Dr. Hannah Arendt
Why did God become a man?
The proposition: Jesus is God come to earth in human flesh. Yes or No?
Moderator Hull: Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to a rare opportunity. Hannah Arendt hasn’t appeared or given a speech since December 4, 1975. Nearly fifty years. Her whereabouts has been a tightly held secret, even to her. For a woman of a certain age, 118 years old, I must say Dr. Arendt, you look marvelous. What is even more amazing is you have been chain smoking Chesterfields the entire time. [1]
Dr. Arendt was born in 1906 near Hanover, Germany. Early on her mother noticed a keen intellectual capacity and a love for books. Hannah’s capacities were extraordinary, and she entered into the intellectual life very early on by being chosen to study with one of Europe’s greatest 20th century philosophers and Nazi weasel, Martin Heidegger. He was notoriously ambitious and unprincipled for his mistreatment of his mentor, the Jewish father of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl. After benefiting from Husserl, he shut out his mentor from further academic appointments because Husserl was Jewish. Heidegger’s ascendance to the rector of Freiburg University speaks to his influence. His book, Being and Time (1927), was famous. In it he asked the question, “Why does anything exist?” The answer, I might add, is simple if you believe in God, but quite vexing if you don’t. His appetites were many and they manifested themselves in his academic career, but also in his choice of students. This is where the young Hannah Arendt came into view. She was brilliant and beautiful. Dr. Arendt became both Heidegger’s protege and mistress. It seems Heidegger’s anti-sematic pro-Nazi bent went just so far—he had taken a Jewish mistress. But so had Adolf Eichmann.
In due course Hannah left Heidegger behind and went to study with Karl Jaspers for her PhD. Interestingly, she wrote her thesis on Love and Saint Augustine. Dr. Arendt is fully conversant with Christian Theology, its history, and content. She is best known, however, for more current events. She was a survivor of the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jews and was able to escape to America via France in 1941. Her most famous or infamous work is Eichmann in Jerusalem, covering Eichmann’s trial in 1961 and the Origins of Totalitarianism published in 1951. In the Eichmann case, she was writing articles for the New Yorker Magazine, associated with the New York Times, a former newspaper.
Well, I could go on, and probably would if not compelled by Dr. Arendt’s continual glances at her watch. That must be some watch—it’s been buried with you since 1975 and it keeps on ticking—must be a Timex. [2] I’m not sure what you are in a hurry about, Hannah, as it’s back to the crypt until the judgment. Jesus said everyone will be there and he meant everyone. Jaspers, Heidegger, Kant, Hegel, Augustine, Saint Paul, Athanasius, Charlie Chaplin, Babe Ruth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, even Nietzsche—and final justice will be sorted out. What’s the over-under on Hitler, Mao, Marx, Freud, et al?
Only one judge, only one opinion counts, that of the Jewish carpenter from Nazareth. I like your chances. I hope at least by then with all these intervening years to as you Germans say, to denken which sounds to the American ear as “thiNGk,” meaning in English, think about it. You said Eichmann was banal [3] because he lost his ability to denken clearly as an individual, and because of that, he committed the crimes he did. [4] I hope you will join our side and be able to speak in the affirmative, that indeed, Jesus is God come to earth in human flesh. After all, Dr. Arendt, he was a Jew killed by the state. But he was also God who voluntarily sacrificed himself in order to break the curse and close the distance between himself and his creation. Nothing banal about that.
The proposition: Jesus is God come to earth in human flesh. Yes or No?
Dr. Arendt: Herr Hull, I’m no philosopher just as you are no theologian. We’ve both had the training, but it didn’t stick. As one of my New York friends, very much a catholic, William F. Buckley, said when asked why he was a conservative when most of his friends were liberals, “I’m a conservative by conviction, but I’m not of the breed.” Meaning he was trained that way and thought that way, but he never felt culturally at home with them. I think, Mr. Moderator, that Buckley, myself, and you, are living proof of life in philosophical exile.
First, I was exiled by the Nazis from my country and its great literary heritage. Then I was exiled from Europe to life in New York City and finally, exiled from the Jewish community around the world after my articles appeared in the New Yorker concerning the banality of Adolf Eichmann. Arius, Athanasius, Daniel, Jeremiah, the Apostle John on Patmos, Martin Luther in Wartburg Castle, even Napoleon on Elba—many greats were exiled. But exile has its benefits, usually time alone to think about what is true. In Luther’s case to create the German Bible, or John, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. As you might suppose I’ve had many years to consider the nature of Christ. Since so many have already opined on his nature, his mission, his death and proposed resurrection, I would like to thiNGk for a moment whether Jesus, like Eichmann, was just following orders.
It is immediately clear that Jesus was not banal. He was original and outrageous in his claims to be the “Son of God.” His ideas were fresh, revolutionary, and he was unthreatened, even though he was about to be executed by tyrants. He even told Pilate, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” It seems Jesus was taking orders, in fact, it is clear that he was doing the will of his Father. He was reporting in prayer to his Holy Father. I have concluded that Jesus is God’s Son on a mission, and a wonderful and good Son he was. But he is not God himself.
