Student World 248: Fullness of Life – Life in Abundance

Rebecca BLOCKSOME – NAGYPÁL Szabolcs

Talitha Cum: The Promise of Life Since 1908, Student World has been a voice and forum to ecumenically-minded students, creating a network of concerns and ideas. Last year, after a 33-year hiatus, publication of the world’s first ecumenical journal began again with the issue 247 on Power and Principalities (Poderes y Principados; Pouvoir et Principautés). Each issue gathers articles and essays around a specific topic, being published in the three official languages of the Federation: English, French and Spanish.

Resurrection of a Tradition The topic of Student World 2004/1 is Fullness of Life – Life in Abundance (Plenitud de Vida – Vida en Abundancia; Plénitude de la Vie – Vie en Abondance). It is closely connected to the theme of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) General Assembly (GA) in Chiang Mai, Thailand (August 5–14, 2004), which is entitled Talitha Cum: Arise to Life in Abundance (Mark 5,41).

Contributions arrived from nearly all regions of WSCF (Africa, Asia–Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America) and all three main branches of Christianity: the Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions.

Gathering students from all over the world is not only important for the future of the Federation, but at this significant time in the history of the ecumenical movement it becomes a statement of hope and faith, as is given to us in the story of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter from death to life, Talitha cum: Arise to Life in Abundance!

Biblical Perspectives on Renewed Life Mark 5,21–43, the source of the General Assembly theme, serves as the inspiration for our title as well. It is the story of two miracles: the hæmorrhaging woman and the little girl restored to life.

Both Jairus, acting on his daughter’s behalf, and the bleeding woman sought the same thing from Jesus: healing from pain and illness. They had faith that Jesus would honour their requests fully, restoring life to wholeness in its natural capacity.

But Jesus chose to go beyond mere healing to give to them abun-

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INTRODUCTION

dantly spiritual salvation and new life. “Abundance” is fullness to overflowing, as God’s power exceeds the bounds of natural life and the human capacity for understanding.

Talitha cum! – Child, arise! – is a call to come to God, rather than requiring God to come to us; to set aside our limited conceptions of self-fulfilment in favour of the chance to partake of God’s abundance.

Beams of Human Perspectives The sections of the ecumenical review are structured according to the main thematical foci of the Chiang Mai General Assembly. The first section, on Dialogue and Ecumenical Vision, contains the articles of three former ecumenical leaders of the Federation and of the World Council of Churches (WCC), who submitted historical contributions to this issue: Philip POTTER, Risto LEHTONEN and Martin CONWAY. The article of Martin CONWAY shows that in the universities, SCM members have struggled to explore, test out and witness to the singularity of all truth as the heart of the intellectual struggle, along with a balance between the inherent universality of truth and the proper diversity of cultures and situations, and to the promise of growing into citizens of the one human family committed to discovering the paths of justice and friendship.

In his interview, Philip POTTER, chairperson of the Federation from 1960–1968, reminisces with us about the lives of many people who are responsible for shaping the present condition of ecumenism, and he puts forth a vision for the rising generation of young people.

The events of the sixties in world affairs, in the analysis of Risto LEHTONEN, the general secretary of WSCF between 1968 and 1972, invariably affected the life of WSCF by inspiring students to demand a socially conscious organisational response, creating a serious rift between their focus on political action and the more traditional focus on the Church as a sacramental body.

After the historical overviews, two current editors of Student World share their vision about the ecumenical student movement. Knowledge and Education, the second part of our review, is centred on Africa, a continent, which is facing today a difficult situation at many levels. One of the causes of Africa’s problems might well be found in the territory of higher education: thus, the reconstruction of Africa will be contributed to by renewing the way of thinking of the African people.

Clement of Alexandria was the first Church father to do serious work in the area of philosophy of religion. His attempt resulted in axiomatic statements and a methodological framework which roots itself in a solely faith-based perspective of Christianity that lays emphasis on the individual’s plight to act upon an everincreasing understanding of God’s call in this world.

Spiritual Abundance is the title of our third section, focusing on the nature of the Spirit and Her manifestations in our lives. Forgiveness is praised by our Lord

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as the virtue which likens humans to God. It must blossom out of the notion of communion, the one and common nature of humanity. Resentment or hostility towards our fellow humans caused by a failure to forgive separates us from God as well. Thus, forgiveness sets a high standard for the Christian, but it is only by striving towards this lofty goal that we can achieve true fullness of life.

Passion takes on the form of a conflict between its own anger for truth and the falsity of the outside world. But the bravery and zeal of passion must be yoked by a spiritual way and tempered by the inescapable drama of life. The final stage of passion, holiness of heart, is attainable only with God’s help and presence. It wholeheartedly serves and pursues love, even unto identification with the Passion of the Christ, taking on God’s Suffering Love in order to save and redeem, and finally transfigure the world.

The articles on States, Globalisation and Economic Justice, in our next section, attempt to reflect theologically on the impact of globalisation(s) through issues that are of particular importance in the regions. The market ethic, with its principles of selfishness and elitism, draws human beings to their self-destruction by imposing the rule of survival of the fittest. The perspective of life and theological-economic alternative become crucial, because they are the language through which this system of aggressive and totalising discourse is confronted with the marginalized and oppressed peoples.

By Constantine the Great, Christianity became the common denominator of the Roman Empire, which brought the idea of unity and common belonging. Church and state played a new score together: the Byzantine symphony, ruled by the twoheaded eagle. The new head of the Roman eagle had the duty to educate exemplary citizens who were faithful to the new Christian cæsar and to gain the obedience of barbarians through mission.

Finally, we gathered articles on Gender, Sexuality and HIV/AIDS in our last section. Historically the Christian Church has had an uneasy relationship with sexuality. There is, however, a linguistic link between contemporary understandings of Christian sexuality and the ancient Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ found in Genesis.

Sexuality is a good gift of God; but also the failure to share our sexuality with our beloved constitutes a failure to live up to our potential as justice-makers and justice-seekers.

Another uncomfortable topic is HIV and AIDS, especially in the faith community, where talk of sex and drugs carries immediate social judgement. Yet the silence hinders people with HIV from seeking the help and support they need, and crushes efforts to educate communities to prevent the spread of the disease.

People and governments around the globe must be forced to confront the issue of HIV and AIDS not just superficially, but boldly and openly: silence is not a solution and ignoring the issue only serves to perpetuate it.

Martin CONWAY

A Tradition for Tomorrow: WSCF One Hundred Years On We should rejoice in the way in which, for one hundred years now, the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) has lived as a movement in which students and others around them – can test out hunches and hypotheses about God’s purposes for the world. That testing, in both thought and practice, has often (indeed, characteristically) led to commitments in faith and obedience that have built up into an impressive tradition of Christian witness that has not only contributed much to the XXth century now fading, but also has much yet to contribute to – along with no little more to discover in –the challenges of the XXI st century.

One Hundred Years of WSCF I am writing here primarily about the tradition which WSCF has built up and incarnated rather than about the organisation itself. Not that the organisational form is unimportant – as we shall see, the WSCF and its member Student Christian Movements (SCMs) have a proud and important record of struggling to make the shapes and ethos of their organisations reflect their central purposes and goals, not least in the hope of serving as an anticipation for the Christian Church more generally – indeed for humanity as a whole.

It is all too easy to approach and judge an organisation from the outside, and give attention to its various changes, its numerical ups and downs or its financial health. Those are all secondary things. By focusing rather on its tradition, I want to help you who will read this to look at the inheritance of these hundred years from the inside, and to bring to bear such criteria as the truth, the penetration, the freshness of WSCF’s activities, on your evaluation of what has been going on.

For it is my fundamental presupposition that the tradition of WSCF remains very much the business of all who in any way serve and represent the Good News of Christ in the academic world.

To speak of this tradition must be first and foremost to speak of the persons who have created and contributed to it. As I was vividly reminded at a gathering in Martin CONWAY is a lay member of the Church of England. He was a member of the Cambridge University Student Christian Movement between 1954 and 1958. He became the British SCM’s International Secretary from 1958 to 1961, then WSCF Study and European Secretary from 1961 to 1967. Since then he has served his own church, the World Council of Churches and the British Council of Churches, before becoming president of the Selly Oak Colleges, an interchurch, interfaith and international training centre in Birmingham, U.K., from 1986–1997. He now lives in Oxford. His email address is: martinconway@abelian.net.

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Edinburgh of several generations of members of the British SCM, the most heart-warming, joyful and constantly renewed truth of the tradition is the experience of persons growing in friendship and acting in community in order to share in the exploration of faith in God in Christ.

If I seem to speak more of distant history than of recent, it is partly because it is better documented, partly to avoid talking too much of what I have myself played a part in; not because I judge WSCF to have strayed away from its true tradition. Indeed, my contemporary experience strongly reinforces my conviction that if we shall only give today’s and tomorrow’s generations the chance to make their own discoveries and act out their own explorations, the tradition will go on growing to the lasting benefit of us all.

For the chief actor in this tradition is not the head staff member of the WSCF, not the popular speaker at SCM meetings, not the effective university chaplain – useful as all these can and should be – but God the Holy Spirit, constantly bringing to mind in unpredictable ways the things that are of Jesus Christ, and inspiring new faith and fresh commitment in new generations of students. To spell out some of the ways She has built up over these hundred years a dynamic and creative tradition, I shall pick out five of its main features, and mention some of the episodes that have given rise to these, while trying also to point to features in the WSCF experience that deserve to be carried through into the century ahead.

I. Student Evangelism: Discovering Truth to Live By Earlier generations might have expected a centenary review to focus on the slogan “Make Jesus King,” which, when telegrammed from Kyoto by a gathering of five hundred students in 1889 to the Northfield conference of the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) in North America, proved a spark to light commitment to world-wide evangelism in several countries. Quite a number of different beginnings fed into the awakening that produced local SCMs in a number of European countries and North American universities; in particular, leaders of the “second evangelical revival” such as the American Dwight L. MOODY, the Scot Henry D RUMMOND and the English brothers C. T. and J. E. K. S TUDD, played important parts in the 1880s and 1890s.

It was at the conference MOODY convened at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1886 that Robert WILDER evoked the seed of Christian faith in the heart of John R. M OTT, and that a “Meeting of the Ten Nations,” including the “American Indian,” addressed by people belonging to those nations (as natives or missionaries), convinced M OTT and ninety-eight others to sign the pledge that created the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) for Foreign Missions.

Typical, as we can see with hindsight, of the enthusiasm of the young MOTT that, when invited to record on the pledge card the area to which his service was to be devoted, he wrote “The World”! For that is precisely what his leadership in WSCF was to enable.

8 Martin CONWAY The decisive step came nine years later, at a conference of students from the four Scandinavian countries in 1895, called by Karl FRIES, a Swede who had been at the Northfield conference – in a castle uninhabited for two hundred years and where the light bulbs had to be fixed outside the windows to dispel the darkness within! that John R. MOTT could bring his ideas of a world-wide movement to birth, in partnership with five others, one of them being John Rutter WILLIAMSON, a medical student from Edinburgh.

It was and remains all too easy for sophisticated Europeans (and Chinese and Indians, etc.) to sneer at the “simple faith” of these founders, to judge them theologically naive and to dismiss the value of their commitment. The subsequent history amply shows how wrong such judgments would be.

KUPISCH reprints from the year 1911 a quite fascinating, and still marvellously acute, open letter written from Geneva in the Zentralblatt des schweizerischen Zofingervereins in March 1911 by the twenty-five-year-old Karl BARTH, discussing John R. MOTT’s visit.

Its seven very full pages witness alike to BARTH’s fluency with the pen and to a characteristically European disdain for much that comes from the United States (“Humbug!” he says at one point).

Yet his account of MOTT’s speech to a student audience works through to a most generous and fair assessment of what MOTT (and no doubt others like him) could and did bring to that generation: “We have listened to a prophet’s call. It came from far away, and sounded to our ears not exactly melodious. But it was the call of one who is born to see, and called to interpret what he sees. It was the call of a true prophet. Now it is up to us to make that call fruitful in our own lives, to let it call us into action and obedience.”1 Above and beyond any judgment on MOTT’s theology or strategy, what has been already from the very first days all-important to the WSCF tradition is the centrality of speaking about God’s action in Christ in such a way that students can be seized with it, think it over with their friends, test it out in thought and in practice, and come to their own discoveries and commitments in their own time and their own way.

The SCM has never insisted that all those who share in its meetings, or even its leadership, must be card-carrying Christians; but it has insisted that the meetings exist in order to give students occasion to hear that faith, in order that they may explore and test it for themselves.

The miracle, of course, is that so many – and precisely in the midst of the social and intellectual pressures of a college or university – have discovered a faith to live by and by which their lives have undoubtedly been graced.

The story develops far beyond M OTT’s eloquence. Another characteristic episode in WSCF history came in the early 1930s when Willem VISSER T’HOOFT, newly appointed WSCF general secretary, called for a discussion in the pages of Student World about the essential heart of the Christian Message – being himself under the spell of the way Karl BARTH was calling Christians beyond the easy 1 KUPISCH Karl, Studenten Entdecken Die Bibel – Die Geschichte der Deutschen Christlichen Studenten-Vereinigung (DCSV). Hamburg, 1964. 304.

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aspirations of a merely “liberal” Christianity and set up a Message Commission including Pierre MAURY and Reinhold NIEBUHR to lead that debate.

The result? According to DE DIETRICH: “The years 1930–31 marked a turning point in the history of the ‘Message’ of the Federation. Henceforth it moved resolutely from apologetics to affirmation, from the defensive to the offensive. It took a stand on the debates of the day, and rediscovered its missionary spirit.”2 At its best the WSCF tradition has always known in many different theological contexts – that its central concern is for a truth that deserves to shape the totality of human living, and has found that truth – again, in all sorts of diverse form in what God has done with and for humanity in the person Jesus of Nazareth.

Simple, yes, but never to be taken for granted, and something that no one of us can ever discover or determine for someone else. The Holy Spirit has to be given room to do Her refreshing work in each new time, place and context.

II. Universal Truth Creating a World-wide Community A second theme that goes right back to those first days in 1895 at Vadstena is that the Christian faith is nothing if not universal. MOTT had been grasped by this at Mount Hermon. From Scandinavia he set out in 1895 on a two-year world trip that was to take him to twenty-two countries; by the time the officers of WSCF next met in 1897, he could report the founding of eleven Student Christian Movements in virtually every quarter of the globe: Asia, Australasia, the Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America.

All of these have had their ups and downs; in city after city small groups of students, then and now, have been amazed to find themselves entrusted with the leadership of a Movement whose nature and purposes they hardly know!

Nevertheless, WSCF has continued to “unite student Christian movements or organizations around the world” and to “enlist students in the work of extending the kingdom of Christ throughout the whole world” (as was laid down among the first “Objectives of the WSCF” at Vadstena).

A splendid sign of its success in doing so is that the WSCF Assembly in the hundredth year of its life could be held in Africa; for the names of Nelson MANDELA and Desmond TUTU ring out from Africa across today’s world without rival as the outstanding statesman and saint of our day.

By a wonderful quirk of African faithfulness to history, I learned at the Edinburgh meeting from Vasco S ELEOANE, its General Secretary then, that the Student Christian Movement among the black students in South Africa, which has had for many years to find its way through an incredible thicket of at first oppressive, ideologically-based reorganisations, and now of muddling denominationally and socially-based competitors, still treasures as its motto the 1889 message, and in the Latin they must have received from their Afrikaaner colleagues: “Fac Iesum Regem”!

2 DE DIETRICH Suzanne, Fifty Years of History (tr. ABRECHT Audrey). Geneva, 1993. 61.

10 Martin CONWAY One of the near-miraculous gifts John R. MOTT brought to the infant WSCF was the awareness that each local SCM, and still more each national movement, needed to have the freedom to grow in its own way and to be deeply rooted in its own situation and culture.

It would have been so easy for him to impose the pattern of “Student YMCA” all around the world – as his U.S. YMCA colleagues had already done in China and Japan. But he was already aware, presumably from his early contacts with Europeans, that unity in Christ needs to respect cultural diversities; WSCF has stuck to that down the years, to its own great credit and that of the faith it seeks to commend.

For M OTT also knew, and has bequeathed to countless others in and through WSCF, that if the significance of what God has done in Jesus is not true for all humanity equally, then it does not deserve to be called true at all.

In our postmodern context that probably sounds a hard saying. By it I do not mean that any one of us has the right in the name of evangelism to impose her or his particular understanding and practice of Christian faith on another person or group.

It is a faith any one person or group can do no more than to explore, test out – and then, if and as we are convinced and committed, serve others by. Indeed, already in his 1900 study book for members of the Student Volunteer Missionary Union, The Evangelization of the World in This Generation, MOTT could end his opening chapter with this typically rotund (while also amazingly perceptive) sentence: “While the missionary enterprise should not be diverted from the immediate and controlling aim of preaching the Gospel where Christ has not been named, and while it should have the right of way as the most urgent part of our task, this must ever be looked upon as but a means for the mighty and inspiring object of enthroning Christ in the individual life, in family life, in social life, in international relations, in every relationship of humankind; and, to this end, planting and developing in all non-Christian lands self-supporting, self-directing and selfpropagating churches which shall become so thoroughly rooted in the convictions and hearts of the people that if Christianity were to die out in Europe and America, it would abide in purity and as a missionary power in its new homes and would live on through the centuries.”

Christian faith is not truly grasped if felt to be a European, or Western, or whiteman’s faith; it is a universal faith, giving rise to a world-wide web of communityin-obedience, and therefore to a constantly amazing network of friendships, which has become for me and many others in the modern ecumenical movement probably the single most convincing piece of evidence you and I can point to today to demonstrate in our world the continuing truth and importance of what happened in Palestine two thousand years ago.

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III. Life to be Lived as a Whole I well remember being told by one of my forebears in the British SCM that in his day the local SCMs always made sure that in the autumn term they were offering good meetings on sex and politics – not only in order to recruit a crowd of impressionable first-years, but because these are always key topics for people seeking to shape their own lives.

Similarly, if more soberly, it was a standing slogan that in the SCM one learned to read the Bible with the newspaper in the other hand, and vice versa. For the WSCF tradition is centred on a faith that engages and enriches every facet of human life: it is not just dealing with “religion” (however that most slippery of words is understood!), nor with any limited sphere of life – the domestic sphere, for instance, or the professional in isolation.

For all the same reasons that make it essentially a faith for all humanity, it must also be tested out – and, once accepted, lived out – as a truth which provides the overall criterion and horizon for the entire compass of life, alike for an individual, a community, a nation and for humankind as a whole.

There are all sorts of ways in which this could be illustrated from the history of the WSCF. One that I particularly appreciate comes from the early experience of the British SCM. In the early 1900s the majority of undergraduates in British universities were from affluent, indeed upper-class families.

Yet they were open-minded enough to notice that there was much unrest, even injustice in British society. So in 1909 an SCM conference was held in Matlock to discuss the “social problem”; the future Archbishop William T EMPLE, then a young teacher at Oxford, was among the participants. The history of the British SCM records the participants as reaching the key conclusion that, “We are the social problem”!

Let it not be forgotten that the record of many early XXth century Western missionaries, not least those who came from the SCMs, includes devoted service in regard to social injustice of many kinds. In China, for instance, it was the Christian missionaries who struggled – successfully – to banish the custom of binding the feet of baby girls (resulting in injuries which would, it was held, prevent the adult woman from running away from her husband’s house), while C. F. ANDREWS and others earned their glowing reputations by leading campaigns against the use of indentured Indian and other labour in plantations in Fiji, South Africa and elsewhere.

Already in 1906 – only a few years after the imposed peace that “ended” the Anglo-Boer war – John R. MOTT and Ruth ROUSE were in South Africa trying to find an acceptable way ahead for the SCM(s) in that racially divided land. Since then, South Africa has seldom been far from the prayers and attention of WSCF. A now oft-forgotten, but at that time vitally important, episode for discovering how Christians can best respond to war between nations arose with the hostilities between Japan and China that poisoned the atmosphere in the Far East from 1931 onwards.

12 Martin CONWAY SCM members from both nations journeyed one to the other, in the hope of finding some way of persuading the Japanese to draw back. Given the tiny proportion of Christians in Japan, this was probably a hopeless cause, but WSCF members around the world followed it with eager hope, later contrasted with anger and protest when the war was taken a step further. For many SCMs it was the failure of the League of Nations to take any effective action that made this episode at the other end of the world so crucial.

In Europe, WSCF soon became engaged heart and soul around the ideological struggles within Germany in the HITLER period. Thanks particularly to VISSER T’HOOFT’s close link with Karl B ARTH and to his friendship with Dietrich BONHOEFFER, the WSCF head office remained closely informed, and there were more than a few visits paid to Germany by SCM people from other European countries which made those movements vividly aware – if with hindsight we must say, not strongly enough – of the importance of resisting the power of the nationalist ideology that had overrun the universities and almost all other social institutions, including the churches.

After 1945, that same concern to find a true and creative response to a dominant ideology moved to the Marxism-Leninism that had overrun Central and Eastern Europe. No Christians should in any way boast that our friends and colleagues, still less those of us outside the situation, found as full and effective a response in or outside those “Communist” states as we would have wished to.

But we may hope that we have begun on the long-term learning from having had to face up to such ideologies in the name of a Lord who deliberately shunned the seizure of power and whose greatest strength is shown in weakness.

The concern that is probably foremost at the moment, in regard to seeing Christian faith as giving a distinctive stance for life as a whole, is that of relations between rich and poor, whether between the richer nations of the North and the poorer of the South, or within so many nations between those who are doing rather nicely and those who are being increasingly marginalised – a division whose causes are anyway often linked with those operating at the international level.

The WSCF tradition stands four-square with the struggles of the South for economic and cultural “liberation” – for the sake of real peace and harmony worldwide; it is therefore lastingly critical of the self-concerned attitudes of the richer North, and all the more so when such attitudes are justified by reference to Christian faith.

Here too none of us dare speak of “solutions,” as if we were able to point to simple ways beyond tensions and situations which seem to have become all too firmly established. Yet the ways of God are not our ways, and no Christian should give up hope that God can find ways of re-opening even the most toughly entrenched of injustices.

In all such areas, two vital contributions that WSCF has enabled its members to offer into the tangles are: the faith that God reigns, and has set the person Jesus Christ at God’s right hand as Lord, so that all earthly powers will finally have to

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bow to God; and the reality of friendship between SCM people in different parts of the world which can reach across even the most heavily guarded frontiers.

Both give actual, daily reminders of the promise that our world will not always have to be as cruel, wasteful and downright stupid as humanity so often makes it!

IV. The University Question A fourth area in which the WSCF tradition has set distinctive markers, not just for Christians but for humanity as a whole, has to do with the understanding and patterns of the “higher” education in which SCM members are by definition engaged.

In the early years, it seems that this kind of questioning played no major role.

University life usually left a fair amount of time and energy for other concerns and activities beyond one’s immediate studies or exams, and so did not call for any close attention on the part of SCM groups.

At the end of World War I, however, WSCF leaders (not least Ruth ROUSE) became aware of the extent of poverty, indeed destitution that was affecting thousands of students and their universities throughout the war-torn lands of central and eastern Europe.

Their appeals led to a movement of support and sympathy that was channelled into an offshoot of WSCF, European Student Relief (ESR), which as the worst crisis passed became International Student Service (ISS), sponsored by WSCF in partnership with other relevant bodies; and then after World War II, World University Service (WUS). This work is clearly in the sphere of mutual service and support, useful, sometimes crucially so, but not often directed at the re-shaping of the central purposes of the university.

Yet in the aftermath of World War II, perhaps because HITLER had found the German universities so readily compliant, WSCF took up the investigation into the proper nature and purpose of university education that remains alive and important today.

The person whose name is most closely linked with this on the international level is the Canadian John COLEMAN, who in the late 1940s produced a small but widely influential book, The Task of the Christian in the University.

The same strain of thinking was taken up strongly in my country by a group of university teachers gathered by the SCM and led by Walter M OBERLEY, later chairman of the University Grants Committee, who published Crisis in the University (London, 1949), a book which remains important, indeed increasingly far from having been duly heeded. And in Germany the Evangelische Akademikerschaft, with its journal Radius, has provoked much useful and important work over the years.

In Asia both M. M. THOMAS of India and U Kyaw T HAN of Myanmar (Burma), one of his successors as WSCF Asia secretary, have published studies of developments in Asian universities, calling these to serve wider human purposes than those of immediate economic advantage, whether of the students or of the nation.

In several countries SCMs have encouraged and enabled groups of university

14 Martin CONWAY teachers to form permanent associations for the study of higher education, one of the most important in the 1960s being that in the United States, which was led for many years by the Yale professor Ed DIRKS. The questions most in view in this area are not so different from those upon which I have already touched: – Questions of truth: are university people only interested in their individual disciplines, or is there some encompassing criterion of truth to which they should be giving complementary heed? Is the learning which the university imparts and pursues designed only for pragmatic use, or is there a value in it over and above the uses to which it can be put?

– Questions of universality: is the university by definition studying towards scholarship that will be accepted and recognised in every different culture, or is it a tool of a particular part of humanity that is not expected to be appropriated by others? To what extent is higher education properly at the service of national interests when these come into competition with those of other nations?

– Questions of cultural diversity: is university learning inherently an outcrop of the Western/Christian traditions of Europe, only to be shared by other parts of the world as they mould themselves into that originally Western mould? To what extent can the universities of Asia, for instance, serve and develop the distinctive languages, heritages, outlooks and aspirations of Asian peoples and religions, without losing the universality of their work?

– And questions dealing with living as whole people: is the university really interested in the people it receives as students and teachers, or are they incidental, the “tools” for learning and scholarship who only matter insofar as they achieve what the university wants to have achieved? To what extent is a commitment to community between teachers and learners essential for the university to do its work well, and how is that best encouraged and supported?

These questions can easily seem too general, too idealistic to cut much ice in the highly pragmatic, success-oriented universities we know today. Yet, is it not true that whenever we allow ourselves to look as Christians in this sort of direction we become urgently aware of new ideological pressures that are liable seriously to distort not only much of the learning being pursued, but also much else in our apparently successful societies?

The consultation held by WSCF and the Christian Conference of Asia at Bangkok in April 1995, for instance, raised a series of biting questions that deserve long-term attention. They include the following: – Is the traditional model of the university as a community of scholars gathered together in the pursuit of truth and the common good giving way to a “service-station” or “cafeteria” or “revolving door” model of higher education?

– Given the huge increase in the number of students entering higher education, and the growing unwillingness and inability of governments to fund these increases (especially where “structural adjustment programmes” hold sway), is the quality of higher education suffering? Is access becoming increasingly difficult for the vulnerable sectors of society, especially women and minorities?

– Is the principle of “commercial viability” becoming so dominant in higher

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education that this is instilling individualism, materialism and competition as the controlling values no less in the university than in wider society? What future is there for academic freedom when the “profit-motive” is forcing universities to be open to control by politicians, large commercial corporations and even the military-industrial complex?

– Are the changes in the financial patterns of higher education contributing to a serious fragmentation of both knowledge and community in the university? Is knowledge suffering from a loss of a sense of coherence, a disdain for truth, community, the common good, a loss of respect for the humanities or life-affirming values? Is the search for community being affected by a depersonalisation of staff and students, and by a loss of civility which in some places leads to violence? Is the pressure on staff to “publish or perish” preventing them from any lasting interaction with their students, and discouraging them from developing a personcentred style of education?

Christians (this section of the report concludes) must proclaim an alternative and larger vision of the university: a vision of wholeness which is central to the Christian understanding of salvation. Christians in universities must press for an education which produces people who are concerned for the good not only of themselves but of others; they should also be concerned for justice, peace and love: in short, for the marks of the reign of God in the university. The report goes on to suggest positive actions that deserve to be pursued. For the WSCF tradition is never satisfied with raising critical questions, but always pushes further into a commitment to do what one – still more one’s group and community – can do to work for a better future, in Christ’s name.

V. A Passion for Unity in Christ I take this dangerously simple phrase, “Unity in Christ,” as the way to explore what I believe to have been deservedly the most important and lastingly meaningful emphasis in the WSCF tradition. Certainly for WSCF members of my generation (I speak as one who will turn seventy in 2005), it will be familiar as the ‘organising priority’ of almost all the SCM has stood for.

Yet it must never be forgotten that it is a classic case of a “contested concept” – that is, of a concept whose exact meaning and implications can never be taken for granted, but which needs always to be open for re-exploration and reminting.

Moreover, it is not an emphasis which should be taken as inherently different from (still less opposed to) either the characteristic emphasis on evangelism in the early stages or today’s more characteristic singling out of justice as the key theme (often in the phrase the World Council of Churches has made its own since 1983: “Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation”).

As I try to set out more fully in a second article, both of these concerns belong intimately to the concern for unity in Christ as the WSCF has helped to explore it.

All three of these emphases, a WSCF person like myself will say, need to be held closely together in an integrity that cannot allow any of them to be neglected.

16 Martin CONWAY

The Freedom of a Lay Movement Following essentially the same pattern as the YMCA, whose world body had been established in 1855, the WSCF understood itself from the beginning as a “lay movement,” grouping Christians of different national and denominational backgrounds in the common faith of all Christians, and in common action for the spreading of that faith.

As a lay movement, it has always known itself free to experiment with fresh methods of obedience, with new arguments about the faith such as the changing world may throw up, with the new leadership the local and national movements may develop.

Its General Secretary during World War II, the Scot Robert M ACKIE, used to remark during his time as British SCM General Secretary that if a student conference was proceeding exactly as the comparable one had done the year before, something must be wrong. The capacity for freshness and experimentation is one of the WSCF’s most precious gifts.

Precisely because from the earliest days its members have sought to put before their fellow-students the Christian faith – not this or that particular version, and not the ideology of any particular nation or denomination – the WSCF has all along been passionately concerned to promote, indeed to experiment with, realistic steps on the way to that unity which Jesus prayed for among his followers, especially in the prayer recorded in John’s Gospel, chapter 17.

Growing directly out of the demand in any true evangelism to demonstrate the relevance of what one is seeking to witness to, and meshing today directly with the crying demand for full-scale acceptance of the “other” across unjust and hurtful barriers, of gender or poverty alike, the search for unity in Christ, often scorned as unrealistic or inner-churchy, reappears again and again as a vital field for experimentation and obedience.

Suggested Reading ADLER Elisabeth (ed.), Memoirs and Diaries, 1895–1990. Geneva, 1994.

DE DIETRICH Suzanne, Cinquante Ans d’Histoire, la FUACE 1895–1945. Paris, 1947.

DE DIETRICH Suzanne, Fifty Years of History (tr. ABRECHT Audrey). Geneva, 1993.

KUPISCH Karl, Studenten Entdecken die Bibel – Die Geschichte der Deutschen Christlichen Studenten-Vereinigung. Hamburg, 1964.

LEHTONEN Risto, Story of a Storm. The Ecumenical Student Movement in the Turmoil of Revolution.

Helsinki, 1998.

MCCAUGHEY J. Davis, Christian Obedience in the University. London, 1958.

POTTER Philip – WIESER Thomas, Seeking and Serving the Truth. The First Hundred Years of the World Student Christian Federation. Genève, 1997.

ROUSE Ruth, Rebuilding Europe. London, 1925.

ROUSE Ruth, The World’s Student Christian Federation – a History of the First Thirty Years. London, 1948.

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Martin CONWAY: Une tradition pour demain: la FUACE cent années après Cet article, originellement écrit pour une Conférence Européenne des Aumôniers Universitaires, montre comment la conception apparemment simple de l’évangélisation des premiers MECs, comme l’exprimait leur slogan d’alors “Faire de Jésus Roi”, a rapidement crût et est devenu aujourd’hui une conscience fertile de la vaste perspective du projet de Dieu pour l’humanité entière. Dans les universités, les membres des MECs ont toujours lutté pour explorer, expérimenter et témoigner pour la singularité de toute vérité, comme étant le cœur de la lutte intellectuelle, accompagné d’une lutte pour la recherche de l’équilibre entre le caractère universelle de toute vérité et la diversité des cultures et des situations à l’intérieur de laquelle cette vérité est à être poursuivie ceci pour l’émergence des citoyens membres d’une famille humaine unique engagés dans la découverte des sentiers de la justice et de l’amitié, qui nous permettra à la fin de vivre pleinement dans l’égalité et le respect mutuel. Dans cette tradition, même le vaste danger de l’oppression économique des riches sur les pauvres, les défis écologiques dus au changement climatique, la surexploitation de l’ordre créé par un nombre croissant de la population humaine, aussi bien que le gouffre menaçant entre les fois religieuses divergentes, peuvent être affrontés et traités sur la base d’un engagement construit à partir du modèle de l’acceptation et l’amour active tel que manifesté dans la vie, la mort et la résurrection de Jésus Christ.

Martin CONWAY: Una na tradi tradici ción ón para el mañana: FU FUME MEC,, ci cien en años y más El presente artículo, escrito originalmente para una conferencia Europea de capellanes universitarios, muestra cómo el evangelismo aparentemente ingenuo de los primeros MECs, así como su lema “Que Jesús sea el Rey”, evolucionó rápidamente para convertirse en una productiva consciencia de los vastos horizontes de los propósitos de Dios para con la Creación entera. En las universidades, los miembros de los MECs han estado luchando una y otra vez por explorar, probar y testificar de la singularidad de toda verdad como el corazón de la lucha intelectual, junto con el equilibro entre la inherente universalidad de la verdad y la propia diversidad de culturas y situaciones en las cuales esa verdad ha de ser buscada, y hacia la promesa de convertirnos en ciudadanos de la gran familia humana comprometida con el descubrimiento de las sendas de justicia y amistad, las cuales nos permitirán a todos vivir en total e igual respeto y equidad. En esta tradición, aún los grandes peligros de la opresión económica infligida por los ricos a los pobres; los retos ecológicos del cambio climático, y la sobreexplotación del orden creado por una creciente población humana; así como los amenazantes golfos entre las diferentes creencias religiosas; pueden ser enfrentadas y combatidas sobre la base de un compromiso con los patrones de aceptación y amor eficaz que encontramos en la vida, muerte y resurrección de Jesucristo.

