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Metz insists that when we speak of God, we must face into the storms of our broken world. We have to overcome the structural drift which makes social difference fundamental and negative, which regards the “stranger” as either not worth seeing or as someone to dominate. Concrete narratives of human suffering are dangerous to universal theological systems and to social structures of domination.
Metz proposes that the logos of theology include the cries of those who suffer and the acknowledgment of the stranger, the other. Reason endowed with power of memory, the memory of someone else’s suffering, demands more than assent to propositions. It calls for solidarity that moves beyond a theoretical mediation of religion and human experience toward a ground in critical and reflective praxis, that is, toward a thoughtful and transformative action.
Metz spoke variously of "the dangerous memory of Jesus Christ", "the dangerous memory of freedom (in Jesus Christ)", the "dangerous memory of suffering", etc. One of the motivating factors for this category is Metz's determination, as a Christian theologian from Germany, to rework the whole of Christian theology from the ground up in light of the disruptive experience of the Holocaust.
“I put forth the notion of a memoria passionis which is at the same time both univeresalizable and particular: the memory of others’ suffering. I develop this basic theological-political category in resistance to the cultural amnesia of our time” (LS 174).
Do we share in the sufferings of others, or do we just believe in sharing them and remain, under the cloak of belief in ‘sympathy,’ as apathetic as ever?” (LS 19)
LS—Love’s Strategy;
johannbaptistmetz.com
Metz proposes that the logos of theology include the cries of those who suffer and the acknowledgment of the stranger, the other. Reason endowed with power of memory, the memory of someone else’s suffering, demands more than assent to propositions. It calls for solidarity that moves beyond a theoretical mediation of religion and human experience toward a ground in critical and reflective praxis, that is, toward a thoughtful and transformative action.
Metz spoke variously of "the dangerous memory of Jesus Christ", "the dangerous memory of freedom (in Jesus Christ)", the "dangerous memory of suffering", etc. One of the motivating factors for this category is Metz's determination, as a Christian theologian from Germany, to rework the whole of Christian theology from the ground up in light of the disruptive experience of the Holocaust.
“I put forth the notion of a memoria passionis which is at the same time both univeresalizable and particular: the memory of others’ suffering. I develop this basic theological-political category in resistance to the cultural amnesia of our time” (LS 174).
Do we share in the sufferings of others, or do we just believe in sharing them and remain, under the cloak of belief in ‘sympathy,’ as apathetic as ever?” (LS 19)
LS—Love’s Strategy;
Life | Johann Baptist Metz
Johann Baptist Metz's storied biography begins during 1928. But it was later, as a teen, when his experience in WWII shaped his political theology.
johannbaptistmetz.com
