Chrystologia hermeneutyczna

Abstract

The author of the article presents a new concept in Christology, which; originated in Poland and was based on Polish personalism, personalistic hermeneutics and a personalistic view (understanding) of history. Rev. Czeslaw S. Bartnik, professor in the Catholic University of Lublin, is the author of these three spheres of theological and philosophical thought. The author has come to the conclusion in his article that the originality of professor Bartnik scientific output can be best presented by emphasizing the lines and hermeneutic assumptions within the sphere of the so-called hermeneutic Christology. It was discussed in a book which is available only in Polish, entitled Chrystus jako sens historii (Christ as the sense of history), 1987. It is necessary to emphasize the peculiarity of realistic personalism developed by Bartnik; according to him a person is a keystone of general history, of the history of salvation and also of objective and subjective history. Bartnik claims that „There is no history without a person, only nature” and that „grace does not concern nature but a person. [...] A person is a hermeneutic center; all lines of both objective and subjective history meet and exchange in a person” The concepts of personalistic hermeneutics and personalistic vision of history are also very original. Bartnik discusses these three lines of his assumtions mainly in consideration of Christology and within its range. No reference to other important systems w ill be made here so as not to obscure the originality of Bartnik’s concepts and it only necessary to emphasize the personalistic character of knowledge and understanding used in hermeneutic Christology. According to these assumption, the Person of Christ is no longer the resultant of reality or a subjective intentional category, but in his very Person He becomes a hermeneutic challenge and constitutes the fundamental principium hermeneuticum omnis entis. Learning about Christ brings about the fact that it is He who decides, creates, explains and interprets the general existence of a man, of the world and of history in the existencial aspect (synchronic, structural), in the historical aspect (diachronic, dynamic) and, finally, in the creative aspect (concerning the relation between reality and man). The vision of hermeneutic Christology (closely connected with Christological hermeneutics because o f the use of the personalistic method) discussed in the article has been presented by means of the so-colled hermeneutic triangle. It brings together all the main components of the hermeneutic process: data, context and interpreter. In short, it can be said that the „data” is the Person of Christ, whom a man learns about gradually in many dimentions; not only intentionally and intellectually on the basis of the text of the New Testament. Knowledge about the Person of Christ influences our self-understanding, involvement in faith. The Spirit of Christ brings about the fact that His history becomes a light for our history. The „context” is ecclesiological (Church as a community of persons in Christ) both for the „data” and for the „interpreter” Bartnik’s article entitled Kerygmatic Christ (Chrystus kerygmatyczny) written in 1982, speaks for itself: the kerygma of Church community not only repeats the Good News but also complements the history of Christ and explains that the starting point for the „interpreter” is not nothing but it is the faith of Church. Objective and subjective faith complement each other. History helps theological knowledge because history unveils sense. A man learns about the world not only by means of his mind but also thanks to the light of the Holy Spirit. That is how Christ becomes Self-Interpreter, Interpreter and the One thanks to whom a man and the world make sens. In this Christological vision it is clearly seen that applied hermeneutics is not textual but personal and that personalism is not just a part of anthropology but a universal system.