Philip POTTER

Touched in Our Entire Condition: The Lives and Times of WSCF Interview by NAGYPÁL Szabolcs for Student World The long and glorious life of WSCF is inextricably entwined with the lives of the many people whose names are scattered throughout the pages of her history. One such name is Philip POTTER, one of the greatest living figures in the ecumenical movement, whose active involvement in the Federation spanned four and a half decades.

Although now retired, Philip POTTER remains in contact with the organisation with whom so much of his history is shared. Here, he reminisces with Student World about his own life and the lives of many other people who are responsible for shaping the present condition of ecumenism, and he puts forth a vision and a challenge for the rising generation of young people who are just now taking their place in the life of the Federation and the Church.

SW: You were one of the chief architects of the ecumenical movement. Please, tell us about your relationship with the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) and the Student Christian Movement (SCM).

PP: My relationship with the Federation began when I started my theology studies in 1944. I arrived at Kingston, Jamaica, where we had a theological college and after one week there was a meeting of the SCM where I was sent, and I came out of the meeting having been made a study secretary, a person who does everything from arranging meetings to suggesting ideas. During the three years I spent in Jamaica I kept this position in the SCM, which was made up of theological students, people training for agriculture, cultural experts and teachers.

When I went to England to finish my studies, there was the world conference of Christian students in Oslo in 1947 and I represented the SCM from Jamaica Philip POTTER is a Methodist minister from Dominica. He was involved in the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) from the early 1940s and served as the chairperson of the Federation from 1960 to 1968. From 1972 until 1984 he was the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

20 Philip POTTER and the Caribbean there. The following year there was the inauguration of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Amsterdam and I was present as the leader of the youth delegation at the meeting. I addressed the assembly and thanked Willem VISSER T’HOOFT, who was the first general secretary of WCC, but came to that meeting as the general secretary of WSCF. In this meeting one could see that all of us present there were people who had been involved in the Federation in one way or another.

Then I was a pastor in Haiti for a few years, which was an incredibly rich experience as I came from the university world and had to work with people who were almost totally illiterate. But one thing you learn from the SCM is to always have direct contact and exchange with people and I very quickly understood that they may be illiterate, but they were no fools. And I learned a great deal from those people in the four years I lived there.

From there I went to Geneva to work in the youth department of WCC. Most of the time we were a team of five, but we were in direct contact with the headquarters of WSCF and we knew about the life and work there. From there I went to London working as a responsible chief of West Africa and West Indies for the Methodist church.

After I had spent six years there, I travelled to Africa just when the SCMs were being established there. I played some role in that, so Africa became very much a concern of mine. Of course, in the youth department of WCC I had to travel around the world, so I got quite a lot of involvement in Asia, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Africa. Latin America came much later.

Then I went back to Geneva, as a responsible person for world mission and evangelism and as an associate general secretary of WCC from 1967 to 1972, when I was elected general secretary and I did that for twelve years. I finished in 1984, when my wife and I went to Jamaica and we taught at the university for five years, which was an experience I would have liked to last longer, being involved with the students there. My last involvement before retirement was with students and with the SCM. SW: WSCF started as a Protestant mission-minded movement. How did the Orthodox and later the Roman Catholic students get involved in the Federation?

PP: Scandinavia played an important role in that. Karl FRIES and others had contacts in Russia, and John R. MOTT went there once. They formed relationships with others. One of the things the SCM did for us was to make us naturally relate to each other. We had to come to talk to each other and that is where the SCM was influential in the Orthodox world, with the emphasis so much on the liturgy.

There were quite a number of young people and also some of the metropolitans, who were interested. In 1911 the Federation had a big conference in Constantinople and there was a young man there who was playing an active part in it, who later became a very great patriarch.

Roman Catholics were involved very early, especially in Central Europe: in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, as well as in France. It was not very easy in

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those rather stiff years, but there were in different places these kinds of contacts, and it is quite interesting to see that when Vatican II was convened, there was an immediate relationship between Rome and Geneva.

I myself had close relations with three popes: Paul VI, who had to carry out Vatican II and I stayed in the Vatican and we used to discuss those things. I knew John Paul I very well in Venice and we actually became close friends. When he became pope, he phoned me and told me that he wanted me to be present at his inauguration. Unfortunately, he only lived as pope for 33 days.

Then we had John Paul II. He was a student in Germany and he did his doctorate there as well. He came in touch with the SCM and when he became Pope I spoke with him, but the most moving thing was when leaving WCC he visited Geneva two weeks before I left and we spent a whole day out together with the staff and we had open, honest private discussions; then we made a joint closing service together.

SW: What was the main contribution of WSCF to the ecumenical movement?

PP: WSCF was a community of thinking and acting together. Our famous saying was: “One must have the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.”

And when we spoke about the Bible, we tried to get at the heart of the message of the Bible. The Bible itself represents the word of God to the humans, and when you go to the Bible itself, humans are touched in their entire condition. And the newspaper represents what the condition of the world is today.

There is the interaction between God’s word, God’s message and the whole attitude, all issues of justice and love and truth; and the newspapers which tell about where people are right now. That is one of the great contributions of the SCM that helped a lot of generations to know that we have to have a constant dialogue between where we are, who we are, what is going on, and God, Who spoke to us through Christ and the Holy Spirit. But the Bible is not an abstract book; it is all about human beings in all their conditions. And the SCM played quite a role in emphasising that.

SW: Publications played an important role in WSCF and Student World is considered to be the first ecumenical journal in the world, started in 1908. What was the profile of Student World and which role did it play in the ecumenical movement?

PP: Student World played a very significant role, since it was practically – at that time – the only Christian intellectual journal of worldwide distribution. If one goes through it, one will see what kind of people wrote it: all the great theologians of the age. Karl BARTH started as a student and wrote through his massive books of theology.

Student World played a very important role intellectually and by sharing it across the world, it became a means of bringing out people in expressing themselves. But then we went through a bad patch and it was suspended for a while, but happily it is back.

22 Philip POTTER SW: What was the vision of John R. MOTT about the Federation leadership?

PP: MOTT came from a wealthy, good family and he studied at university. He was a Methodist and studied theology too, and then he married. He was a tall man, very imposing, an agile, athletic type; and he had a very impressive face. He could carry everybody.

Even though he was ordained, MOTT remained as a layperson. He was only thirty when the Federation was born, she was his big baby. The SCM leaders liberated us to be normal people, without being fussy staff, just normal, dialogical people. That was for me the greatest contribution to the SCM. SW: Very early, there were women leaders of the Federation, like Ruth ROUSE and Suzanne DE DIÉTRICH. What was the vision of WSCF about the equality of women and men and the relationship between the genders?

PP: Indeed, one cannot think of the Federation without Ruth ROUSE. She was an English woman who went to Cambridge. She joined the staff of WSCF, even though the Federation never paid her a salary, and for 30 years she was an extraordinary influence in the Federation. She wrote a book on her 30 years there – unfortunately, it was only published in 1948. Ruth ROUSE is for me one of the great saints, a venerable woman indeed.

She influenced Suzanne DE DIÉTRICH, who came from a strong Protestant family: wealthy, they were part of the industrial revolution, some of the first industrialists in Alsace. She broke ranks in her family, because she refused to play the game that a young woman must get married. She went to Lausanne University, far away. She was always in Geneva and she made friends and naturally came into the staff of the Federation. She was also a marvellous writer and speaker. She also played a vital role in creating the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, until she could no longer walk. I used to visit her until she died; it was my privilege to know her.

SW: You said that many early leaders came from wealthy families and they were also from the United States, United Kingdom or Germany – from powerful countries – so the leadership of WSCF came from wealthy families in wealthy contexts.

They were people with solid backgrounds. I think empowerment has become a very crucial concept in our work in WSCF and that is because the leadership should not only come from wealthy countries and wealthy families. Do you have suggestions on how to continue?

PP: It was inevitable that at the beginning people who were free, and who had status could give their lives to the Federation. MOTT could have been anything, but he refused and he spent all his life in this job. We just have to take this as a fact that it was so, and because it was so, they were able to do all they did. They could travel all around the world in the way they did.

Actually, MOTT was not that rich, it was a lady in Chicago who was a millionaire and financed things for the whole rest of his life. Do you find that kind of generosity around nowadays? That is our problem, the bourgeois problem. What they have left behind shows what kind of integrity they had. That has been one of the things that we have learned in the Federation, regardless of the fact whether we came

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from rich or poor families. The important thing was the integrity of the cause, and to follow it up. Whatever the consequences would be, we should go ahead.

SW: You said you learned your leadership style in WSCF, which you practiced later on as the chairperson of WSCF, and as the general secretary of WCC. Could you tell us more about the style of WSCF? PP: The style of WSCF has been one very important point since the very beginning of the SCM and WSCF. We were a community of women and men. We were colleagues and there was no question who would chair or who would do the secretary: either could go. We were pioneers. We took up the issue in WCC and challenged the churches about it. We preferred informal conversations to giving lectures, because it was the SCM style.

SW: What was the relationship between WSCF in the early period and the World Council of Churches (WCC)?

PP: Without WSCF we would not have had the World Council of Churches. It was in the Student Christian Movement that we had informal interactions among the different confessions: Protestants, Anglicans, Orthodox and Roman Catholics.

The fact that the Orthodox were within the ecumenical movement since the beginning was due to the Student Christian Movement. When talking about WSCF we have to talk about WCC, because most of us who were involved in WCC in any leadership position owed a tribute to WSCF and we always maintained a regard for her.

SW: You lived in many regions of the Federation. How did this North Americaand Europe-based Federation become global, and what was the profile of the six regions before the regionalisation happened?

PP: WSCF is unique in this respect. Before it was even officially formed in 1895, there had been people involved in student work, forty years before. And some of them were missionaries and they went around and started student groups. Japan had student groups around 1880; they were the ones to send the message to a WSCF conference: Make Jesus King.

The Chinese and the Indians provided leadership in the Federation very early, because they were very much involved in India and Sri Lanka and Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and South Africa. Latin America came somewhat later, but when it came, it came like a bang.

SW: East and West were divided during the Cold War. What was the role of WSCF in bringing together people from the Eastern and Western blocs?

PP: The cold war was a tough time, but we were still able to maintain many contacts. Because the Church was there, WSCF had to cope with the fact of Communism, especially in the case of the big Orthodox churches. And also when there were difficulties, we would make not too many private representations. In the seventies things were getting easier between the Communist state of the Soviet Union and the Russian Orthodox church.

Once we had to have a little meeting with the government people headed by the president of the state. There was a person who said to me: “How should I address

24 Philip POTTER you?” “Oh,” I said, “it is very easy. Call me ‘brother.’ ” And then he asked me: “And how are you going to address me?” I said: “That is even easier! I will call you ‘comrade.’ ” Humour was a technique we used with them.

SW: You travelled in Africa in the time when apartheid was still very much alive.

What was the relationship between WSCF leaders and the local SCM in South Africa and the leaders of apartheid, the people who stood for apartheid in South Africa?

PP: Many leaders of the anti-apartheid movement were influenced by the ecumenical movement. The Student Christian Movement was a way of making people aware so that when apartheid came to an end, one would find people like those who were trained formally or informally by WSCF, to be the means of renewal today.

SW: Could you tell us some important moments, some of your personal highlights in the ecumenical movement, in WCC and WSCF? PP: In WSCF, it was high life all the time. We did believe in challenging each other and also listening to each other and being willing to act with each other and that is the big genius of our Student Christian Movement, which all of us learnt.

And one of the major things was Vatican II, because there were a lot of background contacts; several great scholars of the Roman Catholic Church used to come to Bossey. Some of them even came to the first assembly, which was actually forbidden, but they were dressed as press people.

By the time Pope Paul VI came along, it was a normal thing, doing things together, and the three popes with whom I had the chance to work practiced it.

The Student Christian Movement played a very important role, because it was part of no particular tradition. We were all together, but it was informal, it was sharing, it was intellectually interesting and people took what they got and brought it to their churches.

SW: What visions do you have about the future of WSCF? What suggestions or messages do you have for us as students?

PP: I came back with my wife from Jamaica in 1990. We chose one of the parishes in Guttenberg and I retired. I lived in Germany through the nineties. One thing is very interesting: that so little theological work has been done in the nineties. In a way, after the Cold War people were fatigued – one must remember that the XXth century was no easy century, with two world wars, with serious confrontations, with the decolonisation.

The question for us was therefore how we are to have the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, the worldly newspaper and God’s word? How do we renew ourselves in this situation? That is for me a major task, for all of us in our different ways in the Christian community. There is a sense of fatigue which has not been dissolved yet. It is that fatigue we have to face. And that is where you come in.

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Philip POTTER: Touché dans notre entière condition: Les vies et les moments de la FUACE Dans cette interview, Philip POTTER, une des plus grandes figures vivantes dans le mouvement œcuménique, revient avec Student World sur les moments de sa propre vie, de celle de plusieurs autres personnes qui sont responsables de la formation de la condition actuelle de l’œcuménisme; et il projette une vision et défi pour la génération émergente de jeunes gens qui sont entrain de prendre leur place dans la vie de la Fédération et de l’Eglise. POTTER a été actif avec la FUACE quatre décennies et demi. Commençant comme secrétaire d’étude dans le MEC du Jamaïque, devenant ensuite le Président de la Fédération entre 1960 et 1968, il rentre en Jamaïque dans les années 1980 pour enseigner et travailler une fois de plus avec le MEC. Durant sa carrière, il a vu se réaliser plusieurs évènements considérés comme point de repère: l’intégration des étudiants de l’Eglise Catholique Romaine et Orthodoxe dans la Fédération, la naissance du Conseil Œcuménique de Eglises, la régionalisation de la Fédération et le commencement et la fin des tensions issues de la Guerre froide, entre l’Eglise et l’Etat dans les pays de l’Europe de l’Est Communiste. Suivant les défis du XXème siècle, POTTER voit le sens de la fatigue dans les insuffisances actuelles du travail théologique. Cela est pour lui le plus grand défi auquel fait face la FUACE aujourd’hui.

Philip POTTER: Tocados en nuestra totalidad: las vidas y tiempos de la FUMEC En esta entrevista, Philip P OTTER, una de las más grandes figuras aún vivas del movimiento ecuménico, cuenta a Student World sobre su propia vida y la de muchas otras personas, que fueron responsables de la formación del actual ecumenismo, y al mismo tiempo plantea una visión y un reto a las nuevas generaciones, que recién ahora están tomando su lugar en la vida de la Federación y de la Iglesia. POTTER estuvo involucrado en el trabajo de la FUMEC por cuatro décadas y media. Comenzó como Secretario de Estudio en el MEC de Jamaica en 1944, y continuó hasta convertirse en Presidente de la Federación desde 1960 hasta 1968, antes de regresar a Jamaica en los ochenta para enseñar y trabajar con el MEC de allá una vez más. A lo largo de su carrera pudo ser testigo de varios hitos que tuvieron lugar: la integración de los estudiantes Ortodoxos y Romano Católicos en la Federación; el nacimiento del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias; la regionalización de la Federación; y el comienzo y fin de las tensiones entre la Iglesia y el Estado en la Europa Comunista del Este, debido a la Guerra Fría.

Habiendo seguido de cerca los diversos retos del siglo XX, POTTER percibe la sensación de una evidente fatiga en el poco trabajo teológico que en el presente se hace, siendo este precisamente el mayor reto que enfrenta la FUMEC hoy.

Risto Lehtonen

Reflections on the Turbulent Sixties in WSCF Looking back on moments of change in WSCF, the period culminating in the quadrennium 1968–1972 undoubtedly represents an era of the most drastic transition in the history of the organisation. It brought about a sudden shrinkage both of the world-wide body and of her member movements; a deliberate distancing from the established ecumenical movement as represented by world and regional organisations of churches; the replacement of virtually all world-wide programmes and functions in favour of regional activities; and an accelerated pace of rotation of leadership. It is still difficult to assess the impact of the period on the basic aims and convictions that tied WSCF together, beyond the desire to maintain the activist heritage of the era and the experience of a general fragmentation.

A World in Turmoil A major factor pressing for changes in SCMs, churches and WSCF was clearly the external world. The social and political context took a turbulent turn at the end of the fifties. The political events and crises made a visible impact on Christian organisations.

One part of their impact was direct, another part was more subtle. They tested Christian convictions and affected the agendas. Students were often in the frontline in responding to the new situations.

In order to understand the dynamics of the change within SCMs and WSCF in those years, it is necessary to remind ourselves of the sequence of the dramatic turns-of-event which shattered the international community beginning in the late fifties.

No comprehensive listing can be presented here, but to remember a few of them in their depth would be worthwhile. The following headings are just invitations to the study of recent world history:

Risto LEHTONEN was the North America Secretary of WSCF from 1963–1968, and the General Secretary from 1968–1973. He has given an extensive account of WSCF history for the period of 1968–1973 in his book entitled The Story of a Storm – the Ecumenical Student Movement in the Turmoil of Revolution (Helsinki, 1998). His email address is risto.lehtonen@netsonic.fi.

28 Risto LEHTONEN The Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the Cuban revolution, the Sharpville massacre and the rise of the antiapartheid movement, the building of the Berlin wall, the various military coups in Latin America and the role of the United States in them, the antinuclear movement in Europe, the Vietnam War and the protest movement against it, the Soviet intrusion into Czechoslovakia and the end of the Prague spring, the Middle East crisis and the Palestinian issue, and the Cultural Revolution in China.

Industry and Authority All of these, as well as many others, affected students and intellectuals on every continent and, in many cases, generated activist responses among them. One particular strand of student unrest arose out of their dissatisfaction with the industrialisation of higher education and another from their growing resistance to authoritarian social as well as university structures.

Demonstrations and protest marches became increasingly a part of student culture first in the United States and gradually in Europe, in a variety of forms centring around different issues on other continents.

The Paris Revolution in May 1968 became, however, the turning point. A wave of student revolts swept over much of Western Europe and North America.

Ideologically a mixture of Marxist and anarcho-Marxist ideas gave the overtone for the “revolution.” Its leaders looked with admiration to the Cultural Revolution in China. The movement had a contagious power among large numbers of students.

Many Christian student and youth organisations joined the revolutionary ranks of activists at that time. Revolution became for many of them the way towards a just society and an expression of true Christian discipleship.

All this hit WSCF when it was trying to find her way between aiming at comprehensive ecumenical strategies for Christian presence in academic world and responding to the rapidly spreading revolutionary mood among students. After the Paris uprising, the scene was set for the storm of WSCF.

Life and Mission of the Church The roots of the 1968–1973 turmoil can be traced in the Federation’s life, beginning in the early sixties. The first signs surfaced in course of the Life and Mission of the Church (LMC) programme, which the General Committee (now known as the General Assembly) initiated in Tutzing, Germany in 1956.

The underlining idea of the programme was to strengthen and expand the work of the Federation globally by linking it with the renewed ecumenical thrust of mission. Significant world-wide mission conferences at the end of forties and early fifties had been pointing to a large-scale transition of the understanding of mission and to a new consensus within ecumenical mission theology.

The accelerating movement of national independence and decolonisation, as well as the rise of Marxism, were placing the mission of the Church in a new social and political context. The LMC was to strengthen the theological and mis-

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sionary foundation of the Federation and to make her a mission arm of the Church in the expanding world of higher education. The LMC was to transfer the theological insights, spiritual resources and experiences from the world-wide mission of the Church to the new generation of SCM leaders and members.

The high point of the seven-year LMC programme was the World Teaching Conference on the Life and Mission of the Church (LMC), held in Strasbourg, France in 1960. The 700 participants represented SCMs from all continents.

The speakers and resource persons included top senior theologians and mission leaders of the day: Karl BARTH, Daniel Thambyrajah NILES, Willem A. VISSER’T HOOFT, Hans C. HOEKENDIJK, just to name a few.

The world conference was to be followed up in six regional LMC conferences before the 1964 General Committee held in Argentina. The goal was to ensure the presence of the LMC consensus on mission within the SCMs all over the world.

The Strasbourg conference produced a big surprise. Instead of accepting the teaching of the senior leaders and the assumed consensus on mission, a revolt emerged among participants. The theses of the lecturers were widely questioned.

A gap between the world of the new student generation and the Church and mission leaders became evident. The neat plan for the LMC programme had to be reconsidered in light of the social and political developments and the theological foundation for the foreseen ecumenical strategy for student work had to be reworked. This experience was an early sign of forthcoming major shifts in the orientation and also in the ecumenical relationships of the Federation.

A revised plan for regionally-based LMC conferences was carried through in 1960–1964. The seven-year programme was brought to formal conclusion at the 1964 General Committee, which was held at Embalse Rio Tercero in Argentina.

Drawing conclusions from the LMC was one of the main tasks of this gathering.

The results are summed up in the document Christian Community in the Academic World, which the General Committee officially approved, with even a touch of enthusiasm.

The document is a vivid illustration of the search for a contemporary expression of the missionary witness of the SCMs and churches’ student workers. It introduced the term “Christian presence” into the vocabulary of the Federation, a term widely used and interpreted in the succeeding years.

The document proved a useful tool for the discussion of the “raison d’être” of SCMs. It presented the basic issue of how openness and commitment are both essential elements of Christian conviction. It also gave the outline of a plan for regionally-based ecumenical strategies to be developed jointly between WSCF and the regional ecumenical organisations of churches.

Church and Society The same ferment was present in many churches and ecumenical organisations.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) organised a world conference on Church and Society in Geneva in 1966. Its outstanding role was to present the demand

30 Risto LEHTONEN for just society to churches and to give a platform also to the theologians who were developing a theology of revolution. This conference influenced profoundly the discussions of the WCC Assembly in Uppsala in 1968.

New programmes were initiated for churches to participate in the struggle against social and economic injustices. Racism, development issues, women’s role in churches and in society and the social dimension of the mission of the Church were prominent themes. The face of the WCC was renewed in the subsequent years.

For the radical wing of WSCF, the changes in churches and the new programmes of the WCC were not enough. For them, these new initiatives were only half-hearted responses to the revolutionary challenges.

Many of student and youth participants present at the WCC 1968 Assembly left Uppsala disappointed. Their reaction sharpened the conflict that emerged at the WSCF Turku conference immediately following Uppsala.

New Man and New Society The decisive events, which gave the contours to the turbulent years of the Federation, began with the World Student Conference in Turku in 1968 and the General Assembly (GA) held at Otaniemi immediately afterwards. The following Assembly at the end of 1972 and at the beginning of 1973 marked the visible completion of the change.

The Turku conference was three years in preparation. The Executive Committee (ExCo) entrusted the planning to a group consisting of students from the different regions. The decision reflected the conviction that now was the time to follow the lead of the current student generation.

The planning group chose “New Man and New Society” as the theme of the conference. It echoed revolutionary aspirations current in Latin American movements, it fit into new left emphases in North America and Europe, and choosing it was an attempt to enter into serious dialogue between Christians and Marxists on the prospects of socialism.

But it intentionally left doors open also for “traditional” post-Bonhöfferian ecumenical emphases, popular among Christian activist students and leaders of those years on almost every continent.

The conference brought together some three hundred participants as was planned. Its course, however, turned out to be very different from the design of the planning group. Participants from North America and Western Europe did not appreciate the topics and the programme design, nor the working methods laid out for them.

They were in their view still a reflection of the “ecumenical establishment,” which they found repressive. They demanded a total revision of the programme and working methods, and also a change of the leadership for the conference.

They wanted to turn the conference into a manifestation of the participatory democracy in the footsteps of New Left militants of France, Germany and the United States. The demand of this group of participants divided the conference into two blocs.

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After a chaotic extraordinary plenary, where the Asian delegation threatened to walk out, an uneasy truce was reached. The original scheme was not rejected. Nor was a new leadership from the ranks of the militants accepted.

Major changes were made, however, in the way the seminars of the conference were to be run. Several resource persons who had been invited were not allowed by the new seminar leaders to present their papers.

Some speakers, as well as those chosen from the radical wing of the ecumenical movement, were booed by participants. The seminar reports and recommendations for future work were in retrospect extremely thin and sloganish in content, but full of radical New Left and Marxist jargon.

The majority of participants, both radicals and moderates, expressed their profound dissatisfaction about the event in their post-conference evaluations. There was a general consensus, that Turku 1968 – a focal point of the Federation’s work since 1965 – had unexpectedly become an unproductive and dissatisfying, even demoralising, experience.

The Otaniemi General Assembly (GA) in 1968, immediately after Turku 1968, approved a new structure for WSCF and a new composition of her governing body. This decision opened the way to move from the concept of a world federation into a federation of regions.

This trend was brought to conclusion at the Addis Ababa Assembly in 1972–73 with a further revision of the constitution. The regional units became the primary forums for the cooperation of SCMs, for the development of contemporary Christian identity and of contextual witness, and for the essential decision-making.

Confrontation of Ideologies Much more changed in WSCF in that period. A bitter struggle about who set the tone for the Federation’s work raged for the whole era. It was mainly a confrontation between ideologies and their significance for SCMs. While admittedly there is a danger of over-generalising, it might be argued that the main battle was between those who wanted to make the Federation a radically new, revolution-oriented organisation; and those who wanted it to continue as an avant-garde ecumenical organisation integrally related to the wider ecumenical movement, struggling for meaningful social and personal witness in the university world and the wider society.

For the former, a mixture of New Left and Marxist ideas was to provide the contextual framework for the theological and political functions. Through the latter, the advocacy against social and economic injustices was to be a central emphasis in all its work and it was to continue its pioneering function in relation to churches, testing new ways for contextual witness, without fixed ideological alliances.

The former group preached global march towards socialism, while the latter wanted to be rooted in the different regions and respect diversity within the Christian community.

As the ideological temperature rose between 1968 and 1972, the latter group

32 Risto LEHTONEN wanted to prevent what they perceived as an anarcho-Marxist imperialist takeover and therefore resorted to an all-out regionalisation of the Federation.

It was clearly a defensive move supported primarily by African, Asian and Middle Eastern movements and individuals, and senior friends from other regions. The rationale was to stop the ideological “paternalism” of Western European, North American and Latin American radical activists and to ensure the continuation of an open-ended witness of the SCMs without any Western imposition.

Crisis of Identity It became evident for the whole WSCF constituency and leadership that world gatherings had no future as a means of developing and testing new ideas for the Christian community. Many even questioned the meaning of efforts to share experiences and visions across regional and cultural boundaries.

With these positions, which signalled the rejection of primary emphases and methods of the world-wide ecumenical movement, WSCF parted company with organisations it had helped to create.

These were the factors which led the radical wing of WSCF to lose interest in WCC and in other established world and regional organisations of churches and, after 1973, virtually to sever her ties with church-based organisations.

The global dimension of the Christian community vanished from this world organisation – at least for a while. The “no” to a world-wide identity of the Federation was confirmed for years to come.

Soon after the Addis Ababa assembly, where the last round of the confrontation took place, the militant activism of the left began to lose steam and ceased to present any significant challenge to the Federation member movements.

It is obvious that the crisis of WSCF was in those years no isolated phenomenon.

Its uniqueness, if there is one, is in its displaying in one single organisation so many of the trends, aspirations and problems of the Christian community – that is, facing a social and political conflict and with that an identity crisis of its own.

BÉKÉS GELLÉRT ECUMENICAL INSITUTE (Pannonhalma, Hungary) Established in 2001 by Archabbot V Á R S Z E G I Asztrik OSB, this Benedictine Institute is a place to pray and work for the unity of the Church by means of conferences, workshops, lectures and publications.

Our young theologians are involved in the ecumenical movement internationally and in Hungary.

If you wish to know more about us, contact N A G Y P Á L Szabolcs: bgoi@chello.hu

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Risto LEHTONEN: Réflexions sur turbulences des années soixante dans la FUACE Les années 1960 ont marqué un moment turbulent sur la scène politique mondiale: tout d’abord est arrivée la Révolution Cubaine, ensuite le mouvement antiapartheid en Afrique du Sud, l’escalade de la guerre froide entre l’Union Soviétique et l’Occident, l’expansion du mouvement des droits civils des USA, la construction du Mur de Berlin et la lutte pour l’indépendance du colonialisme en Asie. Ces événements et bien d’autres ont invariable affecté la vie de la FUACE en inspirant plusieurs étudiants à demander une réponse organisationnelle socialement consciente, en créant une fissure sérieuse entre leur concentration sur l’action politique et la tendance traditionnelle envisageant l’Eglise comme corps sacramentel. Les choses vont atteindre un niveau paroxysmal à Tozanzo en 1971, à la réunion du Comité Exécutif où des membres ont essayé d’instiguer une révolution: ils exigeaient une révision complète du budget Bureau Interrégional et un changement du personnel pour la préparation de la prochaine Assemblée Générale. Après un long débat, le groupe radical manquaient de justesse de remporter la majorité, mais des réductions drastiques en personnel eurent été approuvées. En dépit de la terrible tristesse et déshumanisation de cette période, nous avions appris que la société ne peut pas embrigader la communauté chrétienne et qu’en temps que chrétiens, nous ne devons pas nous acculturer totalement à la société sécularisée.

Risto LEHTONEN: Los turbulentos años ‘60 La década de 1960 marcó un tiempo turbulento en la escena política mundial: primero la Revolución Cubana; luego el movimiento anti-apartheid en Sudáfrica, la escalada en la guerra fría entre la Unión Soviética y el Oeste, la expansión del movimiento por los derechos civiles en Los Estados Unidos, la construcción del Muro de Berlín, y la lucha por la independencia del colonialismo en Asia. Estos y otros hechos ocurridos en el mundo, indiscutiblemente afectaron la vida de la FUMEC, inspirando a muchos estudiantes a luchar por despertar una respuesta organizacional de consciencia social, provocando una seria escisión entre su enfoque respecto a la acción política y el enfoque más tradicional respecto a la Iglesia como un cuerpo sacramental. Los hechos estallaron en Tozanzo en 1971, en una reunión del Comité Ejecutivo donde algunos miembros intentaron promover una revolución: demandaban una completa revisión del presupuesto de la Oficina Interregional, y un cambio del personal para la preparación de la Asamblea General que se aproximaba. Luego de prolongados debates, el grupo radical no logró la mayoría por una pequeña diferencia, sin embargo drásticas reducciones en el personal fueron aprobadas. A pesar de la terrible tristeza y deshumanización de este período, pudimos aprender que la sociedad no puede moldear la comunidad cristiana, y que nosotros como cristianos no debemos aculturarnos completamente a la sociedad secular.

NAGYPÁL Szabolcs

Has the Student Christian Movement a Future?

Justice and peace in the world cannot be preserved without creative efforts that are on par with the dangers and challenges ahead of Church and society. To create and preserve reconciliation and – as a result – unity in the Church, an organised, vibrant and credible engine is needed – an engine which is in our centuries called the ecumenical movement. It is impossible to imagine this blessed movement without the first ecumenical organisation, the initiator and ferment, and many times the brain and soul of ecumenism, the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF).

I. Situation and Response 1. Crisis and Challenge WSCF is a unique and peculiar organisation on the ecumenical and intellectual scene of the increasingly globalised world in many senses and in many fields. She is unique most of all in four aspects: in her ecumenical history and character, in her globally dialogical manner, in her solidarity with the oppressed and the poor, and in her engagement with spirituality and intellectuality at the same time.

We should not only preserve and safeguard these characteristic treasures, heritages and traditions of ours, but we need to bring them into full blossom and bloom in the twenty-first century. WSCF, like the ecumenical movement as a whole, is definitely at a turning point, where we are challenged to rethink and restructure most of our resources, our aims and goals, and our methods of functioning and work.

The ecumenical movement is currently suffering from the age-old tension between institution and charisma. The charismatic renewals in the Church and together with them the constant renewals of our charisma bring new blood to the institutions from time to time. In this respect, WSCF is responsible for the permanent freshness of the ecumenical movement. Apart from this, there is also a NAGYPÁL Szabolcs (1974) is a graduate in ecumenical theology, law and literature. He is Roman Catholic, a theologian in the Békés Gellért Ecumenical Institute (BGÖI) in Pannonhalma, Hungary. He is a former chairperson of KÖD (Magyar SCM), the chairperson of the WSCF Central European Subregion (CESR) and is currently a member of WSCF European Regional Committee (ERC) and global Executive Committee (ExCo). He co-edited the books: A Pentatonic Landscape: Central Europe, Ecology, Ecumenism (Budapest, 2002) and The River Book: Identity, Culture, Responsibility

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crisis of a financial nature in the ecumenical movement, and inside it, in the Student Christian Movement as well.

An important point of a paradigm shift always occurs when we start to understand and interpret the problems and stumbling blocks in our path as challenges.

For those happy languages where this expression exists, it means ‘a difficult, demanding, stimulating and inspiring task’; or ‘an invitation or call to take part in a game.’

Similarly, the Chinese characters for “crisis” mean also “danger”, “opportunity”, and, ultimately, “challenge”. It is our task now to understand and interpret these critical signs of our times as challenges, ie. invitations to take part in an inspiring game. This game, however, demands dozens of mountain-moving volunteers.

2. Identity, Mission and Vision WSCF cannot afford a lack of vision in this situation, for three main reasons.

First, the ecumenical movement is indeed in a time of trial and crisis, including our own organisation within it, the Student Christian Movement (SCM). Second, the history of our movement compels and enables us to play such a key role in the Church as we played in the late nineteenth century, as well as in the years between the two world wars.

