Living in the Midst of Death

Abstract

Abstract In this chapter, Michael Mawson explores how Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Austrian-born philosopher Jean Améry might help us better to understand and to attend to the ambiguities and complexities of our experiences of aging. Mawson firstly engages Bonhoeffer’s theological account of the human being as situated between life and death. In his 1933 Creation and Fall, Bonhoeffer presents human beings as existing between the two conflicting promises of the opening chapters of Genesis: God’s promise to Adam in the garden (‘if you eat from this tree you will surely die’) and the Serpent’s promise to Eve (‘you will not die at all’). These two promises together encapsulate and disclose the situation of humanity: ‘After the fall, all human beings are suspended between these two conflicting statements—living towards death, living as those already dead.’ In the second part, Mawson turns to Améry’s phenomenological reflections in On Aging: Revolt and Resignation (1968), wherein he provides an account of aging as ‘death in the midst of life.’ Améry’s rich descriptions thus draw attention to ambiguities and tensions that are present in all experiences of aging. Mawson concludes by demonstrating how Bonhoeffer and Améry can assist with contesting the kinds of utopianism and idealism prevalent in many standard approaches to aging. In particular, Bonhoeffer and Amery help us to recognize the limitations of medical and technological responses to aging.