INTRODUCTION

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free." (Jn 8:36)

PARAKLETOS.dk is a philosophical exegesis of the holy spirit within the structure of theology.

Within the structure of theology, the holy spirit is the constituent power given by Jesus Christ.

The constituent power given by Jesus Christ is both the spirit of truth (Jn 14:17) (Jn 15:26) (Jn 16:13) and the sovereign power in a sovereign republic.

Prolegomena

An imperator is someone with a will.

An imperative is something an imperator will.

An imperative judgment is an imperative in an imperative modality.

An imperative in an imperative modality is a law of freedom.

A law of freedom is either an ethical law or a juridical law.

A juridical law is either external or internal.

The sovereign law (republicanism) is internal.

Kant writes: "Ethical lawgiving (even if the duties might be external) is that which cannot be external; juridical lawgiving is that which can also be external." (Text)/(AA VI:220)

Reason

Homo sapiens live in both nature and freedom.

• In nature, the primary cause is a law of nature.
• In freedom, the primary cause is a law of freedom.

Nature itself is the creator and giver of the laws of nature.

No one has the ability to abolish any law of nature.

Everyone has the ability to abolish any law of freedom.

• To abolish a law of freedom is an internal affair.
• To obey or break a law of freedom is an external affair.

With our ability to abolish any law of freedom, we are like God (כֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים/kelohim) (Gn 3:5).

War

Because we have the ability to abolish any law of freedom, we live in a state of war between the good principle and the evil principle.

Kant writes:

"Just as the juridical state of nature is a state of war of every human being against every other, so too is the ethical state of nature one in which the good principle, which resides in each human being, is incessantly attacked by the evil". (Text)/(AA VI:96)

• The good principle is truth.
• The evil principle is untruth.

The question is:

How can Homo sapiens live in peace?

Nature and freedom alone cannot bring peace.

That is why Kant writes:

"I therefore had to annul knowledge in order to make room for faith." (Text)/(AA BXXX)

The answer to the question is not either reason or faith. By making room for faith, Kant does not deny that Homo sapiens live in both nature and freedom. Kant simply denies that reason without faith can bring peace, just as he denies that faith without reason can bring peace. The answer to the question is both reason and faith.

Faith

Our ego is a person and that person is both a human being and a citizen.

• The human being is the product of conception.
• The citizen is the product of initiation.

This difference between the human being and the citizen is a difference between our animality and our spirituality.

• The human being is our animality.
• The citizen is our spirituality.

The human being has an inclination to sin (concupiscentia) and can choose to sin.

The citizen has no inclination to sin and cannot choose to sin.

The citizen is per definition law-abiding.

Initiation

No one becomes a citizen at the conception or the birth.

Everyone becomes a citizen at the initiation.

Kant writes:

"[The initiation] has something holy for its end (the formation of a human being as a citizen in a divine state)". (Text)/(AA VI:199)

The initiation is not a sacrament in itself.

The initiation is a sacrament as the initial step in the formation of a human being as a citizen in a divine state.

Formation

The formation of a human being as a citizen in a divine state is an automatic process in three phases:

• The first phase [minimum] lasts from initiation to school readiness.
• The second phase [medium] lasts from school readiness to age of majority.
• The third phase [maximum] lasts from age of majority to constituent power.

Everyone begins the process of formation within the first phase [minimum].

Within the first phase [minimum] the citizen has not developed school readiness. Within the second phase [medium] the citizen has developed school readiness. Within the third phase [maximum] the citizen is a possessor of the constituent power.

Not everyone passes from the first phase [minimum] to the second phase [medium]. A very small percentage of a population do not develop school readiness and therefore remain within the first phase [minimum].

Only children with documented severe or profound mental retardation remain within the first phase [minimum].

Age of majority

For all those citizens who pass from the first phase [minimum] to the second phase [medium], the process of formation is completed automatically when the citizen reaches the age of majority and because of the age automatically passes from the second phase [medium] to the third phase [maximum].

The age of the citizen is reckoned from the date of birth.

Within the first phase [minimum] and the second phase [medium], every citizen is under parental authority. Within the third phase [maximum], no citizen is under parental authority.

The age of majority is cessation of parental authority, but the age of majority is more than just cessation of parental authority.

The age of majority is also an authorization, where the citizen becomes a possessor of the constituent power.

The age of majority is a matter of national sovereignty.

Constituent power

No one becomes a possessor of the constituent power without both a date of birth and a nationality.

• It is because of the date of birth that a citizen passes to the third phase [maximum] at the age of majority.
• It is because of the nationality that a citizen passes to the constituent power at the third phase [maximum].

The constituent power is given by Jesus Christ in the evening on the same day he rose from the dead.

Jn 20:19-23

"Now when it was evening on that day—the first day of the week—and the doors had been shut where the disciples were because of fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ... “As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”" (Jn 20:19-23)

Exegesis

Martin Luther writes:

"Here [Jn 20:23] you can see that his object is to deliver the people from sin, or to permit them to remain in sin, and show that they are condemned. Certainly, we cannot say that he has thereby founded a worldly kingdom, as the pope boasts of his power of the keys, that he has the power to loosen and to bind even that which is not sin, yea, even that which Christ neither binds nor loosens, thereby making of it a worldly power. But Christ shows clearly enough here what his keys are, namely, they are not to make laws and abolish them again, as the pope is doing, but to remit or retain sin." (Text)/(WA 49:144)

• According to Luther, the holy spirit is not a worldly power.
• According to Luther, the holy spirit is a power to remit/retain sin.

Liber pontificalis says:

"He [St Peter] consecrated St Clement as bishop and entrusted the cathedra and the whole management of the church to him, saying: »As the power of government (gubernandi), that of binding and loosing (ligandi solvendique), was handed to me by my Lord Jesus Christ, so I entrust it to you.«" (Text)/(Latin)

• According to Liber pontificalis, the Pope in Rome is the successor of St Peter and thus the supreme possessor of the power of binding and loosing (ligandi solvendique).
• According to Liber pontificalis, the power of binding and loosing (ligandi solvendique) is the same power as the power of government (gubernandi).

The constituent power is the sovereign power over sin

The power to remit/retain sin (Jn 20:23) is the same power as the power of the keys (Mt 16:19) and that power is the sovereign power over sin we call the constituent power.

The Gospel of John says:

"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ." (Jn 1:17)

Sin is doing something that is not allowed.

• If the constituent power allows something, then it is allowed.
• If the constituent forbids something, then it is not allowed.

The Pope in Rome is not the supreme possessor of the constituent power.

• The constituent power cannot be given from person to person.
• The constituent power resides in the Nation.

This exegesis is in agreement with the following principle by Kant:

"When conflict arises about the sense of a scriptural text, philosophy - that is, the lower faculty, which has truth as its end - claims the prerogative of deciding its meaning." (Text)/(AA VII:38)