Regardless, one only needs a few days reviewing the piles of bodies in mass graves from Auschwitz to Dachau, the horrors of history at the hand of Lenin, Stalin, Mao—or even the millions of Biafran children who starved to death because of corrupt governments—is cause enough for any real God to wretch. It seems whomever is in control, God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit, this triune combo platter of deity has failed miserably to take care of their world, their people, and I see no reason to be hopeful.
Moderator Hull: Thank you Dr. Arendt. I must say a rather dark view. You found so many friends in New York in what is called the New School. I am afraid their philosophical ground is very old school. There is no virtue in being sure that you don’t know anything for sure and no one can know anything except what is experienced through the senses. It is a failed philosophy, fascism with a smile rather than a Jack boot. I’m not sure how to arrange this, but you should get a tour of New York City before you return to Bard College Cemetery and see how the new left has destroyed your beloved city. A lot has changed—I think it is called decadence—since you left in 1975. And I must warn you, watch your step.
You may also want to take Augustine’s advice since you wrote your PhD dissertation on his teaching. You may recall Augustine’s conversion. He was a brilliant product of the classical world, a professor of rhetoric in 384 at the Imperial University in Milan. He was in a garden, there was the Bible on a table, probably not the New Living Translation. He heard a child’s voce singing a repeated lyric, “tole lege, tole lege, tole lege.” Pick it up and read it, pick it up and read it! He picked it up and read it. That was the point when he coined the phrase, “Credo ut intelligam,” I believe in order to understand. He realized that in order to understand the world, for it all to make sense, he must start with belief. [5]
This is where, Hannah, your brilliance is the enemy of belief and blocks you from understanding. Doubt is not higher or smarter than belief. Doubt is the rebar inside the pillar of faith. Pick it up and read it Dr. Arendt—the revealed truth is what you can never figure out. This is why the Apostle Paul so rightly said, “This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.[6] As the great Saint Francis of Assisi said, he would need to stand on his head to see the world aright.
Time for a short break. Dr. Arendt, you have many books. They are still selling quite nicely and those named in your will are enjoying the royalties. Dr. Arendt doesn’t need any food or drink, just more Chesterfields, please. See you back here in a few minutes—decomposition could be a problem.
Moderator Hull: Welcome back—only twenty minutes—very good. No pictures, no autographs, and no personality booth for Dr. Arendt saved us a lot of time. Hannah let me know she now values time more or less. More, in that she would like some of it back, less, in the fact that there is an afterlife which she is in and is conscious. She does wonder, she confided in me, wonders if there is a last judgement as she will want to review her options.
Dr. Arendt, have you considered not smoking? You have not smoked for nearly fifty years, why would you start again today? And could we hear your conclusions considering some of the points I made just prior to the break.
Dr. Arendt: You are right Reverend Hull, I haven’t smoked since 1975, but since I am already a pile of ashes, it seems redundant, and reductive. But today I am making an exception, this might be reincarnation, but I wouldn’t call it Nirvana. It is somewhat nerve racking. I’m out of practice, one can get rusty. Regarding the proposition, Jesus is God come to earth in human flesh. I would make one observation. On the more positive side, Jesus was quite human in the garden of Gethsemane. He cried that he wanted out! That bolsters my belief that he was very human, that Jesus was an honest broker. His statements on the cross, “My Lord, My Lord, why have you forsaken me?” “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” His dialogue and promise to the thief on the cross and “Into your hands to I commit my spirit.” Finally, “It is finished.” This makes it difficult to categorize his mental and emotional state. Was he delusional? Was he just playing a role, and if he was, then truly he was insane. It seems however, his disciples fell asleep not far away from his agony. They were afraid, bored, but truly believed he was sane, and a true miracle worker. Wonderful fodder for a late night and a great Scotch.
I would, however, not be able to throw in with you, Mr. Moderator. The jury is out and the jury is in so to speak. In this case the Judge must give a directed verdict because he knows what no one else knows. It’s all part of Heilsgeschichte, [7] dear Moderator.
Moderator Hull: Thank you, Hannah Arendt. Your car is waiting, and I’ve instructed them to drive you through NYC, the full tour. There is this man who happens to be stuck in Manhattan right now and he will be your host. Look for him—he has golden hair, an orange tan, blue suit, red tie, and he tends to exaggerate, but he can fill you in on the way things are going.
We are looking for our next speaker, Mr. G.K. Chesterton. He tends to get lost en route and his wife has just put out a “Silver Alert.” [8] We should find him soon.
Bill Hull
Spring 2024
[1] Seems that Dr. Arendt liked Chesterfields, Lucky Strikes and Camels.
[2] Timex was an inexpensive watch advertised on 1950s American Television by a spokesman John Cameron Swayze. The tag line about the Timex watch, “ It takes a licking, but keeps on ticking.”
[3] Banality: the lack of originality, freshness, or novelty. Similarly, triteness, pedestrian, conventional
[4] John 5:16-30 “Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son. And they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.”
[5] Entire story found in various stories. This is a summation taken from Leslie Newbigin’s talk, Nihilism, to be found on YouTube
[6] I Corinthians 1:25 NLT. The entire passage, however, is needed to get the full impact (1:17-31).
[7] Heilsgeschichte is the German for Salvation History.
[8] Silver Alert is a warning issued in a region for an older person who has gone missing.
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