MDDM Ch. 40 Representation

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 +++ in the following passage from the rechtsphilosophie (gwfh: grundlinien der 
 philosophie des rechts oder naturrecht und staatswissenschaft [1821]. mit 
 hegels eigenhändigen notizen in seinem handexemplar und den mündlichen 
 zusätzen. herausgegeben und eingeleitet von helmut reichelt. ffm-berlin-wien 
 1972: ullstein. § 311, p. 277, own translation), the german idealist hegel 
 writes: "if the delegates are considered to be  r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s, 
 this, holistically-reasonably ("organisch vernünftig[]"), makes sense only if 
 they are not doing it for single beings or crowds, but become representatives  
 of the big interests, the essential spheres of society. the representing, then, 
 has not anymore the meaning of being-at-the-place-of-somebody-else, yet the 
 interest itself is - in its representative -  r e a l l y   p r e s e n t 
 ("wirklich gegenwärtig"), as the representative is there for his own objective 
 element". as social theory this, seen from today, certainly lacks democratic 
 sensitivity. what interests me here is something else: as a learned theologist, 
 hegel (who shared a room with hölderlin and schelling in the tübinger stift) 
 formatized sociality as "objective spirit/mind" (geist) mediating between the 
 "subjective spirit/mind" (= the human being as described in mentalistic  
 philosophy) and the "absolute spirit/mind" which is embodying itself in  
 art, religion & philosophy. (of course, you know how philosophers are, hegel  
 considered his own theory to be the crown of creation ...). so the given  
 argument must be seen in context of "political theology"; if you read again now 
 you'll perhaps agree that the eucharistical connotation is striking. and  
 although hegel was a protestant philosopher, this particular passage seems to 
 deal more with trans- than with consubstantiation. or not?

kai, post-protestant mystic +      


dave monroe schrieb:

> "'Suggest you, Sir, even in Play, that this giggling
> Rout of poxy half-wits, embody us?  Embody us? 
> America but some fairy Emanation, without substance,
> that hath pass'd, by Miracle, into them?-- Damme, I
> think not,-- Hell were a better Destiny.'
>    "'Why,' exclaims the Captain, ''tis the Doctrine of
> Transsubstantiation, which bears to the Principle you
> speak of, a curious likeness,-- that's of course
> considering members of Parliament, like the Bread and
> Wine of the Eucharist, to contain, in place of the
> Spirit of Christ, the will of the People.'
>    "'Then those who gather in Parliaments and
> Congresses are no better that Ghosts?-- '
>    "'Or no worse,' Mason cannot resist putting in, 'if
> we proceed, that is, to Consubstantiation,-- or the
> Bread and Wine remaining Bread and Wine, whilst the
> spiritual Presence is reveal'd in Parallel Fashion, so
> to speak,-- closer to the Parliament we are familiar
> with here on Earth, as whatever they may represent,
> yet do they remain, dismayingly, Humans as well.'"
> (M&D, Ch. 40, p. 404)
                                  [schnipp: lots of useful refs]


>Transsubstantiation, Consubstantiation

>"In the Reformation the leaders generally rejected the
>traditional belief in the sacrament as a sacrifice and
>as an invisible miracle of the actual changing of the
>bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ
>(transubstantiation) but retained the belief in it as
>mystically uniting the believers with Christ and with
>one another. The Lutherans held that there is a change
>by which the body and blood of Christ join with the
>bread and wine; this principle (consubstantiation) was
>rejected by Huldreich Zwingli who, in a controversy
>over the sacrament, held that the bread and wine were
>only symbolic. Calvinists, on the other hand,
>maintained the spiritual, but not the real presence of
>Christ in the sacrament. The Church of England
>affirmed the real presence but denied
>transubstantiation. However, since the Oxford
>Movement, Anglicans tend to accept either
>transubstantiation or the Calvinist interpretation."

>http://www.bartleby.com/65/lo/LordsSup.html