Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Michel Henry (1922-2002) was a leading Frenchphenomenologist who taught at the University of Montpellier.He wrote extensively on phenomenology and also authoredseveral novels. His books include The Essence ofManifestation, Material Phenomenology, and I Am the Truth: Toward a Philosophy ofChristianity.,

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WORDS OF CHRIST

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Foreword, by Jean-Yves Lacoste.....................................................................................................................................ixIntroduction to the English Edition, by Karl Hefty.................................................................................................................xiTranslator's Note..................................................................................................................................................xxxIntroduction.......................................................................................................................................................31. Words That Christ, as a Human Being, Addresses to Humans in Their Own Language—about Themselves...........................................................112. Disintegration of the Human World as a Result of Christ's Words.................................................................................................213. Upheaval of the Human Condition Through Christ's Word...........................................................................................................304. Words That Christ Addresses to Humans in Their Own Language—No Longer about Them, but about Himself: Affirmation of His Divine Status.....................405. Christ's Words about Himself: Reaffirmation of His Divine Status................................................................................................496. The Question of the Legitimacy of the Words Spoken by Christ about Himself......................................................................................587. Word of the World, Word of Life.................................................................................................................................688. The Word of God: Self-Justification of the Words Spoken by Christ about Himself.................................................................................799. Christ's Words about the Difficulty for Humans to Hear His Word.................................................................................................9110. Christ's Words about the Possibility for Humans to Hear His Word...............................................................................................101Conclusion: Listening to the Word: What Christ Said in the Synagogue of Capernaum..................................................................................114

Chapter One

One can highlight in the Gospels a certain number of remarks which could be those of a human being, namely of the man Jesus. These words would be distinctive only by the depth of their views and by the conclusions which one draws from them in order to provide rules of conduct for their listeners. This type of speech constitutes what one might call a wisdom speech. Moreover, often such remarks do not isolate individuals, but consider them instead in their environment, indeed in their relation with the whole universe. The judgment concerns the human being; the advice resulting from it consequently implies a judgment on the universe itself.

This is the case for two singular passages, one from Mark, the other from Matthew. Furthermore, their importance is due to the way in which they tackle the problem of evil in a decisive fashion: evil is not in the universe, but is found solely in the human being. This thesis is laid out in regard to a question that is both very specific and very practical, if not to say trivial. "Then the disciples approached and said to him, 'Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?'" [Matt. 15:12]. Once again opposing the ritualistic formalism of Jewish religion, Jesus simply declared that it is not necessary to wash one's hands before eating. Yet this declaration, provocative for all the legalists, makes a metaphysical affirmation. It is not content only with stating, as Hegel will nineteen centuries later, that "only the stone is innocent." Rather, it extends this assertion to everything that is similar to the stone. Any material process, all that is studied by science, everything that does not sense or experience anything, everything that is different from humans, is all innocent. That is why "he [Jesus] declared all foods clean" [Mark 7:19].

Instead, it is in the heart—where humans experience everything else and also experience themselves—where one is human in distinction from all the "things." The heart contains evil; evil comes forth from it. Thus Matthew: "Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile" (Matt. 15:11-20). One finds a similar text in Mark (7:14-23): "There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.... For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come.... All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

The demarcation of the place of evil, here called defilement, concerns not only an ethics; it implies a general definition of the human condition which, as we have just said, uses the "heart" as its principle. The identification of human reality with the "heart" has an unprecedented significance. It testifies that in distinction from the things of the universe which do not sense and do not experience anything—and which for this reason would be unable to be either good or evil—humans are those who experience themselves. It is for this exact reason that humans find themselves at the same time capable of experiencing and sensing all that surrounds them, namely the world and the things which show themselves within it. Yet experiencing oneself constitutes the distinctive feature of life. Living is in fact nothing else: suffering what one is and rejoicing in it, rejoicing in oneself. The "heart"—this term which recurs so often in the Gospels—hence designates human reality as essentially emotive, which is what it really is. Affectivity is the essence of life. Furthermore, in the transmitted collection of words, Christ employs the term "life" in order to refer to human reality, our reality, our life. The most concrete Synoptic texts say the same thing as the Johannine texts or Paul's letters.

From the philosophical point of view, the definition of humans as deriving their reality from the Affectivity of life, and thus as living beings who do not cease to experience themselves in suffering or in joy, has revolutionary import. On the historical level, it shatters the horizon of Greek thought which defined the human as a rational being: humans are distinguished from animals precisely through Reason, as being "endowed with Logos." The Christian definition, which turns the human being into a "living being" [un vivant], nevertheless has nothing to do with its current biological interpretation. According to the biological interpretation, what one traditionally calls "life" is actually reduced to a set of material processes consistent with those studied by physics. The scientific view is focused on this realm,...