Charity

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A helping act for other people is called charity . " Love " here includes every active, unselfish act of feeling, will and deed directed towards the welfare of the fellow human being, not necessarily an emotional sympathy . The “next one” can be any person in a specific emergency that one encounters.

The term comes from a commandment of the Torah of Judaism ( Lev 19.18  EU ):

“You shall not take revenge on the children of your people or hold any grudge against them. You should love your neighbor as yourself. I am YHWH . "

Through Jesus' interpretation of the Torah of Nazareth , charity also became a central concept of Christianity , which in the ethics of antiquity came alongside the basic value of justice .

Today, charity is largely equated with selfless advocacy for others ( altruism ) regardless of their social position or merits. This is not considered to be a "side effect of compassion , but rather a feeling and striving for the stranger as something valuable, a relationship to the other person determined by benevolence ". Corresponding social rules and norms are anchored in most religions and philosophies as a basic ethical motive and can be found everywhere as human behavior.

Hebrew Bible

In the Tanakh , the Bible of Judaism, the commandment to love one's neighbor is related to a preceding, liberating and saving action by YHWH , the God of the Israelites , and should correspond to this. So it has the same, pro-existing aim as the action of God himself. The commandment applies in Judaism with the entire Torah (1st – 5th book of Moses) as the word of God and thus as a principle and guiding requirement for the whole of life. For the rabbis , following the prophecy in the Tanach, it is just as essential for the Jewish worship as the love of God (see Jewish ethics ). Its range has been around since about 200 BC. Discussed in Judaism: Some groups excluded non-Jews, others included all people. The latter interpretation prevailed in rabbinism up to around 100 AD.

The concept of the neighbor

In the Tanach, the “neighbor” is always a certain “fellow man” who is currently being encountered or who belongs to the horizon of an Israelite. The closeness usually results from a concrete relationship with him. The noun reah can be used for “relative” ( Ex 2.13  EU ), “neighbor” ( Spr 3.29  EU ), “friend” ( 1. Samuel 20.41  EU ), “beloved” ( Hld 5,16  EU ) or "other" ( Gen 11.3  EU ). Even where it expressly means the “national comrades” in contrast to the “foreign” ( Ex 11.2  EU ; Ex 12.35  EU ), it aims at a generally applicable relationship or behavior ( Ex 33.11  EU ). Accordingly, the Septuagint translated the word mostly with Greek pläsion ("other, fellow man").

In the Torah reah appears together with isch (“man”) or as an object of certain social commandments for the federal people of Israel: for example in those of the Ten Commandments , which prohibit false witness against the neighbor and the desire of his relatives and property ( Ex 20.16f  EU ). According to the preamble ( Ex 20.2  EU ), they are based on the central event of the Jewish religion, the liberation from slavery when leaving Egypt . On the one hand, the neighbor is every Israelite liberated with the Hebrews and chosen to be God's covenant partner; on the other hand, the Decalogue commandments relating to the neighbor tend to apply generally in the area of creation . So God makes the human being created as fellow human beings in his image ( Gen 1.26  EU ) responsible for the preservation of all life ( Gen 2.15.18  EU ).

Context and meaning of the command

The commandment to love one's neighbor is at the center of chapter Lev 19  EU in the holiness law , which compiles essential basic demands of God. Like the Ten Commandments, these address every individual Israelite and at the same time the chosen people as a whole (“You… you”), are mostly formulated apodictically and concern the same areas: Parental honor (19.3.31), Sabbath (19.3b.30), sanctification of God's name (19.12) images of gods and foreign cults (19.4.26-29), social behavior (19.9-18). The intended behavior should correspond to God's holiness , which according to Jewish faith is revealed in history and will ultimately prevail. Therefore, the verb can also be translated as indicative :

“You should [will] not glean from your harvest…
You should leave it to the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord, your God.
You should not steal, deceive and deceive one another.
You should not exploit your neighbor or deprive him of his own.
The wages of the day laborer should not stay with you overnight until morning.
You shall not curse the deaf, nor put an obstacle in the way of the blind; rather you should fear your God. I am the Lord
You should not do injustice in the law. Thou shalt take sides neither with a small nor with a great; you shall judge your tribal comrade justly.
You should not slander your tribe or stand up and claim the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord
You should not have hatred for your brother in your heart. Correct your tribal comrades and you will not be guilty of them.
You should not take revenge on the children of your people or hold anything against them. "

As a positive opposite of all these behaviors rejected by God, charity is offered at the end of the series. This should therefore bring about a comprehensive change in behavior in the entire community. In the people chosen by God, injustice should be permanently overcome, excluded and replaced by acting towards one's neighbor. This is set against hatred, vengeance and resentment in a dispute between brothers and therefore includes reconciliation with enemies .

A few verses after that follows the commandment to love foreigners (19.33f), which in turn expressly justifies the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt and - like every thematic section of the series and many social commandments of the Torah - is affirmed with the self-conception formula I am YHWH . The end of the chapter summarizes again: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Thus, the observance of the divine will of salvation revealed here is withdrawn from the will of men and made binding for the entire community before God: Human neighborly love should respond to and correspond to the liberating and saving action of God in Israel's history.

Protection rights for the poor and strangers

According to the context of the commandment itself, charity is not a pure emotion and a voluntary additional service, but a compulsory act of every Israelite who is primarily intended to benefit the needy. That is why it is not a contradiction to “reproving” an opponent, but rather reminds him of the right to life of those without rights and property. It applies especially to the marginalized, oppressed and disadvantaged groups and is therefore specified in numerous individual commandments, such as:

  • the release of the crop residue,
  • immediate payment of the daily wage ,
  • Prohibition of theft, robbery, deception, fraud, overreaching, defamation, partial jurisdiction, etc.

