For the past few weeks I have been toying with the idea of writing about the Promethean presumption (or technological Prometheanism) as this has been one of the signature phrases of the teachings of Pope Benedict. The phrase can be loosely described as the belief in man’s absolute self-sufficiency. He wrote about it in his encyclical letter Caritate in veritate.
Billed as a conservative, he was courageous enough to take a very unconventional decision
He recently referred to it at least twice: during his end-of-the-year address to the high officials of the Roman Curia on December 21 and in his address to the Pontifical Council Cor Unum on January 19. With hindsight it is difficult to believe that these two references within a month just before his resignation were a mere coincidence. Benedict had also dealt with the theme of human self-sufficiency in his encyclical Spe salvi in 2007.
I had postponed this commentary more than once because of more mundane subjects of which there are aplenty at this time of year. However, last Monday’s surprise ‘gran rifiuto’ (this is how Dante had referred to Celestine V’s abdication) by Pope Benedict impels me to engage with the subject for two reasons.
This was an important element of the teachings of Benedict to which justice has not been done by most commentators I read. Another reason is that Benedict’s decision gives a particularly interesting twist to the meaning of the phrase.
Prometheus, the mythological Titan, stole fire from Olympus and gave it to humankind. He was punished for his theft by Zeus and bound forever to a mountaintop in the Caucasus by unbreakable chains. Prometheus became a figure representing human strivings or the lone genius whose efforts to improve human existence also could result in tragedy.
In the 18th and 19th century, Promotheus’ struggle against Zeus became the symbol of resistance against what was considered to be the tyranny of the institutions, whether ecclesiastical or monarchical or patriarchal.
Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein is subtitled ‘The Modern Prometheus’. This is a reference to the novel’s themes of the over-reaching of modern man into dangerous areas of knowledge and the ambition to go beyond the bounds of nature. The creation of a monster is the result.
Ayn Rand, the darling of right-wing American conservatives and libertarians, uses Prometheus as a metaphor of her individualist ideology (Objectivism – rational egoism) in Atlas Shrugged (1957). On the other hand, the Jurassic Park films warn of the dangers of Prometheanism.
This is the aspiration and the dilemma of what Benedict calls the ‘Promethean presumption’, the claim of the individual to be radically “responsible for producing what he becomes”. Benedict’s observation is apt: “Gratuitousness is present in our lives in many different forms, which often go unrecognised because of a purely consumerist and utilitarian view of life... Sometimes modern man is wrongly convinced that he is the sole author of himself, his life and society.” (CV, 34).
In the referred to speeches to the Roman Curia and to Cor Unum, the Pope applied this Promethean presumption to the new philosophy of ‘gender’, which he strongly criticised as something which undermines humanity.
“People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.” (Speech to Roman Curia).
The Pope believes that the Promethean presumption entrenches a false concept of freedom and a false concept of being human. Within this perspective, what is technically possible becomes licit, each experiment is acceptable, any population policy permitted, any manipulation legitimised.
The Pope told Cor Unum that “it is, in fact, a negative pitfall for man, even if disguised by good sentiment in the name of an alleged progress, or alleged rights, or an alleged humanism”. Examples of this mentality are very evident among us. During the electoral campaign this mentality is being manifested in a lot of discourse about presumed civil rights.
Such discourse, though very ‘politically correct’, presents a grave danger to humanity, particularly when it includes a direct or veiled attack against the true structure of the family, made up of father, mother and child.
Benedict sees these attacks on the family as attacks on the very notion of being; “of what being human really means”.
While legitimately pushing limits is of the essence of being human, the denial of our existential limitedness and the belief that humans are the measure of all things are the recipe for disaster.
I dare say that Pope Benedict’s decision to resign is, in more senses than one, the latest of his attacks against the Promethean presumption. It is his niet to the belief in the absolute self-sufficiency of the human being. His resignation is an affirmation and recognition of the limitedness and frailty of our humanity.
He faced his advancing deterioration head on. He realised that though his spirit is willing, his flesh is weak. His resignation is a public declaration that the belief in absolute self-sufficiency is a myth.
We are free and self-sufficient within the limits of our fragile humanity. This affirmation of this limitation is, however, done within the belief that our humanity is a dignified humanity which goes beyond our limitations, as it is fashioned on the image and likeness of God.
The clarity of Benedict’s teachings on this and so many other subjects, together with the innovativeness of his actions are probably his most valued heritage.
On more than one occasion Benedict broke the established stereotype. Billed as a conservative, he was courageous enough to take a very unconventional decision, that is, resignation.
He gave a different twist to his role as an ex-ufficio defender of the institution by his very intelligent zero tolerance policy to child abuse.
The presumed feared Rottweiler, in the end, turned out to be very lovable.
Following the Pope’s visit to Great Britain in December 2010 The Times (of London) wrote about him: “We all want to cuddle up to him and get him to bless our babies.”
And so say all of us.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt