Perspectief 2015-30

2015-30 Reluctant Prophets - The Prophetic Task of Military Chaplains 39 Reageer and the present reality he addresses. He symbolically expresses the suffering of God, sometimes in the ultimate consequence of being rejected (Heschel, 2001). In a Christian context prophetism is linked to the ‘ sequela Jesu’ , the following of Jesus of Nazareth. All characteristics of the whole of Judeo - Christian prophetism do apply here too. But element is added to it: being a witness of Jesus Christ and his meaning as Christ (Howel, 2003). In Socratic humanism, prophecy applies too. Socrates followed his daimonion , an inner voice, that especially warned him when he tended to trespass. This inner voice was his antecedent conscience, which based itself on natural law as formulated in Sophocles’ play Antigone. It implies a transcendent dimension of the conscience (Vlastos, 1991). In the context of military chaplaincy, prophetism may express itself in two basic ways: either as a Christian pacifism - a categorical rejection of war- , or as a morally strictly defensive variety of Just War Theory, including the warning for war crimes by the people to which the prophet himself belongs. This article explores the second variety (Powers 2013). It implies the option for confrontation. 2 Pictures and paintings 2.1. Nathan confronting David The story in 2 Samuel 12 shows Nathan confronting King David 3 after David has sent Uriah to the front in order to be able to have Bathsheba as an additional wife. Nathan is the prophet confronting David with the abuse of his royal power. The parable story Nathan tells, is like a shock therapy to David, and it is effective: for David converts and repents. Nathan’s role is based on confrontation through self-clarification. He tells a story that functions as a mirror to David, namely through the method of offering him hypothetical identification with his victim. The story Nathan tells to David clearly implies an accusation: ‘David, you have c ommitted a grave sin, by trespassing against a Divine Command and violating yo ur moral 3 2 Sam.12, 1-3.