Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 82 No. 4, 2012.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
A Theological Perspective of Europe
Mile Babić
orcid.org/0000-0002-0826-0574
; Franjevačka teologija - visokoškolska ustanova Franjevačke provincije Bosne Srebrene, Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina
Sažetak
Theological perspective presupposes Jesus Christ as the essential criterion according to which the future of Europe is measured. In Jesus Christ we have a new concept of unity affirming difference and vice versa. Already in the 4th century, Christianity had become a state religion, a state affair, and it ceased to be that after the American Revolution in 1776 and the French Revolution in 1789. In the wake of the French Revolution, religion ceased to be a state affair, and became a matter of society and, consequently, politics was based on the individual (on human reason and dignity). Europe emerged from a fourfold heritage: from Athens (Greek culture), from Rome (Roman culture), from Jerusalem (from Christianity and the other two Abrahamic religions), and from Germanic and Slavic nations. The essential forces contributing to the shaping of Europe were as follows: freedom (aspiration towards freedom), radical thinking and science, trade and early capitalism, which today have become global, the emergence of the individual, the awareness of historical change and the traumatic fears caused by catastrophes. Europe was dominated by confrontational thinking that attempts to suppress and remove the other. Apart from confrontational thinking, especially after the Second Vatican Council and World War II, relational thinking also emerged in which the relationship towards the other is essential (constitutive). Relational thinking affirms both unity and difference. The life of the Church is complexio oppositorum (Carl Schmitt), which looks like a contradictory unity, because the Christian is at the same time loyal to this world and the Eschaton, which implies the critical distance towards this world. If we want a new Europe and a new Church, then we ourselves have to become new people. Thus, we have to convert.
Ključne riječi
unity; difference; confrontational thinking; relational thinking; complexio oppositorum
Hrčak ID:
96159
URI
Datum izdavanja:
29.1.2013.
Posjeta: 1.423 *