The Torah warns of the oppression of strangers several times (Ex 22.20-23; 23.6.9). They are placed at the side of the “widows and orphans”, that is, the destitute marginalized groups without a provider, and, like them, receive the promise that YHWH will hear their cries. To clothe them, to feed them and to love them is commanded separately (Deut 10:19). The harvest delivery of the tithe to every three years to the strangers, the widows and orphans flow in the country (Deut 14.28 f).

The Torah pays special attention to protective rights, which are intended to protect endangered marginalized groups from being completely exposed. The lien is limited by the subsistence level , and the lien on a homeless person's only coat is prohibited ( Ex 22.25f  EU ; Dtn 24.6.10–13  EU ). The prohibition of taking interest ( Ex 22.24  EU ; Dtn 23.20f  EU ; Lev 25.35ff  EU ) also serves to protect one's neighbor from debt; Only foreign traders are excluded in Dtn 23.21  EU . In the year of the Jubilee , every land property sold out of an emergency should be returned to the original owner every seven years so that every Israelite has a livelihood ( Lev 25  EU ; Dtn 15  EU ).

Jewish interpretations

The commandment of Jewish charity applies to all people, it also includes the enemy and the stranger.
Tora (approx. 1830), Jewish Museum Westphalen, in Dorsten

In the pre-Christian Jewish scriptures, the Torah commandments were already focused on love for God and neighbor. In the around 200 BC In the testaments of the twelve patriarchs from the 4th century BC , one finds, for example, the following statements: "Love the Lord in your whole life and one another with a true heart." (TestDan 5,3) "... love the Lord and neighbor, have mercy on the weak and poor. “(TestIss 5,1f)“ I loved the Lord and also everyone with all my strength and with all my heart. You do that too. "(TestIss 7,6)

The rabbis discussed the scope of Lev 19:18 intensively at the turn of the ages. The exclusionary view that the neighbor only includes fellow Jews and proselytes , opposed the opinion that Samaritans also belong to the true proselytes ( Rabbi Akiba , quid 75b) or Jews (Rabbi Gamaliel , yKet 3,1; 27a). A tract probably written during the Jewish uprisings (ARN A 16) referred to Ps 139 : 21f  EU . Then King David said: Those who hate you, Lord, I will hate ... they are my enemies. From this it was concluded: If he [the stranger] acts like your people, you shall love him, but if not, you shall not love him. Others contradicted this with reference to Lev 19:17, which forbids hatred against the brother ; this potentially means everyone. Charity also includes the enemy (Ex 23: 4-5; Lev 19:18; Proverbs 20: 22.24: 17.24: 29.25: 21-22, Job 31: 29-30).

Mishnah and Talmud collected these disputes of the teachers of the scriptures on the love of God and neighbor. One of the most important of them was Hillel , whose interpretations the Talmud contrasts with those of the scribe Shammai :

“Again it happened that one of the [pagan] peoples came before Shammai and said to him: Make me a proselyte on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one leg. Then Shammai chased him away with the bricklaying board that he had at hand. When he came to Hillel with the same request, Hillel said to him: What you hate yourself, don't do to your neighbor. That is the Torah entirely, everything else is its interpretation. Go and learn that. "

- The Babylonian Talmud

The Golden Rule , formulated here negatively as the exclusion of violence and resentment , was also described by Akiba, who taught shortly after Hillel, as the main rule of the Torah. He understood Lev 19:18 as a "great comprehensive principle" that should govern the interpretation of the other commandments. After the temple was destroyed, Jochanan ben Sakkai saw the “ways of love” as a valid substitute for the temple sacrifices.

For most rabbis, charity implies love for the “stranger” (Deut 10:19) and for the enemy, that is, long-suffering, forgiveness and retribution of evil with good. In the Jewish tradition, love for fellow human beings is connected with a lasting sense of the dignity and worth of each individual as a person.

In post-Talmudic Jewish exegesis, the meaning of the phrase “like yourself” was discussed above all. The Rabbi Samuel Laniado, who lives in Aleppo, wrote after 1550:

“First, if souls are what they should be, then they are all part of God. And since the soul of a person and the soul of his neighbor were both carved on the same throne of splendor, therefore the commandment 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself' is to be understood literally, for the neighbor is like you. And secondly, if your love for your neighbor is equal to the love for yourself, so I consider that love for me, because I am YHWH. "

- Samuel Laniado

This view (“love your neighbor, he is like you”) is also followed by the German-Jewish translation of the Bible, The Scriptures by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig : “Do not pay home and do not resent the sons of your people: / love your comrade / equal to you / I.” (HE CALLED 19:18)

New Testament

The New Testament assumes that the Torah commandment of charity is known and valid. Jesus of Nazareth took part in the rabbinical dispute on the interpretation of the scope of the commandment. In addition to the Synoptic Gospels , it is also quoted and commented on in the letters of Paul , James and John .

The double commandment of love

Double commandment to love God and neighbor (Mt 22: 37ff) as an inscription in the Reformed Preacher Church , Zurich

When asked by a scribe ( grammatikos ) in Jerusalem about the most important - first - commandment, which was discussed in Judaism at that time, Jesus replied ( Mk 12.29 ff  EU ):

Moses with (New Testament revised) tables of the law, Mt 22,37ff. Evang. Clausthal market church .

