserve in faith and to grow in love thus being transformed to our Christ given identity.
This is living in freedom, Christ is our center, we are reconstituted and become a new creation, a new community and beyond that we are gifted and grafted to a new way of life. This culminates in making the story of Jesus our story. Where we do not simply have a new access point to this gift of new humanity, but we are an actualized new creation, a new humanity with a new reality, Christ the crucified, resurrected and glorious one, Christ the new and eternal reality. If we are to accept this new reality we are forced to place ourselves within the story of Jesus. This Christocentric existentialism is the reality of Christ indwelling our flesh. In this gift we are redefined, and thus correctly defined by the only authority that has the power of defining humanity. This redefinition begs us to ask how our context changes, we now acquire vicariously through Christ an all encompassing context, the narrative of resurrection and new life, put bluntly our context is the context of Jesus. The questions we as Christians face are no longer as simple as life and death but rather of living death. We face an entirely counter and subversive reality, this living death is a reorganization and transformation of our lives so much so that we exist in Christ. This renovation is what it is to be transformed to the mind of Christ, to be enveloped into the new reality that is secession from the lifeless ordinary to the living-death of the extraordinary. This subversive reconstitution of our lives is not simply a resurrection ethic, for it goes far past any ethic, it involves obedience, hardship suffering and leads us to a new life through death. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in Discipleship, whenever Christ calls us, that call always leads to death. When we recognize this call, we are liberated from a life of death into a living-death that allows us to truly live. But this new life in Christ though actualized is not fulfilled, beyond our identity we will also have everything revealed to us in the afterlife, which is not a new life as Barth says, but rather it is the full or the fuller revelation of this life or the ultimate revelation of Christ that we do not have access to in the penultimate. Ultimately we must come to realize that we are all dead, the sooner we actualize this death, the better, “we cannot hate it (death) as we used to, for we have discovered some good in it, and have almost come to terms with it, fundamentally we feel that we really belong to death already and that every new day is a miracle.” The appropriate response of the believer is simply to live gratefully in the knowledge that God has brought us true freedom and given us true permission to live as creatures, this freedom is Christocentric existentialism.
This realized Christocentric identity manifests itself most clearly in freedom. We are free both from others in the sense that we are free from their condemnation and their attempts to be God by defining one existentially, which in turn frees an individual for others. This identity liberates us so that we can be Christ to the world; it frees us so that the work of Christ in our lives can reach beyond ourselves and into the world. This radical and subversive call of discipleship that Bonhoeffer suggests is a stumbling block to Christianity as a religion, but it is by no means untruthful to the narrow way of Jesus. For Christ has nothing to do with religion, God is beyond religion; God is in the business of freedom not the business of oppression or self-sanctification. This is a radical call of Jesus to liberate us from our preconceptions of what holiness, truth, and the godliness that keep us from full submission to God in Christ an open us to the indwelling of the presence of Christ. To fully accept our definition is simply to believe that the full revelation of God in Christ is trustworthy.
To conclude I would simply state that to understand what our identity is we must come to recognize what the work of Christ has actualized in this world, if the story of Jesus is our story then we are an actualized new creation with a new identity. The reorganization of our lives can only come through the power of the crucified, resurrected and glorious Christ. This Christ is inextricably linked to whom we will be; we are defined by our eschatological future as the glorious bride of Christ but this can only happen through the death of the assumed identity. From this Christocentric existentialism emerges our true identity and thus we are able to inhabit a new way of life, a living-death where the indwelling of Christ is manifested in the “out-dwelling” of our lives. In short Christ is the center of our identity, lord of our identity, authority of our identity and origination of our identity and our occupation is to trust in Christ.
Joshua David Bau III fall 06
Works Cited
Barth, Karl. “The Humanity of God.” Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press. 1969.
Audi, Robert. “the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy” second edition P296-297
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. “Discipleship.” Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press. 2003
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. “A Testament to Freedom.” New York, New York: HarperSanFranciscon. 1995
Altizer, Thomas. J.J. and Hamilton. William. “Radical Theology and the Death of God.” USA: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc. 1954
Boyd, Gregory. “Repenting of Religion.” Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books. 2005
Kinlaw, Dennis. “Let’s Start with Jesus.” Grand Rapids Michigan: Zondervan: 2005
Hong, Howard. And Hong, Edna. “The Essential Keirkegaard.” Princeton, New Jersey” Princeton University Press. 2000
Bultmann, Rudolf. “Existence and Faith.” New York, New York: Meridian Books. 1968
Walsh, Brian and Keesmaat, Sylvia. “Colossians Remixed.” Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press. 2004
Biblical text taken from the New Jerusalem Translation.
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