Katechon

Katechon ( gr katechon: ό Κατέχων, τό Κατέχον ) is a Greek participle, which must be interpreted in the second letter of Paul to the Thessalonians as Aufhalter of the Antichrist. The shape comes in 2 Thessalonians 2.6 EU in the neuter and 2.7 EU - so now personalized - in the masculine ago. In Catholic theology, the figure of Aufhalters has no central importance.

Overview

Background of katechon is the teaching of Paul to the Thessalonians that "the day when the Lord comes ," So the Last Judgment, not was imminent. Before the apocalypse come, must namely " the enemy of God " occur " combines all the evil in itself." This could not happen as long as the " enemy of God " is stopped. Although the "power of rebellion " was already at work, but only had " the clear the path, they yet retain ". The enemy of God could, however, only prominent, " when the time is ripe " is. When this is the case, do not know the Christ. Since the Aufhalter saved the world from chaos, it is directly linked to the divine order. Because it but at the same time also delayed the coming of Christ, he remains a paradoxical size, which also includes evil in itself.

If we interpret the katechon concept in the context of the doctrine of the Last Judgment, produced the following relationship: The believer is in the paradoxical situation that he has to fight the "enemy of God", although its preliminary victory and the subsequent eternal banishment already are ( s. Apocalypse ). So the believer fights something that he can not stop and is also a prerequisite for the striving for salvation. Through this paradoxical struggle of the believer but proves that he belongs to the "good Christians", which are available as wage re-creation of the world and eternal life in view.

The Aufhalter of the Antichrist is an argumentative figure that is intended to provide an explanation for the fact that on several occasions announced as imminent second coming of the Messiah failed to.

The shape of the katechon was popularized in the Middle Ages and later particularly by Carl Schmitt announced again ( Metzger, katechon, p 23). However, it is not a concept that plays an important role in Catholic doctrine. So stressed about the Catholic Álvaro d' Ors, that intend the Christian must, that His kingdom come, and therefore not allowed to ask for a postponement.

Biblical basis of the concept

In Martin Luther's translation of the above Bible verses read: " Vnd what it still auffhelt / know jr / he be revealed in his time. For it stirs ready the malice secretly / On the the it will jtzt auff helt / mus done away [. ] "

The Vulgate also solves the participle in subordinate clauses on: " Et nunc quid detineat, scitis, ut reveletur in suo tempore. Nam mysterium iam operatur iniquity: tantum ut, qui tenet nunc, teneat, Donec de medio fiat ".

Early Christianity

In the political theology of early Christianity, the term was based on the Roman Empire, which staying the Antichrist, such as Tertullian, ( Liber de resurrectione carnis, 24, 18: " Tantum, qui nunc tenet, teneat, Donec de medio fiat. ' Quis nisi Romanus status, cuius abscessio in decem lively dispersa Antichristum superducet? ") in Daniel 's comment Hippolytus ( Comm. in Dan IV, 21, 3 ) or Lactantius ( Div. Inst VII, 25, 8 ).

Middle Ages

For the Middle Ages, the interpretation of the Pauline katechon as Aufhalter the Antichrist was particularly influential after he was included in the Glossa ordinaria (see commentary ) by Daniel comment of the church father Jerome.

Reason for popularizing the O.A. Interpretation of katechon in nachpatristischen (see patristic ), medieval journalism is the translatio imperii, the transfer of the imperial idea of ​​the defunct Roman Empire to its Carolingian, Ottonian and Hohenstaufen successors. Important representatives of Katechondeutung from the Carolingian period is Haymo of Halberstadt, who states in his influential commentary on 2 Thessalonians that only the Roman Empire must be destroyed before the antichrist is coming (, ut discedent omnia regna a regno et imperio Romanorum ': Patrologiae cursus completus, ed Migne, 117, 779 D).

Among other Haymo turn has strong effect on the work of Abbot Adso De ortu et tempore anti- Christ, this 954 the Frankish queen Gerberga, a daughter of Henry I., had dedicated. The medieval historian Alois Dempf called Adso " the actual teacher of the tradition about the Antichrist in the Middle Ages ".

The interpretation of katechon as the Antichrist residing Roman Empire was transported across the Antichrist poetry of the Middle Ages in broad strata of the population, eg, via the Tegernsee Antichrist game, the Ludus de Antichristo.

Katechon in the journalism of the " conservative revolution "

As part of the renaissance of the concept of empire in the journalism of the Protestant Conservative Revolution in the thirties of the last century, the concept of katechon is taken up, for example, at Wilhelm Stapel: " The being of the empire ' but is nothing other than the apocalyptic responsibility ( 2 Thess 2.7. ). Each state has the purpose to maintain order and peace, the kingdom ' but has this purpose in a special sense "or even with Erich Albrecht Günther

Katechon Carl Schmitt

A large value has the katechon in the Political Theology of Carl Schmitt, the question in his book ' nomos of the earth ' if " is even possible for an originally Christian faith a different view of history than that of the katechon " is in his posthumously published diaries it even in the entry of 19 December 1947: " I believe in the katechon. , he is for me the only way a Christian to understand history and to find meaningful" ( Glossary, p 63) and Schmitt added, " One must be able to call the katechon for each epoch of the last 1948 years. The place was never vacant, otherwise we would no longer exist. "Especially during the war against the Soviet Union in World War II was the medieval idea of the kingdom, which acts as katechon to the work of the Antichrist ( the or for some contemporaries in Soviet Communism was the person of Joseph Stalin personalized) reside not only taken up by Carl Schmitt, but also by Catholic bishops and historians again to legitimize the "struggle against the Jewish Bolshevism."

Katechon Dietrich Bonhoeffer

At about the same time as Schmitt and the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer has pointed out in his " Ethics " on the katechon, he gives in contrast to the German constitutional law scholars stressed that this figure was not free from blame, despite their political and ethical significance. Further, he has also described the complex relationship between church and katechontischer political order in a way that tried to fend off any arrogant moralism on the part of the Church. For Bonhoeffer, the katechon precludes not only the possible demise, because even before the katechontischen order powers he calls the Church, which could save through the " miracle of a new faith awakening " from the abyss. However, this distinction does not target its radical separation, but in a new form of interaction - " probably in gewahrter distinction and yet sincere alliance ". The church does not hit after Bonhoeffer their proximity -seeking forces of order by itself, but calls them " to hear, to repentance " on.