The Problem of Human Self-Transcendence in the Dialectical Theology
Harvard Theological Review 1947 DOI: 10.1017/s0017816000026249 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that human beings are driven to understand what they are, where they are going, and what limits constrain them, and to situate themselves within a larger Reality. Because people feel an "essential homelessness" as citizens of space and time, they reach beyond themselves and their social groups toward unrealized possibilities, encountering a tension between that intuited world of possibility and their present situation. |
Abstract
Man poses for himself his most tantalizing problems. He seeks to discover what he is, to foresee whither he goes, and to find what limits are imposed on his progress. He ponders his connections with the realm of matter, and seeks to locate himself within a larger sphere of an all-inclusive Reality. As a citizen of the world of space and time, man feels an essential homelessness, and reaches out toward a possible realm in which those aspirations which are unfulfilled in his present experience may find fulfilment. He persists in looking beyond himself as an individual, and beyond the social group of which he is a part. In so doing he is confronted with a tension between the world of possibility which he intuits and his own present situation.