Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 77 No. 2, 2007.
Pregledni rad
»God's Kingdom« - The Relativisation of Politics
Božo Lujić
; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The author starts from the fact that the notion of politics and the political, like God's Kingdom, are in themselves very complicated notions that need to be defined. The article explains what is understood as politics and the political and what is meant by God's Kingdom. The article is divided into four sections:
The first section explains the notion of politics and the political starting with Greek thought (Plato and Aristotle), to early Christian era (St. Augustine), in medieval times (St. Thomas), and then the new era (N. Machiavelli, T. Hobbes, Spinoza and Rousseau, M. Weber and K. Marx). W. Goldschmitt at the end of his presentation asks »Has the end of politics come or is it time for a new notion of it?« He then replies, »If we view the presentation prepared then it appears in the end that ali notions and theories of politics have been played up historically and in the end are unsuccessful ... - What then are we left with? A multitude of contentious problems!«
The second section deals with the notion and features of God's Kingdom or God's rule. God's Kingdom is a deeply personal reality that comes from God the person who is personified in the person of Jesus and is mediated to people in a very personal way. Personal reality is in fact the relationship between reality or the reality of relations that come to the fore only when completely directed to another which conditions life 's openness to God and man. Full relations between persons are founded on integral values of freedom, goodness and love that require a complete decision and complete person and exclude any partial acceptance or admittance. It is also a mutual reality. As such we can say that God's Kingdom is a new movement of free love in which man matures and continues to develop relations towards others and create a new community of open people.
The third section portrays a new logic of God's kingdom that is evident as is a new relationship with man, a new relationship with government and a new relationship towards material reality. From all this we see that God's Kingdom has a completely different logic of thought and action: a logic of forgiveness, goodness and love when it comes to man; a logic of serving and gaining authority and greatness from below, a logic of non-violence and love as a solidarity with all even one's enemies. As far as material reality is concerned, the message of God's Kingdom does not despise but it does not consider it to be fateful in human life. Accumulated wealth represents a barrier to entering the Kingdom of God.
The fourth part relates to mutual relations between God and the human kingdom, God's rule and the rule of politics and the political and the logic of politics and the logic of God's Kingdom. Jesus was not a politician in the narrow sense of the word but his message had a far reaching political implication. God's Kingdom remains the critique of every government that proclaims to care for common good; that turns struggles into personal interest; repressive governments; to develop one's own greatness at the expense of others for personal wealth. God's Kingdom represents the opposite to these attitudes. That is why God's Kingdom and politics are often in tense relations because God's Kingdom always raises the question of the purpose of any politics and represents a permanent criticism. That is why it should be no wonder that Jesus became a victim both in the religious and political sense.
Ključne riječi
God's Kingdom (ruling); politics; Jesus; forgiveness; goodness; freedom; non-violence; love; solidarity; repression; capital; persecution; force; violence; revolution; dictatorship
Hrčak ID:
23143
URI
Datum izdavanja:
29.11.2007.
Posjeta: 3.272 *