The hidden God: Luther, philosophy, and political theology

249 Pages·2016·1.065 MB·English

by  Marius Timmann Mjaaland

THE HIDDEN GOD
Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion
Merold Westphal, editor
the
hidden
god
LUTHER, PHILOSOPHY, AND
POLITICAL THEOLOGY
MARIUS TIMMANN MJAALAND
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
© 2016 by Marius Timmann Mjaaland
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or
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of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mjaaland, Marius Timmann.
The hidden God : Luther, philosophy, and political theology / Marius
Timmann Mjaaland.
pages cm. — (Indiana series in the philosophy of religion)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-01816-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-01820-5
(e-book) 1. Luther, Martin, 1483–1546. 2. Philosophy and religion.
I. Title.
BR333.3.M55 2015
230′.41—dc23
2015035568
1 2 3 4 5 21 20 19 18 17 16
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
PART I The Topology of Texts and Destruction of Metaphysics 5
1. History, Hermeneutics, and Political Theology 7
2. Philosophy: The Grammar of Destruction 11
3. Topology 20
PART II Sola Scriptura 25
4. The Quest for Immorality 27
5. The Quest for Destruction 38
6. The Quest for Clarity 49
7. The Quest for Sovereignty 68
8. The Quest for Subjectivity 82
PART III The Hidden God 87
9. Deus Absconditus 89
PART IV Modernity in the Making 109
10. Topology of the Self in Luther 111
11. Kant versus Luther on Self-Consciousness 125
12. Spacing the Hidden God: The Temporal/Spatial Divide 133
PART V From Revelation to Revolution 137
13. The Power of Interpretation: Controversies
on the Book of Daniel 139
14. Political Theology of the German Revolutions 154
15. The Hidden God of Revolution and Apocalypse 167
Notes 181
Bibliography 211
Index 221
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PREFACE
Luther’s distinction between the hidden and the revealed God is one of the most
puzzling and controversial topics of his thought. For centuries it was mostly ne-
glected within theology, whereas it played a crucial role in the development of
modern philosophy. Pascal and Kant insisted on this distinction, whereas Hegel re-
jected it in favor of a total revelation of the Spirit. Even political imagination was
affected, where it played a significant but secluded role, from apocalyptic v isions
to the hard currency of oikonomia and sovereignty. The modest ambition of the
present volume is to examine the source of this development, namely, to trace
an original difference between absolute hiddenness and the light of scripture, of
reason, and of revelation in order to reconsider it as a topic of controversies in the
twenty-first century.
Theologians in early modernity were reluctant to discuss the notion of the
hidden God due to its threatening and monstrous gestalt in religious imagination.
When Luther introduced the distinction between the hidden and the revealed God,
however, the point was to avoid such speculations concerning the hidden God, and
also to venture a destruction of Aristotelian metaphysics and thus raise a critical
discussion on the rationality of philosophical and theological discourse—and the
crucial difference between them. Hence, the history of perception has witnessed
an ironic twist of fate: The theological discussions on the topic have ended with a
rather confessional response, either pro or contra the hidden God, whereby the sta-
tus confessionis in the early twenty-first century goes in favor of the latter, namely,
an exclusion of the notion from theological discourse.
The history of modern philosophy, conversely, demonstrates a continued dis-
cussion on the distinction between hiddenness and revelation as a primary topos
of thought, which concerns the ultimate conditions for philosophical discourse,
linguistically, metaphysically, and epistemologically. From a somewhat different
approach, namely, from the question of sovereignty, revolution, and political de-
cisions in the most fateful historical states of exception, the hidden God has come
to play a controversial role even for political philosophy and theology. Both tra-
jectories will be submitted to further inquiry in a planned second volume on the
hidden God in modernity, also including controversies in philosophy and political
theology.
viii Preface
This volume goes back to the textual origins of this modern topos in the
writings of Martin Luther. Already here we find that the traces of the hidden God
proceed beyond the limits of theology, raising questions of metaphysics, of po-
litical philosophy, of phenomenology in a critical sense, questioning the entire
tradition from medieval philosophy. This critical approach gradually becomes a
virtue in philosophical reflection in modernity. Kant’s transcendental critique of
metaphysics is perhaps the most crucial example of modern philosophy, and he
dedicates several chapters to the question of God’s hiddenness in The Critique of
Pure Reason. Pascal demonstrates the political interpretation of the hidden God
in his Pensées, and Hegel is deeply concerned with this topos, insofar as he does
a major effort at including theological patterns like the “death of God” within a
philosophical system, admittedly emphasizing the revelation of divine truth rather
than the opposite. The most crucial but also controversial example is Nietzsche,
though, who proclaims the death of God to be a prophetic message of modernity
and its ends, thereby adopting a topological approach to philosophy and its ulti-
mate points of reference, and a genealogical approach to morality. My suspicion is
that this “death of God” belongs to the genealogy of an ancient topos called deus
absconditus, but that is a topic by far transgressing the limits of this preface. What
Nietzsche has understood about the limitations of his own approach and his pro-
phetic assertions is that knowledge and philosophy can never be good “in itself.”
Its apparent goodness is always deceptive, and the problem of drawing distinctions
between truth and delusion remains a continuous task. This is an insight he shares
with Martin Luther, who admits that he continuously distrusts his own reason and
therefore has taken recourse to paradox as a way of seeking truth.
When scientists claim the discovery of a “god delusion,” as Richard Dawkins
does in a popular publication known by this audacious name, we may calmly ex-
pect that they have not even begun considering their own delusions. If someone
made them aware of this disproportion, I would not be surprised if the response
took the form of resentment and disturbance. In this respect the present volume
will hopefully be disturbing, by making people aware of such disproportions in
the commerce with illusions.
In some respects the notion of the hidden God seems to produce such images
of the divine that generate questions and accusations. Rudolf Otto’s definition of
the Holy (numinous) in religion as mysterium tremendum et fascinans—a terrifying
but fascinating mystery—is based on Luther’s notion of the hidden God. We could
think of endless fairy tales, myths, and horror films where the hidden God is pre-
sented in the most fantastic images. The conscientious theologian Gerhard Ebel-
ing even warns us against the terror of the hidden God and gives us the friendly
advice to flee “from God to God.” Yet I am afraid I will have to disappoint every
reader who had hoped for a juicy horror story. A core task of this book is to ques-
Preface ix
tion such myths and monstrosities of imagination, which tend to overrule more-
rational inquiries on the conditions of thought. My concern is the opposite,
namely, to analyze these notions carefully but critically in order to disillusion some
illusions and make readers aware of disproportions. And if someone should claim,
as Eberhard Jüngel does in a famous article, that this hidden God should be “no
concern of ours,” I will once more make the reader aware of this difference: Al-
though a disturbing topos, it remains at the heart of the controversy.
In the writings of Martin Luther, this original difference is in one respect
theological, but then again pre-theological, preceding every doctrine and logos of
theology. It forces us to take into account the concealment of the divine, and the
conditions for speaking or not speaking about God. The difference is at work when-
ever we offer critique or defense of religion, whenever we look for revelation, ex-
perience, or interpretation, whenever we discuss theism or atheism, the dead or
the living God.