Cultural collapse: When we can't agree on what it means to be human

[Michie]

Twice in the last 10 days my dear friend and colleague Fran Maier has drawn attention to the importance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for the church in America today. At the Catholic Thing he noted that this year marks the 90th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration, in which a number of prominent theologians in Nazi Germany publicly opposed the “German Christians” who were seeking an accommodation with Nazism. Bonhoeffer was one of the signatories. Then, at the launch event for his fascinating new book, True Confessions, he quoted from Bonhoeffer’s letters, that it is “only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”

That Maier, a Catholic, calls on Bonhoeffer is a sign of the times. This is not simply because in the current climate Catholics and Protestants share common cultural concerns. It is also because the great temptation of our day, that of conflating politics with Christianity, is intense. The stakes are not as high as they were in Germany in 1934. But the principal challenge for Christians, that of remaining faithful as witnesses to the Gospel rather than enablers of those whose politics resonate with our cultural tastes, is the same.

Bonhoeffer may be the most famous German theologian to oppose Hitler and Nazism, but he was not the only one. Another who speaks to our times is Helmut Thielicke, a Lutheran theologian and pastor. Like Bonhoeffer, Thielicke was hounded by the Nazis, though he survived and was even able to pastor a church for a while in the 1940s. A polymath and a preacher, he wrote a massive theological ethics as well as a critique of Bultmann. Many of his sermons and lectures were collected and published. Also like Bonhoeffer, he was not an entirely reliable guide to traditional Christianity. His historical context was Nazism but his theological context was neo-orthodoxy. The latter was always somewhat more “neo” than “orthodox” at key points.

Continued below.

Cultural collapse: When we can't agree on what it means to be human

Ours is a time of anthropological crisis when we as a society cannot agree on what it means to be human

www.christianpost.com

 

[Cosmic Charlie]

I've been having this conversation since high school.

And, unfortunately, I've never come to any conclusion past the one I came up with in high school:

Any philosophy that can't grow, is based on a set of ideas that conflict with reality and can't accept growth as our knowledge and tools advance is doomed to failure.

Unfortunately, Catholicism's view of life falls into the category. Life begins at conception. Ok, fine. But....

...everything I have learned about reproductive biology says that mammalian gestation (Especially in primates, and among primates especially in human) is a dangerous and unsure process. The number of humans that die between conception and birth is staggeringly high.

This brings into question just what is going on here. I mean, heaven has got to be FULL of humans that never got born through no other fault than, "hey - things happen".

So just what is a human life really worth?

That's philosophical question at this point that needs to be addressed but won't be because any discussion of it is forbidden. Because life begins at conception. Period.

Circular logic.

Doomed to fail.

So, yeah. Maybe this culture is collapsing. Maybe it has to so another can take it's place because this one can't address what we see happening in this reality.