“The first is: Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. Therefore you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your thoughts and with all your might.
The second thing is: You should love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these two. "

The first commandment is quoted here according to Dtn 6.5  EU as Schma Yisrael ( Hear Israel, your God is one ... ) and combined with the quote from Lev 19:18 beyond the question. With this, Jesus justified the concentration of all commandments on love of God and neighbor, which was already known in Judaism at that time, with the direct equalization of these two Torah commandments. This corresponds to the consent of the scribe in Mark 12.32 ff  EU :

“The scribe said to him: Very good, master! You said quite correctly: He alone is the Lord, and there is no one else besides him, and to love him with all your heart, with all of your mind and with all of your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is far more than all burnt offerings and others Victim."

This comment corresponds to Jesus' interpretation of the commandment You shall not kill ( Ex 20.13  EU ) according to Mt 5.21-26 EU : There sacrifice in the temple is rejected without prior reconciliation with the brother, i.e.  love of God without charity.

"Jesus saw that he had answered with understanding and said to him: You are not far from the kingdom of God ."

With this promise, contrary to the other tendency of the Gospel of Mark to portray the Pharisees as Jesus' opponents and persecutors, his fundamental agreement with this tendency of Judaism is emphasized.

This is followed by the synoptic variants of this narrative ( Mt 22.34–40  EU ; Lk 10.25–28  EU ). They quote the double commandment in the same situational context as an answer to a nomikos (lawyer) question about the “greatest” commandment (Matthew) or about the attainment of eternal life (Luke). For Matthew, Jesus' answer sums up the whole of the Hebrew Bible: Both [commandments] contain the law and the prophets. According to Luke, Jesus asks the questioner: What is in the law? so that the double commandment does not appear as a special teaching of Jesus, but as a well-known teaching of the Pharisees. The dialogue starts with the follow-up question Who is my neighbor? continued.

Enemy love

In the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5–7) Jesus also takes a position on the commandment of charity towards the rural people of the poor oppressed by the Roman occupying power, to whom the Beatitudes are directed, and updates it as love for one's enemy ( Mt 5,43–48  EU ):

“You have heard that it was said: You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the wicked and the good, and he makes rain on the just and the unjust. For if you only love those who love you, what reward can you expect for it? Don't the customs officers do the same ? And if you just greet your brothers, what are you doing special? Do not the heathen do the same? So you are to be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is. "

The Torah nowhere commands hatred of enemies; on the contrary, it calls for overcoming enmity and vengeance, and thus implicitly to love one's enemy. Exegetes assume that Jesus was referring to interpretations of the time that limited charity to Jews and called for resistance against the foreign occupiers, as the Zealots did. For before that, in his interpretation of the commandment, Jesus had called eye for eye to forego retribution against wrongdoers ( Mt 5: 38-42  EU ). For him, love of neighbor requires unconditional reconciliation, especially with the violent oppressors of the Jews and their successors. This was in keeping with prophetic tradition since Deutero-Isaiah .

The Jewish New Testament scholar David Flusser interprets this interpretation of the Torah as an expression of heightened ethical sensitivity, which Jewish writings of the time also showed.

The good samaritan

Rembrandt van Rijn :
The Good Samaritan
Vincent van Gogh : The Good Samaritan .

In the Gospel of Luke , Jesus answers the scribe's question: Who is my neighbor? - a question of rabbinical exegesis of the time - with a narrative example ( Lk 10.25–37  EU ). She describes how three people deal with the victim of a robbery: while a priest and a Levite pass carelessly, even evasively, a Samaritan tends the wounds of the victim, takes him to a hostel and takes care of his further care.

Jesus' criticism of representatives of the temple cult of that time is clear: They did not see the Samaritans as fully valid Jews, since they did not recognize the Jerusalem temple cult and did not make the sacrifices there. Jesus asks the listener the question:

“What do you think: which of these three turned out to be the closest to the one who was attacked by the robbers? The teacher of the law answered, He who acted mercifully on him. Then Jesus said to him: Then go and do the same! "

Here Jesus reverses the direction of the address: Instead of narrowing down the target group of charity with the theoretical question who is one of the neighbors to whom the commandment extends, who should a Jew help? , Jesus encounters the acute suffering in front of his eyes: For whom am I next, who needs me now, who can I help? So he invites him to do what is currently possible for him, which is similar to the actions of the Samaritan.

In contemporary Judaism, too, compassion and a “fundamental human solidarity” were recognized values. B. after Flavius ​​Josephus Ap 2,211f. What is new about the story is that this solidarity is associated with the commandment of charity.

Turning towards the poor, the sick and the marginalized

Martin of Tours shares his coat

Jesus' own behavior, presented in the New Testament, illustrated for the early Christians what charity in his sense means. All of the Gospels emphasize his demonstrative, unconditional devotion to the needy, oppressed and excluded groups at the time.

The “poor” from the “crowd” ( Mt 5,1  EU ) are the first addressees of the ministry of Jesus. They are often lined up with the terminally ill at that time ( Mk 1.32  EU ): "Blind, lame, leper, deaf, dead, poor" or "poor, crippled, blind, lame". Both groups were almost identical, as poverty, disease and social isolation were often mutually dependent. Many features of Jesus' healing miracles show this connection. The poor who had no possessions starved, were forced to beg and often only poorly clothed or naked. In addition, there were groups that were despised and avoided by the poor because of their intentional or unintentional violations of the law: “ Tax collectors and sinners” ( Mk 2.15ff  EU ; Mt 11.16–19  EU ; Lk 7.31–35  EU ; 18.11 EU ), "prostitute" ( Mt 21,31  EU ), the "adulteress" ( Joh 8,3-11  EU ).

