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

GOD AND HUMAN IDENTITY
55
them resulted an impressive essay, which engaged in elementary questions
of human destiny in today's world. In the center lies the theme: identity.
Like many contemporary writers and thinkers, Havel has suffered from
the spiritual and human misery of our time, i.e. from the threat to personal
human existence through alienating pressures of ideological and powerpolitical machinery as well as through manipulative mechanisms of our
technocratically oriented civilization. He sees the deepest origins of these
tragic occurrences in the "crisis in the experience of the absolute horizon."
Wherever this horizon fades or is barred, human beings only too easily
become incapacitated victims of such pressures. "Only a human being can
lead a relatively tolerable life in this world, which is oriented "beyond" this
world; a human being, who refers to the infinite, the absolute and the
eternal with every one of his or her "here's" and every one of his or her
"now's." An unconditional orientation upon "now" and "here" converts
every bearable "now" and "here" into desert and wilderness and finally
discolors it with blood."8
In our search for identity, therefore, the awakening of the transcendent
dimension of human life-the metaphysical and theological question-is of
fundamental significance. The hope for identity grows with it and, in addition, the prospect for meaningful engagement in our workaday world:
If I adhere to that which the world makes out of me-namely a little
screw belonging to a gigantic machine insert, which robs me of my
human identity-then I cannot do much.... However, if I think
about what each one of us originally is, or what he or she-independent
of the world situation-could potentially become, namely, a human
being of full age, I can obviously do much. For example, I can try to
behave in a way that appears to be proper to me and in a way all
persons should conduct themselves according to my deepest conviction-namely in full responsibility. Upon the objection that it makes no
sense, I would quite simply answer: "Oh, yes. It does make sense."9
NOTES
1. Vitezslav Gardavsky, Buh neni zcela mrtev, Praha 1967; English edition; God Is
Not Quite Dead, Penguin books 1973.
2. Letters and Papers from Prison, London 1971, p. 325.
3. Ibid., p. 360.
4. H. G Geyer, Atheismus und Christentum, in: Evangelische Theologie 1968,
p. 266.
5. E. Jungel, Gott als Geheimnis der Welt, Tubingen 1977, p. 30.
6. Helmut Gollwitzer, Krummes Holz-aufrechter Gang, Munchen 1970, p. 284.
7. Theses on Feuerbach, in: Early Writings, Penguin Books, p. 423.
8. Letter 144 dated September 4, 1982; in: Dopisy Olze, Toronto 1985, pp. 434f.
9. Letter 118 dated March 6, 1982, ibid. pp. 344f.