Finally, we are students, women and men in our years of formation and education. And honestly when could we be braver and more daring to have a vision than now, in our university years, when basically the whole of life is ahead of us? There is an enormous critical but also nurturing potential dormant in the student world.

The most recent identity, mission and vision formulation of our movement was prepared in the Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting in New York in 2003, where the World Student Christian Federation summarised her commitment and vocation in the following statement: “The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) is a global community of Student Christian Movements (SCMs) committed to dialogue, ecumenism, social justice and peace. Our mission is to empower students in critical thinking and constructive transformation of our world by being a space for: prayer and celebration; theological reflection; study and analysis of social and cultural processes; and solidarity and action across boundaries of culture, gender and ethnicity.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit, the WSCF is called to be a prophetic witness in Church and society. This vision is nurtured by a radical hope for God’s Reign in history.”1 This concise paragraph contains the greater part of what we shall now speak about in this paper. Vision encompasses not only a founding idea, but also necessarily the resolution to ensure its realisation. The key “holy” words in this respect are ecumenism, dialogue, discipleship (study) and solidarity. These are the four characteristic profiles which differentiate us from other similar organisations.

These are also the prospects which can provide and open up an ever-brighter future for the Student Christian Movement.

(Bialystok, 2003). He is the editor-in-chief of Mozaik and Student World.

1 Identity, Vision and Mission of WSCF. In Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting Held in New York, USA, 26–30 October 2003. 6.

36 NAGYPÁL Szabolcs

II. Four Key Concepts 1. Ecumenism: A Christian Spirituality WSCF calls us to faith in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – according to the Scriptures; and to discipleship within the life and mission of the Church. First, let us meditate on ecumenism: on the realisation and manifestation of the unity of the Church. This expression is not contained in our name, but the wordChristian refers to it; this is what Christianity has meant in the Federation since the early times.

The ecumenical, interdenominational character of the Student Christian Movement needs to be permanently broadened, deepened and emphasised, in close cooperation with other Church bodies and similar global Christian student and youth movements and organisations. 2 The Universal Day of Prayer for Students (UDPS), which was first celebrated in 1898, making it the oldest ecumenical prayer tradition, is just one example of our determined role in ecumenical spirituality.

Ecumenism, contrary to what some might think, is not all about grey. We know from physics that white light contains all the colours of the rainbow, and if at least one is missing, it is impossible to perceive the pure white light again.

Furthermore, white as a colour is only visible if it can contain all the colours of the rainbow. The ecumenical movement is the prism which gathers the white light spectrum (the rainbow) to receive the beam of white light again – a beam which was refracted by the repeated divisions in Church history.

To share our spiritual treasures, to bring these spiritual riches into our common life, will be of mutual benefit to WSCF herself, to all the denominations and to all these ecumenical organisations. Through this, WSCF should gain back her role as a space of formation for future ecumenical leaders, and as an ecumenical laboratory for daring new ideas and paradigms.

We grow in Christian life through prayer, study of the Bible and participation in the worship and witness of the Church. In 1895, the founding vision of the Nobelprize winner John R. MOTT, the first general secretary of WSCF was such: “There has been no more hopeful development towards the real spiritual union of Christendom than the WSCF, which unites in common purpose and work the coming leaders of Church and state in all lands.”3 The words of Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III, which he uttered in 1911 in Constantinople when the Orthodox branch of Christianity joined the Protestantbased Student Christian Movement, echo MOTT’s evaluation and give us encouragement in our endeavour: “Your work is apostolic. It has the blessing of God, because a conference to draw Christians into fellowship and cooperation is one of the most sacred causes.”4 It is the responsibility of the whole Federation to strengthen the connection with the denominational bodies and ecumenical organisations at all levels, from the global to the local. Our members represent the Federation in this wider scene, in the context of the ecumenical world. They enliven, sustain and strength2 The most important siblings to mention in this respect are Syndesmos (The World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth), JECI–MIEC (International Young Catholic Students – International Movement of Catholic Students), YWCA–YMCA (Young Women’s Christian Association and Young Men’s Christian Association) and also IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students).

3 POTTER Philip – WIESER Thomas, Seeking and Serving the Truth. The First Hundred Years of the World Student Christian Federation 4 Ibid. 34.

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en contacts most of all with our sister organisations, but also with other actors of the Church life. We must build friendships and partnerships throughout the Christian world, to build nets of mutual trust. The ecumenical movement has always been a movement of friendships and appreciations.

“WSCF is a working model for the global Christian community: as we discover and assert our common faith; as we commit ourselves to a common mission; and as we engage in common ethical action”5 – such was the assertion in 1929 of Francis P. MILLER, the chairperson of the Federation. Indeed, WSCF proved to be most fertile and proliferous, having many daughter organisations as well. The Student Christian Movement has become a huge and beautiful tree in the course of history, and many fruits have ripened in its crown.

This is the spiritual background which compels us to move forward and to reenact the mentality of our foremothers and forefathers, leaving behind our prejudice and pride. The kenosis (self-emptying) of Christ is the eternal model for dialogue in all communities. Kenosis means powerlessness, continual purification from self-centredness, growing in openness. Prayer links one with the goodness and power of God, while sacrifice strengthens prayer and promotes communion.

In the process of kenosis, self-sacrifice unites prayer and sacrifice, when one becomes prayer-for-others.

2. Dialogue: Global Dynamism and Communion The second watchword for the Federation in the twenty-first century, as well as in the third millennium, is dialogue. Nor is this expression contained in our name(s), but there are three references to it: world (in the sense of global), movement (emphasising dynamism) and federation (or, theologically, communion).

A. Global, Regional and Subregional The Student Christian Movement is unique in the Church scene, too, as far as her global character is concerned. WSCF is present on all continents of the globe, organised in six regions (Africa, Asia–Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, Middle East and North America) and – inside these – several subregions.

At the grassroots level, in the subregional and regional committees, and through their representation in the ExCo, the six regions constantly seek to ensure that WSCF focuses on meaningful and forward-looking programmes and constructive visions for the future of the Federation. Also, focused thematic co-operation takes place on a global level, in an inter-regional working environment.

Since WSCF is a federation of national movements, the regions, while fully taking part in the life and work of the global federation, are autonomous in the majority of their own decision-making and programmes. This autonomy guarantees the particular profiles of the regions and enables them to contribute to the reconciled diversity of the Student Christian Movement. Simultaneously, since we are one worldwide Federation, developments in the various regions and subregions remain part of the concerns of the entire Federation.

5 Ibid. 119.

38 NAGYPÁL Szabolcs The most effective ways of movement building are definitely the regional and subregional events. The regions, on the other hand, are bound together in internships fostering interregional co-operation,6 and through mutual invitations to conferences. The multi-level web of the Federation is thus structured, woven and enhanced.

All cooperation is a learning process, and WSCF is a rare realm where intercultural, interdenominational and even interreligious experiences can be obtained, deepened and internalised. In meeting each other, we create an opportunity to water one another’s plants and brighten each other’s colours, to delight and feast God’s eyes.

B. Dynamism and Consensus The interregional leadership of the Student Christian Movement is most of all the Executive Committee (ExCo). Preferably, meetings of the ExCo are held in conjunction with larger subregional or regional conferences, seminars and gatherings. Such meetings involve the ExCo in the life of the regions and inspire greater regional involvement in WSCF. These events involve as many WSCF members from the host region as possible, giving a global dimension to their thematic and programmatic work and their leadership training.

The working methods of the Executive Committee and the regional and subregional committees are constantly updated and restructured, following the technical advances of the age. Fervent discussions regularly take place via email among the members of these committees, and most decision-making happens via email in-between the meetings. In this respect, the spread of the Internet has been bringing dynamism to the worldwide web of the Federation.

It is possible to keep a balance between effectiveness and full consensus in the processes of decision-making. The concept of consensus as being worked out in the Federation is one of our main contributions to the ecumenical movement, to the decision-making processes in the Church, and also in other human communities which try to keep and inspire the commitment and enthusiasm of their members.

The global Executive Committee, at the same time, is one of the most effective means of interregional leadership training and ecumenical formation in the whole ecumenical world. Therefore, a highly important aspect is that the spirit of the ExCo members are kept high during their whole term of service, or – better – further suscited. The former SCMers will be salt and ferment, when taking responsibilities in the ecumenical movement.

C. Communion and Synthesis The Federation has a pioneering heritage also in the partnership of all people, of women and men, in integrating the full potential of humanity for co-operation, co-existence and convivence. WSCF brings us into fellowship with one another in mutual service and supports efforts to serve all people in their needs.

WSCF was the first international organization in which women and men related to each other on a basis of formal equality. Henriette BODAERT, the wife and 6 Especially along the lines of the Frontier Internship in Mission (FIM) and the Deborah Project.

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companion of Willem VISSER’T HOOFT, the first general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), said: “It takes two genders to build the world.”7 WSCF is an inclusive community which respects the reality of pluralism, and in which all students and (senior) friends can collaborate and make their contribution on a basis of equality, mutual respect and Christian fellowship. As witnesses for the coming and realisation of God’s Reign, we build community and communion with each other – through the means of dialogue.

In dialogue, we are dependent on listening: listening well, again, and better.

“The great spiritual unity, which WSCF created, has been an illustration of what the Church must become for all Her members” – William TEMPLE, later archbishop of Canterbury, remarked in 1915.8 As servants and messengers, we extend the Reign of God among all people in order that the very life of Jesus Christ may through us permeate the whole fabric and web of our social and civic life. It was William TEMPLE on the same occasion who summarised: “We want Christian ideals to permeate our whole life; Christian principles to be carried to their last consequences; nothing and no one shall stand in our way; we want to live a full realization of our faith.”

Informed spiritual and theological dialogue is conducted in a committed way within all segments of the Church of Jesus Christ. Similarly, dialogue takes place also with our fellow pilgrims of other faiths. And, ultimately, dialogue is our attitude towards all people of goodwill and openness to the transcendent.

Dialogue itself takes many forms at these levels, sometimes aimed at approaching the truth, sometimes at building community through reconciliation. We are sent to mission, and our mission now is dialogue. Also the spirituality of discipleship needs our humility and eagerness to learn when encountering systems, findings and points of reference other than our own.

Inside the Federation, similarly, our dialogical responsibilities demand openness, willingness and commitment to learn, to listen and to consider the ideas, problems and aspirations of the member movements, subregions and regions, trying to synthesise and bring them into dialogue. We play an inspirational and susciting role where need emerges, while letting each other design, develop and renew our community profiles.

In representing, moderating, caring and synthesising, we, in many ways, give face to the Federation. Being committed to the agreed aims of the Federation, it is a privilege and honour for us from the local to the global level to lend our face and our energies for the advancement of our common cause.

3. Solidarity and Pro-Existence There is the famous slogan in the Student Christian Movement that we have the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. As faithful disciples, we examine the questions of our social and political life, praying that God may give us guidance in the emphases of the Holy Bible, arriving to us in our interpretative communities.

WSCF is a space where our faith and socio-political commitment can interact and face one another. We are called to discover the implications of Christian obedience 7 Ibid. 117. / 8 Ibid. 52.

40 NAGYPÁL Szabolcs for every walk of life. “The Bible is food for wrestlers, but the need for this food is not recognized, unless one is actively engaged in the struggle of the Christian life”9 – acknowledged Daniel Thambyrajah NILES in 1955, the first Asian chairperson of the Federation and a mastermind of the ecumenical movement.

Dialogue, broadly understood, incorporates not only many of our common spiritual and intellectual endeavours, but also the dialogue of life, which is the work for peace, solidarity and social justice. Dialogue of life means doing everything together that conscience does not oblige us to do separately.

The Christian presence in society entails also our involvement, engagement, responsibility in and for the world, striving for peace and justice in and among communities. As Hans C. HOEKENDIJK, a Dutch missiologist and SCMer emphasised in 1948: “The gospel is not good advice, but good news.”10 Furthermore, it is a spiritual necessity to resist every totalitarian and idolatrous influence on us, in solidarity with the poor and oppressed, knowing that the community of Jesus Christ is essentially stronger than the most powerful divisive forces, which try to drive people and communities apart. God’s eternal questions to the prodigal human soul are: “Where are you?” and “Whom do you say that I am?”

We prepare the way for unity by the practice of love; and we are well aware that such obedience to God’s will involves struggle and co-suffering. The ecumenical heart feels and actually enters into sympathy and compassion with the aspirations and struggles of other peoples and communities, inpro-existence – a life for others.

4. Culture and Discipleship We have a strong vocation, finally, which comes from the student, intellectual and academic character of the Federation. The proper function of the university or any institution of higher learning is scientific research for truth, the engagement in intellectual discourse, and the maintenance of culture. The university is a free community of students and teachers who live by and for the truth.

In line with this, the Student Christian Movement, witnessing to Jesus Christ in the academic community, has never ceased to create and radiate an intellectual and spiritual milieu. Starting from small local groups and through national Student Christian Movements, we try to understand, analyse and interpret society, culture, arts and science, in the attitude of authentic Christian discipleship.

We train and nurture our members to become academically advanced as students, theologically equipped as Christians, and ecumenically oriented as churchrelated persons. To fulfil this, WSCF carries out a wide range of programmes based on assessed needs of member movements and the current social and cultural realities.

We experiment with syntheses for the mutual enrichment and constructive transformation of our fields of scientific, social and cultural interest. In these, we aim to be not only informed and educated as much as needed and possible, but also daring, prophetic and visionary, though always in a balanced and harmonious way.

9 Ibid. 184. / 10 Ibid. 161.

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Already we have mentioned the picture of the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. There is something important, though, which should be added to this metaphor and emphasised. It is of primary importance that we also carry a rucksack full of books on our back. There can and should be fervent discussions on which books we have in mind exactly, but these may be just details: the important thing is that we – as students – are to be surrounded by books.

On one hand, books inform us about the creation process and the interpretive history of the Bible (so, about the Tradition of the Church). On the other hand, books provide background and orient us when reading the daily, weekly or monthly newspapers. Without this background knowledge, news does not find its proper context and remains alienated from our web of education, impossible to interpret and approach.

These three textual strongholds – the Bible pulpit, the library of culture and the newspaper stand – ensure the fullness and integrity of a Christian disciple in mind, spirit and body. “The Christian is simply a person, who is in the process of being restored to normal humanhood”11 – said Hans C. HOEKENDIJK. But it is not only the input of books (reading them), but the output as well (producing them), which is our concern. A communion of educated and demanding discipleship is light without serious periodicals. WSCF publications are of crucial importance, in order that our wisdom and challenges be shared with future generations and people far away from our contexts, and to develop a common language for discourse among all students.

Publications must be promoted, as they are fora of dialogue, spiritual and intellectual exchange for the global Federation, in regions and subregions, in national and local SCMs. They are also means of raising awareness of WSCF to partners and sister organisations.

A thorough plan, programme and project must be developed for publications in the Federation, at the local, national, subregional, regional and global levels, to maintain and refresh the memory of the student world. Towards this end, the ecumenical review Student World (established in 1908) shall be continually published, to ensure that our voices are heard by each other and by the world. By enlivening the mutual exchange of these contributions, we create a web of texts and concerns.

III. Subtle as Serpents, Gentle as Doves We have summarised a hopeful future for the Student Christian Movement, earmarked by the key words of ecumenism, dialogue, solidarity and discipleship. A guiding verse for our whole endeavour is Matthew 10,16: “Listen! I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. You must be subtle as serpents and gentle as doves.”

It is not only the paradoxical nature of this command that makes it challenging to discern its true meaning; it is also the ambiguous nature of the words. Consulting different translations of this verse, one can found nearly as many variations on the wording. Particularly the first adjective is uncertain: wise, shrewd, crafty, cunning,

11 Ibid. 206.

42 NAGYPÁL Szabolcs subtle, astute – although similar in meaning, each word carries slightly different connotations, which upon consideration can change the whole tenor of the verse.

“Subtle” is a rich solution, because it can equally well be read as positive or negative, good or evil. It has a sense of refinement, a characterisation of being both tricky and difficult to trick. For similar reasons, “gentle” might be more appropriate than “innocent” for the doves.

The distinction is important: innocence has connotations of not-knowing, directly contradicting the previous phrase commanding awareness; but gentleness implies more of a measured and deliberate state – a conscious choice of the way of love, in full knowledge and understanding of all what this choice entails.

Thus read, the verse neatly sums up the mission of the Student Christian Movement: as students, we are to comprehend as deeply and fully as possible the true nature of the world in which we live; but as Christians we must not boldly accept this nature, but rather we must renew the world with a redeeming and reconciling love.

In line with this, we may aim to be a relevant and dissenting minority with dignified anger, but at the same time a movement of participation, standing in the Biblical prophetic tradition. We can pray with the words of the Nobel-prize winner Lutheran Archbishop, Nathan SÖDERBLOM: “Lord, give me humility and wisdom to serve the great cause of the free unity of Thy Church.” 12 In that way we become prophets who constantly proclaim the unity of the Church in this generation; in order to see the radiating light again, not just the rainbow.

Jean MONNIER said in 1895: “The work amongst students has the world in its hands.”13 Keeping this in our mind, therefore, the mentality and spirituality of escaping forward is suggested in these times of crisis and challenge, which would mean a constantly renewed engagement in creative projects and programmes that aim to reach an ever-broader constituency, in terms of students, partners, donors and communities.

Together, the oldest ecumenical organisation and the first ecumenical review both should serve the cause guided by the Holy Spirit: that soon we all may be one, through ecumenism, dialogue, solidarity and discipleship. Therefore our mastering conviction is, too, that with the help of God, our best days – incomparably the best – are certainly ahead of us. Let us again arise to life in abundance.

Suggested Reading Identity, Vision and Mission of WSCF. In Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting Held in New York, USA, 26–30 October 2003. 6.

World Student Christian Federation – Europe Region, Policy Paper for the Years 2003–2005 (As Approved by the European Regional Assembly, Åland, Finland, October 2003). Mozaik 12 (2003/2).

36–38.

DE DIETRICH Suzanne, Fifty Years of History. The World Student Christian Federation (1895-1945) (tr.: ABRECHT Audrey). Genève, 1993.

FEY Harold E., The Ecumenical Advance. A History of the Ecumenical Movement (1948–1968). Genève, 1970.

KINNAMON Michael – COPE Brian E., The Ecumenical Movement. An Anthology of Key Texts and Voices.

Genève, 1997.

12 Ibid. 79. / 13 Ibid. 10.

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LOSSKY Nicholas – BONINO José Miguel – POBEE John – STRANSKY Tom – WAINWRIGHT Geoffrey – WEBB Pauline, Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement. Genève, 1991.

LEHTONEN Risto, Story of a Storm. The Ecumenical Student Movement in the Turmoil of Revolution.

Helsinki, 1998.

POTTER Philip – WIESER Thomas, Seeking and Serving the Truth. The First Hundred Years of the World Student Christian Federation. Genève, 1997.

RAISER Konrad, Ecumenism in Transition. A Paradigm Shift in the Ecumenical Movement? Genève, 1991.

RAISER Konrad, To Be the Church. Challenges and Hopes for the New Millennium. Genève, 1997.

ROUSE Ruth – NEILL Stephen C., A History of the Ecumenical Movement (1517–1948). London, 1953.

VISSER’T HOOFT Willem A., Has the Ecumenical Movement a Future? Belfast, 1974.

NAGYPÁL Szabolcs: Le Mouvement d’Etudiant Chrétien a-t-il un avenir?

Plus de cent années après sa fondation, le Mouvement d’Etudiant Chrétien doit répondre aujourd’hui à la question de savoir s’il a un avenir comme partie intégrante du mouvement œcuménique et de l’Eglise Chrétienne. Dans cette situation défi, la mentalité et la spiritualité du saut en avant signifie un engagement renouvelé, dans des programmes et projets créatifs qui auront pour but d’atteindre une structure à jamais légère. La Fédération a un héritage d’être pionnière dans l’intégration de tout le potentiel de l’humanité pour la réconciliation.

La FUACE doit regagner son rôle comme espace de formation pour les futurs responsables du mouvement œcuménique, et comme un laboratoire pour l’élaboration de nouvelles idées et nouveaux paradigmes. Nous devons aussi nous réengager pour les publications, pour qu’ainsi nous puissions partager nos sagesses et défis avec les générations futures et les personnes vivant loin de nos contextes. Et le plus de tout: c’est notre vocation d’être des prophètes qui proclament constamment l’unité de l’Eglise dans cette génération.

NAGYPÁL Szabolcs: Has the Student Christian Movement a Future?

More than a hundred years after her foundation, the Student Christian Movement has to face the question of whether it has a future as a part of the ecumenical movement and the Christian Church. In this situation of challenge, the mentality and spirituality of escaping forward means a renewed engagement in creative projects and programmes that aim to reach an ever-broader constituency. The Federation has a pioneering heritage in integrating the full potential of humanity for reconciliation. WSCF must gain back her role as a space of formation for future ecumenical leaders, and as a laboratory for daring new ideas and paradigms. We must also recommit ourselves to publications, so that our wisdom and challenges can be shared with future generations and people far away from our contexts. Through the dynamism of the Holy Spirit, we must cooperate in building our part of God’s Reign, being engaged in an informed and committed dialogue with the world around us. And most of all: it is our vocation to be prophets who constantly proclaim the unity of the Church in this generation.

Bertrand TIENTCHEU

Crises d’Afrique, Crises de nos Intelligences: Penser et Bâtir l’Université Africaine Nouvelle pour la Renaissance de l’Afrique Nous réfléchissons sur la problématique de l’Université en Afrique, en rapport avec la Renaissance africaine. Cette question n’est pas abstraite, éloignée de nous.

Chacune, chacun a une expérience avec l’université. Et donc ne se sentira pas étranger. En temps qu’universitaire, nous ne saurions être à l’écart des grands débats de société de notre continent, des préoccupations quotidiennes et concrètes de nos peuples, préoccupations qui sont en réalité les nôtres aussi. Nous devons nous questionner sur notre rôle, notre engagement, notre mission dans la grande mouvance actuelle de la Renaissance africaine, ce, en rapport avec notre foi chrétienne.

Prolégomènes Le débat autour de la Renaissance africaine a resurgi comme un tollé en ce début de millénaire, ce après plusieurs années de léthargie. Il faut dire qu’elle a été occultée après la mort tragique des précurseurs tels Kwame KRUMAH, Patrice LUMUMBA, sur le plan politique; Cheick Anta DIOP sur un plan scientifico-culturel. Elle a été occultée et non, supprimée définitivement.

Je veux dire qu’elle n’était plus à l’ordre du jour dans nos grandes institutions sociales, politiques (et même universitaire). Toute fois elle restait dans des cercles d’initiés et disciples de ces grands hommes de pensée qui ont influencé la civilisation africaine. Un travail souterrain d’enracinement était donc fait dans ces lieux de résistance, comme quoi, on ne peut pas tuer la mémoire collective d’un peuple.

L’Afrique veut se renouveler, gagner en forces nouvelles et en confiance en ellemême. Elle veut assumer son passé, son présent et son avenir, bref, prendre en main son destin. Elle veut venir à bout des grands défis qui sont les siennes dans un monde globalisé où elle devient de plus en plus marginale.

Bertrand TIENTCHEU (1975) a une formation universitaire en sciences économique option analyse économique à l’université de Dschang au Cameroun, il y poursuit un cycle en sociologie anthropologie. Il vient de l’Eglise Evangélique du Cameroun (Protestante Réformée). Actuellement il est membre du comité général de la CETA (Conférence des Eglises de Toute l’Afrique) et du comité de rédaction de Student World. Il exerce également comme formateur pour le compte du MEPC (SCM). Pour tout commentaire à propos, bien vouloir écrire à l’adresse suivante: btietcheu@yahoo.fr.

46 Bertrand TIENTCHEU Après plusieurs décennies de destruction, de désintégration sous forme de colonialisme et néocolonialisme, années de désillusion qui ont emporté dans des systèmes népotiques et obscurantistes à partis uniques, nos grands rêves de libération et de prospérité; et qui ont « plongé nos intelligences dans une sorte de dépression psychique et d’angoisse métaphysique d’où jaillit constamment le besoin de comprendre ce qui nous arrive réellement ”1; les Eglises d’Afrique veulent rompre avec ces périodes de traumatisme et induire une conscience nouvelle chez les africains.

Elles veulent susciter l’émergence des forces sociales et intellectuelles nouvelles, des hommes et des femmes renouvelé(e)s pour la construction d’une nouvelle société africaine. Au centre du débat, se trouve la question de la re-création de l’Afrique en « fonction de l’humain dévoilé par le Christ en tant que ferment anti-fatalité et puissance de transformation du monde en espace de vie à la mesure du rêve de Dieu pour sa Création ”2.

Ainsi posés les enjeux, le projet de cette mouvance, nous allons en temps qu’universitaires nous questionner sur le rôle et la place de l’Université comme lieu de production et de construction du savoir. En d’autres termes quel rôle peuvent jouer les universitaires, les intellectuels dans la lutte pour la reconstruction de l’Afrique.

Nous discuterons sur le concept même de l’université, c’est-à-dire son sens, et comme déjà dit, le rôle et l’impact dans la vie d’un peuple, du peuple africain. Je me doute si nous nous sommes souvent poser la question de savoir ce qu’est l’université? Pourquoi sommes-nous à l’université? Il s’agit là des questions essentielles, et je dirais même ontologique.

Eh oui! C’est de cela qu’il s’agit lorsque nous parlons de la crise des sociétés africaines: Une crise ontologique. C’est à ce niveau que se situait le regretté Engelbert MVENG quand il parlait de la „paupérisation anthropologique”3 dont sont victimes les peuples africains.

Il faut le savoir, les institutions politiques, économiques, sociales et culturelles ne sont que l’expression visible de ce que nous sommes au plus profond de nousmêmes. Chaque peuple se dotent des institutions à la dimension de leurs attentes essentielles et de leurs affects profonds. Si nos institutions sont en crise aujourd’hui, cela n’est que le témoignage de la crise de notre intériorité.

Une crise de l’Homme africain en temps qu’être pensant. C’est dans une telle perspective que nous aborderons la problématique de l’université en Afrique, avec en toile de fond l’université comme lieu de construction de la nouvelle humanité africaine, comme cadre d’enracinement, de renforcement et de renouvellement de notre être, pour la Reconstruction, la Renaissance de l’Afrique.

I. L’Afrique un continent malade On n’a pas besoin des spéculations savantes ou de démonstrations argumentatives pour comprendre que le continent africain est sérieusement malade. Il suffit d’une simple observation. Il est pris dans un „étau” d’après Aminata TRAORE 1 KA MANA, Sciences sociales et nouvelle humanité africaine. http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/MP2403.pkm.html 2 KA MANA, Eglise Africaine et la théologie de la Reconstruction. Réflexions sur les nouveaux appels de la mission en Afrique.

Bulletin du Centre Protestant d’Etudes. 1994/4–5.

3 MVENG Engelbert, Paupérisation et Développement en Afrique. Terroirs (Revue africaine des sciences sociales), 1992/1.

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ou alors dans une „nasse” selon l’égyptologue camerounais Kange EWANE. Toute personne qui se déplace dans les rues des grandes métropoles africaines peut vivre, expérimenter au concret la réalité cruelle de „l’étau” qui se resserre sur l’Afrique. La violence sous toutes ses formes y est permanente, elle fait partie du quotidien des africains.

1. Une société en pleine déliquescence L’étau se resserre sur le tissu social africain. L’on assiste à une désintégration progressive. Les solidarités traditionnelles disparaissent, cédant la place aux individualismes, aux solitudes suicidaires. La précarité de la vie, la pauvreté extrême, assommante et humiliante, plongent les populations dans la peur et dans l’inertie totale.

Elles sont clouées au sol, incapables de se mettre ensemble, de s’organiser dans un mouvement collectif pour „partager, pour rechercher ensemble les chemins possibles d’une solution, d’une réinsertion dans une société qui vous rejette, car elle n’a que faire de vous”4. Chacun se livre à de la débrouillardise pour survivre.

Pour certains, c’est la prostitution, pour d’autres c’est le rapt, la „feymania”.

Les jeunes filles et les jeunes garçons, très vulnérables et fragiles sont livrés aux différentes formes d’esclavages des temps modernes. Le commerce sexuel, les exploitations dans des firmes à travers des travaux rudes injustement rémunérés, les travaux forcés. Les réseaux de commerce sexuel, de trafic d’enfants s’organisent à travers le monde.

L’Afrique est un terreau fertile pour le développement de telles activités ignobles. Ils y ont des „marchandises” assez faciles et peu coûteuses, ce sont ces misérables petits enfants qui jonchent nos rues et quartiers, abandonnés à euxmêmes.

Les pauvres marginalisés s’adonnent aux distractions évasives dans des lieux d’euphorie populaire. Les jeux de hasard se multiplient et suscitent une vaste mobilisation populaire. Les bars, les buvettes, où coulent en longueur de journée d’énormes quantités d’alcool et de bière, sont des lieux de destination privilégiée.

Les populations peuvent comme on le dit, y „noyer leurs soucis” et se créer une illusion de bonheur.

Et ce n’est pas seulement l’alcool qui y est florissante. Le sexe aussi y abonde.

Il est un instrument de jouissance collective. L’on s’y adonne avec une frénésie quasi irrationnelle. Ceci avec tous les risques que cela comporte en terme de transmission des maladies vénériennes et le VIH/SIDA. La fracture sociale s’agrandit, les inégalités sont criardes. Les riches mènent une vie cloisonnée, schizophrénique. Ils sont tapis dans leurs immenses forteresses de pierre (de l’argent thésaurisé), de véritable „sarcophages”. Le luxe qui transparaît de ces châteaux, cache mal un malaise profond chez ceux-ci. En réalité ils n’ont plus foi en l’avenir.

Le continent se vide de ses fils et filles. La frénésie avec laquelle les jeunes gens aujourd’hui, se livrent à la course de l’Occident est inquiétante. Partout en

4 VILAIN Pierre, Les Chrétiens et la Mondialisation. Paris, 2002.

48 Bertrand TIENTCHEU Afrique, la plupart des jeunes ne rêvent que d’Europe. Ils sont prêts à tous les coups, toutes les humiliations, tous les risques, à conditions de fouler le sol européen. On a l’impression qu’ils n’ont plus foi en eux-mêmes, en leur continent comme espace de bonheur.

Les Etats dans tout cela fragilisés, n’existent plus que de nom. Ils sont de plus en plus dépourvus de leur pouvoir normatif. Ils sont désormais sous le contrôle des „nouveaux maîtres du monde”5. Les multinationales, le capital financier mondialisé, auxquels s’ajoutent les différents réseaux de narcotrafiquants, les trafiquants d’armes, les firmes pétrolifères, les maçonneries et autres mouvements ésotérico-mystiques. Toutes ces nouvelles puissances exercent sur nos Etats une pression énorme. Leurs mobiles sont toujours inconnus, invisibles. Elles agissent dans l’ombre.

Nos Etats se trouvent ainsi incapables de garantir un minimum de sécurité aux populations abandonnées entre les mains de ces mercenaires qui détruisent tout sur leur passage (être humains, environnement). Ils montent les peuples contre eux-mêmes, provoquent des guerres, des génocides, bradent les richesses naturelles et culturelles, tout ceci au nom du „ dieu argent ”.

C’est la „tyrannie de l’Anonyme”, pour utiliser une expression de Hannah ARENDT, citée par Eboussi B OULAGA. Une situation „de non-personnes, où tous peuvent être coupables, mais où nul n’est responsable, comptable d’actes qui soient réellement siens”6 et une telle situation n’est pas sans dangers.

Les conditions sont réunies pour le développement de toutes les formes d’intégrismes, du terrorisme, des fascismes, des replis identitaires. La société politique est détruite, la société civile est en pleine décomposition, nous nous retrouvons dans une société de nature faite de filiations claniques, tribale et familiale. Ces nouvelles formes de menaces, Amin MAALOUF les désigne par une expression savante: les „identité meurtrières”.

Ces identités meurtrières se déploient aussi à travers les mouvements religieux effervescents qui déferlent en Afrique avec une vitesse exponentielle. Ces églisettes qui se créent à tout bout de champs dans nos quartiers et villes, pour la plupart sans un fondement théologique et biblique solide, sont de lieux d’imbécilisation collective et de déstructuration psycho-mentale et sociale de la personne.

Elles récusent l’utilisation de l’intelligence, don de Dieu à l’homme, et développent une religiosité du délire irrationnel, des convulsions burlesques et quasi démentielles. Leurs principales cibles sont les jeunes, notamment en milieux universitaires, et les femmes. Ce sont des instruments de domination et de manipulation des consciences. Elles représentent un véritable danger pour les Eglises traditionnelles (catholiques et protestantes).

2. Des économies non rentables Le capitalisme planétaire a comme loi suprême celle de l’économie financiarisée. C’est elle qui régule désormais toutes les sphères de la vie humaine. Dans un tel contexte, l’exigence de rentabilité, de productivité, devient la condition sine

5 ZIEGLER Jean, Les Nouveaux Maîtres du monde et ceux qui leur résistent. Paris, 2002.

6 BOULAGA Eboussi Fabien, L’honneur de penser. Terroirs (Revue africaine des sciences sociales), 1992/1.

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qua none pour intégrer le système. Quiconque n’est pas rentable, productif, disparaît, est exclu du système.

Tel est le sort actuel de l’Afrique. Nos économies ne sont pas rentables. Déjà assez asphyxiée par la dette extérieure, elles ne produisent pas suffisamment pour intégrer le marché mondial. D’après les statistiques, l’Afrique au sud du Sahara représente à peine 1% du commerce mondial.

Donc elle est insignifiante, non rentable. Elle peut donc être acheter à un franc symbolique. Les privatisations qui s’opèrent dans nos pays aujourd’hui, sous la pression des Institutions de Bretton Woods, s’inscrivent dans cette perspective.

