Dr. Heinrich Emil Brunner (1889-1966), a Swiss Reformed theologian, published his Gifford Lectures in Christianity and Civilisation (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, NY, 1948 & 1949). Chapter VII in Brunner’s first lecture series (The Foundations) is titled: Personality and Humanity. The year 2020 is turning out to be an exceptional year that will be remembered for generations. It is the year of COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and a divisive Presidential election. Human dignity is at the forefront of the news, whether it is the health of our world (medical and economic), racial inequality, or conflicts between individuality versus community. Brunner discusses these themes in more macro terms: “The recognition of the indestructible human dignity of every being having a human face becomes the highest ethical principle.” (page 93)
Once again, Brunner compares classical Greek and Christian concepts. He formulates the “fundamental difference between the Christian and the Greek conception of humanity in three points: in the idea of personality, in that of community, and in the relation between body and spirit.” (page 93) The classical Greek concept of personality is that “every man is essentially equal to every other man, because the same divine reason is indwelling in every one.” This is an impersonal relationship and a “general principle.” The Christian concept of personality differs from the Greek in that it is personal as God summons each individual to form a personal relationship. “Only the personal God can fundamentally establish truly personal existence and responsibility, responsibility being the inescapable necessity to answer God’s creative call, and to answer it so that this answer is also a decision. God’s call in love shall be answered by man’s response in love.” (page 94)
The second fundamental difference between the classical Greek and Christian concept of humanity is community. In Greek philosophy, “abstract reason does not tend to communion, but to unity. In thinking I am related to general truth, to ideas, not to the Thou of my neighbour. … The wise man is self-sufficient, he has no desire to go out from himself to another.” Christian scripture teaches a very different principle: love. “This love, given on the part of God, determines both the relation to God and the relation to the fellow-man.” Loving God and loving your fellow humans is the foundation of Christian beliefs commanded by God. “Greek idealism is a system of unity; Christian, however, is revealed communion.” (pages 94-95)
The third fundamental difference is in the relation between body and spirit. “The Greek principle of reason brings with it a dualistic conception of man. Man is composed of two parts. By his reason, that is his higher element, he shares in the divine being; by his body, that is his lower element, man partakes of animal nature, out of which comes evil. The one is the basis of his dignity; the other is the cause of his ignominy.” Christianity teaches a very different relationship: “the whole man, body and mind, is called into communion with God and into the service of God.” Christians are commanded to love all persons, even their enemies, the most sinful, and the unloved. Greeks believe that “to love someone unworthy would be a sign of an ignoble mind, a sign of a lack of the sense of value.” (pages 95-96)
Brunner believes that two opposing forces are at work in the modern world: individualism and collectivism. Both philosophic extremes lead to failure. Individualism focuses on human reasoning that makes human gods. It leads to chaos as seen during the French revolution, a world devoid of mutual purpose. Collectivism leads to the loss of individual freedoms and creativity, as witnessed in communist countries like Russia and China. Christianity binds individualism and collectivism together in mutual dependence. “Only where a strong Christian tradition had prevailed was it possible to avoid this fatal alternative of individualism and collectivism, to preserve a federal, non-centralized, pluralistic, organic structure of the State, and therefore to avoid that sudden transition from a half anarchic individualism into a tyrannical totalitarianism.” (page 101)
Brunner issues a strong warning shortly after WWII to the Western world when he writes:
“But the societies in the West, which abhor the way taken by totalitarian Russia, Italy and Germany, do not yet seem to have grasped that, if the process of de-Christianization goes on within their society, they, too, will inevitably go the same way. … Therefore the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not only a judgement upon the secularized godless, but also upon the godlessness of the Church and of the pious, who so often forgot that faith in the Crucified implies the willingness to sacrifice, and that the ultimate criterion of faith is faithfulness in the service of the fellow-man.” (pages 101-105)
