The Quest for God and Human Identity [Volume: 7(1988), pp. 47-55]

54
J. M. LOCHMAN
In face of the answers officially proposed, the remembrance of God
kept the questions alive: Is it really possible for me to delegate the question of my identity, the identity of my human existence, my knowledge,
my conscience, to some ideology or political party? Does this question
not arise in a context which simply cannot be decreed or controlled by
other human beings and even less by institutions? Does not our human
existence have an inalienable reference and dimension in which we are
permitted and commanded to live our human destiny in personal identity-each one of us individually in his or her irreplaceable responsibility?
2) Inseparable from this is the other free space which, in a materialistically planned (or practiced) society in particular, the remembrance of
God remains open for us. The memory of God frames the question about
our identity in a radically open horizon. In our quest for a life of genuine
identity and authenticity, there is a further beyond-a plus ultra. There
is hope of identity and, indeed, even in view of the "last enemy," death.
As we have already seen, the reference to God-the name of God-points
not only to the dimension of depth in understanding earthly human existence but also to its hope in time and in eternity. The question of identity
is thereby placed in an eschatological horizon. "It does not yet appear
what we shall be" (1 John 3, 2)-the New Testament text the Marxist
philosopher Ernst Bloch was so fond of quoting-is to be taken to heart
over and over again. It is the promise that the hope of identity transcends
our achievements and our failures.
That the importance of the theme of God for the question of identity
should have been sensed so powerfully in an atheistic culture in the face
of death in particular should not surprise us. I recall the funeral services
(these were, by the way, practically the only possibility the churches had
of addressing non-churchgoing fellow citizens directly). These services
became a supremely important opportunity of witness-recognized and
seized even by many "outsiders," with hesitation perhaps, with wonder,
yet with intense interest. For many people, even "practicing atheists," an
alternative was offered here, a questionable, yet at the same time credible
alternative.
TESTIMONY OF A CAPTIVE
I will conclude with a literary reference. One of the most impressive
and credible reflections on the theme of identity I have read recently was
by Vaclav Havel. Havel is a well-known Czech playwright. Until recently,
he was kept in prison in Czechoslovakia. He was allowed to write very
little in the prison, not much more than rather short letters to his wife.
However, during the course of 1982 he used this modest opportunity to
compose in sequel form his philosophical and theological reflections. From