Original scientific paper
An analysis of social realities in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a basis for pastoral planning
Zdenko Spajić
orcid.org/0000-0001-7194-8374
; University of Sarajevo - Catholic Theological Faculty in Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
Faith, understood as a person’s response to God revealing himself to him or
her, is not a totally private reality and nor is it directed exclusively toward eternal life.
On the contrary, faith is lived within a community and includes the struggle to build a
more humane world. Since the world is not a static reality but a reality that, similar
to an organism, is constantly developing and changing, there is a need to understand
contemporary man and woman as well as the world in which they live in order to
proclaim the Good News in an appropriate way. Taking into consideration the variety
of different circumstances in the world, every Christian community should analyze the
social realities in its own country and judge these in the light of the Gospel and the
principles of the social teaching of the Church. This process of analyzing and judging is
presented in this article as a “pastoral circle” consisting of four phases: identification,
social analysis, theological reflection, and pastoral planning. The presentation of
the “pastoral circle” contains an explanation of why the social analysis has been
undertaken. After placing the social analysis in the pastoral context, the author presents a concise general overview of the social situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
based to a great extent on statistical data. Since statistical data cannot of itself serve
as the basis for pastoral planning, the author seeks to explain, through historical and
structural analysis, the causes of the present crisis, taking into consideration three
major areas: political life, economics, and cultural life.
Keywords
Bosnia and Herzegovina; social analysis; pastoral planning; politics; economics; culture
Hrčak ID:
272021
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2012.
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