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Chapter Five Characteristics of Early Christian Life Experience§ 30. Factical Life Experience and Proclamation On the object of proclamation: we must differentiate between the proclamation of the synoptics and that of Paul. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus announces the kingdom of God, h \ basilei¬a toy ∆ ueoy ∆ (Luke 16:16). In Pauline gospel, the proper object of the proclamation is already Jesus himself as Messiah. Cf. I Cor. 15:1–11. Here the essential teachings of Paul are found, but they are and remain entwined with the How, with life; they are not concerned with a speci fically theoretical teaching. Cf. Rom. 1:3, Rom. 10:9: the resurrection and the faith in the son of God as Lord is the basic condition of salvation. The concept of the gospel as we know it today arises first from Justin and Ireäus and is entirely different from the Pauline concept (character of enactment). The first sentence of the gospel of Mark still has the original sense. (Beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a › rxh¡ toy ∆ ey › aggeli¬oy ÚIhsoy ∆ Xristoy ∆, whereby Jesus Christ is to be understood as gen. obj.) The factical life experience of the Christians is historically determined insofar as it always begins with the proclamation. The connection of the Christian with the surrounding world is discussed in I Cor. 1:26–27; 7:20. The significances of life remain, but a new comportment arises. We want to follow further the problem of proclamation in such a way that we leave matters of content entirely aside; now it must be shown that Christian religiosity lives temporality. What meaning communal-worldly and surrounding-worldly relations have for the Christian must be understood; and if they do, in what way. Christian factical life experience is historically determined by its emergence with the proclamation that hits the people in a moment, and then is unceasingly also alive in the enactment of life. Further, this life experience determines, for its part, the relations which are found in it. For all its originality, primordial Christian facticity gains no exceptionality, absolutely no special quality at all. In all its absoluteness of reorganizing the enactment, everything remains the same in respect to the worldly facticity. The accentuation of the Christian life has the manner of enactment: I Thess. 3:3; 5:9. All primary complexes of enactment lead together toward God, are enacted before God. At the same time, the a › name¬nein [waiting] is an obstinate waiting before God. The obstinate waiting does not wait for the significances of a future content, but for God. The meaning of temporality determines itself 84 The Phenomenology of Religious Life [117–118] out of the fundamental relationship to God—however, in such a way that only those who live temporality in the manner of enactment understand eternity. The sense of the Being of God can be determined first only out of these complexes of enactment. To pass through them is the precondition. Further, it must be asked how dogmatic conceptuality arises out of such complexes of enactment. It is essential that the proclamation always remains co-present as alive, not only as a thankful memory. In this having-become, how should the Christian comport himself to the surrounding world and communal world (I Cor. 7:20; 1:26 ff. sofoi¬, dynatoi¬, ey › genei ∆ß [wise, powerful, of noble birth])?—Ta¡ o Ènta: the reality of worldly life is targeted. The reality of life consists in the appropriative tendency of such significances. But these do not at all become dominating tendencies in the realm of the facticity of Christian life. Rather e ›n t‚ klh¬ sei mene¬tv [remain in the condition in which you were called]! At issue is only to find a new fundamental comportment to it. That must be shown now in the manner of its enactment-structure. The indeed existing [daseienden] significances of real life are lived v \ ß mh¬ , as if not.§ 31. The Relational Sense of Primordial Christian Religiosity The relational sense of primordial Christian religiosity to the surrounding world, communal world, and self-world is to be determined; the authentic self is still to be differentiated from the self-world. Precisely the relations of the self-world are hit the hardest: self-worldly concern carries the semblance within itself. Paul is clear about the fact that these relational directions demand a peculiar characterization, which he renders in apparently common terms: pney ∆ma, cyxh¬ , sa¬ rj[spirit, soul, flesh...

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