A New Beginning: On the Power and Powerlessness (Macht und Ohnmacht) of Thinking and Believing

Abstract

Thinking Incarnation as a New Beginning (ein neuer Anfang) is a challenging hermeneutic task. The power of God’s self-manifestation in and through the divine Word calls for considering Logos as the principle of life. In the task of understanding, what is most difficult is to bring together the beginning (ἀρχή) and the end (ἔσχατον): Protology and eschatology belong together (zueiandergehören). This task of thinking together is addressed not only to dogmatic theologians but to every human being encountered by the mystery of the Incarnation. As with every mystery, our human responsibility is to face divine self-epiphany not as a problem to be answered and solved in formal statements but as a genuine call for thinking (Denkauftrag).