신의 형상으로서의 자아초월성에 대한 니버와 판넨베르크의 이해

Abstract

This study attempts to explicate how Niebuhr and Pannenberg see human self-transcendence as the conspicuous element of Imago Dei. Anatomizing their views, it examines if they present a Biblically-based, empirically- appropriate one, and how they agree or disagree with each other on the issue. It also explains and criticize their views on the property of self- transcendence, the relation of religion with self-consciousness, and the transcendence as a way to the future and truth, and finally the nature of their claims. This dissertation focuses on their views of the image of God in terms of human exocentricity. In order to achieve this end, this writer research intensively into Niebuhr’s The Nature and Destiny of Man(2 volumes), Pannenberg’s Systematic Theology(3 volumes) and Anthropology in Theological Perspective, and their other works. Sometimes it juxtaposes their views to elaborate the differences between them, and other times it fuses the views into one to betray their agreements. This synthesizing effort is carried out in the power of self-transcendence as they describe it. First of all, this study deals with how the two theologians conceive the concept of self-consciousness as the particularity of humanity. They contend that self-transcendence is a power to objectify human himself, and that the faculty is also called ‘openness to the world,’ or ‘exocentricity.’ Niebuhr and Pannenberg relate the concept to the themes of God, religion, truth, and future. According to them, humans can go beyond themselves, activating the transcendence, to God and truth. Human self-consciousness makes him stand outside of nature, life, himself, his reason, and the world. Then the faculty leads humans inevitably to search for God, truth, eternity, and salvation. Their view of self-transcendence is wholistic in that they refuse to localize the image of God as human soul or its features like reason and freedom. In so doing, they make contributions to the discussion of the divine image in terms of the universal idea of self-transcendence, and to the relevancy of theology for human identity and destiny. However, they do not give enough attention to the theme of God’s transcendence as the root of human self-consciousness, and of the self-consciousness of animals as the object of comparison with human beings.