Ce sont de véritables bradages des économies nationales, sous la houlette des entreprises transcontinentales, des marchés financiers.

Pour eux il faut privatiser les Etats, démanteler tous les systèmes de protection sociale, afin de fluidifier la circulation du capital financier. Il faut faire du monde un „global stateless governance”, un monde soumis à la loi du marché.

3. Des institutions universitaires en crise En principe chaque peuple se dote d’institutions universitaires qui répondent aux ambitions de leur projet de société. L’université dans ce sens devient le lieu d’impulsion. Le cadre où ce peuple se pense et se projette dans l’avenir, où il pense sa présence dans le monde.

Il devient évident qu’un peuple en perte de repères, sans vision d’elle-même et sans perspective, ne peut que se doter des institutions universitaires qui n’a aucune vision d’avenir, aucune emprise et présence dans la réalité.

Les Universités africaines sont aujourd’hui dans cette situation. Elles sont la synthèse de nos sociétés en pleine déliquescence. Elles n’ont pas d’emprise sur le réel. Elles sont incapables de s’adapter aux exigences et mutations du monde actuel.

Au Cameroun par exemple, il est courant d’entendre les jeunes les désigner comme étant des „tombeaux pour les génies”. Ceci est extrêmement grave.

Lorsque l’université qui devrait en principe être le lieu où se construisent des intelligences, des maîtres penseurs, ces „esprits libres” dont parle Friedrich NIETZSCHE, et qui influencent la civilisation et construisent la réalité, si au lieu de cela elle devient plutôt le lieu où l’on tue les intelligences, alors cela veut dire que nous sommes dans une société qui est tombée en dessous du seuil de dégénérescence. Nous sommes passés de l’excellence à la médiocrité.

Nos universités sont aussi les cibles privilégiées des différents mouvements religieux sulfureux et autres cercles ésotérico-mystiques qui se déploient en branle sur le continents africain. Les rapports des équipes de recherche mobilisées dans quelques universités africaines sous l’impulsion d’un mouvement œcuménique panafricain, baptisé „Action Universitaire Chrétienne”.

Ceci dans le cadre de son programme de lutte contre l’expansion et l’action des sectes dans les universités africaines, soulignent que „les sectes et nouveaux mouvements religieux se sont bien implanter dans les universités africaines. Même

50 Bertrand TIENTCHEU sans avoir pignons sur rue dans les campus, ils déploient une grande action d’information en sourdine, d’organisation des groupes de formation et des campagnes de recrutement”7. Leurs actions sont souvent néfastes sur les jeunes. Ils brisent tous les ressorts de nos intelligences et détruisent notre capacité d’analyse et de réflexion. Ils enrôlent enseignants et étudiants.

Sur un plan institutionnel, les universités africaines subissent d’énormes influences du pouvoir politique. Les désignations des responsables sont faites par nominations politiques et obéissent à des critères qui ne sont pas toujours académiques. Le politique et l’administratif priment sur l’académique.

Résultat, les enseignants sont clochardisés. Ceux qui ont la possibilité de s’embourgeoiser, sont embrigadés dans le système politico-administratif. Ils ne peuvent plus dispenser les cours normalement, ils sont intellectuellement „morts”.

La recherche est asphyxiée. Les étudiants sont mal formés. Ils sortent des universités nantis de diplômes, mais n’ont aucune expertise réelle. Ils n’arrivent pas à s’intégrer dans un environnement de plus en plus compétitif.

Nos universités ne forment plus, elles déforment. Je me rappelle lorsque j’arrivais à l’université de Dschang, j’ai fait connaissance avec un étudiant qui venait d’être titulaire d’une maîtrise en économie. Au cours d’une discussion académique avec lui, grande était ma surprise de me rendre compte qu’il n’arrivait pas à me définir correctement ce qu’est l’économie. Je me posais la question de savoir ce qu’il maîtrise en réalité. J’étais naïf, je ne savais pas que le pauvre était le pur produit d’un système déliquescent.

II. Le diagnostic: Au cœur du problème En réalité, tout ce qui se dégage de la photographie macabre de nos sociétés et dont j’ai présenté quelques aspects plus haut, ne sont que des symptômes. Si nous restons sur ces aspects extérieurs, nous ferons un mauvais diagnostic. Où se trouve donc la racine du mal africain?

Nous répondons avec Eboussi BOULAGA, „la racine du mal africain est l’absence de pensée”. Nous n’avons pas du tout intégré cette capacité de concevoir, d’entrer en contact avec ses semblables à travers des discussions laborieuses, l’expérience raisonnée, critiquée ou abandonnée, afin d’agir de concert avec eux et ceci en connaissance de cause.

Résultat, nous nous laissons aller aux illuminations de tout genre, à de la rêverie béate. Nous sommes comme des zombies, dépouillés de „notre capacité de revenir à soi, de se comprendre en parlant à soi, de raisonner et de réfléchir aux conséquences des actes accomplis ou à poser”8.

Nous sommes incapables de produire par nous-mêmes, nous rabâchons, le prêt à porter que nous ramassons dans la friperie politique et culturelle occidentale.

Nous sombrons dans le mimétisme de la pensée. Devenant ainsi léger et futile, insignifiant et inconsistant.

7 Action Universitaire Chrétienne, Rapport d’activités 2002.

8 BOULAGA Eboussi Fabien, L’honneur de penser. Terroirs (Revue africaine des sciences sociales), 1992/1.

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Cela dit notre problème est celui de „la crise de notre humanité et celui de la crise de nos instruments de connaissance dans la situation actuelle qui est la notre”. Les principes vitaux qui fondent notre présence au monde et qui nous font participer à l’histoire humaine, sont aujourd’hui problématique.

Pour sortir de la crise, il nous faut repenser de fond en comble notre humanité, repenser notre intelligence créative, dans l’optique de la maîtrise du monde telle qu’il se présente aujourd’hui avec ses exigences, ses brutalités et ses opportunités réelles. L’on pourrait élaborer des grandes politiques, doter les Africains de tous les moyens nécessaires, mais s’il n’y a pas au préalable cet exercice de fond, nous ne décollerons pas.

C’est à ce niveau que je situe le projet de l’Université Africaine Nouvelle. Nous allons explorer sa mission dans une société africaine en crise et dégager les horizons pour son applicabilité, avec ce que cela implique pour un mouvement comme le MEPC (Mouvement des Étudiants Protestants du Cameroun).

III. Projet de l’université africaine nouvelle: Mission C’est vrai que les universités africaines sont actuellement „mortes”. Est – ce à dire que tout est fini? Je pense que non. Nous les chrétiens avons un mythe qui fonde notre foi. C’est le mythe de la résurrection, des nouveaux cieux et de la nouvelle terre. C’est ce mythe qui est au cœur de la théologie de la Reconstruction et c’est ce qui nous permet de vivre et d’espérer. Et c’est aussi ce qui me permet de croire en la possibilité d’une alternative, d’une résurrection des universités africaines. En la possibilité d’une université africaine nouvelle.

L’université doit en principe participer au projet de la Renaissance africaine. La première mission de l’université africaine nouvelle sera de former l’Homme africain dans sa totalité. C’est-à-dire construire des femmes et des hommes de consistance, des personnes aptes à la pensée, des libres penseurs.

Comme le dit Gerald W. JOHNSON, „si l’université n’apprend pas à un homme à concevoir sa propre pensée et à dire ce qu’il pense, elle ne lui apprend rien de première importance. Il peut amasser n’importe quelle quantité de savoir livresque, il peut parler 17 langues, y compris l’étrusque. Mais s’il quitte l’université sans acquérir la capacité de concevoir une opinion sur la manière dont le monde évolue et le courage de soutenir cette opinion contre vents et marées, il reste un ignoramus.”9 La renaissance africaine passe par le renouvellement de notre personne en profondeur. Il faut des femmes et des hommes capables de l’imprimer dans la réalité. C’est là la tache première de l’université.

La deuxième mission c’est de produire des savoirs, des instruments de connaissance qui permettront à la jeunesse africaine, aux africains de maîtriser leur réalité, les réalités de ce monde et de les transformer. Il est question là de reconstituer les ressorts même de notre humanité. C’est la grande difficulté de nos universités actuelles.

9 Nous avons extrait cette citation du livret de présentation du Projet Université JPSC (Justice Paix et Sauvegarde de la Création) initié par le Cercle Internationale pour la Promotion de la Création (CIPCRE). www.cipcre.org.

52 BERTRAND TIENTCHEU La troisième mission serait de nous engager dans une dynamique expansive. Je ne parle de l’expansion comme volonté d’hégémonie et de domination, mais plutôt comme ouverture et propulsion dans monde. Nous ne pouvons plus rester sur nous même dans un monde qui se globalise.

Il est question de construire une culture, une civilisation africaine forte, capable d’intégrer et d‘influencer la culture planétaire, la civilisation mondiale. De produire une spiritualité africaine puissante qui pourra se répandre dans le monde des spiritualités. Ce serait la contribution de l’Afrique à la construction de l’humanité. Telle est une autre tâche de l’université. Une fois de plus celles actuelles sont inaptes à cela.

La quatrième mission serait de développer chez les jeunes africains la culture démocratique. Il faut que nous comprenions une fois pour toute, qu’une société forte et prospère ne peut se construire que par des discussions fertiles, des remises en cause permanente, des amendements, une critique constructive et l’écoute active.

La culture démocratique permettra de libérer les énergies, de développer la liberté de pensée, c’est-à-dire la „possibilité de l’action qui fait de l’homme un être politique”. Nos universités actuelles ne sont pas vraiment de lieux d’une véritable culture démocratique. La pensée plurielle, contradictoire ne s’y développe pas. Le contrôle politique y est pressant et le débat démocratique n’y est pas promu. La nouvelle université africaine se doit d’inverser cette tendance.

IV. Comment s’y prendre: implications pour le MEPC, la FUACE et Eglises africaines Il est clair que dans les conditions actuelles, il est quasi impossible de changer les institutions universitaires telles qu’elles se présentent. Je propose une approche autre. Il est question de développer des alternatives parallèles qui reposant sur des groupes personnes qui s’intéressent à la pratique de la réflexion et à l’action transformatrice, s’agrandiraient progressivement par cercles concentriques, gagneraient en ampleur, en force afin d’induire un projet de société novateur.

1. Créer des centres d’excellence Ce sont des établissements, des structures qui se développant en dehors des universités officielles, pourraient devenir de véritables lieux de „sociabilité savante”. Nous pouvons citer : des académies diverses, des sociétés savantes, des salons, des cercles et groupes de réflexion divers, des bibliothèques.

Dans ces lieux les jeunes pourraient acquérir une formation véritable par l’initiation et les lectures personnelles assidues, des conférences, des conversations fertiles, et même la pratique. Pour Christophe CHARLE et Jacques VERGER, „à l’époque moderne, les académies et les sociétés savantes, les cours et les chancelleries, les salons, sans parler de la bibliothèque … sont devenus des lieux les plus communs, non seulement de sociabilité savante, mais de la recherche et de l’innovation”10.

10 CHARLE Christophe – Verger Jacques, Histoire des Universités. Paris, 1994.

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Les centres d’excellence se doivent d’être ce que les anglo-saxons appellent „think tanks”. C’est-à-dire des forums où foisonnent des idées novatrices et révolutionnaires, et qui deviennent des lieux de ressourcement pour les hommes politiques, les opérateurs économiques, les élus locaux, les citoyens à la base.

Ils doivent foisonner de partout, s’organiser en réseau, sous la forme d’une nébuleuse, une sorte d’„Al Qaïda”, qui ne serait pas un réseau de terroristes et kamikazes, plutôt une chaîne de personnes ayant pour armes leur intelligence et leur foi, et engagées dans la transformation de ce monde, l’invention d’un monde nouveau, d’une Afrique nouvelle comme espace de „bonheur partagé”11.

Le MEPC comme réseau qui se construit et qui s’organise, est un cadre idoine.

Les Aumôneries Protestantes Universitaires peuvent devenir des centres d’excellence. Des lieux où se forgent des esprits libres, où les jeunes universitaires peuvent développer des capacités intellectuelles et sociales, afin d’être à la hauteur des défis actuels.

Nous devons trouver des moyens nécessaires pour faire des aumôneries des cadres pouvant répondre à ces nouvelles exigences. Le MEPC pourrait ainsi à travers des actions concertées, organisées, dans son réseau influencer et changer quelque chose dans ce pays, le Cameroun.

Cela peut s’étendre dans le réseau de la FUACE (Fédération Universelle des Associations Chrétiennes d’Etudiants) en Afrique, le réseau des jeunes de la CETA (Conférence des Eglises de Toute l’Afrique), les Eglises et mouvements de jeunes. Les chrétiens ont été à l’avant garde de la création des universités en Europe, au Moyen Age. Nous chrétiennes et chrétiens des Eglises d’Afrique, nous devons être à l’avant garde de la recréation des universités africaines en ce début de millénaire.

2. Développer des universités populaires Les universités populaires s’inscrivent dans la perspective de la popularisation des savoirs et surtout de l’appropriation de ces savoirs par les populations locales.

A travers les universités populaires, il est aussi question de valoriser les savoirs empiriques endogènes qui se construisent par des pratiques quotidiennes. Ceci en leur dotant d’outils épistémologiques qui leur donneront la force scientifique nécessaire pour intégrer le monde des connaissances.

Dans nos villages, base arrière de nos sociétés, il y a là des vieux dépositaires d’énormes connaissances millénaires que nous n’exploitons pas vraiment et qui disparaissent malheureusement. Il y a aussi chez nos populations des pratiques sociales, des techniques rudimentaires qui peuvent être le point de départ d’une innovation scientifique. C’est à partir de nos villages, nos quartiers populaires, que nous élaborerons nos théories et concepts de développement, que nous bâtirons des rationalités africaines fortes et aptes à s’universaliser.

En temps qu’étudiant(e)s chrétien(ne)s, nous devons nous investir dans cette tâche. Elle suppose de nous, d’abandonner nos présupposés idéologique et épistémologique. De rompre avec cette tendance des universitaires africains à vivre cloisonnés, coupés des dynamiques sociales qui s’opèrent à la base.

11 KA Mana, Théologie du Bonheur Partagé, une Réponse de l’Eglise africaine au défi de la mondialisation. Yaoundlé, 2001.

54 Bertrand TIENTCHEU Nous devons écouter nos ancêtres, nos parents et grands-parents dans nos villages, nos populations. Ils ont beaucoup à nous dire, à nous enseigner. Cette humilité intellectuelle manque à beaucoup de jeunes universitaires africains aujourd’hui. Du haut de leurs savoirs académiques ronflant et souvent vides, ils minorent ces savoirs endogènes qu’ils considèrent comme inaptes à toute rationalisation, à toute modernité. Ce qui est un leurre.

Bibliographie Action Universitaire Chrétienne, Rapport d’activités 2002.

BOULAGA Eboussi Fabien, L’honneur de penser. Terroirs (Revue africaine des sciences sociales), 1992/1.

CHARLE Christophe – VERGER Jacques, Histoire des Universités. Paris, 1994.

KA Mana, L’Afrique va-t-elle mourir? Essai d’éthique politique. Paris, 1991 et 1993.

KA Mana, Eglise Africaine et la théologie de la Reconstruction. Réflexions sur les nouveaux appels de la mission en Afrique. Bulletin du Centre Protestant d’Etudes. 1994/4–5.

KA Mana, Chrétiens et Eglises d’Afrique : pensée l’avenir. Yaoundé-Lomé, 1999.

KA Mana, Le souffle pharaonique de Jésus-Christ. Yaoundé, 2001.

KA Mana, Théologie du Bonheur Partagé, une Réponse de l’Eglise africaine au défi de la mondialisation. Yaoundé, 2001.

KA Mana, Sciences sociales et nouvelle humanité africaine. http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/ MotsPluriels/MP2403.pkm.html KANGE Ewane Fabien, Défis aux africains du troisième millénaire. Yaoundé, 2000.

MAALOUF Amin, Les identités meurtrières. Paris, 1998.

MONGO Beti, La France contre l’Afrique Retour au Cameroun. Paris, 1993.

MVENG Engelbert, Paupérisation et Développement en Afrique. Terroirs (Revue africaine des sciences sociales), 1992/1.

OUAMBA Fabien, L’Afrique entre violence et paix: les exigences d’une culture de la non-violence, Dialogue et Réconciliation 2002/2.

TRAORE Aminata, L’Etau, L’Afrique dans un monde sans frontières. Paris, 1999.

VILAIN Pierre, Les Chrétiens et la Mondialisation. Paris, 2002.

ZIEGLER Jean, Les Nouveaux Maîtres du monde et ceux qui leur résistent. Paris, 2002.

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Bertrand TIENTCHEU: Crisis de África, Crisis de nuestra inteligencia: pensando y construyendo la nueva Universidad Africana para el renacimiento de África África está enfrentando hoy una grave situación de crisis a nivel político, económico y social. Las instituciones son frágiles. El continente es cada vez más y más marginado en la actual economía global competitiva. La causa de la enfermedad africana es la ausencia de pensamiento. Nuestra crisis es más bien antropológica: la crisis de nuestro ser. La reconstrucción de África será posible mediante la renovación del pueblo africano y su inteligencia. Ello significa el repensar y reconstruir la universidad africana, la cual no llega a producir herramientas epistemológicas que les permita a los jóvenes intelectuales africanos transformar sus contextos. El artículo propone un proyecto de la Nueva Universidad Africana, la cual podría comenzar al desarrollarse áreas alternativas, donde los jóvenes puedan mejorar sus capacidades intelectuales. A través de estudios e investigaciones por sí mismos, y a través de la lectura y el debate, podrían llegar a dominar los grandes conceptos que guían los asuntos del mundo, con el objetivo de tener un positivo impacto en sus realidades. Los MECs, la FUMEC y las iglesias en África, podrían experimentar este renacer al transformar su red formando estas áreas.

Bertrand TIENTCHEU: Crisis of Africa, Crisis of our Intelligence: Thinking and Building the New African University for Africa’s Renaissance Africa is facing today a tremendous situation of crisis at the political, economic and social level. Institutions are fragile. The continent is more and more marginalized in the ongoing global competitive economy. The cause of the African illness is the absence of thought. Our crisis is rather an anthropological one: the crisis of our being. The reconstruction of Africa will be possible by renewing the African people and their intelligence. It means rethinking and rebuilding the African university, which cannot afford to produce epistemological tools that will enable young African intellectuals to transform their space of living. The article proposes a project of the New African University, which could be initiated by developing alternative areas where young people could improve their intellectual capacities through studies and research on their own, and through reading and debates; and thus master the great concepts which guide world affairs in order to positively impact their reality. The SCMs, WSCF and the churches in Africa could experience this renaissance by transforming their network to form such areas.

Serge TANKEU KEUSSEU De l’Afrique de la mort á l’Afrique de la vie Oh Afrique!

Toi que l’on considère comme le berceau de l’humanité.

Peux-tu encore te regarder dans une glace?

Peux-tu à ce chemin du millénaire être fier de toi?

Toi qui regarde tes enfants mourir tous les jours par milliers.

Toi qui te laisse rythmer au fil des jours par des guerres, des violences et des catastrophes de tout genre.

Toi qui participe passivement aux pleurs de tes enfants.

Toi, Afrique de la mort.

Combien étions-nous? Combien restons-nous?

Tu nous as laissés nous décimer, nous phagocyter, nous meurtrir au plus profond de nos âmes, Ne pouvons-nous pas aussi vivre dans la paix?

Ne pouvons-nous pas aussi vivre dans la dignité et le respect des droits de l’homme?

Sommes-nous créé(e)s pour souffrir ou pour trouver du plaisir aux souffrances de nos alter ego, Image comme nous de Dieu?

A cause des deuils, des cris, des lamentations et des pleurs, Nos cimetières sont pleins de nos sœurs et frères qui ne demandaient qu’à vivre.

Que répondrons nous au Seigneur au sujet des atrocités Que nous avons vu réaliser et que nous sommes entrain de réaliser?

Réponds-moi, Afrique.

J’ai la ferme conviction que: „le plus pénible n’est pas la misère ou la souffrance, c’est le manque d’espérance.”

J’ai la ferme assurance et ce par la foi que „Nous ne devons pas et devons plus perdre espoir car l’espérance Comme l’affirme les Saintes Écritures est cette force agissante Qui nous permet de transcender toutes les situations même les plus dramatiques.”

Nous devons rester sage et cesser de détruire nos biens et nous-mêmes.

Nous devons considérer et accepter nos faiblesses pour mieux bâtir notre identité, Notre force et ce en tenant compte de notre authenticité.

A présent, il est impératif: Que nous nous respections les uns(es) les autres.

Que nous nous pardonnions les uns(es) les autres.

Que nous nous acceptions tel que nous sommes avec nos différences, nos espérances.

Bref que nous respections la personne humaine et prônions ses droits et ses devoirs.

Penser et bâtir l’Afrique, telle est la tâche qui nous incombe aujourd’hui, jeunesse africaine.

Comme le dit si bien Deutéronome 1,6–7: „Vous avez assez demeuré dans cette montagne, maintenant levez le camp et avancez.”

Serge TANKEU KEUSSEU est le Président du Mouvement des Etudiants Protestants du Cameroun (MEPC), affilié à la FUACE. Pour tout commentaire à propos, bien vouloir écrire à l’adresse suivante: tankes2001@yahoo.fr.

Adam PRYOR

Clement of Alexandria’s Methodological Framework and its Relation to the Biblical Virtues in Light of Concepts of Faith, Knowledge, and Gnosis Philosophy’s relation to theology has always been a topic of much debate. From the time of the Pre-Socratics to our current age, philosophers and theologians alike have contested the degree to which these two methodologically similar disciplines are related. In the tract of this long lineage of discussion, Titus Flavius Clemens, better known as Clement of Alexandria, has made a significant contribution. His conception of the relationship between philosophy and theology as taking different paths to a single conception of truth opens the door for a host of theological issues that conflict with some of the dogmatics and doctrines of the Church. More import a n t l y, Clement’s attempt to incorporate philosophical thought as an aggrandizing principle in relation to the Biblical virtues resulted in a set of axiomatic statements and a methodological framework that is inexorably rooted in an anti-ecumenical paradigm, while simultaneously rooting itself in a solely faith-based perspective of Christianity that lays emphasis on the individual’s plight to act upon an everincreasing understanding of God’s call in this world for each of us.

Principles of Clement’s Theology Clement of Alexandria was born c. A.D. 150 to pagan parents. We know very little about the life of Clement beyond this. We know he had a thirst for knowledge and this led to him doing a great deal of traveling to places like Italy, Palestine and Syria, while searching for a satisfactory instructor. Eventually he met Pantænus at Alexandria and began to study there. Here he was ordained a presbyter and gave regular orations and instruction on the Christian faith c. 190.

Clement probably succeeded Pantænus c. 200 as head of the Catechetical Adam PRYOR is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.A., and is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He is working toward a double major in philosophy and theology with a minor in sacred music studies at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina. He is also a member of the Lenoir-Rhyne Chapter of the Lutheran Student Movement. His email address is PryorA@mail.lrc.edu.

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school; however, he soon left Alexandria in 202 when persecution broke out under Septimius Severus. The last years of Clement’s life are virtually unknown to us, although we can say he probably spent time in Cappadocia and Antioch and died somewhere between 211 and 216.

In light of the time of his writing and scholarly work that we possess, Clement is often referred to as the first Christian scholar. This is in great part owing to the era of history in which he wrote. Clement falls after the works of the Greek apologists but before many of the other theologians and scholars who later would begin to sprout up. His familiarity with both Scripture and the writings of pagan authors lent him acumen into the many different traditions of the time and added a deep erudition to his writings.

This girth of knowledge relating to pagan authors might be what left Clement with such an affinity for philosophy. In light of this, it is only logical that Clement propounded a theology that is tainted in its relationship to his concept of a single truth. In a sense, Clement’s theology, though not as systematic as the later philosophers and theologians, is centralized around two precepts that relate to all the pieces of his theology and originate from his singular conception of truth: “Knowledge is to be believed. Faith is to be known.”1

Knowledge and Wisdom It is with the first of these claims, “knowledge is to be believed,” that we will first concern ourselves with. In his conception of truth, Clement believed that all philosophers and theologians alike are struggling toward a common, singular truth. Under such an auspicious conception, Clement was able to preserve the notion that both philosophy and theology know truth by a direct action of God. Though some have proposed that Clement also claimed truth in philosophy because it took its best ideas from the Hebrews, this claim is both unsubstantiated and probably unwarranted. His Book V of the Protrepticos seems to overtly deny any claim to Greek philosophy borrowing from Hebraic culture. Judging from his familiarity with the lineage of conceptual precepts in the Pre-Socratics, it would have been evident to Clement that Greek thought was the result of a traceable lineage progressing from one philosopher to the next, originating in an independent Greek tradition.

This concept — that Clement claimed truth through direct divine action in philosophy — is further supported by the texts that Clement himself wrote. In fact, in his Exhortation to the Greeks, Clement makes comment of Plato in a way that lends his work to be unmistakably the product of divine action: “For there is a certain divine effluence instilled into all persons without exception, but especially into those who spend their lives in thought; wherefore they admit, even though against their will, that God is One, unbegotten and indestructible, and that somewhere on high in the outermost spaces of the heavens, in God’s own private watch-tower, God truly exists forever.” 2

1 GONZÁLEZ Justo L., A History of Christian Thought: From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon. Nashville, 1987. 194.

2 GONZÁLEZ, 192.

60 Adam PRYOR

Wisdom and Hermeneutics It is important to remember that despite Clement’s acknowledgment of truth being possessed in philosophy, he placed a high premium on the Scriptures. For Clement, the Scriptures were of ineffable value. They are the true word of God that is the most clear and austere construction of his divine action amongst us. As he so clearly stated, the Scriptures are “bare of embellishment, of outward beauty of language, of idle talk and flattery.”3 Nonetheless, Clement was a definite supporter of the allegorical interpretation of Scripture. As such, any passage of Scripture has both a primary or literal meaning and a more profound secondary or spiritual meaning. “Christian teaching puts truth in simple form so that the humblest may at once understand as much of it as is necessary to ensure one’s salvation.”4 In Clement’s hermeneutic, however, he distinguished two very important principles that must be in constant consideration during the Biblical exegesis involved in the discernment of spiritual meaning. The first is that any allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures must not disregard the primary or literal meaning of the text being considered (so long as that primary meaning does not deny known facts of God’s character). The second principle is that any text being considered must be interpreted from the perspective of the rest of the Scriptures.

It is only fitting, in light of Clement’s spectrum of attainable knowledge through many media and his methodology of Scriptural exegesis and hermeneutics, that Clement would believe there exists a ‘true gnosis’ that is not attainable except through constant search for the truth. This gnosis is both intellectual and ethical in character and is achieved through an amalgamation of the virtues gained from the various methodologies by which a person can come to understand God in greater depth.

The intellectual character of this gnosis is stated as an acknowledgement that “every kind of pre-eminence seems honourable in proportion to its worth.” The ethical might be better termed the “actual” or “effective”; the side of this gnosis is described as one who “pays service to God by one’s constant self-discipline and by cherishing that which is divine in oneself in the way of unremitting charity.”5 For Clement, it was important to note that the Gnostic is the only true lover of God in the most profound sense.

Acting on Reasoned Principles In many ways, perhaps the best method for understanding Clement’s concept of the Gnostic is not as one would understand the term from the earlier perspective of Gnosticism, but as a person who has chosen to enact those values which one has come to know through the reason of philosophy and allegorical exegesis of the Scriptures. In this way, Clement’s concept of the Gnostic is merely one who acts on reasoned principles.

Perhaps such an interpretation is too sympathetic to Clement’s position; however, it does seem to have some validity. Such a conception accounts for some of his more philosophic positions that seem contrary to Scripture, such as the Gnostic 3 CLEMENT of Alexandria, The Exhortation to the Greeks (tr. Buttersworth G. W.). Cambridge, 1960. 173.

4 CLEMENT of Alexandria, The Exhortation to the Greeks. In Clement of Alexandria (tr. Buttersworth G. W.). Cambridge, 1960. 173.

5 CLEMENT of Alexandria, On Spiritual Perfection. In BAILLIE John – McNeill John T. – VAN DUSEN Henry P. (eds.), The Library of Christian Classics: Alexandrian Christianity. Philadelphia, 1954. 94.

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putting oneself before others and the use of a form of virtues as ethics in order to describe the actions of the Gnostic.

This use of virtues as a means to ethics is interesting in its distinctness from Greek philosophy, which saw the attainment of virtue as a form of ethic. Such a conception of the relationship between action and intellect makes Clement’s ‘true gnosis’ a part of his methodological framework (as the connective tissue between thought and its implement into ethical action) rather than an aspect of his theological perspective.

This slight but notable distinction is identified in passages such as, “Prudence and justice he employs for the acquisition of wisdom, and humanity not only in enduring misfortunes, but also in controlling pleasure and desire and pain and anger, and generally in withstanding all that sways the soul either by force or guile.”6 It is in light of these three principles (acknowledgement of the truth in philosophy, Biblical hermeneutic, and the concept of a ‘true gnosis’) that we can understand Clement’s methodological framework for a complete theology. It is upon these methodological principles that he built the rest of his more systematic concept of theology.7

Redefining Faith and Knowledge The reliance of Clement’s theology as system upon his methodological framework is nowhere clearer than in his conceptions of soteriology and anthropology.

His concept of human as developmental (similar to Irenæus) was directly informed by his faith in a single truth. The statement “knowledge is to be believed” can be a reference to the ever-striving nature of humankind to become something better than oneself; that is to say, to become more like God. In his soteriology, Clement identified four basic principles: divine providence is absolutely supreme and beneficent; God’s plan of salvation is humanitarian, not individualistic, in outlook; God’s power persuades freedom; and divine punishment is purifying. Certainly, such a concept of the salvation of human can come only from an allegorical interpretation of Scripture. It is also clearly informed (insofar as this soteriological concept is influenced by a persuaded freedom) by the ‘true gnosis’ that calls us as Christians to strive toward the truth of God. Finally, Clement’s use of divine punishment as purification was a direct result of the intrinsically good nature of God that we come to know through both the Scriptures and reason. Clement attempts throughout his work not to emphasize the use of reason or Scripture as dialectic, but rather he views them as associated tools for advancement. For him, both are necessary to achieving the ‘true gnosis.’

As such, these two principles are complementary tools that help the Christian in different ways; this necessarily means that to compare the two and make an attempt to evaluate which is more useful is null and void, since both are needed for different reasons. In light of this, it is clear how the methodological framework influences the actual precepts and constructs of the elements in his systematic or thematic theology.

6 CLEMENT of Alexandria, On Spiritual Perfection. In BAILLIE John – MCNEILL John T. – VAN DUSEN Henry P. (eds.), The Library of Christian Classics: Alexandrian Christianity. Philadelphia, 1954. 93–165.; CROSS F. L., The Early Christian Fathers. London, 1960. 103.

7 Some of his work, however, is a formidable exception to this systematic end. This observation is made in reference to the intentional ordering of his Exhortation to the Greeks and the Instructor in contra to the fundamental unsystematic structure of the Stromata. The latter is probably only a set of notes that would have been used to write a more ordered and systematic rendering of the materials.

62 Adam PRYOR This methodological framework is the most original and thought-provoking aspect of Clement’s concept of theology. For him, the base of all theological knowledge was in an accepted position of faith. This was a radical shift from what to past generations of theologians was simply an acknowledged criterion of truth and knowing.

However, it was also an even more radical diatribe against the theology of Anselm and Thomas Aquinas that would come later. Clement’s own writings show that to prove the existence of God or truth by scientific method is not possible; rather we must accept the existence of God or this fundamental truth by faith. As he clearly stated: “Again, mere persuasive arguments are too superficial in their nature to establish the truth on scientific grounds, but Greek philosophy does, as it were, provide for the soul the preliminary cleansing and training required for the reception of the faith, on which foundation the truth builds up the edifice of knowledge.” 8

Faith is to be Known Since such a premium is placed on faith in the roots of Clement’s theology, it is more understandable how he could affirm the statement “knowledge is to be believed; faith is to be known.” For Clement, his theology grounded itself in the fundamental concepts of faith as “knowledge” of those things that cannot be known by the rational intellect.

His statement on belief in knowledge was an effort to illustrate that the ideals of science and reason are but means to solidifying and justifying faith, though not in its entirety. Furthermore, these seemingly fundamental truths are actually from God and taken in the light of the Scriptures, they inform us of God’s character.

Yet Clement knew all this knowledge is underpinned by faith and can only be believed. Interpreted as such (which seems to be a fair rendering in light of his theological positions and methodological framework) Clement’s theological conception of faith seems quite similar to that of the existential theologians, or vice versa.

Since Clement stated, “faith is to be known,” to use the root “know” in his statement of faith is a bit confusing. It seems to fit within the framework of his theology to state that “known” could be replaced by “hoped for” in the Biblical sense.

This hope in faith is, in my conception, a theological formulation of passages from Scripture, such as: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible” (Hebrews 11:1–3). As such, Clement was not trying to say that “faith is to be known” in the sense of knowledge as we would consider it, but as assurance from God that is strengthened by our empirical sensation.

Yet, there is an element to this axiomatic statement of Clement that we must address. As of now, it addresses the concepts of faith and hope, but this sets up only a theoretical framework that lacks real action in the world. Clement expressed strongly his disapproval of a solely conceptual practice of the Christian faith.

8 On Spiritual Perfection. 104.

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He compared it to the athlete who has the desire to compete but does not actually train.9 Rather, it is by sharing the love of Christ, or acting within the guidelines of moral rigor as set forth by Christ, that we live the truly Christian life. Such a conception sounds quite similar to Paul’s concept of informed (in this case loving) action in 1 Corinthians 13 or later formulations of the relationship of works being a predicate to or symbol of faith.

