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The Metaphorical Reciprocity Between Theology and Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2015

Paul Lehmann
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Extract

There is a metaphorical reciprocity between theology and law. In brief, and in sum, let me begin in this way in grateful acknowledgment of Professor Ball's probing and provocative, fascinating, and instructive analysis, which sets out from the other pole of this reciprocity. At times, his search for an alternative to the dominant metaphor for law leaves the reader in some bewilderment and tempted to take cover in that salutary squib, offered from time to time by The New Yorker under the caption: “Block that metaphor!” As though anticipating that rude and facile exit from the search, Professor Ball is careful to provide an awesome and safer harbor in the paradigmatic law of the sea. This paradigm conceals both the alternative sought for and the unexpectedly promising expectation that—as things penultimate express and make room for things ultimate—the exciting prospect is that the lion and the calf do lie down together. “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water;… and there will be no more sea” (Isaiah 11:6-9; Revelation 7:17, 21:1). Even Woody Allen will be able to join the calf and the lion in the exchange of sleepless nights for waking and sleeping amidst the peace which passes all understanding (Philemon 4:7).

Type
Colloquium on Law, Metaphor, and Theology A Frances Lewis Law Center Colloquium
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , 1985 , pp. 179 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1985

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References

1. References to the Bible are from the Revised Standard Version, 1975.

2. Some of Professor Lehmann's references to Professor Ball's work are to the book manuscript mentioned in the notes to Professor Ball's essay: Ball, M., Lying Down Together, (forthcoming publication of the University of Wisconsin Press)Google Scholar.

3. I use the word “praxis” rather than “practice” with malice aforethought. This accords with the word, which my lexicon of New Testament Greek tells me was used by late writers, frequently in Polybius, “especially of wicked deeds or practices.” The ancient usage is more than a little instructive because the word does express an intimate relation between what is thought or planned or believed and what is done in word or deed. The malevolent are better at this than the well-intentioned because they mean business; whereas the well-intentioned are adroit at distinguishing thought or conviction from practice or deed. “The children of darkness are wiser in their generation than the children of light” (Luke 16:18). This formalism hides a multitude of claims behind the mask of pretension to practice what is claimed to be believed. Thus it is more than merely coincidental that Freud's unmasking of the slips to which the unconscious is prone, and Marx's account of alienation and ideology which identify the dynamics of self-justification which divide the powerful from the powerless, should eventually lead to the discovery of a word for “the truth that makes us free” (John 8:32). For this discovery our debt to the Liberation Theologians of Latin America is more than considerable. See Shaull, R., Heralds of A New Reformation: The Poor of South and North America (1984)Google Scholar. It could be that the Liberation Theologians are not only the seekers but the finders of an alternative metaphor. For as they see it, the word praxis resolutely forecloses the sterile separation between thought and action, word and deed and seeks to make room for the human reality of thought in action, word in deed, as the liberating word for the human sense of what theology, law, and power are all about.

4. Concerning Grotius, I note Ball, supra note 2. As for Wellhausen, his work in identifying the documents composing the Hexateuch is especially notable. The English title of the work is Wellhausen, J., Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1885)Google Scholar; not to be confused with the more technical and detailed Wellhausen, J., Composition des Hexateuchs und der Historischen Buecher (1885Google Scholar, with additions in 1889 and later), not translated into English. Weiss's pioneering search is most succinctly accessible in a little monograph: Weiss, J., Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes (1892)Google Scholar; and in Weiss, J., Das Urchristentum (1917)Google Scholar.

5. Frei, H., The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics (1974)Google Scholar.

6. Christian Theology: A Case Method Approach (Evans, R. a& Parker, T., eds. 1976)Google Scholar.

7. See Dogma in II Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 230–32 (Kittle, G. ed., Bromley, G. trans., 1964)Google Scholar.

8. Barth, K., I Kirchliche Dogmatik, at 1 (Lehmann, P. trans. 1932)Google Scholar.

9. Rorty, R., Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1980)Google Scholar.

10. Bonhoeffer, D., Ethics 185–204 (Smith, N. trans.)Google Scholar. See also Bethge, E., Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Man of Vision—Man of Courage 96–101 (1970)Google Scholar.