The closeness that Jesus sought and cultivated in particular to members of such groups should not only end their isolation ( Mk 1.40-44  EU ), but also change their behavior towards their fellow men. His commandment to renounce violence and to love one's enemies applies precisely to the Jews, who are acutely threatened by " heathens ", persecuted and robbed by "tax collectors" who live in their own way ( Mt 5 : 38-48  EU ), while he surrenders property to rich landowners of the poor invited and committed ( Mk 10.17ff  EU ). The Matthew version of the text finally quotes the commandment to love one's neighbor as a positive counterpart to the prohibitions of the Decalogue ( Mt 19:19  EU ). Lk 19.8  EU points out that the rich tax collector Zacchaeus due to Jesus' donation wanted to reimburse his looted property fourfold and also wanted to give half his property to the poor, while the rich man in Lk 18.18ff  EU was just not able to do so. For Lk 7.41ff  EU, the reason for the change in behavior lies in receiving the forgiveness of Jesus.

Christ's gift of self as the foundation of charity

Jesus as a good shepherd, 3rd cent.

Mt 25.40  EU interprets the works of mercy Christologically:

"What you did for one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me."

Accordingly, Jesus is present in the poor at all times, so that love of neighbor is at the same time love of God for them. By this standard all people, Christians and non-Christians, would ultimately be measured in the final judgment . Not the right creed , but the doing of God's will - one of the most common verbs in Jesus' mouth - is ultimately decisive ( Mt 7:21  EU ).

According to the NT, Jesus himself fully fulfilled this will of God by finally giving up his own life to save “the many” from the expected final judgment ( Mk 10.45  EU ; 14.24 EU ). This devotion sums up Jesus' mission ( Lk 22.27  EU ):

"I am among you like a servant."

The Philippians hymn describes the service of Jesus Christ as the renunciation of power by the Son of God and self-humiliation into the death on the cross in favor of the humanity of all people, so that they can recognize the true incarnate God and how he can act ( Phil 2,5-11  EU ).

Church letters

The church letters repeatedly call on every Christian to work with all of his abilities and special gifts for others: "Serve one another, everyone with the gift he has received ..." ( 1 Pet 4,10  EU ; cf. Rom 12, 3–8  EU ) However - in accordance with the mission of Jesus - this applies far beyond the realm of the Christian community: “As much as it is up to you, keep peace with all people!” ( Rom 12.18  EU ) “Do not let yourself go from evil overcome, but overcome evil with good. ” ( Rom 12.21  EU ) “ Love does no harm to one's neighbor. In this way love is the fulfillment of the law. ” ( Rom 13.10  EU ) Here, as well as in Gal 5.14  EU , Paul quotes the commandment to love one's neighbor without the first commandment, but like Jesus as a concrete action to those in need, all other commandments of the Completes the Torah and includes love of enemies towards violent persecutors.

For the epistle of James , Lev 19:18 is the “royal law” that Christians are supposed to fulfill according to the Scriptures without “respecting the person”. Charity does not fulfill the other commandments here, but with it their fulfillment should begin ( Jak 2,8 ff  EU ).

In the Gospel of John the farewell Son of God gives his disciples a “new commandment”: to love one another as God loved them through Jesus ( John 13:34  EU and others). Through this mutual love of Christians, all people should know God in Christ (13.35 EU ). Following this, the first letter of John emphasizes brotherly love, which excludes all hatred; whoever hates his brother and does not help the needy with all his wealth, even his life, is proving that he cannot love God either.

In the First Letter to the Corinthians Paul describes the essence and the effect of love ( agape ), which is praised here in a triad alongside faith and hope ; see Christian virtues . This famous hymn relates primarily to the love that finally became revealed for Paul as the being of God in Jesus Christ . On the human side, it corresponds to charity, brotherly love and mutual love between man and woman.

“If I spoke with human tongues, yes with angelic tongues, but I didn't have love, then I would be a resounding ore or a ringing bell… And if I gave all my possessions to the poor and went through fire for Christ but I didn't have love , it was of no use to me. Love is long-suffering and kind, it does not know jealousy, it does not brag, it does not inflate itself, it does not act tactlessly, it does not seek its own advantage, it does not become bitter from bad experience, it does not add evil. She does not rejoice in the injustice, rather she rejoices in the truth. She endures everything, she believes everything, she hopes everything, she tolerates everything. Love never stops ... But now there are faith, hope, love, these three; but love is the greatest among them. "

- Paul ( 1 Cor 13.1-13  EU )

Christian interpretations

Guido Reni : Caritas, active charity
Charity , painting by François Bonvin (1851).

All doing should spring from love

Augustine von Hippo (354-430) called with his frequently quoted sentence "dilige, et quod vis fac" to justify every action out of love:

“Love and do what you want. If you are silent, keep silent out of love. If you speak, speak for love. If you criticize, criticize out of love. If you forgive, so forgive in love. Let all your actions take root in love, because only good things grow from this root. "

For Augustine, true love is love for God, love for one's neighbor ( caritas ). This love should be kindled. He calls love for the world and for temporality ( cupiditas ). The desire which the beloved seeks to possess is to be checked. People should not be loved like a good meal that is eaten up. Rather, personal love is a friendship of pure benevolence. In loving one's enemies, according to Augustine, one should look to the good that lies in the nature of the enemy, and even more to the better that the enemy can still become. In him you don't love what he is, but what you want him to be. For Augustine, to love means to come closer to God and to enter into God. Augustine emphasizes the unity of the double commandment to love God and neighbor. Both ways of love spring from the same source. Because God is love, the love that man shows him is included in his love for his neighbor: “Does he who loves his brother also love God? He necessarily loves love itself. Can one love one's brother without loving love? [...] In loving love one loves God. "

Happiness in charity

Martin Luther (1483–1546) emphasized the importance of happiness:

