ABSTRACT
Helplessness, for Otto of Freising, is a constitutive element of the human condition. It is remarkable that he writes of war, robbery and arson, of human helplessness when exposed to human power, human violence, and man-made history. Gods remained powerful and human beings helpless but there was some change. The imbalance of power was radicalized in later monotheistic religions but it was also, to some extent, spiritualized as, for example, in the Christian theology of transubstantiation. The view of human history held by most observers of human affairs today is different from the view that was dominant at the time of Otto of Freising. Institutionally organized, religion was not only the main source of life’s meaning and of soteriological hope set against the experience of human impuissance. The centralization of monarchic power was supported against the feudal nobility by the economic power of the rising bourgeoisie and the introduction of mercantilist economic systems.