True Gnosis as Truly Christian As such, perhaps we should extend Clement’s axiomatic formulation of his theology to, “knowledge is to be believed; faith is to be known (hoped for); love is the expression of faith.” With this third axiomatic statement, there is a directly relational element between the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love, the axiomatic expression of Clement’s theology; and the methodological framework that is a direct product of his axiom of Christianity. Clement’s own writings even hint at this relationship, though it is not expressed so clearly or directly: “But let one come and subject oneself to reason as trainer and to Christ as mast of the contests. Let one’s appointed food and drink be the Lord’s new covenant, one’s exercise the commandments, one’s grace and adornment the fair virtues of love, faith, hope, knowledge of the truth, goodness, gentleness, compassion, gravity; in order that, when the last trumpet signals the end of the race and one’s departure from the present life as from a course, one may with a good conscience stand before the judge a victor, admitted to be worthy of the motherland above, into which with angelic crowns and proclamations one now ascends.”10 The subject of this entire passage is the rich Christian. However, we can interpret the passage in reference to any Christian person and it does not lose its strength and meaning. Although the relationship between the three Christian virtues and Clement’s methodology towards theological construct might seem a bit of a stretch, I believe it is important for us to consider and interpret Clement’s writings in light of his own historical setting.

Clement lived in a world that had no conception of deontological ethics and in a place that was a melting pot of theological, philosophical, scientific and mathematical ideas. In light of this, it would only be natural for Clement to try to incorporate the truth of other paradigms of knowledge into his own.

Furthermore, it would be only natural for him to set forth a theological conception of ethics rooted in virtue, since nearly all ethical theory that led up to this point in history was at heart an expression of the espousal of specific virtues.

Considered and interpreted in this light, Clement’s theology becomes a product of his historic-cultural setting that is most definitely going to set its paradigm of Christianity in the abilities and strengths of the individual.

Faithful Gnostic Though this sympathetic interpretation of Clement acknowledges aspects of his methodology are deeply rooted in the Scriptures and are not aberrant to our knowledge of the character of God, it is unable to defend the most glaring problem of Clement’s theology: ‘true gnosis.’

9 CLEMENT of Alexandria, The Rich Man’s Salvation. In Clement of Alexandria (tr. BUTTERSWORTH G. W.). Cambridge, 1960. 277.

10 The Rich Man’s Salvation

64 Adam PRYOR His concept of the ‘true gnosis’ does undeniable and irreconcilable damage to the concept of ecclesiology in the Church. The hierarchy set in place by this notion and its emphasis on a special revelation that is not attainable for all Christians denies the importance of the Church and the Christian community.

When ‘true gnosis’ is considered, as it is here, as the theological expression of the need for action or love as a Christian virtue, the blow it renders to ecclesiology is diminished but not vanquished. In the end, regardless of the effects the ‘true gnosis’ has on the Christian conception of ecclesiology, Clement’s description of the one who attains it is something that is an effrontery to our standard Christian conception of humanity as a fallen sinful creature.

For Clement, the Gnostic seemed not to resemble a person who would be a threat to Church doctrine and dogmatics in any way, but was a person of passion for the Lord. His description must inevitably make one question whether his doctrine of ‘true gnosis’ is heretical, or whether there is a need for the Church to revise her concept of ecclesiology and lay greater influence upon the individual’s relationship with and calling from one’s Creator.

At any rate, one who has received a clear conception of the things concerning God from the mystical chorus of the truth itself, makes use of the word of exhortation, exhibiting the greatness of virtue according to its worth, both in itself and in its effects, being united as intimately as possible with things intellectual and spiritual in the way of knowledge along with an inspired exaltation of prayer.

Hence one is always meek and gentle, affable, easy of access, forbearing, considerate and conscientious. In this person we have a severity of virtue, such as is not only proof against corruption, but proof against temptation also. This person presents a soul altogether unyielding and impregnable whether to the assaults of pleasure or of pain.

If reason calls this person to it, one is an unswerving judge, in no respect indulging one’s passions, but keeping inflexibly to the path in which it is the nature of justice to walk, being fully persuaded that all things are admirably ordered, and that, for the souls which have made choice of virtue, progress is always in the direction of what is better, until they arrive at the Absolute Goodness, being brought close to the great High Priest, in the vestibule, so to speak, of the Father. This is the faithful Gnostic who is fully persuaded that all things in the world are ordered for the best. Certainly this person is well pleased with all that happens.

Suggested Reading CLEMENT of Alexandria, The Exhortation to the Greeks. In CLEMENT of Alexandria (tr. BUTTERSWORTH G. W.). Cambridge, 1960. 3–263.

CLEMENT of Alexandria, The Rich Man’s Salvation. In CLEMENT of Alexandria (tr. BUTTERSWORTH G. W.). Cambridge, 1960. 265–367.

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CLEMENT of Alexandria, On Spiritual Perfection, Miscellanies, Book VII. In The Library of Christian Classics: Alexandrian Christianity. eds. BAILLIE John, MCNEILL John T., and VAN DUSEN Henry P., Philadelphia, 1954. 93–165.

CROSS F. L., The Early Christian Fathers. London, 1960.

DENISE Kimber Buell, Producing Descent-Dissent: Clement of Alexandria’s Use of Filial Metaphors as Intra-Christian Polemic. Harvard Theological Review 1997/1. 89–105.

GONZÁLEZ Justo L., A History of Christian Thought: From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon. Nashville, 1987.

HANDY Robert T. – L OTZ David W. – NORRIS Richard A. – WALKER Williston, A History of the Christian Church. New York, 1985.

SACHS John R., Apocatastasis in Patristic Theology. Theological Studies 1993/4. 617–641.

Adam PRYOR: Le cadre méthodologique de Clément d’Alexandrie et sa relation avec les vertus bibliques à la lumière des concepts de Foi, Connaissance et Gnose Nous pourrions être juste en proclamant que Clément d’Alexandrie a été le premier Père de l’Eglise à faire une travail sérieux dans le domaine de la philosophie de la religion. Ses travaux à propos, s’opèrent sous la condition selon laquelle la philosophie et la théologie sont différentes méthodologies qui convergent vers la même vérité universelle (notion qui est en contradiction avec plusieurs doctrines et dogmes de l’Eglise aujourd’hui). L’effort de Clément d’incorporer la pensée philosophique comme principe agrandissant en relation avec les vertus bibliques a abouti sur une série d’énoncés axiomatiques et de cadres méthodologiques qui sont inexorablement enracinés dans un paradigme anti-œcuménique et simultanément s’enracinent dans une perspective de la foi chrétienne qui met l’accent sur la situation individuelle pour agir dans une l’optique d’une compréhension toujours croissante de l’appel de Dieu dans le monde pour chacun de nous. Pour Clément, la Gnose n’est pas une menace pour l’Eglise, mais est représentative d’une personne ayant un grand zèle pour Dieu et est un caractère essentiel pour l’Eglise moderne.

Adam PRYOR: Esquema Metodológico de Clemente de Alejandría y su relación con las virtudes bíblicas, a la luz de los conceptos de la fe, el conocimiento y la gnosis Estamos en lo correcto al afirmar que Clemente de Alejandría fue el primer padre de la Iglesia, que hizo un trabajo serio en el área de la filosofía de la religión. Su trabajo en este sentido opera bajo la condición expresa de que la filosofía y la teología son metodologías diferentes que apuntan hacia la misma verdad universal – una noción que está en conflicto directo con muchas doctrinas y dogmas de la Iglesia hoy.

El intento de Clemente de incorporar el pensamiento filosófico como un principio amplificador en relación con las virtudes Bíblicas, resultó en un grupo de afirmaciones axiomáticas y un marco metodológico que está inexorablemente enraizado en un paradigma antiecuménico, mientras que simultáneamente se enraíza en una fe únicamente basada en la perspectiva cristiana, que hace énfasis en la situación del individuo, para que actúe en una constante elevación de su conocimiento del llamado de Dios a cada uno de nosotros en este mundo. Para Clemente, los gnósticos no son una amenaza para la Iglesia, sin embargo al mismo tiempo es la personificación del celo por Dios, y es un personaje esencial para la Iglesia moderna.

Vasilios THERMOS

I Forgive, Therefore I Am: Forgiveness as Fullness of Life Forgiveness has been especially praised by our Lord as the virtue that likens humanity to God (Matthew 5,43–48). One could wonder, why this honour? We shall attempt to investigate this extraordinary quality by commenting on the ontology prevalent in ecclesiastical life and psychotherapeutic work. Probably there is no need to explain why we put this emphasis on forgiveness today: we can hardly live a day without being involved in problematic relationships, while many suffer from psychological complications stemming from their inability to fully forgive parents, spouses, and other persons who entered their life.

Natural Human Bonds The failure to forgive is really remarkable, even among people who strongly wish to forgive. The content of forgiveness remains difficult to capture, given that quite often we encounter just a so-called forgiveness or an unreliable sort of forgiveness. Many faithful are willing to swear that they have forgiven completely the persons who offended them, but their forgiveness proves rather fragile under problematic circumstances, or merely with growth or passage of time.

Psychoanalysis has contributed to the undoing of certainties by articulating its theory of illusion-building defence mechanisms, such as repression, denial, reaction formation and rationalization.

Many people, religious or not, persuade themselves that they have forgiven, whereas in reality they have simply forgotten or do not hate. Is it adequate? What is forgiveness at the end of the day? On which theoretical basis can it be considered a value? Is ineffectual forgiveness simply a matter of personal sinfulness and imperfection, or a shortcoming to which the collective ecclesiastical mentality contributes? And finally, why forgive?

There have been various answers to this last question, which could be classified in the following groups: Conventional forgiveness: if we are pragmatic and provident, we have no other choice in order to avoid turning our life into a jungle.

Rev. Vasilios THERMOS is an Orthodox theologian and priest from Greece. He is a psychiatrist for children and adolescents in private practice. He holds a PhD from the Theological School of Athens University on the psychology of priestly vocation. He has studied as a Visiting Scholar in Harvard Divinity School, Boston College, and Andover Newton. He has been engaged in training clergy and giving lectures. His In Search of the Person: True and False Self according to Donald Winnicott and Saint Gregory Palamas has been published in Montreal in 2002. His email address is thermosv@otenet.gr.

68 Vasilios THERMOS Forgiveness out of empathic mutuality: we remember our own sins and faults, so we find ourselves inclined to forgive too. Forgiveness as a source of inner peace: we have to forgive in order to find relief and serenity; if not, we are the ones to pay the price.

All three types of forgiveness can be found outside religions as well. A fourth one is present only inside them: submission to the Lord’s commandment. We forgive because God commanded us to do so. Very often all four are endorsed by spiritual mothers and fathers. Although they are not trivial and useless but rather observe developmental stages,1 they promote forgiveness out of a motivation to profit, more or less. I find it appropriate for Christian spiritual life to search for a reason more elaborated theologically than profit. To forgive out of what ontology?

Another way to articulate this question is: which kind of bonds among humans should be conceived so that forgiveness comes naturally out of them? The issue becomes more critical in the light of the invasion of Eastern spiritualities into Western psychotherapies. Especially in the United States, therapists have amazingly surrendered to such bizarre, obscure or even dangerous religious ideas, which carry their own interpersonal visions, and this trend is being exported.

Under these ontologies forgiveness can be seen as a way to restore the consequences of the evil called desire; or as a path to regain unity with the universe; or as a means to increase positive energy etc.

Retaliation and Destruction All anthropocentric versions of forgiveness constitute a challenge to Orthodox psychotherapists, let alone the clergy. The idea, of course, is not to make our differentiation an end unto itself (because we do not form our identity negatively, as distinct from others) but to examine our theological resources and derive from them.

Before doing so I shall start with Donald W INNICOTT and his remarkable thoughts on destructiveness. Although he develops them in an analytic context, they can be applied in interpersonal relationships as well because the same laws prevail. Thus he writes that prior to the destructive attack, the subject does not have a clear and proper idea about the object; that is why one hits.

It reminds us of Saint John CHRYSOSTOM who says: “During the night we are unable to discern even our friend; the same happens with hostility. ... Also in winter, the clouds do not allow us to enjoy the beauty of the sky. ... This is the way hostility acts: it distorts views and voices. But if we put it aside we are able to see and listen with correct and fair thought.” 2 These are vivid pictures to describe our imaginary domain.

WINNICOTT further proceeds with a remark of teleological significance. “It is the destruction of the object that places the object outside the area of omnipotent control,”3 outside the realm of the subject’s distorted imaginary perceptions; by doing so the subject is enabled to use the object in a functional and constructive way. The necessary presupposition for this outcome is that the object survives the attack.

1 Forgivness has been correlated to human development in articles ENRIGHT R. D. - SANTOS M. J. D. -AL-MABUK R. The Adolescent as Forgiver. Journal of Adolescence 1989, n. 12, p. 95–110. Enright R. D. – Gassin E. A. – CHING-RU WU Forgiveness: a Development View. Journal of Moral Education 1992/2. 99–114.

2 Saint John CHRYSOSTOM On David and Saul (Third Homily). 5–6. (Translation mine.)

3 WINNICOTT D. W. Playing and Reality. London, 1991. 90.

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It is interesting what W INNICOTT means by this survival. In addition to the idea that the attacked object must not be damaged – and more than this – “survive in this context means not retaliate.” He explains the same ideas in a different context, residential care for violent children: “Your job is to survive. In this setting the word survive means not only that you live through it and that you manage not to get damaged, but also that you are not provoked into vindictiveness. If you survive, then and only then you may find yourself used in quite a natural way by the child, who is becoming a person and who is newly able to make a gesture of a rather simplified loving nature.” 4 To the degree that the victim avenges her- or himself, she or he remains entrapped in the attacker’s imaginary net, in the unreal world of shadows; a genuine encounter has not yet taken place. The attack offers the other the opportunity to change things into a real relationship, functions as an atypical yell: “I need you.”

There are people who hate and cause harm in order to create a kind of healthier relationship. Unconsciously they wish to get rid of their own projections in which they have been trapped and which distort the reality and the other; therefore by attacking they give their victims the possibility to free themselves of their own omnipotent imaginary control. Whether it will happen or not depends on the victim’s reaction. Revenge of any type will be a perfect failure. Impressive examples of sinners, torturers included, converting when they are granted a saint’s forgiveness can be found in Church history.

Revenge as Death One cannot ignore the fact that WINNICOTT equates revenge to death. At the same time one cannot help but wonder: What does it mean? Death on which level? Psychological or ontological? It is not the first time WINNICOTT draws our attention to the convergence between psychological and ontological parameters.

Obviously this is a death of psychological (more precisely: imaginary) nature: by undergoing vindictiveness, the attacker becomes assured of her or his own killing power and the real world dies once more. At the same time, the attacker confirms wrong representations of her or his own psyche and personality, thus leaving its omnipotent fantasies intact. In one’s unconscious imagination, one has killed the victim. In addition to the Patristic context, now we come upon a secular affirmation that lack of love is death.

But this is a point for extension. Although resentment and revenge are often accompanied by the dark burden of psychological death – that is, by a depressive core of the psyche or depressive equivalents – nevertheless in this context the problem is what we would call the ontological level of death, which is the absence of communion. The Bible and Church Fathers agree on this, but I will deal with it shortly.

The important issue here is that we may spiritually die, not because of the attack, but because of our resentment and revenge. The person who attacks may

4 WINNICOTT D. W. Deprivation and Delinquency. London, 1994. 227.

70 Vasilios THERMOS already be ontologically dead (“Be merciful to the evil-doer because he destroys himself ... This is the nature of wickedness” 5), but the victim’s ontological death is not at the offender’s hands; it depends absolutely on the victim’s will and spiritual confrontation. In the light of the above, we seek a forgiveness which is neither reduced to condescension nor to extenuation.

Forgiveness out of Communion Theologically, this forgiveness blossoms out of the notion of communion. Based on the ground of the one and common nature of humanity, the Church always saw the very essence of being in communion, which is much more than relationship, the contemporary public obsession. Love substantializes the self because it fulfils the truth of creation, which is the divine logoi, the preconceived will of God. The shift from ontological priority to psychological prevalence, which is nowadays universal, has almost deprived us of the “receptors” necessary to recognize others as our own life. We no longer define our lives in terms of communion, but in terms of individualistic criteria. This is what makes forgiveness difficult today; compared to this, personal narcissism (admittedly inflated in our years) contributes rather meagrely.

The harm is fed by factors acting on a level no longer familiar, because we have lost from our view the distinction between the psychological and the ontological level. The Western subject faces discussions about ontological death as a foreign language; death and life are understood in terms of psychological experience. If I feel alive, I am alive; if I feel loving, I am; if I feel peaceful, I am.

Adopting the psychological model and applying it in the Church betrays the theological truth of humanity. One may feel peaceful by recruiting various psychological mechanisms, while simultaneously remaining alienated from real peace because true forgiveness has not taken place. Another may be sure she or he loves, but this “love” is achieved by disdaining or depreciating the poor sinner in a way similar to the Pharisee’s.

To help us assimilate the need for a deep unity, Saint John of SINAI provided us with the following diagnostic criterion of forgiveness: “Putrefaction will come not when you pray for the person who offended you, not when you give him presents, not when you invite him to share a meal with you, but only when, on hearing of some catastrophe that has afflicted him in body or soul, you suffer and you lament for him as if for yourself.”6 In other words, when you feel the person as a part of yourself.

Precedence of Forgiveness Through incarnation, Jesus Christ entered human territory and became part of human unity. Now our nature is bound to the Deity in Him. Starting from these two unities – the horizontal and the vertical – as a basis, Saint MAXIMUS explains why our Lord put as a presupposition of forgiving our sins the forgiveness we offer to our offenders. At first glance it seems paradoxical that we are taught in the Lord’s Prayer to bring ourselves to God as models. His interpretation however sheds light on the question: 5 Saint John CHRYSOSTOM Homily on Psalm 7 (Translation mine.)

6 Saint John of SINAI The Ladder of Divine Ascent. New York, 1982. 153.

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“And for God he makes himself an example of virtue, if one can say this, and invites the inimitable to imitate him by saying, ‘Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,’ ... so as not to be accused of dividing nature by his free will by separating himself as human from any other humans. For since free will has been thus united to the principle of nature, the reconciliation of God with nature comes about naturally, for otherwise it is not possible for nature in rebellion against itself by free will to receive the inexpressible divine condescension. And it is perhaps for this reason that God wants us first to be reconciled with each other, not to learn from us how to be reconciled with sinners and to agree to wipe away the penalty of their numerous and ugly crimes, but to purify us from the passions and to show that the disposition of those who are forgiven accords with the state of grace. He has made it very clear that when the intention has been united to the principle of nature, the free choice of those who have kept it so will not be in conflict with God, since nothing is considered unreasonable in the principle of nature, which is as well a natural and a divine law, when the movement of free will is made in conformity with it. ... In these words the Scripture makes us see how the one who does not perfectly forgive those who offend him and who does not present to God a heart purified of rancour and shining with the light of reconciliation with one’s neighbour will lose the grace of the blessing for which he prays. Moreover, by a just judgment, he will be delivered over to temptation and to evil in order to learn how to cleanse himself of his faults by cancelling his complaints against another.”7 This excerpt explains why petition for forgiveness precedes the one for redemption from temptation. But above all it interprets the Lord’s command: “First be reconciled to your sister or brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5,24). Obviously resentment disrupts the unity of human nature, so it is also impossible to be united to God, no matter how many prayers one recites or how many good works one presents, unless one forgives.

Unity with God takes place only in Christ, Who took on human nature; thus by resentment or hostility and the like, we are separated from Him as well. We would be right in saying that a genuine forgiveness can sweep all sins and lead to salvation, not by virtue of a moral superiority, but because of its ontological potential. Furthermore, Jesus asked for reconciliation in order to offer gifts to the Liturgy and to participate in the Holy Communion. That is why it is called Communion.

Logos of Unity Some people find reason enough for resentment in the fact that the other is simply different. They cannot tolerate difference, although very often this difference is the basic motivation for closeness, as in marriage. Saint MAXIMUS here speaks about a “relational logos” or “logos of unity” of opposite entities to describe their implanted tension to unite; thus difference is secondary and serves unity.8 In the writings of Saint John of SINAI and Saint MAXIMUS, it is implied that the 7 MAXIMUS Confessor Commentary on the "Our Father...". In Selected Writings (ed. BERTHOLD George C.). New York, 1985.

115–116.

8 MAXIMUS Confessor Various Chapters, 2, 64, P. G. 90. 1244C.

72 Vasilios THERMOS necessity for forgiveness is founded on the need for unity of our common human nature and on its reception by Jesus Christ, Who has now become our archetype.

By loving us as members of His own flesh, He indicates a quite new way of being which does not tolerate disruption. He introduces a mentality that has forgiveness as its natural consequence.

It is the same way of being that leads someone to pray for the other as if it was for oneself, or to repent for others’ sins as if they were one’s own. Archimandrite SOPHRONY has commented on Christ’s Prayer at the night He was arrested and makes the important remark that everybody can imitate Christ in His prayer to the degree that one prays for the entire world and for forgiveness, viewing and feeling them as members of one’s own flesh. Father SOPHRONY adds that this is exactly the laity’s priesthood, the fulfilment of human destination, the fullness of life.9 A strong temptation for all of us now is to ask how these constitutional ideas apply in today’s ecclesiastical practice. By my own experience I can see among clergy and laity various subjective scales of virtues – corresponding to each one’s private theology – amazingly coinciding in rating forgiveness very low in significance.

People are not guided to love enemies and to accept opponents, to eagerly pray for others’ salvation and to humbly examine themselves in the light of their opponents’ accusations; instead they enjoy easy access to Holy Communion if they meet various rather trivial tasks, regardless of their masked indifference and disguised bitterness. Couples, families, friendships, kinship, teams, collaborations, even the Church herself, all suffer from the feeling that the other is a threat, not a blessing; our hell, not our heaven.

False Self and Structural Truth One major reason for this failure is the pervasive popularity of a kind of psychological spirituality, quite in concordance with the age of psychologism we witness nowadays. In this distortion of spirituality what counts is feeling, not depth; the spiritual is defined as the pious experience of self, not as the structural truth of the hypostasis.

With this distinction, the focus is on the difference between the affect and the existential attitude; one can find either without the other. One peak of this discrepancy dwells in morbidly affective personalities who focus on an idolatry of feelings, and thus are deceived by them. This is a peculiar kind of narcissism, although the subject may be devoted to religious works.

Conversely, it can be found in the phenomenon that W INNICOTT called false self: namely, the self who is alienated from body, feelings and desires, through inflation of the intellect (ratio). Often they are religious types, but at the deep ontological level they are almost atheists; they denounce the very core of religiosity, which is communion, by their own self-sufficiency.

A false self does not need to forgive, by thinking that she or he has no complaints or that has easily overcome them. Spiritual mothers and fathers might well be illprepared to identify a false self; rather they tend to get fascinated by it and to sur-

9 Archimandrite SOPHRONY We Shall See Him as He Is. Greek Edition, 377–389.

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render to those really assiduous and cooperative Church members. Spiritual mothers and fathers should become capable of discerning the harsh superego and its interference in interpersonal life, like illusions about the innocence of oneself or sadistic bitterness toward the other.

As Otto K ERNBERG writes, “The capacity to forgive others is usually a sign of a mature superego, stemming from having been able to recognize aggression and ambivalence in oneself and from the related capacity to accept the ambivalence that is unavoidable in intimate relations. Authentic forgiveness is an expression of a mature sense of morality, an acceptance of the pain that comes with the loss of illusions about self and other, faith in the possibility of the recovery of trust, the possibility that love will be recreated and maintained in spite of and beyond its aggressive components. Forgiveness based on naïveté or narcissistic grandiosity, however, has much less value in reconstructing the life of a couple.” 10 It is a kind of spiritual hedonism where one seeks for well-being and avoids reality; it is reality which calls for love. Psychological spirituality is actually a secular spirituality, an egocentric one which uses God as an alibi. The main motivation is thirst for power, and God is considered as the best means for this. It does not care for the other and for love, but only for the self; if works of love are present, they are reduced to external behaviour. That is why Saint PAUL says that you can give your body to be burned, but if you have not love, you are nothing. Not only does it profit you nothing, you are nothing” (1Corinthians 13,3).

Love for Enemies Forgiveness becomes a privileged topic for reassessing the meaning we give in spirituality. It forces us to decide whether we choose the individualism of psychological experiences as our guide, or we align ourselves to the ecclesiological virtue of love for all. Love is the essence of the Church because it is the ultimate quality of God; it is God’s single definition (1 John 4: 8).

Love is the only eschatological virtue, the only virtue that survives death and becomes the nature of the Kingdom to come. Thus the Church has been assigned the mission to reveal this Kingdom by the way she functions. Besides, this is the most effective way of witnessing about God in the world, of persuading people that it is worthwhile.

The mission is double. First, to preserve love among the members of the Church according to Jesus, Who declared: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13,35). Second, to react with love and forgiveness to those who fight the Church or the Christians, as the Lord and the martyrs did: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23,34).

Actually, Christ is the source of fullness of life; He is the Life (John 14,6) because He is the archetype of this double survival, as He both literally resurrected and forgave His persecutors. Resurrection becomes the tangible sign, appropriate for this metaphorical survival, concerning the death we dealt before.

10 KERNBERG Otto Love Relations. New Haven, 1995. 103.

74 Vasilios THERMOS Love for enemies becomes the peak achievement of love. As Metropolitan John ZIZIOULAS writes: “No other form of love is freer than this, and no other form of freedom is more suitable to be identified with love for enemies. … Love which does not expect reciprocity is truly ‘grace,’ namely freedom… Only when love and freedom coincide, is there a cure. Love without freedom and freedom without love are pathological situations and need therapy.”11 Freedom can induce embarrassment to psychological “schools”, because it emerges exactly at the point where they end. Psychology and psychotherapy have very little to say about freedom, as they deal basically with psychological laws.

They have, however, a strong motivation for inner freedom, as can be seen in many therapies a freedom from bad internal objects; actually this can be the best anthropocentric basis for forgiveness.

Salt of the Earth Another interesting point is the impact which this theology can have – and should have – on psychotherapy. As the latter has declined in numerable cases into a support and justification of egoistic demands, it has reached the worst consequences of Western individualistic tradition. Many psychotherapies find it natural to devote themselves to the mere removal of guilt and do no more than assure the individual that she or he can ask for anything as far as it does not harm any others; assertiveness training is often mistaken in this purpose.

Psychotherapy runs the risk of becoming a pillar of consumerism, a part of the capitalistic system, trying to fill the psychic void, as Philip CUSHMAN wrote with perspicacity.12 Moreover, Paul V ITZ thoroughly criticized what he calls selfism, which he finds relevant to moral egoism.13 They both fight an egocentric vision of relationships that is far from forgiving.

With ecclesiological ontology as a guide, standards are set high, which can explain why very few persons meet the criteria for true forgiveness. Undoubtedly the difficulty is real and the task will always be accomplished by few, but things become worse when Christians are not educated to give priority to such spirituality.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot” (Matthew 5,13). Church life is rarely oriented to exercise unconditional love, which is its very essence; instead she frequently cultivates the pursuit of mere pious psychological experience.

On the other hand, while pastoring, we should not apply this maximalistic theology without taking into consideration the developmental level of the faithful, who may not be capable of assimilating this demanding spiritual food at once.

Adjustment of spiritual diagnosis and guidance to each one’s developmental stage is a basic principle of Church life and an indication of true careful love.

Further research on the boundary between theology and psychology is required to provide answers to questions like, “Why the individualized variation of suscep11 ZIZIOULAS John Sickness and Therapy in Orthodox Theology, In Theology and Psychiatry in Dialogue. Athens, 1999. 133–156.

(Translation mine.)

12 CUSHMAN Philip Why the Self is Empty: Toward a Historically Situated Psychology. American Psychologist, 1990/5. 599–611.

13 VITZ Paul Psychology as Religion: the Cult of Self-Worship. Grand Rapids, 1994.

76 Vasilios THERMOS tibility to forgiveness?” or “Why do some people tend to behave more disruptively or revengefully in spite of their intentions?” or “How could we integrate this theology into therapy without superimposing it on the patient?” Obviously, they cannot be elaborated in this introductory article.

Orthodox theology should remain loyal to a constant dialogue with current psychological ontologies, in order to be able to fertilize them with a different morality, a process that will lead to their own evolution. The lack of ontology of love and unity in psychotherapy becomes a handicap, but in spirituality it is a disaster. It creates a dissonance between the will and the logos of human nature, so individuals remain split.

Elements of this split should be traced in today’s pastoral theology and catechesis, so that ecclesiastical life can become healthier and more spiritual. On the other hand, questions of self-criticism should be put by therapists (as “What does therapy mean in terms of love?” or “Which conception of human relationships is presupposed in order to promote forgiveness?” or “Which aspects of theology can psychological schools embody in order to be renewed?”) so that psychotherapeutic work might be built on a more therapeutically influential theory.

As far as we are concerned about the future of psychological theories and techniques, any convergence in the meaning of therapy should include the quest for unity and for the nature of human bonds. And to the degree we care for a more reliable presence of the Church in society, an emphasis on the spirituality of love and forgiveness is an undoubtedly solid ground, a real witness of Grace, a convincing indication of fullness of life.

Suggested Reading Saint John CHRYSOSTOM On David and Saul (Third Homily). 5–6. (Translation mine.)

Saint John CHRYSOSTOM Homily on Psalm 7. (Translation mine.)

MAXIMUS Confessor Selected Writings (ed. BERTHOLD George C.). New York, 1985.

Saint John of SINAI The Ladder of Divine Ascent. New York, 1982.

CUSHMAN Philip Why the Self is Empty: Toward a Historically Situated Psychology. American Psychologist, 1990/5. 599–611.

ENRIGHT R. D. – SANTOS M. J. D. – AL-MABUK R. The Adolescent as Forgiver. Journal of Adolescence 1989/12. 95–110.

ENRIGHT R. D. – GASSIN E. A. – CHING-RU Wu Forgiveness: a Development View. Journal of Moral Education 1992/2. 99–114.

KERNBERG Otto Love Relations. New Haven, 1995.

Archimandrite SOPHRONY We Shall See Him as He Is. Greek Edition.

VITZ Paul Psychology as Religion: the Cult of Self-Worship. Grand Rapids, 1994.

WINNICOTT D. W. Playing and Reality. London, 1991.

WINNICOTT D. W. Deprivation and Delinquency. London, 1994.

ZIZIOULAS John Sickness and Therapy in Orthodox Theology, In Theology and Psychiatry in Dialogue. Athens, 1999. 133–156. (Translation of the author.)

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Vasilios THERMOS: Je pardonne, donc je suis: Le Pardon comme profondeur de la vie Le pardon, malgré qu’il a été recommandé par notre Seigneur comme la vertu qui rend l’être humain assimilable à Dieu, est un concept qui est globalement mal compris et déformé dans la vie contemporaine. Cet article essaie d’explorer cette qualité extraordinaire en commentant l’ontologie qui prévaut dans la vie ecclésiastique et les travaux psychothérapeutiques. Le concept chrétien de pardon ne doit pas être réduit à la condescendance, ni à l’exténuation, mais doit plutôt tendre vers la notion de communion, du un et de la nature commune de l’humanité. L’unité avec Dieu se réalise uniquement en Christ, qui a pris la forme humaine, ainsi, le ressentiment ou l’hostilité à l’égard de notre prochain, causé par une refus de pardonner, nous sépare de Dieu aussi. Le pardon, conçu comme communion avec soi-même, Dieu et les êtres humains constitue un standard élevé pour le chrétien – beaucoup plus élevé que le standard demandé par la psychothérapie moderne qui se focalise sur une simple guérison de la culpabilité – mais c’est seulement en s’efforçant d’atteindre ce but noble que nous pouvons vraiment vivre la plénitude de la vie.

Vasilios THERMOS: Perdono, por lo tanto soy: el perdón como plenitud de vida El perdón es un concepto que ha sido ampliamente malentendido o distorsionado en la vida contemporánea; a pesar de que fue elogiado por nuestro Señor como la virtud que hace semejante los hombres a Dios. Este artículo pretende investigar esta extraordinaria cualidad al comentar sobre la ontología prevaleciente en la vida eclesiástica y en el trabajo psicoterapéutico. Un concepto cristiano de perdón no debe ser reducido a la condescendencia ni a la extenuación; antes bien ha de florecer a partir de la noción de la comunión, la única y común naturaleza humana. La unidad con Dios tiene lugar sólo en Cristo, quien tomó forma humana, por lo tanto los resentimientos u hostilidad hacia nuestros semejantes causados por una falla al perdonar, nos separa de Dios también. El perdón, entendido como la comunión con uno mismo, Dios y nuestros semejantes, plantea una gran exigencia al crisitiano/a – más alto que el que demanda la moderna psicoterapia, la cual se enfoca en la sola eliminación del sentimiento de culpa – sin embargo, solamente al esforzarnos hacia este elevado objetivo es que podemos alcanzar la plenitud de vida.

Jamie MORAN

Six Steps of Passion Let the ultimate be the starting point.

6. Sacrifice The most profound definition of passion is: what we will suffer and lose for Love (really, for the Truth of Love, which is the heart truth – not any abstracted truth, or a doctrinal truth, but a truth lived out to the full and discovered only by the human heart). Passion is the energy of love, its muscle, its outgoing and ‘put up or shut up’ outreach and thrust. Passion is what we will ‘do’ for what matters most to us, and indeed, what matters most in all the world. Passion is binding ourselves to what is at stake, for the sake of saving it.

