Page 8 - Issue 31

- a god who certainly proves to be a demon, but who shows
clearly the unconditional character of an ultimate concern.

But it is not only the unconditional demand made by that
which is one’s ultimate concern, it is also the promise of
ultimate fulfillment which is accepted in the act of faith. The
content of this promise is not necessarily defined. It can be
expressed in indefinite symbols or in concrete symbols which
cannot be taken literally, like the “greatness” of one’s nation
in which one participates even if one has died for it, or the
conquest of mankind by the “saving race,” etc. In each of
these cases it is “ultimate fulfillment” that is promised, and
it is exclusion from such fulfillment which is threatened if the
unconditional demand is not obeyed.

TRUE ULTIMACY

An example – and more than an example (of true ultimacy)
– is the faith manifest in the religion of the Old Testament.
It also has the character of ultimate concern in demand,
threat and promise. The content of this concern is not the
nation – although Jewish nationalism has sometimes tried to
distort it into that – but the content is the God of justice,
who, because he represents justice for everybody and every
nation, is called the universal God, the God of the universe.
He is the ultimate concern of every pious Jew, and therefore
in his name the great commandment is given: “You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your might.” (Deut. 6: 5).

This is what ultimate concern means and from these words
“ultimate concern” is derived…