“See, love and lust for God flow from faith, and from love a free, willing, happy life to serve one's neighbor for free. For just as our neighbor suffers trouble and needs the rest of us, so we suffered trouble before God and needed his graces. As God helped us in vain through Christ, so we should do nothing else through the body and its works than help our neighbor. "

The same love is for God and one's neighbor

In his treatise on the love of God , Francis de Sales (1567-1622) stated :

“So the same love applies to God and to our neighbor; through them we are lifted up to union with the Godhead and descend to man to live in communion with him. At any rate, this is how we love our neighbor as the image and likeness of God, created to be connected with God's goodness, to partake of his grace and to enjoy his glory. To love one's neighbor means to love God in man or man in God; it means to love God for his own sake and the creature for God's sake. "

To love one's neighbor from God

A modern interpretation is the encyclical Deus caritas est (2005) by Pope Benedict XVI. In it he explains:

“[Charity] consists in the fact that I also love those around me from God who I don't like or even know at first. This is only possible from the inner encounter with God, which has become community of will and reaches into the feeling. Then I learn to look at this other person no longer just with my eyes and feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend. Through the outside I see his inner waiting for a gesture of love - for affection, which I not only divert through the responsible organizations and perhaps affirm as a political necessity. I see with Christ and can give the other more than the externally necessary things: the look of love that he needs ... This shows the necessary interaction between love of God and love of neighbor, of which the First Letter of John speaks so emphatically. If contact with God is completely absent in my life, then I can always only see the other in the other and cannot recognize the divine image in him. If, however, I completely leave out the devotion to my neighbor from my life and only want to be 'pious' and only do my 'religious duties', then the relationship with God withers too. Then she is only 'correct', but without love. Only my willingness to approach my neighbor, to show him love, also makes me sensitive to God. Only the service of my neighbor opens my eyes to what God does for me and how he loves me ... Love of God and neighbor are inseparable: It is only a commandment. Both, however, live from the love of God, who paved the way for us and who loved us first. So it is no longer a 'command' from outside that prescribes the impossible for us, but a gifted experience of love from within, which, according to its essence, must continue to communicate. Love grows through love. It is 'divine' because it comes from God and unites us with God, makes us in this process of unification into a we who overcomes our divisions and lets us become one, so that in the end 'God is all in all' (cf. 1 Cor 15.28  EU ). "

Put yourself in the shoes of your neighbor

Often the sentence component of the commandment, like yourself, is interpreted in such a way that self-love should be the measure of love for one's neighbor. The Catholic theologian Peter Knauer writes :

“Even the golden rule or the requirement to love one's neighbor as oneself is often interpreted in the train of the thought of self-realization in such a way that the measure of self-love should become the measure of neighborly love. But is it even possible to give yourself security? And should one impose on others what one wishes for oneself? Forced happiness can be the worst form of unhappiness. In reality, the demand to love one's neighbor as oneself, instead of self-love, is about the ability to put oneself in the situation of others and then to act in their real interest. It is not enough to act supposedly in the interests of others; you have to do everything to protect yourself from such self-delusion. Of course, it cannot be about helping others while neglecting oneself and thereby ultimately undermining the help itself. "

Mercy as a task

The practical implementation of charity is mercy . In the interplay with celebration ( liturgia ) and proclamation or testimony ( martyria ), active neighborly love (Greek: diakonia , Latin: caritas ) is one of the three basic functions of the Christian community.

According to the Christian understanding, someone who has experienced God's love and attention will not keep it to himself, but will pass it on to other people. Christians regard Jesus of Nazareth as the highest example. In the practical implementation, charity is total personal commitment for the well-being of the other. People who are in need need help. Allowing the weak to perish, as social Darwinism teaches, is incompatible with the commandment to love one's neighbor.

Active charity is a service to one's fellow human beings ( Lk 22.27  EU ). Everyone is asked to work according to their own abilities and talents ( 1 Petr 4,10  EU ). It's about being there for the other unselfishly. The respective emergency dictates what needs to be done: poor, sick and elderly care, life support, education, marriage and addiction counseling, prison, hospital and telephone pastoral care , the elimination of social isolation and loneliness, especially in the big cities, the Integration of people without sufficient language skills. In order to fulfill these tasks, for example, Caritas and the Diakonisches Werk were founded.

Other world religions

Islam

It is true that the Koran does not quote the commandment to love one's neighbor and enemy verbatim - unlike other Torah commandments. But the sentences have been passed down from Mohammed :

““ None of you has acquired the faith until you love for your brothers what you love for yourself. ”“ None of you have acquired the faith as long as you do not love for your neighbor what you love for yourself. ““

Accordingly, social charity ( zakat ) is one of the five pillars of Islam alongside the creed, prayer, fasting and the pilgrimage to Mecca. The starting point for this is God's justice towards all creatures, which obliges the Muslim to behave in the same way. Therefore the voluntary donation of alms in the Koran takes on the character of a fixed regular taxation of property, to the receipt of which those in need have a legal claim ( sura 24 , 56):

"And keep up prayer and pay the levy, and obey the Messenger, that you may find mercy."

Their target group is also determined ( sura 9 , 60):

“The alms are intended for the poor, the needy, those who are concerned with it [ie perform social services], those whose hearts are to be made familiar [ie to win them over to convert to Islam], for the Buying out of slaves, the indebted, for the work on God's way and for the traveler [including destitute pilgrims]. "

The Koran leaves open which property should be taxed how much. In the Sunna and Sharia , therefore, sometimes complicated regulations were made for different occupational and income groups. The Qur'an gives the following reasons for this acting towards the needy: thanks for the goodness of the Creator, which expresses the seriousness of one's own faith in him ( sura 73 , 20); visible repentance for neglect and asking for forgiveness for it; Respect for the Muslim community of solidarity ( Umma ), to which as many people as possible should and can belong; Balance between the wealthy and the dispossessed in order to reduce social differences; God's right to his creation, which corresponds to the just distribution of essential goods; After fulfilling the laws given by God, each individual will be judged in the final judgment. Humanity can be counted as a godly work and reciprocated with God's mercy.

