Analogia dramatis hos Gustaf Aulén

Abstract

Being one of the strongest advocates of the dramatic view of the atonement and of Christian faith in general, it may seem surprising that Gustaf Aulén, for the biggest part of his career, doesn´t make any attempt to connect his dramatic theology with dramaturgy in general. In the last decades of his life, however, there is a significant change. Aulén turns to litterature and drama to find partners of conversation in the field of human existential experience. This article points to three ingredients in Auléns thinking which help us understand this change. First, Auléns emphasis on “the law of creation”, undergirding his rethoric during the second world war. Second, his willingness to integrate certain points about the place of creation in Christian dogma made by the lundensian professor of Theology Gustaf Wingren in the late 50´s. And third, his dialogue with the thought of Paul Tillich, in which he finds new creative ways to bring human existence and experience to the center of the theological task. Although not explicitly stated by himself, Auléns theology transcends the boundaries of his earlier method and comes close to what can be called “analogia dramatis”, where the experience of the human existence, expressed in litterature and drama, is being mirrored in the drama of the Christian faith.