11. D. Bonhoeffer, supra note 10, at 18.

12. Id. at 194.

13. Bonhoeffer, D., Letters and Papers from Prison 282 (Bethge, E., ed. 1978)Google Scholar. The letter is dated April 30, 1944.

14. In the original, the sentences quoted read: “Politisches Handeln bedeutet Verantwortung wahrnehmen. Es kann nicht geschehen ohne Macht. Die Macht tritt in den Dienst der Verantwortung.” Translation is mine. The sentences are the last sentences of Bonhoeffer's first try at an interpretation of “History and the Good.” They may be found in Bonhoeffer, D., IX Gesammelte Schriften, Band 3: Theologie, Gemeinde, Vorlesungen, Briefe, Gespraeche, 1927–1944, (Bethge, E. & Kaiser, C. eds. 1960)Google Scholar. “Zur Arbeit an der Ethik,” id. at 455-477. The passage cited is on 477. These sentences are significantly absent from the first published volume of D. Bonhoeffer supra note 10. Further to the matter, see E. Bethge, supra note 10, at 626ff.

15. The phrase is part of John Milton's description of Satan. I The Poetical Works of John Milton bk. IV, 1.110 (Darbishire, H. ed. 1952, 1973)Google Scholar.

16. Alighieri, D., The Divine Comedy (Mandelbaum, A. trans. 1980)Google Scholar. The Inferno, Canto XXIX and XXX, describe “The Falsifiers” in the 8th Circle, the Tenth Pouch. At line 41-42, a certain city is referred to where:

… everyone's a grafter

but Bonturo

and there—for cash—

they'll change a no to a yes.

Canto XXVI and XXVII, 8th Circle, Eighth Pouch, treats of “The False Counselors” and still lower, attention is given to a certain pope.

17. For a fuller discussion of this point, see Lehmann, P., The Transfiguration of Politics (1974)Google Scholar, Part III, “A Politics of Transfiguration,” especially chapters 6-8; and Part IV, “The Transfiguration of Politics.”

18. Cicero, De Finibus, bk. V., at 23, para. 65: iustitia est animi affectio suum cuique tribuens (justice is the disposition of the soul paying tribute to each according to his own). Further to the matter, cf. Cicero, Legibus bk. I, at 6, para. 18: “Law is the highest reason, implanted in nature [insita in natura], which commands what things are to be done and which forbids the contrary.” Note also, Corpus Juris Civilis, Digesta, bk. I, ch. 1, para. 10: “iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius suum cuigue tribuendi” (justice is the constant and perpetual willingness to give to each according to his due). Translation mine.

19. Rawls, J., A Theory of Justice, viii, 61, (1971)Google Scholar. Rawls, of course, does not explicitly propose a metaphorical search. A careful analytical comparison of his book with the forthcoming book of Professor Ball's is to be hoped for, not least because of the light which such a comparison would shed upon the creative advance of Ball's work over the discussion occasioned by Rawls' foundational and provocative interpretation.

20. Id.

21. Herzog, F., Justice Church 3 (1980)Google Scholar.

22. Kant's maxim originally applied to his analysis of the relation between concepts and percepts, ideas, and sensations in human experience; in his words, between Begriffe und Anschauungen. In the “Introduction” to Part II of the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant wrote: “Gedanken ohne Inhalt sind leer, Anschauungen ohne Begriffe sind blind.” See Kant, I., Kritik Der Reinen Vernunft 77 (1781)Google Scholar. A useful English edition is available in Kant Selections, in The Modern Student's Library: Philosophy Series 57 (Greene, T. M. ed. 1929)Google Scholar

23. De Tocqueville, A., Democracy in America 40–41 (Reeve, R. trans. 1875)Google Scholar.

24. Niebuhr, R., The Self and the Dramas of History 210 (1955)Google Scholar.

25. A. De Tocqueville, supra note 23, vol. I, at 434.

26. Cummings, E. E., Complete Poems 438 (1972)Google Scholar. The last two lines have been altered in the interest of inclusive language. The original reads:

and waves which only he may walk

who dares to call himself a man.