German Theology

Chapter One

Decorative woodcut drop cap 'S' featuring floral vine motifs.

1 Corinthians 13

Saint Paul original: "Sanctus Paulus" says: When that which is perfect comes, then that which is imperfect and partial is abolished. Now note what is the "perfect" and what is the "partial." The perfect is a Being Wesen: the essential nature or ultimate reality of a thing that has included and enclosed everything within itself and its being, and without which and outside of which there is no true being, and in which all things have their being; for it is the essence of all things, and is in itself unchangeable and immovable, yet changes and moves all other things. But the partial or the imperfect is that which has its origin or becomes out of this perfect one, just as a radiance or a glow flows out from the sun or from a light and appears as something, this or that, and is called a "creature" In historical theology, a "creature" refers to any created thing—human, animal, or object—as distinct from the Creator.. And none of these partial things is the perfect, just as the perfect is none of the partial things. The partial things are comprehensible, knowable, and expressible. The perfect is incomprehensible, unknowable, and inexpressible to all creatures, insofar as they are creatures. Therefore, one does not name the perfect, for it is none of these things. The creature, as a creature, cannot know or grasp this.

¶ Now when the perfect comes, the partial is set aside. But when does it come? I say: when it is—as far as is possible—known, felt, and tasted in the soul.

¶ A question. Now one might say, since it is unknowable and incomprehensible by all creatures, and the soul is indeed a creature, how then can it be known in the soul? Answer. That is why we say "insofar as it is a creature"; this means that as far as the creature remains within its "creature-liness" and created nature, its "I-ness" Ichtheit: the preoccupation with the individual "I" or ego and selfhood Selbheit: the quality of being a separate, self-centered self, it is impossible for it. For in whatever creature this perfect is to be known, there "creature-liness," created nature, "I-ness," and selfhood must be lost and come to nothing. This is the meaning of the word of Saint Paul: when the perfect comes—that is, when it is known—then the par-