God is a being of passion, and the deepest spiritual heart of a human being is thus a wrestling with passion, a struggling with and suffering of passion. For we suffer in the process of coming to terms with and agreeing, freely, to suffer for love. Passion, especially at its ultimate, is what we most want and most resist. It creates ambivalence and conflict in us, reflected in ‘how far we will go’ with its doing, its sacrifice and loss, for the sake of what is at stake. How staked to the ground will we be – or will we float off, up and away? Passion challenges us, yet nothing touches or moves us like passion.

“God is Fire”: this fire of passion seeks to kindle us to burn as it does, with ferocity and tenderness, anger for truth and compassion, long-suffering persistence and patience, but also unhesitating and undelaying ‘going for it’ and ‘striding in’ to it. In passion, we transcend the self by giving the self to the world, for the sake of the world. Passion is the deepest, most inexplicable and pained relation to the world: the relation of heart. Passion arises in the wound between heart and world: it only arises as the result of a wound inflicted on the heart by existence. Passion rises to what is hard, profound, mysterious, pained: it dies, or lapses back, to what is easy, shallow, take it or leave it. Passion is not erotic, it is dæmonic. God is not only a passionate being, but a dæmonic being. Thus, it is God who inflicts the wound of the dæmonic – not nature, not evil, not other humans. The dæmonic ‘deepens’ passion, and is thus necessary to passion passing from childlike enthusiasm to adult give-away and sacrifice. Passion seeks the deep, difficult, inexplicable and pained ‘truth’ of heart, in its relation to God, humanity and the world. In the end, passion ‘serves’ this truth, Jamie MORAN was born in the United States of America (USA), of Red Indian and Celtic descent, but he got married and works in England. At 22, he converted from Tibetan Buddhism to Russian Orthodox Christianity, and works as a therapist and senior lecturer on counselling and psychology at a university in London. He is writing a novel on the Red Indian problem in the American West of the XIXth century, and he is a sub-chief in the Cante Tenze (Brave Hearts) Warrior Society of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) at Pine Ridge, South Dakota. His email address is J.Moran@roehampton.ac.uk.

80 Jamie MORAN whatever its cost and consequences; it is the ‘honour’ of passion to bear the burden of paying the cost and undergoing the consequence: passion ends as the ‘give-away’ of ‘suffering love’. It serves not itself, but what matters to God and what matters to the world. Passion is self-transcending and self-emptying: it is the least self-pleasing force in humanity. That is why humans fear it, as well as yearn to be more ‘on fire’ with it. Passion is ecstatic. When we say to someone, “have a heart”, we are asking her or him to accept the wound and carry the burden of passion’s ecstasy.

There are less profound definitions of passion which point more to where passion begins. People do not start at the ultimate; they have to get there by living a certain way.

1. Innocent Enthusiasm Passion begins in the child, with what Søren KIERKEGAARD called our “thirst for the prodigious and the mysterious”. Another word for this is ‘enthusiasm’. Still another could be ‘inspiration’ – what gets you to your feet, what gets you going.

Always passion is what touches and moves us, moves us out of stasis into dynamism. Its energy gets our energy ‘up’ and gets this energy ‘going’. Many people lose childhood passion before adolescence, and show little or no passion in adult life. Of this tragedy it could be said: their spark was snuffed out, or killed off, before it really got going.

2. Taking a Stand The real forerunner of wounded, spiritualised, deepened passion is evident somewhere in the cusp between childhood and adulthood. Passion is our existential birth into the world that the adult faces, a world non-protective and non-flattering, a world of challenge. Ultimately, a world of ontological insecurity and ontological ungroundedness. There is a passion that reflects a mixture of the child’s innocent – indeed naïve – enthusiasm and the young adult’s beginning to rise to challenge. I call this ‘standing’. Passion is our ‘coming out’: emerging from the childhood egg and standing on the stage of adult existential reality. It is your passion that gets you out there. Passion gets you on your feet and keeps you there. It supports your whole outreach, and your whole thrust into something in the world, with which you take hold. Anita HARMON calls this type of early passion “walking on the stage (of life) with intention”. She adds, this is “where you are seen to enter and will not exit”. Here I stand, and I will not be shoved off, or shoved away; I will not be pushed down. I will stand my ground, and hold my ground.

Passion is, always, our deepest and most intentional motive, our motive to go forth and take hold, or in street lingo, to ‘step up and take it on.’ Or, ‘to have a go’, by ‘getting stuck in’. Passion is the arrow we shoot into the world: it is our most active motive of outreaching and outgoing. It is the basis for genuine existential ‘Action’.

Passion is a commitment toward what matters to us in existence, and our engagement with it. Ultimately, this grows into what people will sacrifice for the sake of what matters: first, outer things; second, inner psychological baggage; third, our very self. Passion is the energy of heart, and this is what heart ‘does’, actively, in relation to the world.

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The realm of meaning is vast and all-inclusive, but a person’s passion is what makes a selection from that: this occurs through ‘value’. A person values some more particular meaning, and thus that specific meaning becomes a ‘figure’, and the rest of the meaning landscape remains a ‘ground’. Passion is inherently moral in the broadest sense, because it is an inherent valuing of certain things as supremely meaningful, vitally mattering, purposeful, worthy of pursuing. Often the meaning world is confused to us, due to its near-infinite potentials and possibilities, but passion is what brings that world alive and into greater selective focus for each of us personally. Certain meanings become ‘energised’, and we stand on them, and start to stand for them. Certain things ‘stand out’, and we make our ‘stand’ for these things, not others.

To have no passion is to be in a state where nothing matters, a state of deadness, alienation, boredom, drift. No action directed at something important to the person. Nothing to stand up about, nothing to commit to and engage with. Nothing has value, nothing has purpose. At best, one can flit like a butterfly, promiscuously tasting different meanings, but one always moves on. There is never any adhesion to anything in particular, and thus there will never be any sweat, tears or blood shed for any given area of existence. Nothing has significance for us, or is worthy of our effort. Martin HEIDEGGER calls passion “care”. That nothing has meaning and value and purpose for us personally also entails there is nothing we ‘care about’ and ‘care for’. We do not attend, and so we do not tend anything.

Passion is our ‘tending toward’ which motivates us to ‘attend’ (look at) and ‘tend’ (look after). Without passion, a person has no powerful active intentionality toward the world; and thus they are not ‘up’ for action. Between them and world no spark is kindled.

Passion is therefore the energy of direct contact with and involvement in the world: through it, we affect and are affected by the world. Earlier passion discovers the former, and it is heady stuff. Later passion must take on the board the latter: at this point, passion can become a ‘power freak’, ‘go it alone’ bully or egomaniac. It tries to use force to impose its value by willpower, and passionate intensity and passion’s strength, alone. But this unilateralism twists and distorts passion. Its real mission is ‘power with’, but it becomes addicted to ‘power over’.

Yet if passion just gives in to the world, or just gives way, then passion collapses under the weight of ‘reality bites back’. It loses heart, it becomes overcautious, it loses all élan, punch and boldness.

Passion must gradually awaken to a new double-sided challenge that emerges as we truly ‘give it our best shot’: one – outer conflict with the world; two – the inner conflict generated within passion as it wrestles in its relation to the world.

Out of this two-sided conflict will gradually emerge not only a questioning of what is most true in the world, but also a questioning of what is most true in passion toward the world. It is being affected by, not just affecting, the world that will initiate passion into its most basic and searing conflict over searching for, and being purified to be able to reach, the deepest truth of passion’s nature and destiny – its ‘calling’ to the world.

82 Jamie MORAN

3. Standing in Adversity To stand up to be counted for something often entails entering a worldly arena of conflict. The world often opposes what we value personally, as it opposes what is of most true, divine value. This is commonly registered in the idea that passion ‘must fight’ for what it cares about, and cares for: dramatic clashes are going to happen, because part of the existential disillusioning of naïve innocence is the discovery that the world both needs and hates meaningful, valuable, purposeful things that ‘really matter’.

This is why such things do not simply ‘matter’, but are indeed ‘at stake’: they are hedged round by existential insecurity in any case, but they are also endangered by worldly shallowness, indifference and evil. Passion must fight for love. Love is no pacifist, or unitary erotic joining; it is a journey, and it is a battle. The journey is long; the battle is costly and consequential. Here is where passion starts not just to sweat but to bleed. Here passion becomes the heroine or hero. Here passion’s inherent aggressivity must come to the fore, because at this point passion will be intimidated and broken unless it stands for truth. To stand for truth means standing against falsity, forgery and fakery. The oldest Greek description of passion, after a ‘suffering of existence’s wound’ (pathos and penthos), is ‘incensiveness for truth’ (thymos): passion is ‘angry’ for truth. It has zeal and will not relent. It cannot be bought off or distracted. It cannot be intimidated or broken; it cannot be seduced or undermined. It bears the unbearable and endures the unendurable, to promote what matters and indeed, to protect and enhance what is at stake.

In this process, we either become zealot ‘hard-hearted’ fanatics, thereby destroying passion’s driving force, which is love; or we opt out and become sentimental, sloppy and soft-hearted ‘anything goes’ liberals, who think love is benign and easy when it is really harsh and demanding. We need a third way beyond either accusing or excusing the human heart – a way that challenges yet also heals untruth, destruction and distortion. We must learn the way of the warrior, must take up the old sword of honour, which Christ said he came into the world to wield. There is no final Cross without this prior Sword. Here, we are wrestling with the more subtle and profound meaning of truth of heart, and this is what forges us as a real warrior in a fiery furnace – and stops us from becoming a thug or a soldier or a wimpish weakling. How do I fight? What is the ‘good fight’? At this point, passion shifts.

It is no longer simply ‘self-investment’ into the world, with a one-way power. It starts to have to be more reflective, as well as tortured, troubled, agonised and anguished, over its two-way interaction of affecting and being affected by the world. The world starts to seem a wounding paradox: it cries out for true passion, to redeem its potentiality; yet at the same time it resists true passion passionately, preferring evil passion, mad passion, escapist avoidance of passion, and all the structures, rules, regulations, that seek to create a safe and secure rational order to hold passion down and keep passion in check. True passion is needed, cried out for, yet it is punished, mocked, rejected and evaded. It becomes crucial in this process not just to stand up for truth and stand against adversity opposing this truth, but also to speak the truth, and expose lies, falsity and rationalisation.

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Passion seeks a deeper truth, of the world and of itself, at this stage. It loses all worldly ‘ambition’. We can speak of this shift by using the word ‘integrity’, and the word close to it, ‘honour’. Passion tries to be true to something that binds it to the mark. It confronts, through honesty and humility, that the world contains both gold and dross; but so does its own ‘basis of operations’, the deeper heart, also contain this mixture. Thus passion comes to see that not only is there an outer fight for the real truth of the world, but there is also an inner fight for the real truth of the heart that cares about, and will suffer to love, the world.

Human beings are tragic creatures. Some never had passion even as a child.

Many come forth and stand up, having a real try, at their emergence into adulthood, but give up and turn back when the ‘going gets rough’. Few indeed are the people who, well into their middle years, persist into fighting for the truth in the world; and fewer still are those who realise that to fight for truth outside them they must fight for truth inside themselves, within their own hearts.

To be a warrior in the external world, one must be a warrior in the internal world: one must be on an ascetical and spiritual path that can reveal and expose and also purge, forge and transfigure, one’s ‘inward parts’. Only a pure heart is singular, and only a singular heart can really find the truth of the world by wielding a sword that does not wound, but exposes a wound already existing at the foundation of everyone and everything, so that it can be healed. This is where the Sword finally becomes the Cross.

4. Walking in the Truth, Outward and Inward Crucial to the ‘self-control’ that now must join with the heart’s bravery and generosity, and its anger and zeal, is the yoke of a spiritual way. But equally crucial, and leading in the same direction, is the ‘drama’ that engulfs passion as it struggles and suffers in the world.

Drama, when deep enough to get at the deep heart realities, which cause all the good and evil of the world, has the power to be dæmonically wounding: it tears away the mask, pulls down the tower over the pit, and exposes heart truth at its most conflicted, yet also its most raw and true. Drama of this kind reveals where we really stand, but more: what it is to stand, and what the two-way truth of passion in relation to the world really is. Drama kills the lies we build up to shield us from passion, at its best and its worst, and dumps us into the boiling cauldron.

People often do not know who they are and what they are called to do in the world until drama wrecks their life.

In a sense, both the spiritual path and the inescapable drama of our lives converge on one point: that we must be forged in a furnace both terrible and wonderful; indeed, that we must die to live, must be reduced to nothing to find the real something, the “pearl of great price”, which passion always sought. Both the world and God, between them, smash us to bits, to reconstruct us from the base up. The person who resists that ‘correction’ of her or his heart’s passion for life and for existence, is destroyed by it. If we do not voluntarily contract through spiritual practice, then being in the world will contract us, like it or not. To resist is to be finished by it, but if we accept it, humbly, with faith in the unknown and belief in what it starts to give us in our reconstruction, then it will be a breaking that remakes us.

84 Jamie MORAN Some people ‘tough it through’, and emerge stronger, but their strength is evil: it will only ever serve them, not the world. It is only tragedy which leads to redemption; and tragedy, with its passionate drama, simply reveals what is true, at depth, for everyone and everything. Thus it is a call to us. It shows us truly where we are, and it shows us where the world is; and thus it shows us truly what we can do, to heal, to serve, to give up our all, for the truth of heart that can change the world.

Only truth of heart can change the world.

5. The Mystical Land of Heart Many people use a spiritual path to evade the drama that exposes our heart for existence. They confuse dispassion with indifference, or flight. ‘Detachment’ from what falsifies the deep heart exists so there can be a more radical ‘attachment’ of the heart’s depth to the world’s depth.

This final attachment is, as a spiritual state, beyond ascetical purity and beyond existential drama. It is holiness of heart, rarely sought, rarely attained. It cannot be reached by any human acting on her or his own, without God’s help and presence. It is reached by the breakdown in the depth that only God can remake into breakthrough: this is Christ’s Cross. Here the Sword has done its task, and so is reversed, becoming the Cross. Here a wall, a wailing wall, of separation between our heart and God, and between our heart and the world, finally is breached and crumbles. We enter the mystical land of the heart, where there is a ‘new heaven and a new earth’. This mystical heart ground, spoken of but rarely experienced and lived, yet is what draws us forward always, because it is what the heart ‘really’ seeks. This is the ultimate of passion, the end point of its movement, of all its “sufferings and raptures of the spirit”. This is the attainment of the Passion of the Christ, by virtue of being given by God the ‘new heart’ promised to the Jews.

This passion serves love; this passion goes to any lengths for love, because it knows the deep truth of the world and the deep truth of the heart. This final passion is “all flame”, to quote an Egyptian desert Christian saint. Its love is not just for God; but rather in greater and deeper meaning, it loves the world with God’s Suffering Love. For passion was never destined, wounded, chastised, forged, tested, risked, to ‘go to heaven’. It was put through all this, it was made to undergo heaven and hell and everything in between, for the sake of a love for the world that would sacrifice itself in order not to judge and give up on, but to save and redeem, and finally transfigure and make divine, the world.

The deepest abyss of passion is called by God to the deepest abyss undergirding the world. For the world’s abyss can become a pit of death and the very hell into which everyone and everything will finally collapse in defeat, ruin and dereliction, or it can become the heart ground upholding everyone and everything.

The abyss of God’s heart is meant to dwell in the abyss of the human heart: and the human heart is meant to turn the abyss beneath the world into a common ground of heart that upholds everyone and everything.

To a Buddhist – who had misunderstood the deep heart of humanity, and the extremity of the divine love’s passion for the world it had created, made free, and would suffer for to save and make divine– I once said the following. This person stated something about ‘detachment’ from passion as the necessary prerequisite for experiencing

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the ‘Void’. We were in a plane. I pointed to the window and said to this wrongly spiritualised person: “Passion is the bird which flies in the abyss without knowing the principle of its flight.” Nothing more was said. Whether this person got it or not, I do not know, but I had pointed at the best in Buddhist enlightenment, but also pointed beyond it to Christian holiness: the holy heart on fire with a suffering, serving, sacrificial, ‘staked to the ground’, crucified love for this tragic, yet glorious, world.

It is passion’s ultimate destiny and mission to carry the burden everyone puts down.

Suggested Reading BUBER, Martin, Ich und du. Leipzig, 1923.

CHRYSSAVGIS John, In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers.

Bloomington, 2003.

CLEMENT Oliver, The Roots of Christian Mysticism. New York, 1993.

FRIEDMAN, Milton, To Deny Our Nothingness. Chicago, 1978.

LORCA, Federico García, Juego y Teoría del duende. Madrid, 1933.

NIEHARDT, John Gneisenau (ed.), Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux. Bison, 2003.

YANNARAS, Christos, The Freedom of Morality. Crestwood, 2003.

Jamie MORAN: Six étapes de la passion La passion commence dans l’enfance comme enthousiasme ou inspiration qui nous touche et nous fait passer du statisme au dynamisme. Si cette étincelle n’est pas éteinte, elle se développe pendant l’adolescence en une position intentionnelle, un engagement envers tout ce qui se présente à nous comme problème dans l’existence. mais par nécessité, la passion prend ici la forme d’une lutte, un conflit, entre sa propre soif de la vérité et la corruption du monde extérieur. Mais pour devenir mature, le courage et le zèle de la passion doivent être soumis à la spiritualité et tempérés par l’inévitable théâtre de la vie que nous pourrions briser et refaire plus solide avec la vérité du cœur qui peut changer le monde. Ceci est le stade final de la passion – sainteté de cœur – qui ne peut être atteint qu’avec l’aide et la présence de Dieu. Cela poursuit et sert de tout cœur, l’amour, même jusqu’à l’identification avec la passion du Christ, traduisant l’amour de Dieu qui souffre pour sauver et racheter et finalement transfigurer le monde.

Jamie MORAN: Los seis pasos de la pasión La pasión comienza en la infancia como “entusiasmo” o “inspiración” – lo que nos toca y mueve de lo estático a lo dinámico. Si esta chispa no se apaga, se desarrolla durante la adolescencia a un estado intencional, un compromiso hacia lo que nos interesa, y por ende a nuestra unión con ello. Por necesidad aquí la pasión toma la forma de una batalla, un conflicto, entre su propia furia por la verdad y la falsedad del mundo exterior. Pero para llegar a ser verdaderamente madura, la bravura y el celo de la pasión deben ser amansados de forma espiritual, y templados por el ineludible drama de la vida, mediante el cual debemos ser deshechos y rehechos más fuertes, con la verdad del corazón que puede cambiar el mundo. Este es el estado final de la pasión la santidad del corazón la cual es sólo conseguida con la ayuda y presencia de Dios. Ella de todo corazón sirve y busca el amor, aún al punto de identificarse con la pasión de Cristo, tomando sobre sí el sufrimiento amoroso de Dios con el fin de salvar y redimir, y finalmente transformar el mundo.

Bogdan POPESCU

Constantine the Great and Christianity: Church and State Commingled Christians very often have had to follow the advice of our Saviour to be subtle as serpents and gentle as doves. We may think of the great leaders of the Church, saints, martyrs or bishops. But I believe that these words can be related to a Roman emperor, too. At the beginning of the fourth century, Constantine the Great produced a revolutionary transformation, celebrating the incredible “marriage” between the civil state and the Christian Church. During Constantine’s reign, a religion which had been persecuted and considered a dangerous sect became licita and was integrated into the life of the empire.

Equal to the Apostles The decisive step was made through the famous Edict of Milan. In 313 Constantine and his brother-in-law, the emperor Licinius, declared Christianity a free religion in the Roman Empire: “With happy auspices … we decided to establish rules by which respect and reverence for the deity would be secured, to give the Christians and all others liberty to follow whatever worship they choose, so that whatsoever divine and heavenly powers exist might be enabled to show favour to us and to all who live under our authority.”1 The edict was just a meeting of two realities, a foretaste of the future relationship. A good diplomat, Constantine knew that in a pagan state a formerly persecuted religion could not be implemented overnight, so this was just the first link in his political chain.

Indeed, Constantine had to be careful. Other attempts to introduce a new religion led to great conflicts. In this way the emperor Heliogabalus tried to impose the worship of the oriental god El-Gabal in Rome. He changed the traditions and started to wear an unusual oriental ceremonial dress. He showed little respect for the Roman sacred fire and removed the statue of Minerva from the forum. The emperor was murdered after only four years, in 222.

For this reason, Constantine was to act step by step, with great patience. The close relationship between politics and religion was regarded only as an alliance but in fact shaped both sides into suitable partners. Constantine introduced new Bogdan POPESCU was born in Bucure?ti, Romania, in 1976. He graduated from the Orthodox Theological Seminary of Bucure?ti (1996) and the Faculty of Theology, University of Bucure?ti (2000). He has a Master’s Degree in ecumenical studies (Bossey, Switzerland, 2002); his thesis dealt with the Church and state relationship. Currently he is a PhD student in Sibiu, doing research on patristics.

He is also an assistant lecturer of history in the Orthodox Theological Seminary of Cernica. His email address is bogdanpopescu76@hotmail.com.

1 EUSEBIUS of Cæsarea, The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine. New York, 1989. 322.

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and unusual rituals for the Roman world into his life: prayers, celebrations of the Christian feasts and meetings with the clergy.

Christian symbols became present everywhere: a cross of precious stones appeared in his private apartments, and in front of the portico of the palace the emperor was painted holding a cross and stepping on a dragon. The apogee was no doubt his request to receive the baptism and also, for the first time in history, Constantine as a defunct emperor was the subject of the Christians. The liberated Church considered its protector “equal to the apostles” and raised him among the saints.

Christianity and the Unity of the Empire The great gift Constantine offered to the “imperium” through Christianity was the idea of unity and common belonging. In a world divided by plots and civil wars and torn by political struggles, Constantine needed a strong common denominator. The conquered territories were vast and the Romanization of the different peoples was unable to follow the rhythm of the conquests.

Constantine understood that Christian monotheism would bind together people belonging to different cultures and religions, but he also realized that the new faith was a double-edged sword. Each heresy, each ecclesiastical struggle, could become a political struggle. The history of Byzantium abounded in civil wars provoked by religious misunderstandings. For this reason, from the beginning Constantine considered it his duty to keep dogmatic unity, as “intestine strife within the Church of God is far more evil and dangerous than any kind of war or conflict.”2 He called himself “ ” (bishop of external affairs), taking care of the social or political problems of the Church, but in fact guarding its integrity.

He was engaged in the first big controversy to shake the unity of Christianity — Arianism. The emperor sent a letter to the adverse parties, convoking the first ecumenical council to Nicea in 325, and participated in the discussions: “He took his seat, too, in the midst of them, as an individual amongst many, dismissing his guards and soldiers and all whose duty was to defend his person.”3 The conflict of the Church became a political danger for the empire, a matter that necessitated the intervention of the political ruler. In 325 at Nicea, the world changed: the cæsar participated in a meeting concerning the stability of the state, surrounded not by senators, but by bishops: “The emperor gave patient audience to all alike and received every proposition with steadfast attention and by occasionally assisting the argument of each party in turn.”4 Arius was sent into exile, and Constantine organised a festival to celebrate the achieved religious peace and sent letters in order to request the observance of the dogmatic definitions. But Arianism was not the only danger. The emperor convoked the Council of Arles in order to overcome the dissensions provoked by Donatus, and issued an edict against Novatians, Valentinians, Marcionites and Paulines, calling them “haters and enemies of the truth and life.”5 The former persecutors of the Church became persecutors for the Church.

2 EUSEBIUS of Cæsarea, The Life of Constantine. New York, 1989. 523.

3 Ibid, 495. / 4 Ibid, 523. / 5 Ibid, 539.

88 Bogdan POPESCU

Byzantine Clergy This controversial alliance produced changes not only in political life but in the ecclesiastical world as well. The institutionalisation of Christianity has its roots in this period. Christian bishops, who had been chased by the preceding emperors, became public persons involved in social and political life. The new relationship with the state had its effects and the changes appeared soon: complicated titles, new Byzantine golden robes and special rights.

The bishops started to act as recognized authorities — they received funds, administrated justice and counselled the emperor. Constantine accorded special attention to his new officials: “The emperor also personally inviting the society of God’s ministers distinguished them with the highest possible respect and honour, showing them favour in deed and word as persons consecrated to the service of God.”6 They obtained the right to request money from the political administration in order to build churches: “We also empower you and the others through you to demand what is needful for the work, both for the provincial governors and from the Prætorian Prefect. For they have received instructions to be most diligent in obedience to your Holiness’s orders.”7 A new interconnection between Church and state took place — the ministers of God giving orders to the political officials.

They learned and adopted the complicated Byzantine protocol, trying to adapt to the new reality.

In order to help the Christian community, they had to educate themselves in political subtleties. The growth and welfare of the Church depended upon their newly acquired skills. They began to analyse how to “give to Cæsar what belongs to Cæsar” in order to obtain rights and favours necessary for the existence of the Church. Eusebius described the protocol of the great council of Nicea: “He waited until the bishops had beckoned to him and then sat down, and after him the whole assembly did the same.”8 The Christian ministers became usual guests of the emperor, participating in public festivals, making the new faith present in the worldly meetings of Byzantium. The bishop of Cæsarea, presenting the feast of Constantine’s “Vicennalia,” specified that the ministers of God “were the emperor’s own companions at the table, while others reclined on couches arranged on either side.” 9 The decisions of the hierarchs became official statements which could not be annulled by the secular governors and gradually the “sacerdotium” became a new well-known force in the state of Constantine. The bishops started to participate even in the military campaigns of the emperor. The way to the “just Christian war” was opened: “They, on the other hand, cheerfully declared their willingness to follow in his train, disclaiming any desire to leave him, and engaging to battle with and for him by supplication to God on his behalf.” 10

From Catacombs to the Byzantine Church The changes in the Church, however, were greater than the influences at the upper level. The whole structure was adapted to this coexistence. All the properties confiscated during the persecutions were given back and the losses compen6 Ibid, 494. / 7 Ibid, 511. / 8 Ibid, 522. / 9 Ibid, 524. / 10 Ibid, 554–555.

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sated for. It was no longer possible to speak about a poor Church. Important buildings, vast lands and precious treasures were given to the Church and formed the wealth of the new Byzantine institution.

The letter which Constantine sent to Aulinus, the proconsul of Africa is eloquent: “If any of the former property of the Catholic Church of the Christians in the several cities or other places is now in the possession either of citizens or of any other persons, it shall be restored forthwith to the said churches, inasmuch as we have determined that whatever the said churches formerly possessed shall be restored to its rightful owners.”11 We can imagine the revolution that the mandate produced in the empire.

The pagan owners of the confiscated houses and lands had to renounce their properties in favour of the Christians: “We order therefore that all things whatsoever which shall appear righteously to belong to the churches, whether the property consist of house or fields and gardens, or whatever the nature of it may be, shall be restored in their full value and integrity, and with undiminished right of possession.”12 Also all the tombs of the martyrs and the cemeteries were transferred to the possession of the Church. The Christian institution received the right to inherit the goods of its members who died without successors. The ministers were kept free from public duties, in order to take care of their communities. The Church was tax-exempt and more than that, she was awarded important funds.

Another important mutation was produced in the life of the Roman state when her ruler demolished old pagan sanctuaries and built Christian edifices. In this way the temple of Venus of Jerusalem was demolished and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in the same place, only after all the old stones were removed and the desecrated earth excavated. Other churches were built in Bethlehem, on the Mount of Olives, in Constantinople, Nicomedia and Mambre.

A new Christian architectural style was inaugurated under the Roman influence.

In fact, basilicas were originally used for civil purposes in Rome.

In the meantime, pagan edifices were destroyed in Phœnicia (Aphaca), Cilicia (the temple of Æsculapius) and Heliopolis (the temple of Venus replaced by a church). A well-known masterpiece is the Church of the Apostles in Constantinople where Constantine prepared his own tomb. The emperor endowed these buildings with all that was necessary: books, robes, ecclesiastical objects and properties.

The “bishop of external affairs” allowed the return of all the members belonging to these churches who had been sent into exile by his predecessors. New parishes had the opportunity to grow and strengthen. The returned citizens had to observe two main duties: loyalty to the emperor and faithfulness to the Church.

Another important change took place in the structure of the Christian communities. The ecclesiastical organisation followed the political one. Step by step, the canons mentioned “eparchies,” “exarchates” and “dioceses.” The importance of a province granted a corresponding rank for a bishop. Political and religious power went hand in hand.

11 EUSEBIUS of Caesarea, The history of…. 324.

12 EUSEBIUS of Caesarea, The life of…. 510.

90 Bogdan POPESCU For example, canon 17 of the fourth ecumenical council mentions: “If … any city has been rebuilt by imperial authority, or has been built anew again, pursuant to civil and public formalities, let the order of the ecclesiastical parishes be followed.”13 The principle of the “canonical territory” appeared under the same influence.

As in the civil state, the spiritual leader of a region administered only a certain territory. He had no right to rule or to solve the problems of other dioceses: “Bishops must not leave their own dioceses … but on the contrary, in accordance with the canons, let the bishop of Alexandria administer the affairs of Egypt only, let the bishop of East govern the Eastern Church only … and let the bishop of Asian diocese administer only the affairs of the Asian Church.” 14 The Christian Church became in this way a godly and human institution embodied in the “imperium.” Protected by the state, she had the duty to educate and commend exemplary citizens who were faithful to the new Christian cæsar and to gain the obedience of barbarians through mission.

Christianity and Byzantine Society There were important mutations not only in the two united institutions but in the whole Byzantine society as well. The life of normal citizens changed in a progressive way. The non-Christian celebrations lost their importance in favour of the new feasts. In 321, Constantine decreed “dies solis” as a day of rest in the Roman world and granted Christians the liberty to observe it.

The night of Easter also became an important feast and was celebrated with great honour and implemented in the public life: “He changed, too, the holy night vigil into a brightness like that of day, by causing waxen tapers of great length to be lighted throughout the city: besides which, torches everywhere diffused their light, so as to import to this mystic vigil a brilliant splendour beyond that of day.”15 The governors of all provinces received an order to respect the commemorative days of the martyrs. Step by step, the pagans were encouraged in a diplomatic way to participate in the Christian celebrations and to forget their previous traditions. According to Eusebius, the “friend of God” forbade divinations, mystic rites, combats of gladiators and worship of the river Nile.

Christian symbols were erected in the cities: in Constantinople, fountains were built in the market place, representing the good shepherd and the prophet Daniel, surrounded by lions. The capital was moved to Byzantium for political and strategic reasons, but also because Rome remembered the pagan traditions through temples and statues. Constantine chose another place as the centre of a new state, grafted on the trunk of Christianity. New coins replaced the old ones and the new images were substituted for pagan representations: the emperor praying to God (orans) or sitting in a chariot and ascending to heaven.

Without being forced to embrace the new religion, the non-Christians were in fact assaulted by the presence and the symbols of Christianity. In an indirect way, the emperor put into practice a real advertisement. His strategy produced the anticipated effect and the percent of the Lord’s servants increased. Indeed, Constantine had to face the problem of the duplicity of some officials who became Christians in order to gain political favours, and in this case he was very drastic.

13 CUMMINGS D., The Rudder. Chicago, 1957. 83. / 14 Ibid, 208. / 15 EUSEBIUS of Caesarea, The Life of…. 545.

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Legislation was influenced by the new reality, too. New laws were elaborated for both the state and the Church. Later on, such emperors as Theodosius and Justinian elaborated substantial collections of laws concerning the ecclesiastical order. The Church started to organise her life using the canons and following a political model, and the state changed its pagan norms dramatically.

Constantine himself adapted his policy to the new ideology by taking care of the poor, orphans and widows and offering food and clothes. Eusebius believed that in this period “the sword of justice hung everywhere, and both people and municipal magistrates in every province were governed rather by paternal authority than by any constraining.”16 The regimen of prisoners was improved and the bishops received permission to oversee the way they were treated. Severe punishments were eliminated and Christian ministers had access to trials and could influence the verdict. The aforementioned historian maintained the emperor was even blamed and exploited for his clemency.

As the ecclesiastical organisation followed the civil one, also the presence of Christianity changed the political importance of places. In this way, the market town of Gaza received the name Constantia and was raised to the rank of a city.

Another place in Phœnicia was rewarded with the same title.17 Very interesting seems to be the embassy sent by the king of Persia, Sapor II, on behalf of the Christians from his realm. Constantine received a message from an empire, which has been a great and dangerous enemy during the centuries, but this new message was a friendly one. Due to the Christian Church, the relationship between two rival kingdoms has changed. This way, Christianity was considered to be an important element of the external politics and a possible common denominator.18

Christian Army

After the battle of Pons Milvius, we can also speak about a different Roman army, in which the pagan standards were replaced by the “labarum.” In his book Vita Constantini, Eusebius of Cæsarea describes this turning point of history, which is related to a famous vision that Constantine had, seeing in the sky the sign of the cross and the words in hoc signo vinces (“in this sign you will win”).

According to Eusebius, the vision was followed by a dream which convinced him to use this symbol as the standard of the army. Also the monogram of Christ, used for centuries on the walls of the catacombs, appeared on Constantine’s flag.

After the battle, the emperor added the victorious sign to his statue in Rome and confessed in the inscription of the new triumphal arch that the victory was obtained under divine influence.

In the time of the war against Licinius, new elements appeared: the presence of priests in the battlefield as the “most trustful guardians”; a cross standard, carried and defended by fifty men, the prayer of the emperor in his tabernacle. There was no longer a Roman army fighting in a civil conflict, but soldiers of Christ fighting against the forces of the evil in a “just war.”

The whole equation changed. Victory was considered won not by means of a suitable strategy but by the grace of God, who rewarded the good deeds of the 16 Ibid, 550. / 17 Ibid, 542. / 18 Ibid, 502–503.

