In the first volume of his two-volume theological anthropology, Hans-Christoph Askani takes the monastic way of existence as a guide for discovering what is at stake in being human. Like in a magnifying mirror, the fundamental unfinishedness of all human existence is meant to come into view here.

Hans-Christoph Askani develops an anthropology that does not inquire about a timeless essence of humanity, but rather about how a person lives out their humanity. The focus is on the experience that human existence is characterized by imbalances that cannot be eliminated. The unrest arising from this becomes the starting point for theological reflection. The author examines how the human being - in this case, the Christian - engages with what eludes their grasp and how they respond in forms of life that faith has given itself to withstand what surpasses it. These life forms articulate answers to questions that cannot be avoided but have no definitive solution. The author interprets this discrepancy in five chapters, focusing on the tensions between: poor and rich, man and woman, power and powerlessness, day and night, life and death. In each of these areas, it becomes evident that human action and thought do not catch up with the surplus of existence but at best expose themselves to it. Theology participates in this process. It engages with what it can never fully exhaust. To enter into this challenge, the present volume (the first of two) chooses the monastic way of life for orientation, which presents a spiritual restlessness assumed here to be characteristic or potentially characteristic not only of the monastic response but of human existence in general.

Autorentext
Born in 1954; studied Protestant theology, philosophy, and German Studies; 1994 PhD; 2004 habilitation in systematic theology; 1994-2005 lecturer at the "Institut Protestant" in Paris; 2005-19 professor at the University of Geneva; Professor Emeritus.

Inhalt

Vorwort
Einleitung
I. Das Vorhaben: Eine theologische Interpretation des Menschseins
II. Mönchische Antworten - Menschliche Fragen
III. Meditation über das Mönchtum
Erster Teil: Das mönchische Versprechen
Einleitung
A. Die Armut - und die unerträgliche Diskrepanz inmitten der Welt
I. Die freiwillige Armut
II. Arm und reich
III. Das Auf-sich-Nehmen
Zwischenüberlegung
B. Die Keuschheit - und die unüberwindliche Unausgeglichenheit zwischen Mann und Frau
I. Die gelebte Enthaltsamkeit
II. Mann und Frau
III. Die Gottesliebe
Zwischenüberlegung
C. Der Gehorsam - und die unhaltbare Balance zwischen Macht und Ohnmacht
I. Der gelobte Gehorsam
II. Macht und Ohnmacht
III. Das Leiden
Zwischenüberlegung
Vom Sinn des Gelübdes
Zweiter Teil: Der Mönchische Alltag
Einleitung
D. Tag und Nacht - oder ein unheilbarer Riß mitten im Dasein
I. Das immerwährende Gebet
II. Der Gegensatz von Tag und Nacht
III. Die Geduld
Zwischenüberlegung
E. Leben und Tod - oder: Der nur von Gott zu versöhnende Streit
I. Die Hineinnahme des Todes ins Leben
II. Der Widerstreit zwischen Leben und Tod
III. Der Mut