Conference paper
Biblical - Christian Conception of Social Relations and Democracy
Karlo Višaticki
; Catholic Faculty of Theology in Đakovo, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Đakovo, Croatia
Abstract
Based on lexicographic facts and definitions of the phenomena such as: individual, community, patriarchate, matriarchate, marriage, family, clan, tribe, democracy, theocracy and monarchy, this paper presents thematic reading of the Bible together with the reflections on the Old Testament in relation to Christian-biblical conception of social relations and democracy. It starts with definitions, then offers a short review of the history of the people of Israel: from the time of patriarchate, their life in Egypt, Exodus, arrival to the Promised land, division of the land between the tribes, the
establishment of the monarchy, up to the decay of the first North and then South Kingdom, always considering the hypothetical social circumstances of the country and the people. They were fruit gatherers and shepherds, then farmers and sedentary people, "industrial" workers and soldiers sometimes mentioned in the Old Testament. The Israeli people was slowly developing, its members conscious of the fact that they formed part of the Alliance through which they belonged to Jahveh. The texts in the Old Testament mention assemblies, consultation of people, but there is still no trace of democratic mentality in the modern sense. The New Testament texts treated in this paper point out to Jesus' idea of serving to the community, Paul's of equality and liberating grace of Christ, which guarantees equal human dignity to both slave, and his master. This was as new to Jewish society as it was to Roman- Hellenistic world.
Keywords
social relations; God's Alliance; individual; community; state in the Old Testament; patriarchate; matriarchate; theocracy; democracy
Hrčak ID:
40230
URI
Publication date:
27.5.2002.
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