92 Bogdan POPESCU emperor. While before, Christianity was considered incompatible with military service, the formerly exiled soldiers were rehabilitated to serve God and the country: “Others, whose religious constancy had cost them the forfeiture of their military rank, were vindicated by the emperor’s generosity from this dishonour.”19 Fighters who had previously hunted Christians were asked to pray before battles and on each Sunday. Eusebius records also a prayer prescribed by Constantine himself for these occasions: “We acknowledge Thee the only God: we own Thee as our king and implore Thy succour. By Thy favour have we gotten the victory, through Thee are we mightier than our enemies. We render thanks for Thy past benefits and trust Thee for future blessings. Together we pray to Thee and beseech Thee long to preserve to us safe and triumphant, our emperor Constantine and his pious sons.”20 The Christian faith also conferred cohesion, identity and a common goal unto this army. The warriors coming from different nations and traditions did not fight because they were Byzantines, but because they were Christians and had to defend their religion. Greeks and Armenians succeeded on Constantinople’s throne, but the identity of the empire was kept. How? The only possible answer is the spiritual identity. The empire did not fall until the non-Christian soldiers conquered the “Holy City.” Over the centuries, the Byzantines did not defend an empire which swallowed their former nations and states, but the centre and symbol of Christianity.

Dove and Serpent in Symphony The symphony, however, was attended only gradually. The innovations of Constantine merely represented an important step and an open door. The emperor had to be subtle and gentle in the meantime. He could not give up all the old Roman traditions. But his successors, except Julian the Apostate (331–363), continued this evolution. Gratian (367–383) renounced in 382 the title “Pontifex Maximus” (the highest pontiff) and Theodosius I (378–395) established Christianity as a state religion on 27 February, 380.

Gradually, the pluralism of the Roman world was transformed into a symphonic reality, into a state governed by the two-headed eagle – the lay power and the ecclesiastical one, the emperor and the patriarch. Due to Constantine’s diplomacy, the history of the world changed at the beginning of the fourth century. The empire found a new common denominator, stronger than the Roman identity, which bound together different nations and traditions. Other emperors tried to use oriental religions like Mithraism for the same purpose, but their attempts has been unsuccessful. Constantine knew how to use the double-edged sword of this cooperation.

After the reign of Constantine, many emperors overran the limits of their authority and tried to influence and lead the Christian Church. I would stress the positive side of this cooperation, which is not worthless. The successors of Constantine gave Christianity the chance to spread throughout the whole Roman world, to win more quickly and easily the battle against other faiths, and to elaborate the doctrine through ecumenical councils. Constantine knew how to start 19 Ibid, 505. / 20 Ibid, 545.

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the cooperation in a diplomatic way, avoiding the mistakes made by Heliogabalus.

Step by step, he invited the citizens of the empire to embrace the new religion and became the first Christian Roman emperor.

Suggested Reading EUSEBIUS of Cæsarea, The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine. New York, 1989.

EUSEBIUS of Cæsarea, The Life of Constantine. New York, 1989.

CUMMINGS D., The Rudder. Chicago, 1957.

STURZO Luigi, Church and State. Indiana, 1962.

Bogdan POPESCU: Constantin Le Grand et le Christianisme: l’Eglise et l’état en communion Au début du quatrième siècle, Constantin Le Grand produisait une transformation révolutionnaire qui changeait l’histoire du monde. Le Christianisme devenait le dénominateur commun de l’Empire Romain et apportait l’idée de l’unité et l’appartenance commune. L’Église et l’État jouaient une nouvelle partition ensemble: la symphonie Byzantine, régie par l’aigle à deux têtes. Constantin savait comment commencer cette double coopération dans une manière diplomatique, évitant les erreurs faites par les Empereurs précédents. Du fait de sa diplomatie, l’Eglise Chrétienne devint une institution divine et humaine incorporée dans l’Impérium. Protégée par l’Etat, la nouvelle tête de l’aigle Romain avait le devoir d’éduquer les citoyens exemplaires qui étaient fidèles au nouveau César chrétien et afin de gagner l’obéissance des barbares par la mission.

Bogdan POPESCU: Constantino el Grande y el Cristianismo: la fusión Iglesia – Estado A principios del siglo cuarto, Constantino el Grande produjo una transformación revolucionaria que cambió la historia del mundo por completo. El cristianismo se convirtió en el denominador común del Imperio Romano, y trajo consigo la idea de unidad y común pertenencia. La Iglesia y el Estado comenzaron un nuevo marcador juntos: la sinfonía bizantina, gobernada por el águila de las dos cabezas.

Constantino supo cómo comenzar esta cooperación de doble filo de una forma diplomática, evitando los errores de los anteriores emperadores. Gracias a su diplomacia, la Iglesia Cristiana se convirtió en una institución divina y humana encarnada en el “imperium”. Protegida por el estado, la nueva cabeza del águila romana tenía el deber de educar ciudadanos ejemplares que fueran fieles al nuevo cesar cristiano, y ganar la obediencia de los bárbaros a través de la misión.

Ignacio T. MONZALVO

Pensar teológicamente las alternativas al sistema neoliberal Partiendo de que Dios muestra y revela lo que quiere que sepamos de él, es como construimos y elaboramos estructuras acordes a un momento histórico definido, con esto establecemos puentes de contacto. Por esto, las construcciones son finitas y se ven constantemente descontextualizadas, cuando esto ocurre, la estructura se vuelve una prisión de la manifestación y revelación de Dios. Es Dios quien en su misterio permanece visible con el fin de recrearnos y establecer una relación de acción-creación y con esto poder caminar con un Dios que esté presente en el momento real, uno que puede acompañar, consolar y comprender el sufrimiento de su pueblo en la cotidianeidad. Por otro lado, es en la cotidianeidad del ser humano en que encontramos diferentes modos de vivir, en estos podemos ver reflejadas la cultura, identidad, interés y cosmovisión que rigen su modus vivendi.

Introducción Intentaremos relacionar y establecer un puente que nos permita respirar un Dios fresco, que nos invite a convivir mejor en medio de este “perro-mundo” 1 que nos oprime hasta los huesos dejándonos sin el aliento de la esperanza para poder darnos y entregarnos en armonía y equidad. Las vertientes económicas serán un fundamento para nuestro análisis, sin embargo, corremos el riesgo de establecer un dialogo irreal si no establecemos un contacto real con la economía, como Julio de SANTA ANA lo expresa de manera clara: “las formulaciones teológicas sobre la practica económica son hechas a partir de un punto de vista que, generalmente, no toma en cuenta la realidad concreta de la producción, el consumo y la distribución de los bienes materiales.”2 Las comunidades se ven confrontadas ante la situación de marginación, pobreza y violencia. Su último recurso es el levantamiento social con la finalidad de retener sus tierras, es aquí, donde los esquemas tradicionales de Dios no obedeIgnacio T. MONZALVO: Lic. y Maestro en Economía por la Escuela Superior de Economía (Ciudad de México) y Lic. en Teología por la UBL (San José, Costa Rica). Estudiante de maestría en Teología por la UBL, Miembro del “Mec por la equidad” y Profesor en la Universidad de la Ciudad de México en la academia de Ciencias de la Religión. Su dirección de correo electrónico es: itmnzlv@hotmail.com.

1 Término adoptado por los alumnos de economía de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México en referencia al sistema que vivimos y posteriormente ampliado por Franz Hinkelammert.

2 SANTA ANA Julio de, La practica económica como religión. San José, 1991. 15.

96 Ignacio T. MONZALVO cen a la realidad ocasionando una profunda soledad espiritual y un sesgo equitativo, ya que el Dios que tanto protestantes como católicos profesan permanece solo como espectador. Estos atropellos son repetidos de manera constante por las estructuras formadas en las políticas neoliberales asumidas por el gobierno federal, en las que, los menos protegidos son excluidos como víctimas de la violencia estructural.

Costo social y culto a mamón Los campesinos, indígenas y otras minorías en el mundo no son la excepción en sufrir los efectos devastadores del sistema económico. En muchos de los casos los terrenos con los que cuentan estos son fértiles, sin embargo, no se cuentan con los recursos mínimos necesarios para la reactivación del campo, las tierras están paralizadas parcialmente y con un esfuerzo pueden sembrar esperando poder obtener un poco de dinero para el sostenimiento de sus familias 3.

Como resultado de las políticas neoliberales a los Estados han llegado capital (k) extranjero (x) y con éstos una serie de peticiones entre las que destacan la ampliación del acceso a los territorios nacionales, ya que es la infraestructura en materia de comunicaciones lo que fortalece la confianza de los inversionistas y con esto el flujo de kx.4 Se ha intentado establecer una relación de acción-creación con hechos reales, como protestas, carteles y mesas de discusión5, sin embargo la necesidad de Dios se hace presente ya que estas acciones son intentos prácticos de hacer justicia por medio de la equidad.

Es pues el Dios de la equidad un esfuerzo por mantener la dignidad e igualdad, sin embargo nos toca a nosotros demandar a los “falsos profetas” de la justicia ya que en nosotros vive una fuerza dinámica que es el espíritu de Dios, uno que no esta lejos, uno que se encuentra en medio de los marginados.

Ningún ídolo puede sesgar la voluntad de un pueblo que se ha visto oprimido por décadas, ni el culto a mamón ni ningún otro dios que asfixia la fe y la integridad del ser humano. Dios no oprime, si las concepciones que tenemos de él son represivas podemos entonces concluir que se está hablando de otro dios ajeno, ya que, Dios es liberador, justo y equitativo.

“El profeta que se oponía a Babilonia, ahora, después de la caída de Babel, debe (arremangarse las mangas) y partir a la corta de caña de azúcar, a la pizca de café, al trabajo cotidiano verdaderamente productivo (el que produce riqueza o el pan para el pobre, para el pueblo). Hay tiempos para morir en represión; hay tiempos para trabajar.”6 El profeta es un actor en su sociedad, no solo un observador, hay que encarnar el sufrimiento, porque si bien Dios no es débil, sí se debilita con nosotros en el sufrimiento para poder acompañarnos en verdad y justicia. Ante esta realidad, no solo reconocemos la necesidad de hablar de Dios en tiempos de violencia, sino que tenemos frente a nosotros el reto de cómo habla la Iglesia de Dios, en estos tiempos de incertidumbre, pobreza y marginación.

3 Es importante mencionar que no se esta romantizando la situación de los campesinos, también hay que aclarar que en los ejidos (campos) no viven solo campesinos, también hay terratenientes y empresarios.

4 Unos de los indicadores mas favorables, es la inversión del gobierno en infraestructura para el desarrollo de negocios y accesibilidad de mercado.

5 Un ejemplo contundente es el Foro Social Mundial en Porto Alegre que tiene como lema: "Otro mundo es posible".

6 DUSSEL Enrique, Hacia una filosofía política crítica. Bilbao, 2001. 107.

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La existencia de Dios como criterio de verdad La principal razón del quehacer teológico radica en la naturaleza de la existencia de Dios como criterio de verdad, y no solo esto, sino el cómo esta revelación trasciende históricamente y al momento presente, en la vida del ser humano. Sin embargo, surge la pregunta del por qué tomar como criterio de verdad de revelación y existencia de Dios.

El origen del carácter histórico de toda teología está en el carácter histórico de su objeto. La revelación, aceptación y vivencia de Dios por parte del ser humano se ha dado en la historia y se ha dado como historia. La aceptación y vivencia de la revelación se da también en la historia, ya que lo histórico es parte de la esencia del ser humano. De tal manera que la revelación de Dios interpela a los diversos contextos específicos en calve de liberación por medio de la teología histórica.

Si la revelación es en sí misma histórica, y por ello, sujeta a la dinámica de la historia misma, entonces la teología debe construirse desde el núcleo de opresión que se vive en ese momento. En el mundo y en especial en Latinoamérica, no hacer teología desde el oprimido y la iglesia de los pobres es como no entender nuestro papel histórico y nuestra trascendencia histórica en el proceso de salvación.

Dios en su revelación histórica ha sido identificado en diversas teologías – algunas que oprimen y otras que liberan – con diversos criterios. Sin embargo, el criterio de verdad se da en la identificación de Dios como actor permanente y liberador de la realidad histórica, mediante una teología que ha de ser interpretadora y transformadora de lo histórico.

De manera que si le teología no tiene como finalidad la liberación y salvación del sujeto histórico y actuante, esta teología carecerá sin duda de la revelación del Dios histórico actuando en la historia actual.

Por tanto, la reflexión acerca de Dios no deberá hacerse en adelante aislándose de los movimientos históricos, sino compartiendo los logros, alegrías, tristezas, resistencias y esperanzas del ser humano en nuestro tiempo, de manera especial de aquellos quienes solo tienen la esperanza de una vida plena frente al sistema de muerte e injusticia.

Bajo el postulado y realidad de Dios como criterio de verdad absoluta, adquiere mayor trascendencia pues nos coloca en la posibilidad de hacer teología desde la realidad histórica con conciencia histórica.

Finalmente, no se trata de demostrar la existencia de Dios bajo postulados científicos, se trata de demostrar la existencia de Dios como actor en la historia de la humanidad y de que como historia se empalma con la historia de salvación, por medio de la encarnación. De manera que el criterio de verdad se convierte en un criterio de vida humana plena. Es antagónico pensar en una teología que no considera la vida humana desde todas sus dimensiones, corporal, espiritual, psicológica y social. Se trata de crear una teología con un trasfondo filosófico ético de la verdad y la vida que aterrice en la cotidianeidad del ser humano con sus necesidades, sus opresiones y sus anhelos de plenitud.

98 Ignacio T. MONZALVO

La providencia y corresponsabilidad del Ser humano Entender, reflexionar y actuar teológicamente desde el postulado de Dios como criterio de verdad nos coloca en corresponsabilidad del cuidado y plenitud de la creación. Calvino hablaba de la responsabilidad del ser humano por entender la providencia de Dios para con su creación.

Para Calvino la providencia es el testimonio fiel del poder de Dios pues es parte de la naturaleza del ser humano “Dios socorre y de repente y de manera admirable y en contra de toda esperanza, a aquellos que ya son considerados como desahuciados los restaura y les da dignidad.”7 El reto de la Iglesia y de la teología en perspectiva liberadora es el de reflexionar en torno del cuidado de la creación bajo el contexto de violencia y marginación que se vive en el mundo. El no considerar la realidad política, económica, ecológica y social de cada país nos dejará fuera de contexto y realidad.

Ante estas consideraciones es necesario preguntarse, ¿en qué se ha convertido el ser humano?, ¿qué valor tiene la naturaleza para el ser humano? y ¿qué valor tiene un ser humano para otro ser humano? Creo que las respuestas a estos cuestionamientos son esenciales para entender la corresponsabilidad del ser humano para con Dios y su providencia.

El tratar de responder al primer cuestionamiento nos ayudará por deducción a encontrar luces para reflexionar en torno a los otros dos cuestionamientos. El ser humano bajo la influencia de la economía de mercado y las ideologías de la optimización, “just in time”, “time is money” y muchas otras, se ha desviado del sentir de Dios con respecto a la preservación, recreación y cuidado de su creación.

En la actualidad muchas mujeres, niños, indígenas y marginados en general ya no cuentan con el respaldo de los gobiernos en materia de lo social y salud. En países del llamado tercer mundo los ciudadanos son considerados como desechables.8 La pobreza se extiende cada día mas entre las poblaciones de todo el mundo. Por consecuencia se da lucha desmedida y anti-ética por el empleo y la sobrevivencia.

Es en este contexto que surge el homo economicus. Este es el ser humano que vive para acumular, y que se rige bajo las leyes del mercado de la economía capitalista que le dan sentido a su existencia. Y no solo esta lógica a perneado el pensamiento de los seres humanos, las instituciones actúan también bajo estas normas, la Iglesia misma no se ha escapado. Esperamos a que nuestras tesorerías se nutran y esperamos que suceda esto para actuar. No es la falta de dinero la que nos impide realizar una acción, es la falta de humanidad, la falta de conciencia, la corrupción que consentimos y de la que somos partícipes.

Sin embargo Dios cumple con su parte al conservar su creación y restaurarla aún contra la voluntad del ser humano quien ha iniciado una guerra contra Él.

Para dar respuesta al cuestionamiento inicial es necesario hacer un examen de conciencia de nuestras actitudes frente a la conservación de la dignidad humana de nuestros prójimos, construimos junto a ellos o sobre ellos, esperamos rescatar nuestras instituciones de la corrupción o algo aun peor: el silencio. Nuestro silencio nos convierte en cómplices del que daña la dignidad y plenitud del ser humano y sus instituciones.

7 CALVINO Juan, Institución de la Religión cristiana. Barcelona, 1994, p 19.

8 En Colombia se les denomina a la indigentes bajo esta adjetivo.

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El lema de la Iglesia Nacional Presbiteriana en México es “la luz en las tinieblas resplandece”, y tanto México como el mundo, se encuentran sumergidos en la necesidad de luz, esto sólo será posible en la medida que levantemos nuestra voz profética en contra de los sistemas opresores de todas dimensiones, tanto micros como macros, tanto los que nos afectan en nuestra cotidianeidad como los que afectan nuestra historia, nuestro porvenir.

Nuestros pueblos originarios (en Latinoamérica) tenían una concepción de la tierra como madre, tenían conciencia de ser hijos e hijas de la madre tierra. Para ellos era prácticamente imposible separar la relación ser humano y naturaleza, pues ambos se encontraban en interdependencia, unidos bajo la misma lógica de vida.

Ahora nosotros vemos y vivimos la tierra desde la perspectiva del interés y la utilidad, ahora somos en cierta forma homo economicus, ya no estamos unidos con nuestros prójimos y aun menos con la naturaleza bajo la lógica de la vida, ahora la lógica es del interés y la utilidad. En la medida que entendamos y asimilemos la respuesta al primer cuestionamiento podremos entender la situación bajo la que se encuentra el respeto y conservación a la naturaleza y a nuestros prójimos.

Luis BERKHOF en su Teología Sistemática define la providencia como: “el control de Dios sobre el universo como un todo, y su cuidado con relación con cada parte del todo”9 y el objetivo y sentido de la vida del ser humano es dar gloria y honra a Dios. En la medida que asumamos con responsabilidad y conciencia nuestra realidad, la de nuestros prójimos y la de la creación estaremos dando gloria y honra a quien preserva y recrea la creación a fin de mostrar su permanencia en la historia de la salvación.

El llamamiento y la regeneración: Hacia una conversión comprometida La providencia vista como el cuidado de Dios para con su creación nos obliga a reflexionar y asumir nuestro papel profético en nuestra participación histórica en la historia de salvación. Es decir, asumir nuestro llamamiento para tener una conversión comprometida con el Reino de Dios.

El asumir que la conversión lleva consigo un compromiso, es entender el sentido primordial de la regeneración. En un mundo donde la violencia tiene rostro de injusticia estructural, y la individualidad se ha perdido para dar lugar al homo economicus, es necesario asumir con responsabilidad la realidad en la que se desenvuelve el ser humano.

El mensaje de salvación debe ser restaurador y regenerador de utopías. Es necesario e indispensable que el ser humano comience a recuperar la formulación de utopías y las realidades y potencialidades de sí. Recuperar al ser humano como sujeto histórico y actuante, como sujeto de su propia historia generador de alternativas.

Desde la perspectiva del ser humano es necesario empalmar al cristiano como realidad trascendente del mismo ser humano. La trascendencia se convierte en trascendencia objetiva, es decir, que se concretiza en la vida cotidiana y su consolida de manera globalizante de ser, ver, actuar, esperar y celebrar la vida y su plenitud.

9 BERKHOF Luis, Teología Sistemática. Michigan, 1995. 194.

100 Ignacio T. MONZALVO De manera que la regeneración en esta lógica de realidad trascendente obliga al creyente a regenerar todos los sectores de su vida, no solo los espirituales o subjetivos, sino todos los espacios concretos de participación y acción histórica en la vida de los seres humanos.

Finalmente, el llamamiento es pues a la asimilación comprometida de la regeneración total, a manera de trascendentalizar su momento histórico con el mensaje de salvación revelado en la historia. De manera que en la historia podemos identificar la revelación de Dios como ser objetivo y trascendente actuando como elemento regenerador de los seres humanos.

La conversión ha de darse – entonces – bajo la visión de transformación del espacio público como el privado, del tiempo y el espacio, en razón de la libertad y la plenitud, pero por sobre todas estas concepciones y de manera especial, en la regeneración del sujeto histórico actuante en su contexto en búsqueda de libertad y plenitud de vida en contra de sistemas de muerte.

Una nueva lógica de hacer Iglesia desde el espacio de lo ecuménico Un problema al que nos enfrentamos en los espacios ecuménicos como los del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias es la manera de hacer Iglesia. Ahí surge la pregunta ¿cómo hacer de nuestra Iglesia, una Iglesia transformadora de nuestra realidad en este sistema neoliberal?

Considero pertinente plantear otra pregunta que creo nos ayudará e iluminará en la búsqueda de la respuesta al primer cuestionamiento. ¿Cuál es el papel o lugar social de la Iglesia? Este no es un cuestionamiento que únicamente tiene pertinencia sociológica, sino que es una cuestión urgente de dimensiones teológicas, pastorales y educativas.

Es necesario superar el sentido “salvacionista” de la misión de nuestras Iglesias, “la afirmación sin tapujos de la posibilidad universal de la salvación, ha cambiado radicalmente la manera de concebir la misión de la Iglesia en el mundo ... la Iglesia se orienta hacia un nuevo y radical servicio al ser humano.” 10 En esta nueva lógica de hacer Iglesia es necesario considerar las características y culturas de cada comunidad eclesial, por ejemplo en Europa en los años ´70 los teólogos europeos se entrenaban en una idea de la teología política de poco sentido analítico, en tanto en América Latina la reflexión y experiencia cristiana de la fe daba pasos concretos hacia la afirmación urgente de la participación política desde los espacios y reflexión teológica. Se iniciaba con esto, la llamada revolución teológica del tercer mundo.11 De esta forma, una nueva manera de hacer Iglesia es promover la “revolución teológica” en nuestras Iglesias a fin de pensar la Iglesia dentro y actuante del mundo concreto. Los retos concretos de nuestro tiempo bajo el sistema neoliberal nos obliga a pensar en alternativas desde el sentir teológico en interacción con otras confesiones.

Hablar de otras confesiones resulta necesario, pues es la vida de todos los que habitamos la Tierra la que esta en juego, Emilio CASTRO tenía como una de sus preocupaciones fundamentales la vida plena y abundante para todos, así lo refle10 PIRONIO Eduardo, La salvación. In Assmann Hugo, Teología desde la praxis de la liberación. Salamanca, 1973.

11 Hugo ASSMANN la define de esta manera porque sobrepasa la estructura ideológica y reflexiva de la teología europea.

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jó en el documento que se publicó durante su secretariado general del CMI. “Abundant Life for All; Christian Faith and the World Economy Today” en el que desde una perspectiva global analizaban las alternativas al sistema desde la óptica de la Fe, sin importar, credo, confesión o denominación, pues es la vida la que nos une, es la cotidianidad ecuménica.

El sentido primario en el diálogo ecuménico, no es la asimilación y la coexistencia de los dogmas, ni el institucionalismo religioso, ni la imposición el un modelo único. Es por el contrario, la coexistencia de la realidad, el reconocimiento de la diferencia y su disfrute.

El reconocimiento parte de identificar a la gente como diferente, y en esta diferencia aprender a crear alternativas de vida. La vida plena consiste en crear alternativas de vida para nosotros y los que nos rodean a partir de nuestras convergencias pero también a partir de nuestras divergencias. Nuestro vivir debe reflejar la imagen de Dios en nuestro testimonio, fe, cultura y realidad social.

A manera de conclusión La realidad social en el momento histórico y económico nos obliga a vivir la fe y a proclamar nuestras aspiraciones para tener una vida completa, es verdad que esta realidad social nos presiona y entristece. Todos y cada uno de nosotros somos un corte transversal de nuestra realidad y contexto social, en esta realidad podríamos encontrar una esperanza, una utopía, la utopía del Reino, y juntos y juntas caminar hacia él.

Nuestra realidad toma, para encontrar nuestras semejanzas, reconocer nuestras diferencias, y para elevar nuestra voz profética, nuestra acción social con los estudiantes, la gente joven, las mujeres, las personas con otras capacidades físicas, y de diversos foros como el de la pastoral juvenil, de la participación política y de la ciudadanía. Finalmente, pensar teológicamente alternativas al sistema neoliberal y a su más grande expresión: la globalización, requiere de creer que otro mundo es posible, de soñar y crear utopías.

Creer en el Dios que nos mira por dentro y mira el universo, una luz que alumbra la posibilidad de encontrarse con el rostro de su creación y con esto encontrar el acompañamiento en la eterna soledad.

Creer en el Dios de nuestros ancestros, un Dios que en medio de su inmensidad nos acompaña en la cotidianeidad con la memoria cultural.

Creer en el Dios que tiene el alma herida, que se derrama en cada llaga, en un Dios que no se dobla ni se rinde, que ama porque necesita que le amen.

Creer en un Dios que sueña con la equidad, con la alternativa utópica del Reino.

Creer en un Dios que se preocupa por los muertos en vida, por los mortales confundidos necesitados de encontrar razón a sus vidas.

Creer en el Dios que se asoma a ver las estrellas, que comparte la luz de un cerillo, en la tierra, en el polvo y en el comal.

Creer en el Dios de los ateos, (inconformes con la limitada idea del Dios de los cristianos) uno que rompe sistemas, palabras, doctrinas y se cruza en la vida de idealistas, anarquistas, utópicos, soñadores y poetas.

102 Ignacio T. MONZALVO Creer en el Dios que habita en la Tierra, que acaricia indios, indígenas, negros, hombres y mujeres porque en ellos esta su grandeza, una que lo hace fuerte por su misma pluralidad.

Creer en el Dios trino, cuádruplo, quíntuplo … milésimo, porque es un Dios de libertad y no de teorías o dogmas, porque en medio de la formulación encuentra su empiricidad.

Creer en un Dios que altera el infinito con un beso de bondad y con esto enciende corazones de millones de hermanas y hermanos marginados y olvidados.

Creer en el Dios de la ciencia, lo místico, lo utópico y en la bondad de su ciudadanía cósmica que permite que podamos encontrarlo en donde estemos.

Creer en el Dios de las ranas, sapos, gusanos y moscas porque en ellos vemos también realizada su obra.

Creer en el Dios que levanta hombres y mujeres como Chico Méndez, Marcos, Gandhi, Teresa de Calcuta, porque en ellos acompaña a su pueblo.

Creer en el Dios de la lógica etérea, pero que en la sencillez se manifiesta para vida.

Creer en el Dios anciano que busca su tiempo en el tiempo, en su muerte lleva un tesoro, en sus manos lleva Dioses muertos (Quetzacoatl, Huacitl, etc.) recuerdos de su acompañamiento milenario.

Creer en un Dios que busca a Dios, un Dios que bendice a Dios, que se obsequia un árbol que no puede ver para poder descansar a su sombra.

Creer en el Dios que no sólo se encuentra en el templo, creo en uno que camina entre lodo y ollas, que se alumbra con la vela de la esperanza.

Creer en el Dios que se escapa con los niños, mujeres y hombres que con una lágrima buscan la soledad del reposo en compañía de Dios.

Creer en el Dios del tiempo y espacio, pero también, en el que no se encuentra, que vive entre segundo y segundo.

Creer en el Dios que se derramó para salvarnos, que dejo de ser para que fuéramos, un Dios que reta a la inexistencia para que existamos.

Creer en el Dios que esta de luto, por todos aquellos y aquellas que han sufrido y padecido la marginación y falta de libertad.

Creer en un Dios que prohíbe la resignación, que opta por la militancia en el Reino.

Creer en el Dios que habita de noche, y en el día espera que no lo olvidemos, que oremos y recemos por él.

Creer en el Dios que acompaña la historia, un Dios que anda de rodillas, que se raspa los codos para dar dignidad a los oprimidos.

Creer en un Dios con el rostro molido, esperando a que juntos y juntas derrotemos la injusticia, marginación y pobreza de los pueblos Latinoamericanos y del mundo.

Creer en el Dios hombre, mujer, niño, niña, perro, gato, ave, pez, montaña, río, sendero, porque todos juntos somos la providencia que vela, el uno por el otro.

Creer en el Dios que defiende el amor, la verdad, la justicia, la integridad y todos aquellos sentimientos que nos abran los ojos para poder ser promotores del Reino.

Creer en el Dios que nos ha dado vida, porque la vida busca vida, una vida plena y equitativa para todos y todas.

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Bibliografía ASSMANN Hugo, Teología desde la praxis de la liberación. Salamanca, 1976.

DUCHROW Ulrico – HINKELAMMERT Franz, La vida o el capital. San José, 2003.

DUSSEL Enrique, Método para una filosofía de la liberación. Salamanca, 1974.

DUSSEL Enrique, Hacia una filosofía política crítica. Bilbao, 2001.

GUTIÉRREZ Germán, Globalización, Caos y Sujeto. San José, 2001.

HINKELAMMERT Franz, Crítica de la razón utópica. Bilbao, 2002.

HOLLOWAY John, Cambiar el mundo sin tomar el poder. Buenos Aires, 2002.

HOUTAR Francois – AMIN Samir, Mundialización de las resistencias. Bogota, 2002.

MATTELART Armand, Geopolítica de la cultura. Bogota, 2002.

SANTA ANA Julio de, La practica económica como religión. San José, 1991.

SILVA Samuel, El pensamiento cristiano revolucionario en América Latina y el Caribe. Salamanca, 1983.

Ignacio T. MONZALVO: Réflexions théologiques sur les alternatives au système néolibéral L’éthique du marché, avec ses principes d’individualisme et de l’élitisme, conduit les êtres humains vers leur autodestruction en imposant la règle de la survie du plus arrimé. Il n’est plus simplement nécessaire d’avoir le pouvoir, mais plus tout le pouvoir dans le monde. En face de ce théâtre de désolation et de destruction, il y a un besoin de créer des alternatives de toutes les perspectives possibles pour confronter ce système néolibéral. Donc la perspective de la vie et l’alternative theologico-économique devient crucial parce qu’ils deviennent le langage par lequel ce système de discours agressif et totalisant est confronter avec les peuples marginalisés et opprimés.

Ignacio T. MONZALVO: Theological Thinking on Alternatives to the Neoliberal System The market ethic, with its principles of selfishness and elitism, draws human beings to their self-destruction by imposing the rule of “survival of the fittest”. No longer is it necessary merely to have power, but rather to have all the power in the world. In the face of this panorama of desolation and destruction, there is a need to create alternatives from all possible perspectives in order to confront the neoliberal system. Thus the perspective of life and theological-economic alternative become crucial because they are the language through which this system of aggressive and totalizing discourse is confronted with the marginalized and oppressed peoples.

Renata ALEXANDRE Renata ALEXANDRE

Is Sexuality Sacred?

A Biblical Connection The Christian Church has been in an uneasy relationship with sexuality nearly since her inception. In such a context, affirming sexuality is extremely difficult.

The Biblical record does not appear to affirm human sexuality either. Yet, there is some evidence to affirm human sexuality in the Biblical text if we examine the ancient Hebrew way of knowing, which is deeply psychological and geared toward community.

Paradigm for ‘Knowing’ The ancient Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ is always moving forward. It is a process in which three movements can be perceived: differentiation, recognition, and community. First, the ancient Hebrew mind, to understand a given problem, must sense what information is discrepant. The individual wishes to hear and see personally the discrepant information. Once differences have been determined, similarities are seen, and may outnumber the differences between individuals.

Finally, in recognizing similarities, the Hebrew mind invites the other person into community, for within that other individual the work of God is detected. The Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ is a holistic, personal movement in which all the senses are used.

Using this paradigm for ‘knowing’, the Genesis creation story can be interpreted in a way that embraces sexuality. The Hebrew understanding of how humans relate with each other gives us clues to what Hebrew Biblical writers may have actually meant when they state that Adam ‘knew’ Eve, or that Abraham ‘knew’ Sarah. Their ‘knowing’ involved far more than sexual intercourse and an ensuing conception of a child. Indeed, the ancient Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ was deeply relational and took a great deal of personal interaction to develop.

Furthermore, the Hebrew world-view has biological as well as psychological and social implications for relational growth. Indeed, ‘to know’ can occur only with the promise of a future within a relationship. This expectation yields a community of relationships as the members of a couple make known to their families and friends their intention of a future together, or as they themselves begin to form Renata ALEXANDRE has been a licensed local pastor in the United Methodist Church since 1997. She obtained her Master of Divinity degree in 2003 from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A. Through her educational experiences, working with abused women, poor people and immigrants, she has developed a holistic ideal about what she believes ministry should encompass, including the spiritual, physio-biological, psychological, emotional and sexual aspects of the individual. She is now working as an education coordinator for a public health program. Her email address is alexanrb@bellsouth.net.

106 Renata ALEXANDRE their own community through bearing offspring. Without such a promise of a communal relationship and the input that new people bring to their lives, ‘knowing’ becomes stagnant.

Finally, by comparing sexual trauma with fulfilling forms of sexuality, we observe how our sexuality has a direct effect on the mind, body and soul of an individual.

In a sexual relationship without ‘knowing,’ partners fail to have empathy for one another because they do not perceive the other’s viewpoint, which leads to controversy, disgust and sometimes violence.

The Hebrew World-view The Biblical account in Genesis 2 illustrates three movements in the Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ through the creation story. Phyllis TRIBLE gives a detailed account of the differentiation of female and male from the “earth creature” who was created in Genesis 2:7. This earth creature was asexual until God took Adam’s rib and created a female human being. This differentiation was not simply a dividing up of parts: the female gets the ovaries, uterus, vagina and breasts and the male gets the penis, testicles and big muscles. The Hebrew way of thinking does not simply mean a differentiation of parts; it means all the related issues regarding the development of male and female from birth to adulthood — it is a process, not an event. The narrator of this story wanted to reveal the very essence of what it means to be a human being, not a mechanical separation as would occur when surgeons divide babies who are conjoined at birth.

