Der himmlische Kern des Irdischen

This volume is the result of over thirty years of efforts by an international group of theologians who draw on the biblically attested origins of Christianity to develop a liberating theology that serves a world enabling all to live life to the fullest. This theology is based on the recognition that the Christianization of the Roman Empire in the 3rd and 4th centuries was, in truth, an imperialization of Christianity, and that the Constantinian turn represents the Thermidor of Christianity. Since then, the central conflict line in theology and in the churches has run along the distinction between the pre-Constantinian authentic, prophetic-messianic Christianity and the post-Constantinian distorted imperial-colonizing Christianity.

At the beginning of the theology documented in this volume was the lecture "The Civil Captivity of Theology" by Kuno Füssel at the University of Freiburg/Switzerland in 1982. This founding text, published here for the first time, proposes a new type of theological theory: theology as a materialist theory of messianic practice. The movement triggered by this lecture is documented by Urs Eigenmann in the contribution "From the La Roche Week to the Collège de Brousse." Franz Hinkelammert shows in his text "Man as the Highest Being for Man" that this teaching from Karl Marx aligns with the biblically attested rejection of the fratricide of Cain against Abel as the founding murder. The five theses by Urs Eigenmann on the understanding of Christianity, under the title "The Kingdom of God and Its Justice as the Heavenly Core of the Earthly," represent a synthesis of over thirty years of efforts towards a theology oriented to the origins of Christianity. The title of the volume reverses Karl Marx's formulation regarding the earthly core of religious mist formations.