Thinking of God
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of life into an infinite substance or a highest being, a “god,” nor to reduce this ideal to nothingness under conditions of nihilism. The integrity of life evokes and invites unlimited critique, setting into play permanent questions. At the same time, we are not tempted to convert the ideal of the integrity
What does the integrity of life mean here and now? How do we know what counts as “integrity” in life? In the nature of the case, this open debate and argumentation directs itself to local appearances of the integrity of life. The ideal dimension of the claim naturally seeks actualization in the concrete
situations of existence.presence. Human beings find themselves confronted and claimed by sacred powers precisely in the specific contexts of the struggles and joys of their Second, the ideal or norm has the status of a sacred power or religious
lives. What counts as a sacred power today? It is the appearance – the incar-nation – of the integrity of life in stories of courageous or creative indi-viduals or communities, in the sight of an integral ecosystem, in the experience of truthfulness in a loved one’s death, or in the wholeness of a
perfect symphony or novel. The visible can bear the invisible, we might say, without reduction or separation. In principle, anything whatsoever can strike us with the claim of the integrity of life as a concrete and local event, even when we see the opposite in injustice or falsehood that affronts us and
demands that life ultimate significance in this time and place also carries with it an absolute claim to the integrity of life universally speaking. Just as a river seeks the sea, the local, religious claim in one person’s life expands to encompass a com-should not be this way. This religious arousal of a sense of
mitment to the integrity of life as such. Yet the claim of integrity, the call of conscience, arises in and through our actual encounters with and presence before others.The demand of the integrity of life is formulated in the imperative of
responsibility: before Godour lives which engages freedom and summons critical thinking. In saying so, we critically reclaim the tradition of biblical personalism in theology,. (^46) That claim, explored in more detail later, is an absolute one on in all actions and relations respect and enhance the integrity of life
running from the early creeds to Luther and Barth. God as heavenly deity demands perfection, as the Lord God is perfect; and he grants forgiveness, recognizing purity of heart and constancy of faith. God’s word is the nega-tion of our word. From this tradition, we learn that the claim of the integrity
of life is sovereign over other things and ideas.theology, however, we are not tempted to take any one image of God as somehow exclusive and authoritative.^47 Mindful of the history of