Buddhism

Bodhisattva Maitreya
embodies all-embracing love

In Buddhism (from the 5th century BC), karuna has a similarly high meaning as active compassion and mercy, but without being linked to a divine commandment. The term includes all actions that help reduce the suffering of others. Karuna is based on the experience of the unity of all beings in enlightenment and extends indiscriminately to all living beings.

In Sutta 27 of Itivuttaka there is a discourse of the Buddha on love:

“He who lets love arise, immeasurable, with care - the bonds become thin for him who sees the drying up of clinging. Showing love only to a living being with an unsuspecting disposition will make him virtuous. Compassionate with all beings in the spirit, the noble one achieves rich merit ... Who does not kill, does not let kill, does not oppress, does not allow oppression, love shows all beings, hostility does not threaten him from anyone. "

The Japanese scholar Daisetz T. Suzuki explained the Buddhist ideal of the bodhisattva :

“... the Bodhisattva never (tires) in his endeavor to do good to all beings in every way through his self-sacrificing life ... If he cannot complete his work in one or more lifetimes, he is ready, countless times, until the end of time to be born again. His actions are not limited to this world; the cosmos is filled with innumerable worlds, and it manifests itself everywhere until every being is freed from delusion and selfishness. "

Behavioral biology

Pelican tears open his chest: symbol of charity

In behavioral biology, love and charity are classified in the prosocial system, which is contrasted with the agonistic system with values ​​such as heroism and obedience. Moral-analogous behavior is also observed in animals. Critical areas in social life in particular are safeguarded by adapting their origins. Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt explains:

“For example, some sacrifice themselves for their young, stand by endangered conspecifics, respect partner relationships and, in certain situations, spare conspecifics who submit to them through humble behavior in the course of a fight. […] The decision can be made in accordance with biological norms, but it can also be directed against our instinctual nature […]. Rationality requires a "clear head" that is relieved of affect . "

The love developed from brood care , which was passed on to all group members:

“[She] provided the tools for being kind, and in her developed the ability for individualized attachment - that is, love - which at the same time weakens the effect of agonal signals. Once this familialization mechanism was developed within the framework of brood care, it didn't take much to involve others altruistically by becoming known as exchange partners. "

This corresponds to the Christian iconography that Caritas usually depicts with small children and often suckling. A behavioral tendency, however, does not override free will and therefore cannot conclusively explain love for one's neighbor. In the brain's reward system , charity can lead to the release of the body's own messenger substances:

“However, one can also activate brain-chemical processes without drugs that convey pleasant feelings or states of intoxication and cultivate this to the point of addiction. Man can [...] get intoxicated by his virtue; in the agonistic area as a hero, in the caring area as a 'saint'. "

In addition, charity as an action that can be observed externally by a group, like any altruistic behavior in general, is suitable for pointing out the resources and positive character traits of the agent and thus strengthening his social status and gaining prestige.

Categorical imperative

Immanuel Kant

The modern philosophy distanced himself since the age of enlightenment increasingly against the particularistic to creeds bound ecclesiastical doctrine and ethics, and tried to establish a universal ethic of social interaction in rational human capacity for insight and good will. So Immanuel Kant formally justified actions based on the wellbeing of one's neighbor and guided by goodwill with the categorical imperative :

"The categorical imperative is therefore only one and this: only act according to that maxim through which you can at the same time want it to become a general law."

This presupposes that being human is only conceivable and desirable as being dependent on another human being and as solidarity aimed at the common good . For Kant, the commandment to love one's neighbor is based on the categorical imperative:

“The duty of neighborly love can also be expressed in this way: it is the duty to make others' purposes (as far as these are not immoral) mine; the duty of respecting my neighbor is contained in the maxim not to degrade any other person merely as a means to my ends (not to demand that the other should throw himself away in order to indulge in my end). "

In her early analysis of Adolf Hitler's ideology in 1935 , Irene Harand argued that rational thinking alone cannot justify this fundamental human solidarity with other people :

“If people feel nothing for their neighbors, what can stop them from killing each other? […] Wherever there is human sensitivity, people shy away from using the terrible weapons, the horrible poisonous gases against their neighbors. But where the feeling is switched off, there is no inhibition for the complete annihilation of fellow human beings, for the poisoning of entire sections of the population, including defenseless men, women and children. "

Criticism of charity

Nietzsche around 1875

Friedrich Nietzsche described charity as decadent :

“That one teaches to despise the lowest instincts of life, that in the deepest necessity for the prosperity of life, in selfishness, one sees the evil principle: that in the typical goal of decline, instinct contradiction, one sees in the 'selfless' Loss of emphasis in 'depersonalization' and 'charity' basically have a higher value, what am I saying! sees the value in itself! How? Would humanity itself be in decadence? Would it have always been? What is certain is that it was taught only decadence values ​​as the highest values. The morality of self-denial is the typical morality of decline par excellence. "

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Sigmund Freud criticized the commandment of love as excessive. In his fundamental essay The Unease in Culture (1929/1930), he described it as “... the strongest defense against human aggression and an excellent example of the unpsychological approach of the culture superego . The command is impracticable; such a great inflation of love can only reduce its value, not eliminate misery. "

