1. Mitteilungen der Redaktion
2. Meine Begegnung mit S.E. Erzbischof Pierre Martin Ngô-dinh-Thuc
3. My Time with His Excellency, Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô-dinh-Thuc
4. Ma rencontre avec S.E. Mgr. Pierre Martin Ngô-dinh-Thuc
5. Mi encuentro con Su Excelentísimo y Reverendísimo Arzobispo Pierre Martin Ngô-dinh-Thuc
6. Il mio incontro con S.E. l´Arcivescovo Pierre Martin Ngô-dinh-Thuc
7. DECLARATIO
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| Information of the editorial office |
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Information of the editorial office
Beuerberg, August 31st, 2015
Dear Readers,
When I started to analyze the main errors of Vatican II in the EINSICHT of September 2013, it soon became clear to me that a religious and theological revival would only be started if the possibility of a sound conviction could be found for a revival. For what had happened? The faith in Jesus Christ and His institution, the Church which should preserve His inheritance, had given way to an indistinct relativism. The idea of Christ being the Son of God had begun to vacillate. This relativism did not stay limited to the people who had once been Catholic. The claim of absoluteness of the Son of God had been given up. I am thinking of the doctrine of subsistit in, according to which the Catholic Church is no longer the Church of Jesus Christ but only takes part in it – I add: like other religious communities (sects) which have thus been elevated to the level of church communities with the same rights and authority. I had formulated it as follows: If everything is of the same value, everything becomes unimportant, arbitrary. A new Arianism began to triumph; the matter of concern was not primarily the theological conception but above all the loss of a basic conviction with immediate consequences for religious life. In the Bavarian villages, where traditions continue in the hearts of people, the world seemed to be still o.k. But if one took a closer look and analyzed their religious traditions, a moral framework still remained but without any knowledge of Jesus Christ being the Son of God.
Even among traditionalists – and here I simply include indistinctly all people pretending to want to maintain the pre-conciliar faith – it becomes clearly evident that there are also enormous deficits in faith among these people; this can be seen by the fact that the extent of the crisis is hardly seen correctly and that there are no efforts made for the restitution of the Church. After this description of a general disaster the question arises as to what one can do in the face of such a situation. Back to the sources, ad fontes! in order to decide again about how to go further. Ad fontes concretely means to show the way to Christ as the Son of God in order to regain once again a Christian belief.
I can get such a belief by intuitive meditation by referring among others to the biblical statements. The person who has thus achieved belief cannot, however, convey his intuition to others. It is different if I try to get a conviction by reflection by taking the others with me into my reflections. The question is: How do I learn that Christ is the Son of God? Respectively, how can I recognize Christ as the Son of God? In the information to the issue of December 2013 I had written: “Without a clarification of this question, which has until now been neglected, we would lack the reflective insight into our faith from which could also rise to a strong faith. Here the maxim of St. Anselm of Canterbury: Credo ut intelligam – I believe in order to understand – is valid as also the other way round: Intelligo ut credam – I understand in order to believe.” (Proslogion, Chapter 1)
The immediately understood, that is that which immediately reveals itself to me in faith is the basis to which my thinking refers. But I need to understand this faith in order to keep it. I have tried to answer the question of the recognizability of Christ as the Son of God gradually in several articles. However, by the distribution through several issues the heart of the context has continued to be at a loss for many. After several reflections I therefore decided to unite the single essays into one copy. The previous articles are amplified by a discourse about the effects which an acquired recognition of God could have on the structuring of our religious lives. As an appendix I have added the thoughts from the Sermons about “having God in us” of St. Bernard (Dec. 2014, no. 4, p. 108-110) and my reflections about the “meaning of art in the religious sector” (Dec. 2013, no. 4, p. 122-125).
I would like to add a personal remark. In this series of essays about the recognition of God I see my most important articles which I have edited in all the years of my work as an editor for the EINSICHT. Unfortunately I do not know any living theological author who applied himself to this subject in this thorough way. This problem has been completely reflected here for the first time after I had discussed this subject with a few persons.
Eberhard Heller
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Photo on the title page: Hans Holbein d. Ältere, The Resurrection, 1502, Old Pinakothek Munich, photo: Eberhard Heller
Time of going to press with the translation: June, 2020
Imprint:
Editor: Freundeskreis der Una Voce e. V., Am Pfarranger 5 a, D - 82547 Eurasburg
Editorial office: Dr. Eberhard Heller, Am Pfarranger 5 a, D - 82547 Eurasburg, Tel.: 08179/4979731
E-Mail: heller_einsicht@hotmail.com or eberhard-heller@gmx.net
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