Ethics

The guilt of the apostasy from Christ is a guilt which is shared in common by the entire western world, however greatly the degree of the offence may vary. The justification and the renewal must therefore likewise be shared in common by the whole of the west. No attempt can succeed which aims at saving the west while excluding one of the western na

of the masses, and the question arises whether perhaps the increasing acceptance of mass standards will in the course of time level down mental achievements to such an extent that technology itself will cease to develop and will therefore cease to exist. Technology and the masses arose and are confined within national communities, but they have an

Technology produces the masses and the masses demand an intensification of technology, yet at the same time technology itself is a matter for strong and mentally superior personalities. The engineer and the entrepreneur are not men

torn asunder. There is the kingdom of the preached word of God, and there is the kingdom of the sword. The kingdom of the Church, and the kingdom of the world. The realm of the spiritual office, and the realm of secular government. The sword can never bring about the unity of the Church and of the faith. Preaching can never govern nations. But the

There are two kingdoms which so long as the world continues, must neither be mixed together nor yet be

Ethics as formation, then, means the bold endeavour to speak about the way in which the form of Jesus Christ takes form in our world, in a manner which is neither abstract nor casuistic, neither programmatic nor purely speculative. Concrete judgements and decisions will have to be ventured here. Decision and action can here no longer be delegated t

So the Church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ Himself who has taken form among men. The Church can be called the Body of Christ because in Christ’s Body man is really taken up by Him, and so too, therefore, are all mankind.

destruction of life as we have it. The drastic acceptance or rejection of earthly life reveals that only death has any value here. To clutch at everything or to cast away everything is the reaction of one who believes fanatically in death.

The risen Christ bears the new humanity within Himself, the final glorious “yes” which God addresses to the new man. It is true that mankind is still living the old life, but it is already beyond the old. It still lives in a world of death, but it is already beyond death. It still lives in a world of sin, but it is already beyond sin. The night is