CQOD: 05/22/07 -- Brunner: the assertion of autonomy

Christian Quotation of the Day

May 22, 2007Meditation:
    We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
    -- 1 John 5:19 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    This autonomy of man, this attempt of the Ego to understand itself out of itself, is the lie concerning man which we call sin. The truth about man is that his ground is not in himself but in God—that his essence is not in self sufficient reason but in the Word, in the challenge of God, in responsibility, not in self-sufficiency. The true being of man is realized when he bases himself upon God’s Word. Faith is then not an impossibility or a salto mortale [mortal leap], but that which is truly natural; and the real salto mortale (a mortal leap indeed!) is just the assertion of autonomy, self-sufficiency, God-likeness. [It is] through this usurped independence [that] man separates himself from God, and at the same time isolates himself from his fellows. Individualism is the necessary consequence of rational autonomy, just as love is the necessary consequence of faith.
    ... Emil Brunner (1889-1966), The Word and The World [1931]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I must rely on You in all things.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
    http://www.cqod.com/cqoddtcb.html

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