Om syndafallet och den messianska tiden

Erich Fromm skriver om det så kallade syndafallet och den messianska tiden i essän "The Prophetic Concept of Peace", som finns publicerad i "The Dogma of Christ and other essays on religion, psychology and culture", s. 187:

"Man´s first act of freedom is an act of disobedience; by his act he transcends his original oneness with nature, he becomes aware of himself and of his neighbor and of their estrangement. In the historical process, man creates himself. He grows in self-awareness, in love, in justice, and when he has reached the aim of the full grasp of the world by his own power of reason and love, he has become one again, he has undone the original "sin", he has returned to Paradise, but on the level of human individualization and independence. Although man has "sinned" in the act of disobedience, his sinning becomes justified in the historical process. He does not suffer from a corruption of his substance, but his very sin is the beginning of a dialectical process which ends with his selfcreation and self-salvation.

This completion of his self-creation, the end of the history of strife and conflict and the beginning of a new history of harmony and union, is called "messianic time," "the end of days," etc. The Messiah is not the savior. He is not sent by God in order to save the people or to change their corrupt substance. The Messiah is a symbol of man's own achievement. When man has achieved union, when he is ready, then the Messiah will appear. The Messiah is not the Son of God any more than every man is God's child: he is the anointed king who represents the new epoch of history."

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Detta citat speglar en del av vad jag kan ta till mig i kristendomen, det jag tror på. På det här sättet går det att uppfatta Jesus som en person, som så att säga har gjort hela resan mot individualisation, oberoende och "självkreation". Utifrån detta kan man sedan kalla honom olika saker: föregångare, föredöme, pionjär, lärare, läkare, räddare, frälsare, Messias, Guds Son etc. Jag tycker inte att man behöver tro på någonting övernaturligt för att kunna ta till sig detta synsätt, och det passar därför mig väldigt bra.