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The Divine Human Being*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Helmut Koester
Helmut Koester
Affiliation:
Harvard Divinity School
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Extract

The belief in the greatness of individual human beings who are acknowledged as benefactors of the city, the nation, and humankind is as old as the beginnings of Western culture. When the first Christian apostles encountered this belief, it was already well established in the Greco-Roman world. And, with all its intriguing lure, it is still an important and pervasive current in our present situation. Indeed, this belief is very much alive as all of us face the demand for excellence in our teaching and our studies, as well as the expectation that graduates will emerge as recognized leaders in religious communities and in our society at large.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 78 , Issue 3-4 , October 1985 , pp. 243 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1985

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References

1 The basic work on the concept of the divine human being in antiquity is Ludwig Bieler, ΘΕΙΟΣ ANHP: Das Bild des göttlichen Menschen in Spätantike und Frühchristentum (reprinted Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1967)Google Scholar; a comprehensive essay with full bibliography was published more recently by Betz, Hans Dieter, “Gottmensch II (Griechisch-römische Antike und Urchristentum),” RAC 12 (1982) 234–311.Google Scholar

2 Throughout the second part of this address I am indebted to the work of Schmidt, Jochen, Die Geschichte des Genie-Gedankens in der deutschen Literatur, Philosophic und Politik 1750–1945 (2 vols.; Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1985).Google Scholar Individual references are given in the following notes only in those instances in which I am quoting specific works of German authors.

3 “Prometheus,” Goethes Poetische Werke: Vollständige Ausgabe (Stuttgart: Cotta, n.d.) 1. 319–21. My translation.

4 Heine, Heinrich, Sämtliche Schriften (ed. Günter, Häntzschel; Munich, 1969) 2. 234.Google Scholar

5 Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, Die Grundlagen des 19. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1899).Google Scholar

6 Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf (15th ed.; Munich, 1932) 321.Google Scholar Quoted by Schmidt, Geschichte des Genie-Gedankens, 2 228. My translation.