Power, Service, Humility: A New Testament Ethic

1. Power

11 Power Chapter 1 Religion and Power: The Context in the History of Religion It is not by chance that the devil begins with the title “Son of God,” when he seeks to turn Jesus away from his path by seducing him to grasp a power that will be his own. The divine is always connected with power; indeed, divinity and power can almost become synonymous. U. von WilamowitzMoellendorff sums up the case of the Greek gods as follows: “The divine is that which is kreitton in relation to us. The gods are often called kreittones.”1 The comparative kreitton (more powerful) emphasizes the power of the gods. At the same time, the superior power is regarded as the decisive difference between the divine and the human; indeed, one might say that the superior power is divine. This does not only apply to the divine as an abstract; one particular deity can function as a predicate concept for power. For example, the name “Zeus” can denote not only the mythological ruler of the Olympian pantheon but also one particular form of 12 Power, Service, Humility divine power.2 In one sense, therefore, we can say that the Greek deities are not so much persons as personifications of powers and that, consequently, Greek religion is concerned with the systematization of such powers.3 This immediate link between divinity and power is repeatedly made explicit in the ancient sources. The Attic poet Menander expresses it axiomatically: “everything that exercises power is called ‘god.’”4 In the Roman sphere, Cicero says something very similar in his treatise about the being of the gods: “whatever is outstanding is rightly adored.”5 A papyrus from the second century of the Common Era shows that this equation between divinity and power still held good in the imperial period. It begins with the question [t]i theos? (What does “god” mean?) and then gives the lapidary answer t[o] kratoun (the exercise of power).6 The link between power and religion is not restricted to the object of religious veneration. It also concerns the phenomenon of religion as such, inasmuch as this is always also a societal reality and is thus itself a factor of power. Religion justifies and legitimates rule and law in all the ancient cultures , and it regulates life in society. In the Roman Empire, for example, religion is so closely interwoven into every sphere of culture, of society, and especially of politics7 that one can almost understand it as the ideological basis of Roman society and of the concept of the state,8 and the regulations of religion can be described as sacral institutions.9 This bond between religion and political power found its most striking expression in the Roman imperial cult. As S. R. F. Price shows in his monograph Rituals and Power, one does not do justice to this phenomenon if one reduces it to a “religion of loyalty” that was instrumentalized by politics. The functionalization of the imperial cult in practical politics is undeniable; but it must be evaluated as an authentic religious phenomenon, which, precisely for this reason, plays a decisive role in the constitution of the power of the Roman imperial system.10 In classical antiquity, therefore, “reflection Power 13 on the gods” is always to be understood “also as a reflection on power”11 —with all the attendant ambivalences.12 The Power of the God of Israel: Differentiations At first sight, the biblical belief in God fits this pattern. The power to perform great miracles with his right hand and to annihilate his enemies is attributed to him as a complete matter of course (see Exod 15:6); and, as the Creator and sovereign Lord of the entire world, he possesses a unique power (see, in this regard, Pss 93–100). When the God of Israel is thus called “LORD Sabaoth,” the “Lord of hosts,” in the Old Testament, and this is rendered as Kyrios pantokratôr, “almighty Lord,” in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the link between the idea of God and a power that is superior to everything else appears to have taken on a programmatic character. This does not remain restricted to the Old Testament. Christianity carries forward the Jewish inheritance in this area too, as we see not least from the fact that the only predicate of God that was included in the Apostolic Creed was his...