receives a new identity from the sovereign other in the event of
conversion. For Augustine, to recognize Christ means that the recog-
nizer prefers the kingdom of God to earthly realities. The conversion
event has political and legal undertones that emphasize the sovereignty
of the recognizee.
The theology of ourfirst paradigm thus considers the recognizee as
the supreme ruler. The new rule of this recognized sovereign is not
philosophical and needs conversion to emerge. While the recognizer
goes through a radical transformation of identity, the initiative for this
change comesfinally from the recognizee. The transformation can be
analysed in terms of personal struggle or as the mind viewing itself by
reflection, but the effective cause of this event is the supreme ruler.
Religious recognition is thus an object-centred event that transforms the
recognizer rather than the recognizee. Conversion remains the classical
doctrinal locus of this event until the times of König and Barth.
The second paradigm, the promise of self-preservation, assumes
a fairly complex relational bond between the recognizer and the
recognizee. This bond is manifested as a mutual allegiance that
aims at creating or restituting a salvific reality of self-preservation.
The recognizer can enter a mystical union of love (Bernard, Ficino,
Zinzendorf) or be justified (Luther, Calvin, König) within such an
allegiance of self-preservation. In some conceptions (Thomas Aqui-
nas, Ficino), the bond receives features of strong mutuality and even
equality. In all conceptions, the relationship between the recognizer
and the recognizee can be labelled as reciprocal. While the Protestant
views of Luther and Calvin downplay human initiative, they also put
great emphasis on the trusting faith and personal attachment of the
recognizer, thus underlining the need for reciprocity in this religious
relationship.
Bridal mysticism and the theology of justification are the classical
doctrinal loci of the second paradigm. These two are sometimes seen
as alternatives in later theological disputes, as mysticism is considered
to characterize Catholicism and justification Protestantism. Authors
like König and Zinzendorf can nevertheless employ both notions
simultaneously. More importantly, the second paradigm assumes a
constitutive and performative relationality. The law-court imagery of
justification as well as the deepening of mutual love take place in
terms of a reciprocal personal bond. The historical background of
this constitutive relationality is found (i) in the Stoic or Ciceronian
view of social attachment, and (ii) in feudal thinking.
Recognition in Religion 211