for instance, Luther and Bultmann, may not be overly dramatic, as
both theologians underline the primary relevance of recognizing God.
In any case, the existential trend fromRecognitionsto modern
dialectical theology belongs among the most conspicuous long-term
currents of religious recognition found in this study. This current
represents a conscious alternative to the philosophical views, high-
lighting religious life in a particularly distinctive fashion. Within this
long-term current, two different versions can be observed. Before the
Enlightenment, the identity of the recognizer is reconstituted in
the acts of conversion and submission. After Spalding, however, a
cognitive capability through existential recognition is underlined, in
which the change is more immediately connected with the status of
the recognizee.
4.1.4. AttachmentThe third theme to be surveyed concerns the subjective involvement
or attachment of the recognizer (or, sometimes, the recognizee). This
component is closely connected with the notion ofcommendatio.
On the one hand, this is employed in the sense of Stoicoikeiosis,
attachment or appropriation (section 2.3). Through attachment,
the human being loves and preserves himself. In the Vulgate and the
feudal traditions,commendareandcommendatiooften refer to the
heteronomous situation of recommending someone to another’s
service. In Bernard of Clairvaux, the commendations between bride
and bridegroom attach them to one another. In medieval Latin,
commendooften denotes the favourable attitude of the higher
partner towards the lower.
Since the Reformation, subjective attachment has received a clear
profile in discussions concerning religious recognition. Martin Luther
(section 2.6) takes over the heteronomy available in Bernard and
feudalism. He radicalizes the acts ofcommendatio, claiming that
God commits and commends himself to the sinner such that the
sinner is justified. People also commend themselves to God in various
ways, both in confessing their sins and in believing that God works‘for
me’. A strong mutuality permeates these acts of attachment, since the
believer attaches himself to God through affirming in faith that God’s
justifying act is targeted and attached to this believing subject. Both the
idea of identity change and the conception of gift transfer belong to
190 Recognition and Religion