Identitet och främlingskap. En kristologisk kritik av flyktingpolitiken

Abstract

Identity and the stranger. Christology as a critique of refugee politics

The purpose of this article is to suggest an interpretation of Christology that would be an effective tool for a theological critique of current refugee politics in Europe. The author claims that the European view on the stranger is grounded in a particular philosophy of individualistic identity which can be contrasted to the traditional understanding of identity as relational. This relational understanding is exemplified by the Jewish theology and philosophy of Hermann Cohen and Emmanuel Levinas. It suggests that identity is not a condition of moral responsibility but a derivate of it. Cohen's interpretation of the meaning of monotheism is one of the most interesting elaborations on this idea. The author of the article claims that the traditional understanding of Christology can be reevaluated by the notion of a radical uncertainty of the identity of Christ. This uncertainty is not an uncertainty about Christ's divine nature. Rather, it builds upon the objective, “Pilatian” unprovability of the same, and holds, against Pilate, that responsibility is primary to identity. Thus, according to this notion, the identity of God is an identity which calls for an act of responsibility, and for a capacity to recognize true God in a stranger seeking protection and lacking evidence for her identity.