In his main work, The Principle Responsibility (1979), Hans Jonas explained that the Christian commandment of love falls short and is limited to the immediate vicinity of the action: “Note that in all these maxims the agent and the 'other' of his actions share in a common Are present. They are those who are now alive and who are in some kind of relationship with me. ”Given the ecological crisis and the technical possibility of permanently extinguishing humanity, this is no longer sufficient as a guiding principle. With the change in technology, the ethics must be expanded to "love distant". Jonas formulated an "ecological imperative": "Act in such a way that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of real human life on earth."

literature

General

  • Robert Hamlett Bremner: Giving. Charity and Philanthropy in History. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick 2000, ISBN 1-56000-884-9 .
  • Heiner Geißler : Charity and solidarity. In: Gudrun Hentges, Bettina Lösch (Hrsg.): The measurement of the social world. Neoliberalism - Extreme Rights - Migration in the focus of the debate. Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-16829-6 , pp. 99-102.
  • Hubert Meisinger: Law of love and research on altruism. An exegetical contribution to the dialogue between theology and science. Academic Press, Freiburg 1996, ISBN 3-7278-1093-9 .
  • Morton Hunt: The Enigma of Charity. Man between egoism and altruism. Campus, 1992, ISBN 3-593-34621-4 .
  • Adel Theodor Khoury , Peter Hünermann (Ed.): Who is my neighbor? The answer of the world religions. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1988.
  • Heinz Vonhoff : History of Mercy. 5000 years of charity. (1960) Quell-Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-7918-1081-2 .
  • Walter Jens (Ed.): From the next. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1984.

Hebrew Bible and Judaism

  • Hans-Peter Mathys: Love your neighbor as yourself. Studies on the Old Testament commandment to love your neighbor (Lev 19:18). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2nd edition 1997, ISBN 3-525-53698-4 .
  • Heinz Kremers , Adam Weyer: Love and Justice. Collected Posts. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1990, ISBN 3-7887-1324-0 .
  • Rachel Rosenzweig: Solidarity with those who suffer in Judaism. Studia Judaica 10, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1978.
  • Andreas Nissen: God and the neighbor in ancient Judaism. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1974, ISBN 3-16-135122-3 .
  • Leo Baeck : The essence of Judaism. (4th edition 1925) Fourier, Wiesbaden 1985, ISBN 3-921695-24-4 , pp. 210-250: Faith in the neighbors.

New Testament

Christian theology

  • Gudrun Guttenberger: Charity. Kreuz-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 3-7831-2784-X .
  • Josef Schreiner , Rainer Kampling : The neighbor - the stranger - the enemy. Perspectives of the Old and New Testaments. Echter, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-429-02169-3 .
  • Andrea Tafferner: Love of God and neighbor in the German-speaking theology of the 20th century. Tyrolia, Innsbruck 1992.
  • Richard Völkl: Charity - the sum of the Christian religion? Lambertus, Freiburg im Breisgau 1987.

Buddhism

Hinduism

  • Dorothea Kuhrau-Neumärker: Karma and Caritas. Social work in the context of Hinduism. Lit, Münster 1990.

criticism

  • Friedrich Nietzsche : Beyond Good and Evil. Prelude to a philosophy of the future . 1886.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche: On the genealogy of morals . A polemic . 1887.
  • Sigmund Freud: The discomfort in culture and other writings on cultural theory. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-596-10453-X , pp. 29-108.
  • Hans Jonas: The principle of responsibility: Attempting ethics for technological civilization. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-518-39992-6 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Charity  - explanations of meanings, origins of words, synonyms, translations
Wikiquote: Charity  Quotes

