Page 48 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 12

Daniël Louw (South Africa)
Comment to In 1978 Prof Da-

“Christian identity today“ niël Louw started
teaching as a lec-
turer at the Uni-
versity of Stellen-
Identity and the contemporary quest for si- bosch, Faculty of
gnificance. Theology. From
Existence and competence without transcen- 1990-1994 he was
dence? an Associate Pro-
The core anthropological question in all forms fessor in Practical
of pastoral encounters and counselling events Theology and since 1995 he has been Profes-
is without doubt the intriguing question: “Who sor and Head of the Department of Practical
am I?” It is a boomerang question: How should Theology. Dean faculty of theology: 2001-
one respond to the demands of the daily hap- 2005.
penstances in life? Especially, within the quest President of the International Academy of
for meaning and the existential yearning per- Practical Theology (IAPT): 2003-2005.
taining the meaning of suffering. Immediately President International Council for Pastoral
the religious question surfaces: But how is God Care and Counselling (ICPPC): 2011-2015
involved in the exposure of human beings to
evil, frailty, sickness, misery and unforeseen di- Former article:
sasters? https://emcapp.ignis.de/8/#p=122
The article of Werner May on Christian Identity
refers to identity as essentially an ontic pheno-
menon. The implication is that the human quest pointed out: The questions where to and where-
for identity (from the Latin ‘idem’) tries to arti- fore point to signals of transcendence.
culate the humane fibres of life that guarantee a Thomas Aquinas argued that life is framed by
kind of constant factor, establishing continuity, three constituencies, namely integrity (integri-
sustainability, durable moral character, trust- tas), harmony (consonanta) and clarity (cla-
worthiness, fairness, justice, and human digni- ritas). The implication is that the value of life
ty. The critical question at stake is whether the comprises more than morality (the link bet-
search for constancy can be found merely in ween identity and ethics). Life is framed by a
terms of personal competence and achievement spiritual realm – the transcendent realm and
or whether a transcendent factor is involved as the aesthetic dimension of human existence.
well? Besides the fact that identity is a process and
The presupposition in this kind of probing que- qualitative category, identity is constantly
stion is that identity wrestles with a desire, or shaped by, and established within the dynamics
need, for something greater than us. That what of relational complexities and intercultural con-
Emmanuel Levinas calls: Metaphysical desire texts. And it is exactly within the complexity of
(désir métaphysique) - the significant and re- real-life settings (the existential realities like
lational quest for the ‘humane other’ as linked anxiety, guilt, despair, loneliness, anger, greed
to the intriguing question: What is the source and exploitation) that the search for identity is
for humane, authentic being and responsible challenged by the irregularity of paradox. There
concern, despite different theoretical and disci- is in fact no relational, developmental and edu-
plinary points of departure? The implication of cational solution to the complexity of identity.
a kind of meta-physical probing is that identity If one can assume that the Christian faith is in-
should be linked to the search for significance trinsically a wrestling with paradox (living the
in life. The latter implies that one cannot avo- painful contradictions without artificial, positi-
id the notion of transcendence, even not in vistic answers and solutions), that a Christian
postmodernity. As the sociologist Peter Berger reframing of identity can add meaning to the

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