Author(s):
Gantke, Wolfgang
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Beutler, Johannes
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Slenczka, Notger
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Schweitzer, Friedrich
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Sieckmann, Jan-R.
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics – IV. Education and Ethics – V. Law
I. Religious Studies Emphasis on the phenomenon known as obedience varies among religions, but wherever human beings are understood as hearers of a divine or sacred word obedience plays an important role as the claim of a higher, transhuman power on human beings. The religious will to obey presupposes prevailing over one’s own self-will for the sake of God or what is holy. The Enlighten-¶ ment, which calls human beings to autonomy, led to a crisis of the religious concept of obedience, all the more acute because time and again the concept of obedience has been misused, all too transparently, to legitimize purely secular interests. The elevation of human truths to the status of unquestionable divine truths brings the danger of fundamentalism, an authoritarian religion of obedience, which must be protested against in the name of a “humanitarian religion” (with E. Fromm). But when the difference between human and divine authority is recognized and the reduction of religion to a purely worldly, political ideology is avoided, the concept of obedience can acquire a potential for protest critical of the world and the state, as in Acts 5:29. Religious history provides numerous examples of religiously grounded resistance to the authority of the state, so that religious obedience can definitely entail civil disobedience. A line can be traced from the mythological figure of Antigone through the protests of the Old Testament prophets and T. More to D. Bonhoeffer, M. Gandhi, and M.L. King. The phenomenon of martyrdom (Martyr), which transcends religious boundaries, is comprehensible only in the context of a religious obedience that demands civil and moral courage. It is therefore necessary to distinguish a conscienceless, slavish obedience given “blindly” (out of fear, convenience, thoughtlessness, etc.) from “mature” obedience that submits according to its own judgment and of its own free will to the stronger…