Bible

Other

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georgi Schischkoff: Philosophical Dictionary , 22nd Edition, Kröner, Stuttgart 1991, p. 500.
  2. ↑ KE Logstrup : charity. In: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy . Vol. 6, 1984, col. 354.
  3. ↑ Edward Noort, article next I. 2: Field of meaning of the term “next” , in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie Volume 23, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-11-013852-2 , pp. 713f.
  4. ↑ Product pläsion , Theological Dictionary of the New Testament Volume VI (Ed .: Gerhard Fichtner), W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1959, pp 310-314.
  5. ^ Frank Crüsemann: The Torah. Munich 1992, p. 377.
  6. ↑ Thomas Staubli: The books Leviticus and Numbers. New Stuttgart Commentary Old Testament Volume 3. Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-460-07031-5 , pp. 154–163.
  7. ↑ Walther Zimmerli: Yahweh's commandment for dealing with people and goods . In: Outline of Old Testament Theology , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1972, pp. 115–122.
  8. ↑ a b Fritz Bamberger, new ed. by Walter Homolka: The teachings of Judaism according to the sources, Volume 1 , Facs.-Dr. the orig. edition published in 1928–1930. Leipzig, new and adult Edition, Knesebeck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-89660-058-3 , pp. 328 ff, 350 (accessed on February 18, 2016).
  9. ↑ Reinhard Neudecker: Article next , II. Judentum , in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie Volume 23, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-11-013852-2 , pp. 716f.
  10. ↑ Shabbat 31a; see. Reinhold Mayer, The Babylonian Talmud , Goldmann Munich 1963, p. 227.
  11. ↑ Gerd Theißen, Annette Merz: The historical Jesus , 2nd edition 1997, p. 343; Eugen Drewermann, Markusev. Part II, p. 290.
  12. ↑ Frederick R. Lachmann: The Jewish religion. Aloys Henn, Kastellaun 1977, pp. 162f.
  13. ↑ Samuel Laniado: Kli Hemda , quoted from Arthur Hertzberg: Der Judaismus , Stuttgart 1981, p. 149 f. German edition Šemûēl Laniado: Keli ḥemdā [(Desired Device) Explanations of the Pentateuch and the Midrash Rabba]. Prague 1609/1610. Edited by Gerschom ben Bezal'el ha-Kohen
  14. ↑ to the translation Franz Rosenzweig: Linguistic thinking in translation. 2nd volume. Working papers on the clarification of the writing . In: Ders .: Man and his work. Collected Writings . Haag Nijhoff, 1984, p. 140: “On the back of the manuscript sheet it says in Hebrew (probably written by Buber), which is probably a quote from Wessely: “ kamoka, which means 'who is like you' […] and means something like that here: 'love - kamoka' (he is like you), because he too was created in the image of God ” . This interpretation was continued by Buber in the preface to the Schocken volume “Hermann Cohen, The Next” (Berlin 1935), and then in a Hebrew article “w'-ahabta re'aka kamoka” (in Darko schel Mikra, Jerusalem 1964, Pp. 103-105). "
  15. ↑ David Flusser: New Sensitivity in Judaism and Christian Message. In: David Flusser: Remarks by a Jew on Christian theology. Munich 1984, pp. 35-53. Approving Gerd Theißen, Annette Merz: The historical Jesus. A textbook . 4th edition, Göttingen 2011, p. 350.
  16. ↑ Wolfgang Stegemann: Jesus and his time , Stuttgart 2010, p. 295f. ISBN 978-3-17-012339-7 .
  17. ↑ Mt 5.3  EU by Lk 6.20  EU ; Lk 4.18  EU
  18. ↑ Lk 7.22  EU by Mt 11.5  EU ; Lk 14,13.21  EU .
  19. ↑ Mk 10.46-52  EU ; Lk 4.31-37  EU ; 4.38-42 EU ; 5.12-16 EU ; 5.17-26 EU ; 6,6-11.18f EU etc.
  20. ↑ Mk 14.7  EU ; Mt 6.25  EU ; 25.35f EU ; Lk 3.11  EU ; 16.20 EU ; Acts 3,1ff  EU ; Jak 2,15f  EU ; Wolfgang Stegemann: The Gospel and the poor. Christian Kaiser, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-459-01393-1 , pp. 10-15.
  21. ↑ Gerd Theißen, Annette Merz: The historical Jesus. 4th edition, Göttingen 2011, p. 349.
  22. ↑ 1 Jn 2.7 to 11  EU ; 3.11ff EU ; 3.17f EU ; 4,11f EU ; 4.19ff EU
  23. ↑ Brockhaus, Theological Glossary of Terms for the New Testament, (Ed. Lothar Coenen), Wuppertal 1986, ISBN 3-417-24849-3 , p. 899.
  24. ^ Augustine, In epistulam Iohannis ad Parthos tractatus 7,8.
  25. ↑ Cf. Joseph Mausbach: The Ethics of St. Augustine . First volume: The moral order and its foundations , Hamburg 2010, p. 176 ff.
  26. ↑ Augustine, Ep. 10, 9, 10.
  27. ↑ Martin Luther: To the Christian nobility of the German nation. Goldmann, 1958, p. 148.
  28. ↑ Franz von Sales, treatise on love for God , quoted in based on: George Brantl, Der Katholizismaus , Stuttgart 1981, p. 275.
  29. ^ Encyclical DEUS CARITAS EST by Pope Benedict XVI.
  30. ↑ Peter Knauer: Action Networks - About the Basic Principle of Ethics , Frankfurt a. M. 2002 ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jesuiten.org
  31. ↑ Cf. only exemplary Evangelical Adult Catechism , 3rd edition, Gütersloh 1977, p. 1206.
  32. ↑ Sahih Al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Iman, Hadith no.13
  33. ↑ Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Iman, 67-1, Hadith no.45
  34. ↑ Hans Küng: Islam. History, present, future. Piper, Munich 2004, p. 178f
  35. ^ Anonymus: Lexicon of Eastern Wisdom Teachings , Düsseldorf 2005, p. 185 f.
  36. ^ Translated by Klaus Mylius, Die vier noblen Truths , Stuttgart 1998, p. 257.
  37. ↑ Daisetz T. Suzuki, Karuna , Bern 1989, p. 214.
  38. ↑ Konrad Lorenz, Das so-called Böse , Vienna 1963, pp. 149 ff.
  39. ^ Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt: The Biology of Human Behavior , Weyarn 1997, p. 956.
  40. ↑ Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, The Biology of Human Behavior , Weyarn 1997, p. 969.
  41. ↑ Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, The Biology of Human Behavior , Weyarn 1997, p. 975.
  42. ↑ See Charlie L. Hardy and Mark Van Vugt: Giving for glory in social dilemmas. The competitive altruism hypothesis . In: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 32 (2006), 1402-1413. Heckathorn, DD (1989). For more information on general research on altruism, see the article on altruism.
  43. ↑ Immanuel Kant: Foundation for the Metaphysics of Morals . Kant's works, Akademie Textausgabe, 1903, p. 421.
  44. ↑ Immanuel Kant: Religion within the limits of mere reason . Kant's works, Akademie Textausgabe, 1968, p. 450.
  45. ↑ Irene Harand: His fight. Answer to Hitler , Vienna 1935, p. 337f; quoted from Wolfram Meyer zu Utrup: Fight against the 'Jewish world conspiracy'. Propaganda and anti-Semitism of the National Socialists 1919 to 1945 , Berlin 2003, p. 37.
  46. ^ Friedrich Nietzsche: Nachlass 1887–1889, Critical Study Edition , Ed .: Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, de Gruyter, 1999, p. 604.
  47. ^ Sigmund Freud: The discomfort in the culture. Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, 1930, p. 132.
  48. ↑ Hans Jonas: The principle of responsibility , Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 23 f.
  49. ↑ Hans Jonas: The principle of responsibility. Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 36.