The earth creature was not the same after the creation of woman. Though he was not re-created, he was forever changed by the advent of sexuality into his world. He was no longer an earth creature but had become a man. For TRIBLE, in this moment Adam first became conscious of himself as a man through seeing another like him with whom to celebrate the mutuality of life. Psychologically, humans are unaware of their sexuality until they recognize in another person not simply an outward difference, but also an inward similarity.

Further, this act of God shows that humanity was not made to be in solitude; humans were meant to be in community with one another. Adam recognized Eve as another human being with whom to share the work, joy, trials and celebrations.

He did not recognize a particular person; he ‘knew’ another human being. When we look at other humans, we are to ‘know’ them as other beings with a similar life plan to ours: we are born, we grow, we form relationships, we work, and we die.

Finally, in the Hebrew way of ‘knowing,’ a true partnership is not a contract for cohabitation. In Genesis 2:24, the narrator uses the Hebrew word dabhaq, meaning “cleave.” This word is used to indicate strong love, unbreakable trust and faithful companionship. Such love includes sexual intercourse, but is not bound by it. This type of love is a process: it is enduring, faithful, honest and true.

Cultivated over a lifetime, the partners in this deeply intimate relationship wish to become one. Sexual intercourse, with its momentary unity, cannot achieve such fulfillment in a relationship. This partnership is one of desire and passion for all that the partners can express to one another in their everyday lives and growth,

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and it also includes all those wishes and dreams that they do not have the words to express. Carter HEYWARD says: “[Creation processes] do not refer to separate moments or events in either human or divine life. They signal sacred process.

They signal relational empowerment, which is at once creative and liberating, sensual and sacred.” Such relationships do not happen in just a few days or years; they take a lifetime.

An implication embedded in the Hebrew creation myth is that humanity is not one until all people can come together in harmony and ‘know’ each other as “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” One person is an example of humanity, and all human beings together are a fuller, more complete definition of what it means to be human. Real ‘knowing’ is opening ourselves to the possibility of being changed by another person.

Because humans are created to be social creatures, in order to ‘know’ one another, we are always searching for the harmonious community of all the earth’s peoples. This is why heaven is so compelling. We dream for that harmonious place where there is no worry, no conflict, no sorrow, no cares, and where there is a relational ‘knowing’ of ourselves and others that we cannot find on earth.

However, in that kind of world there is also little or no growth, because there is no impetus for change and growth: without new ideas coming into relationships, stagnation occurs.

The affirmation of persons who ‘know’ an individual and her or his talents is a necessary part of that person’s ability to grow and become the person she or he was created by God to become. This includes the realm of sexuality and sex life.

It is through a satisfying, passionate sex life that we come face to face with our partner; our knowledge of our partner and our self momentarily merges and mingles to change us.

Relationship of Knowledge and Power The biologically-rooted differentiation and separation of the genders in Genesis is the same differentiation noted above. Paradoxically, the differentiation of male from female also produced a desire for unity. This desire for integration is seen in the biological processes that influence the sexual and social behavior of human beings.

The ancient Hebrew process of creation continues today. God needs humanity to continue the life of humans in the world. Through procreation, humans become co-creators with God: thus, God’s command to go forth and multiply.

Through the biological processes involved in procreation, human beings are drawn toward one another. Sexual desire leads to jealousy, which leads to influence of another’s desires and control of another’s activities. This is where power becomes involved.

The underlying issue in the control of another person is that of power. One who has power also has choice. A woman’s sexual power lies in her ability to make sexual choices, and female orgasm is the ultimate expression of a woman’s sexual

108 Renata ALEXANDRE power As humans begin to desire one another, they spend more time with each other. If a sufficient amount of time has not been spent building a basic foundation of trust, the inability to place one’s faith fully in another person becomes problematic. Manipulation and control of the other person become more and more common and ‘knowing’ becomes relegated to controlling.

Michel FOUCAULT, in The History of Sexuality, documents the gradual use of sexuality for power rather than for relationships in which ‘knowing’ is primary.

Sex and sexuality become central to social and political power when they are used in an attempt to repress sexuality in lower social classes and to encourage sexuality in elite classes. Such attempts at exploitation and control place a sexual barrier between genders as well as classes. The desire for power is not conducive to ancient Hebrew ‘knowing.’ Indeed, power can preclude such intimacy at every level of life and being.

We render a great deal of power to our sexuality, for it connects our bodies and minds, making embodied experience intelligible for us. FOUCAULT depicts our sexuality as that which has become more important than our souls. Our history does not depict a sexuality that is a ‘knowing’ such as the ancient Hebrew mind-set might describe. Yet, there are currently instances of our recognition of sex as wholeness.

Effective egalitarian power requires a differentiation between females and males, rather than a barrier placed between them. Instead of seeing partners as a threat to our power, we must see each other as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” The failure to ‘know’ causes an inability for members of a couple to sense the work of the sacred between and among them as they move throughout their daily lives. Egalitarian power must be shared, not hoarded by one member of the partnership. Failure to share power places energy in keeping one’s power intact rather than allowing energy to flow freely from one person to the other.

In focusing on male sexuality, James N ELSON discusses relational power that is shared between partners. It is a power that is integrated, just as the ancient Hebrews integrate the differentiated bodies of male and female through the desire for unity. He states, “People are enhanced by this kind of power, mystery is affirmed, interdependence is celebrated.” NELSON also affirms that the ‘knowing’ relationship constitutes an opening of the self to another to allow influence by one’s partner, which affirms one’s own integrity and freedom through experiencing and being experienced by another. He states, “The world of the individual who can be influenced by another without losing his/her identity or freedom is larger than the world of the individual who fears being influenced.” NELSON is talking about recognition of one another.

For many individuals, such recognition occurs in orgasm. Mary PELLAUER discusses orgasm as an experience of universal proportions. She states, “Orgasm is a gift I receive from my own body. My very flesh has this capacity to burst me open to existence, to melt me down into a state in which my connections to the rest of the universe are not only felt, but felt as extremely pleasurable, as joyous.” Carter HEYWARD and Beverly HARRISON see the potential of sexuality and sex as enhanc-

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ing and deepening one’s relations with one’s partner and in the world. These examples of human sexuality speak of wholeness in the presence of individuality, freedom in the context of relationships and interdependence within partnership, which tend toward an ancient Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ in relationships. They also speak to the dreams individuals have for their relationships and the future of humanity. They speak of an ideal community where power relationships are shared and people are seen for who they are: other humans who are also “flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones.”

‘To Know’ in Community “To know” is not to ‘know’ just for ourselves, it is to ‘know’ in community.

Christine GUDORF discusses sexual intercourse as an expression of community: intercourse does not merely express or symbolize love, express or symbolize intimacy with God. It is love. It is Trinitarian intimacy, our intimacy with the three divine persons. That is what many of the references to sex as experiences of heaven mean to convey. It is this spiritual or religious sense that persons try to capture in more secular language about the merger of two human hearts, or the ultimate experience of human freedom.

To love in community is to work for the happiness and health of all humanity.

Justice and compassion must be a part of the community of love. Carter HEYWARD quotes Dorothee SÖLLE regarding these truths: “God is both the act of justicemaking/lovemaking and those who struggle for justice for themselves and others.” This type of love, ‘knowing,’ is always changing as the context of our lives changes while always rearranging ideals as necessary. We continually work for ourselves and the other toward a relational power within our community.

When the Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ is not present within one’s relationships, one feels vulnerable when maintaining community while also being true to one’s beliefs. Yet, the apostle Paul calls us to balance individuality and community in such a manner as Kathy RUDY points out: “This uniting with other souls that disrupts our isolation and individualism does not just take place during sex; it is the cornerstone of Christian community. The Bible calls us over and over to surrender our individualistic selves in order to become part of the Body of Christ.”

Communal love encompasses faithful service while remaining true to one’s own beliefs, experiences, and knowledge of the world, and most of all, it means being true to oneself. Such unity in community requires ‘knowing’ each other as human beings who are different from us: they come from different social backgrounds, they have had different experiences, they have different talents and gifts than we do, and they choose to live their lives differently, but they are still “flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones.”

Relationships without ‘Knowing’: Sexual Trauma Let us examine what occurs when relationships do not adhere to the ancient Hebrew way of ‘knowing.’ The relationships of the abused and battered are not relationships in which the victim and perpetrator really ‘know’ one another in the

110 Renata ALEXANDRE intimate sense discussed above. The result of such traumatic transactions is the fragmentation of the self. For our purposes, it is the separation of the soul, sexuality and psyche from one another. Such relationships actually perform the opposite function to that of the ancient Hebrew mind-set. These relationships do not see the other as “flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones.” This form of relationship must be sharply distinguished from relationships in which individuals ‘know’ one another intimately in knowledge, sensuality and intuitiveness.

When an individual is abused sexually, her or his soul and spirit is crushed. This is especially evident for those who are oppressed in other ways. For example, racial minorities, women and victims who are poor or disabled are traumatized doubly when they are sexually abused because they live in a world that minimizes them as an individual. Rape or sexual abuse adds to such trauma by dis-integrating their sense of who they are and by shattering their souls. Rape is fragmenting for a relatively unified individual, but for one who is already fragmented by other oppressions, rape is a soul-crushing blow to what wholeness these people have been able to find within themselves.

Judith HERMAN has researched trauma and its impact on victims. She writes that humans have a natural ability to assimilate new events into their psyches in order to adapt their consciousness to new behavior. In trauma this ability fails, shattering the internal mechanisms of the psyche and inducing a failure to adapt. Long after the event, particularly of rape, survivors feel as though there is a part of them that has died. Professionals verify that the first part of the self to be lost is the soul, and in recovery, it is the last to return if ever it does. Rape survivors report more suicidal behavior, more suicidal thoughts, and more psychological dysfunction than any other group of people who survive such terrorizing trauma.

Children who have been sexually abused have grave difficulties with intimacy and trust. Often they have a skewed idea about what it means to be sexual and about the normality of aggression in relationships. Battered women and children suffer similar traumas, which with repeated abuse have the effect of re-forming and deforming the personality. Living in a world of terror without options for change affects victims by leaving them with a sense of helplessness. The victim accepts her or his fate as the price she or he must pay to maintain this faulty relationship.

Unlike those who suffer abuse, individuals able to adopt the Hebrew way of ‘knowing’ find it conducive to awareness, not only of the other person in one’s relationship, but also of the culture and its messages embedded deep in one’s psyche. Such ‘knowing’ drives itself deep into the consciousness and affirms each individual of her or his self worth, healing the schisms that a fragmenting culture initiates. This way of ‘knowing’ is healing and self-affirming, and enlarges one’s world. This way of ‘knowing’ is sacred.

‘To Know’ in Sexual Intercourse and Orgasm Emerging from ‘knowing’ another person deeply is the awareness of the sacred.

There is a sense of dancing with the community of the self and its intimate other in the presence of the Trinity. The presence of God empowers us to be and

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become who we are created to be. Carter HEYWARD also refers to the power that such ‘knowing’ suggests: “Our power draws us into our beginnings – into the heart of our creation and creativity, into our relatedness [where] we participate in liberating one another from the isolation, brokenness and despair wrought by abusive power relations in the great and small places of our lives.”

We return to our intimate others to regain the power and the strength we need in order to continue growing to become the best we can be. We wish to immerse ourselves in relationships that we recognize empower us; and being true to ourselves and our intimate others, we touch our own souls as we touch others intimately.

‘Knowing’ in this way is not a human creation; it is a gift from God that allows for just relationships among human beings. Indeed, regardless of who may be the lovers, the root of the love is sacred movement between and among us. This love is agapic, philial and erotic. It is God’s love and, insofar as we embody and express it, it is ours.

Created in God’s image, we embody a spark of God within each of us. As we r e cognize within each other that spark or image of God, we also recognize the potential the other has to offer us in wisdom, empowerment and connectedness. It is ours, yet it is not wholly ours, for it represents something much larger than any one of us is capable of imagining — not only psychologically, but also sexually. God created human beings with the capability to have and give one another sexual pleasure. Such pleasure is enhanced by real ‘knowing’ as can be seen in orgasm.

Joan H. TIMMERMAN describes the experience of orgasm this way: “The ecstatic moment recreates the personality as well as introducing new insights, inventions and lives into the universe. When the boundaries re-form, it is never with quite the same configuration as before.” Most of the time we erect boundaries to protect ourselves from too much stimulation or the wrong type of stimulation, but during orgasm those boundaries are momentarily let down and we are completely open to our lover.

This moment is the most conscious moment that our communion with our lover and with God is recognized. Many other times we unconsciously recognize or sense the importance of the moment, but during orgasm it becomes most evident to our conscious minds. For Mary PELLAUER, it is not simply letting her lover and God into who she is or allowing herself to enter into them; she becomes one with the world. This is the sort of community to which the Hebrew world was referring when the author of Genesis said that Adam ‘knew’ Eve. It is a sense of community with God, each other and the world, which empowers all involved and also inspires care and concern for the growth of the other.

Orgasm has the potential of changing our attitudes toward the entire world.

GUDORF explains it this way: Orgasm often demands a kind of conscious, deliberate letting-go of control over oneself and one’s reactions, a willingness to immerse oneself in the sensation. The pleasure which washes over us when we surrender to the experience and let go of control reinforces the lesson that it is OK, even good, to let go of control, to open oneself up to other people and experiences, to let down the protective barriers of our self-consciousness. When sex is not segregat-

112 Renata ALEXANDRE ed from the rest of our lives, the pleasure of orgasm can reach far beyond the moment of intense pleasure itself, and change, a little at a time, the way we relate to our partner, and even to the larger society and the world. It can encourage us to trust more, to be willing to risk more, to reach out to others more.

It is risky to abandon oneself in this way. Sexuality and true ‘knowing’ of another become so hazardous as to be life-threatening for some people. Those who do not understand sexuality as a gift likely find it a burden with which they must live.

However, according to the Christian community, we are called to live in such a way as to ‘know’ others in as complete a way as possible.

Kathy RUDY explains modern Christian community this way: “Such unitivity entails risks of rejection, abandonment and loss. Once we venture outside ourselves and locate life’s meaning in the souls of others, we are no longer in control of our own destiny. Sexuality is a form of vulnerability and ought to be valued as such. Sex, eros, passion are antidotes to the human sin of wanting to be in control or have power over another. Thus, in unitivity, we overcome our desires to control both our own lives and the lives of other individuals in favor of a more organic representation of humanity. Unitivity is the understanding that we are never alone and that we are always produced by, in and for a social context.”

To be known is to open oneself to share and give to one another. This is not the same as what is currently demanded of females in many societies today: a demand that women have their being for others. Rather, it is a demand that in our relationships we give because we want to give, and we receive without guilt or feeling a necessity to reciprocate. It is a demand to come to relationships as we are, sharing who we are with one another as best we can, remaining open and vulnerable to each other as we feel comfortable. It is the willingness to be changed by the other person.

Affirming Sexuality The ancient Hebrew process of ‘knowing’ differentiates life courses while it continues to seek wholeness and integrity for humanity. Indeed, sexuality is a good gift of God, and it is meant for humanity to enjoy. Sex and sexuality are about being embodied persons who are similar but different, and who are meant to be in community.

The phenomenon that brings people together in a true ‘knowing,’ a real sense of truly understanding, caring, loving and sensing the particular uniqueness of another person, is their embodied sexuality. A true recognition of another as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” is the primary component to such familiarity.

True ‘knowing’ is a life-long process in which people in relationship engage. It takes hard work, much compassion, and an ability to see the image of God in another person. The Hebrew world sees true ‘knowing’ as a way of being or becoming. It celebrates the growth and change of individuals as they become the people they were created by God to be.

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Suggested Reading ANGIER Natalie, Woman: An Intimate Geography. Boston, 1999.

BRIERE John N., Child Abuse Trauma: Theory and Treatment of the Lasting Effects. Newbury Park, 1992.

FOUCAULT Michel, The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (tr. HURLEY Robert). New York, 1990.

GUDORF Christine E., Body, Sex and Pleasure: Reconstruction Christian Sexual Ethics. Cleveland, 1994.

HERMAN Judith, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. New York, 1992.

HEYWARD Carter, Touching our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God. New York, 1989.

KOSO-THOMAS Olayinka, The Circumcision of Women: A Strategy for Eradication. London, 1987.

NELSON James B. – LONGFELLOW Sandra P. (eds.), Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection. Louisville, 1994.

RUDY Kathy, Sex and the Church: Gender, Homosexuality, and the Transformation of Christian Ethics. Boston, 1997.

TANNAHILL Reay, Sex in History. Chelsea, 1992.

TRIBLE Phyllis, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality. Philadelphia, 1978.

WINK Walter, The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium. New York, 1989.

Renata ALEXANDRE: La sexualité est-elle sacrée? Connexion biblique Historiquement, l’Eglise chrétienne a eu une relation difficile avec la sexualité, une observation de la linguistique biblique, cependant, nous donne des indications sur comment les anciens Hébreux pouvaient avoir vraiment vu la sexualité.

Ces observations coïncident avec la pensée de plusieurs écrivains contemporains.

L’article propose un lien linguistique possible entre les compréhensions contemporaines de la sexualité chrétienne et la manière de l’Hébreux ancien de la connaissance trouvée dans la Genèse. Cette interprétation de la sexualité biblique ne suggère pas seulement que la sexualité est un bon don de Dieu, mais aussi qu’un manquement dans le partage de notre sexualité avec une personne aimée constitue un manquement de vivre nos potentialités comme constructeurs et chercheurs de la justice.

Renata ALEXANDRE: ¿La sexualidad es sagrada? Una conexión bíblica Históricamente la Iglesia Cristiana ha tenido una relación nada fácil con la sexualidad. Sin embargo, la observación de la lingüística bíblica, nos proporciona pistas sobre cómo los antiguos hebreos pudieron haber visto realmente la sexualidad. Estas observaciones coinciden con el pensamiento de muchos escritores contemporáneos. El artículo propone un posible nexo lingüístico entre la comprensión contemporánea de la sexualidad cristiana, y la antigua forma hebrea de “entenderle” encontrada en Génesis. Esta interpretación de la sexualidad bíblica no sólo sugiere que la sexualidad es un buen regalo de Dios, sino que también el fallar en compartir nuestra sexualidad con nuestros seres amados, constituye una falla en el vivir al máximo nuestro potencial como buscadores y hacedores de la justicia.

Beenish ASIF

Using Art to Encourage Faith-based Discussions about HIV and AIDS “Some pastors talked about HIV/AIDS, or at least about the global poster competition from the pulpit, which is a step forward in a hitherto ‘silent’ Church.” These words from a Christian in India could have come from many other countries in the world. People find it difficult to begin discussing HIV and AIDS — especially, it seems, in the faith community, where talk of sex and drugs carries immediate social judgment. Yet the silence, and the stigma and discrimination such silence allows to flourish, hinders people with HIV from seeking the help and support they need, and crushes efforts to educate communities to prevent the spread of the disease.

Stigma and Discrimination Pakistan is a country rich in tradition, culture and taboos. The rich can afford to shop at some of the world’s most expensive stores in London and Paris while the poor are so poor that they often go to bed on a hungry stomach. Regardless of the fact whether they are rich or poor, people are mostly very rigid towards their traditions and hold strong and staunch opinions about certain taboo topics. Their opinions are so deeply rooted that it is almost impossible to break through them.

One such topic is HIV and AIDS. Seeking a way through the fear and silence at the grassroots level, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA), a global network of eighty-six churches and church-related organisations, designed a global poster competition against HIV- and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination. The posters were displayed nationally, and national judging panels selected winning posters to be displayed at an exhibition opened at the United Nations (UN) on World AIDS Day 2003.

Through the competition, local groups were encouraged to discuss basic facts and attitudes towards HIV and AIDS and then create posters with messages of Beenish ASIF is in charge of the HIV/AIDS program of Church World Service (CWS) in Pakistan. Her email address is cwsea@cyber.net.pk. The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (www.e-alliance.ch), where WSCF is a participating organisation, is a broad international network of churches and Christian organizations, based in Genève, Switzerland, cooperating in advocacy on global trade and HIV and AIDS. EAA has produced two free resources to support churches and community groups in continuing our dialogue.

An easy-to-use CD-ROM, Signs of Hope, Steps for Change, includes the winning posters and multilingual HIV- and AIDS-related resources for use in publications, presentations, discussions, exhibitions and worship. A brochure in English, French and Spanish, entitled Next Steps: For Positive Change in Attitudes that Cause HIV- and AIDS-related Stigma and Discrimination outlines eight practical steps for raising awareness and taking action in our local communities. Both resources can be ordered free of charge by sending your request to nextsteps@e-alliance.ch.

116 Beenish ASIF hope and compassion. The Church World Service (CWS) in Pakistan and Afghanistan actively participated in this competition and represented Pakistan on the global forum.

Means of Transmission But in Pakistan, before we talk about “stigma and discrimination,” we have to work hard to provide basic knowledge about HIV and AIDS. Nobody wants to hear about it. No one wants to talk about it. Somehow we think if we ignore the issue for long, it will disappear. However, ignorance is hardly a solution to a problem of such global magnitude.

One truth we want to ignore is that the sex industry is a thriving business. Each year many young girls and boys enter it, some because they have financial hardships and others because they need extra money. It is easy money to make. Yet they have no idea what they expose themselves to, nor are they aware of the consequences they might have to face.

In thinking about HIV and AIDS, we tend to focus all our energies towards this one mode of transmission. We hardly ever focus on other ways this disease is spread. Even our health practitioners are not aware of all the means of transmission. A study in Pakistan showed that 63% of health practitioners and 35% of hospital doctors were not aware that the virus can be transmitted from a mother to her unborn child. Estimates also show that 40% of the one and a half million annual blood transfusions are not screened for HIV.

Lack of Awareness We also have about five million drug addicts. Pakistan has one of the highest annual ratios of injection per capita in the world and studies indicate that 94% of the administered injections are via re-used injection equipment. Then there are also a large number of men who live abroad for their employment. While living abroad they are prone to visit sex workers and are at a risk of getting the infection. Subsequently, they expose their wives back home on their trips to visit their families.

With such risky behaviour and general lack of awareness amongst all segments of the society, how can we choose not to talk and discuss about the issue openly?

Some people might argue that the government is talking about the issue and that the National AIDS Control Program is doing a good job. And certainly now all people know about a disease called HIV and AIDS. But about how it is spread, whether or not there is a cure, and how to prevent it — people do not have the slightest clue.

Somehow, whenever the words HIV and AIDS pop up, it is always associated with sex and only with sex. In our society, where sex is a major taboo issue, people choose to stay away from the topic of HIV and AIDS, too. The biggest myth is that if someone has HIV or AIDS it is because of her or his own wrongdoings.

People are completely ignorant of the fact that a person can contract this disease out of no fault of her or his own.

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Silence Is Not a Solution Silence is not a solution; it allows the disease to spread and cause more suffering to individuals, families and communities. Other countries have accepted that HIV and AIDS are not moral diseases, but in reality major health issues. People and governments in other countries are aware that this disease is staring them hard in the face and immediate steps need to be taken to combat its spread.

In an evaluation workshop with some of the poster winners and representatives of national organising committees, Albert M OMOH, from Sierra Leone, told us that when the poster competition was brought to his country, he approached the government. The government was thrilled at this idea of creating a poster campaign against stigma and discrimination and gave its full support to the project.

It turned into a national event that was welcome by the people, too. Albert said that Africa is the worst hit from this disease, but people are now united in their fight against this disease and are taking all steps to prevent its spread any further.

A Need for Acceptance Kari TUHKANEN, an HIV-positive person himself, came from Finland. In a population of five million, there are “only” about 1200 HIV-infected people, but the government is all too aware of how easy it is for this disease to spread and is fast gearing its national campaign to combat the issue.

Kari showed us a postcard with himself and the president of Finland, along with other people, all raising their voice for awareness of this disease. He reported that posters are pasted in all the major public areas across Finland so people understand that the more we learn and speak about this issue, the better.

People are awakening to realise that HIV- and AIDS-infected patients need not only money and medicine, but also acceptance. They need to be accepted as part of society and need care, love, support and compassion. It is wrong to label them as immoral people and discriminate against them on the basis of their health condition.

I strongly believe that we do not need campaigns that just mention the word HIV and AIDS and simply fly through the whole issue, skipping it as if only the word was important and not the actual issue. We need to address and confront the issue boldly and openly. Our cultural and societal norms make this a challenge. But what option do we have? In too many countries, silence lets the disease creep up and become a major killer. We cannot allow this to happen in Pakistan, or anywhere else in the world.

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Beenish ASIF: Utiliser l’art pour encourager des discussions basées sur la foi, à propos du VIH/SIDA Les gens trouvent difficile d’engager une discussion sur le VIH/SIDA – spécialement, cela se vit dans la communauté de foi où parler de sexe et des drogues, s’accompagne d’immédiat jugement social. Encore le silence, la stigmatisation et la discrimination se développent et entravent les personnes vivant avec le VIH dans la recherche de l’aide et du soutien dont elles ont besoin, et compromettent les efforts d’éduquer des communautés pour prévenir l’expansion de la maladie.

Dans un effort de briser la peur et le silence, l’Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA), un réseau global de quatre vingt-six Eglises et organisations d’églises a élaboré un poster géant de lutte globale contre le VIH et la discrimination et stigmatisation liées au SIDA. A travers la lutte, des groupes locaux étaient encouragés de discuter sur les faits concrets et les attitudes envers le VIH et le SIDA pas superficiellement, mais intensément et ouvertement, pour avertir que le silence n’est pas une solution et qu’ignorer la question seulement, perpétue cela.

Beenish ASIF: Usando el arte para promover debates desde la fe sobre el VIH y el SIDA A las personas les cuesta trabajo comenzar a hablar sobre el VIH y el SIDA – especialmente en la comunidad de fe, donde hablar de sexo o drogas conlleva una inmediata condena social. Sin embargo el silencio, y el estigma y la discriminación que tal silencio permite que afloren, impiden que las personas con VIH busquen la ayuda y el apoyo que necesitan, y aplasta los esfuerzos para educar comunidades en la prevención de la propagación de la enfermedad. En un esfuerzo por romper el miedo y el silencio, la Alianza Ecuménica de Apoyo (EAA en inglés), una red mundial de ochenta y seis iglesias y organizaciones eclesiales, idearon una competencia global para la creación de un afiche contra el estigma y la discriminación del VIH y el SIDA. A través de la competencia los grupos locales se vieron estimulados a discutir sobre simples hechos y actitudes hacia el VIH y el SIDA, para luego crear los afiches con mensajes de compasión y esperanza. De esta forma, los pueblos y los gobiernos alrededor de todo el mundo, fueron forzados a enfrentar el problema del VIH y el SIDA no ya de manera superficial, sino abierta y valientemente, reconociendo que el silencio no es una solución, y que ignorar el asunto sólo sirve para perpetuarlo.

Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA):

Understanding AIDS Forty-two million people globally are HIV-positive. Thirty million live in SubSaharan Africa, six million in South and South-East Asia, one million in East Asia and in the Pacific, one and a half million in Latin America, one million in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Five million individuals were newly infected in 2002.

Fourteen million children have been orphaned by AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic.

What Is AIDS, and How Do You Get It? AIDS (or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is the result of infection with the human immune-deficiency virus (HIV), and also the result of other “opportunistic” infections which invade the body as a result of its diminished capacity for resistance. HIV is passed on through bodily fluids, the most common avenues for transmission today being sexual intercourse with an infected partner, shared needles used for drug-injecting, and transmission from mother to child during pregnancy or breast-feeding.

In Europe and North America, the earliest cases were identified among male homosexuals, and in these parts of the world HIV was originally thought of as the “gay disease.” In Africa and Asia, the overwhelming majority of infections take place as a result of sexual intercourse between heterosexual women and men. In global terms, the ratio of women to men infected is now 47/53, with the fastest rate of increase occurring in women between the ages of 19 and 25.

What Happens When You Become Infected with HIV? HIV is not like malaria or meningitis, which have distinctive symptoms and for which treatments are available. HIV gradually destroys the body’s immune system and makes the individual progressively more and more vulnerable to other infections.

A person with HIV may be well for many years, then begin to suffer from skin complaints, chest infections, diarrhœa and other problems. Eventually, illnesses become more and more frequent, weight loss becomes impossible to ignore, it becomes increasingly difficult to live a normal life, and the person will be described as suffering from AIDS.

Can You Cure HIV/AIDS? There is currently no cure for HIV, although there are medications which can prolong the period of ‘normal’ healthy life. In addition, there is plenty of evidence

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that good nutrition, a reasonable quality of life, a positive attitude and belonging to a supportive community can delay the onset of symptoms and mitigate their severity. Good basic health care is crucial, backed up by the availability of standard treatments for opportunistic infections.

Conversely, poverty, malnutrition and hopelessness can hasten the progress of the disease, while frequent attacks of illness are debilitating, and in situations where adequate primary health care is not available, they may prove fatal. In Europe and North America, where health care is adequate and drugs available for treating HIV itself, it has been observed that HIV is no longer a terminal condition. In the developing world, where 95% of all HIV-infected people live, good nutrition and effective primary health services are an impossible dream for the vast majority of the people.

Is There Any Treatment for HIV/AIDS? People with HIV are reliant on the availability of treatments for opportunistic infections like pneumonia and tuberculosis. In addition, most HIV-positive people in Europe today have access to specialist combination therapies which enable them to live normal lives by delaying the breakdown of the immune system.

The problem is that these therapies remain expensive and so are less relevant in the developing world, where basic painkillers, antibiotics and diarrhœa drugs may be unavailable, and lack of continuity in the supply of medicines to treat tuberculosis is leading to an alarming increase in the incidence of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

What Are the Elements in the Problem?

One of the most striking things about the HIV epidemic is that the current situation has developed out of a phenomenon which was generally recognised as recently as the early eighties. The size of the problem is demonstrated by the absolute numbers living or dying from HIV/AIDS; by the percentage of young adults affected in different places; by the number of unsupported survivors, who include elderly parents and grandparents as well as orphaned children; and by the economic effects of the loss of productive people. Its urgency is demonstrated by the rapid increase in the number of infections in all but a very few countries in the developing world.

Día Mundial de Oración por los Estudiantes (DMOE) 2004 Talita Cum: Resucitando a la vida en abundancia (Mc 5,41) LLAMADO A LA ADORACIÓN Preside: Dios Creador, Tu obra nos rodea.

Todas/os: Respondemos con alabanza.

P: Dios Redentor, Tu amor nos sostiene.

T: Respondemos con gozo.

P: Dios dador de Vida, Tu Espíritu nos mueve.

T: Respondemos con esperanza.

(Quien preside la liturgia enciende una vela en el “altar de la paz” a medida que los participantes dedican un símbolo de vida en dicho altar.)

HIMNO ORACIÓN DE CONFESIÓN T: Dios, Tú nos comprendes tal como somos, nos inclinamos ante ti y confesamos nuestro orgullo y arrogancia, nuestros celos, nuestras amarguras, nuestros miedos, nuestra ceguera deliberada, nuestra falta de fe, nuestra falta de sabiduría, nuestras actitudes de enjuiciamiento, nuestro egoísmo, nuestros prejuicios, nuestra codicia y nuestros deseos de vencer sobre otros y otras, nuestra falta de capacidad de decir “lo siento” cuando nos hemos equivocado. Dios, con Tu misericordia, gracia y amor perdónanos nuestras faltas, deseamos renovarnos y ser uno nuevamente, dejar atrás lo viejo y recuperar la fortaleza, la sabiduría, la valentía, amor, compasión, fidelidad que eran Tu intención para con nosotros, para que podamos trabajar con desinterés y fidelidad por la vida abundante.

SILENCIO HIMNO DE ALABANZA COMPARTIMOS LA PALABRA DE DIOS Lectura del Antiguo Testamento: Ezequiel 37,1–14 Lectura del Evangelio: Marcos 5,35–43 T: Alabemos Dios MENSAJE/REFLEXIÓN HIMNO INTERCESIÓN (LETANÍA POR LA PAZ) P: Dios, guerras y conflictos se han vuelto un paisaje común en el mundo. Las niñas y niños sufren hambre, familias enteras no poseen hogares, los pueblos viven en el temor y la incertidumbre sobre su futuro.

T: El mundo está herido, cuándo tendremos paz?

P: Dios, enfermedades mortales como el HIV/SIDA crecen rápidamente. Sin medicinas disponibles y viviendo en la pobreza, miles de personas mueren cada día. Sus familias los y las evitan, otros los ignoran y no se preocupan por sus vidas.

T: El mundo está dividido, ¿dónde encontraremos amor?

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P: Dios, miles de estudiantes enfrentan graves problemas en la educación superior: comercialización de la enseñanza, presupuestos recortados en las escuelas, planes de estudios pensados únicamente para el mercado global. La educación es cada vez menos un lugar para el aprendizaje activo, reflexivo y crítico.

T: El mundo no se preocupa por los y las estudiantes, ¿cómo desarrollar nuestro ministerio hoy?

P: Dios, existe aún tanta discriminación, opresión y violencia contra las mujeres y las minorías sexuales. Las mujeres son discriminadas tanto en las esferas privadas como públicas, en la Iglesia, en los ámbitos educativos, en los medios de comunicación. No existe compañerismo aún cuando las mujeres son creación a la imagen de Dios. Hay también violencia contra las minorías sexuales; nadie se ocupa en escuchar sus voces ni en comprender su situación. Se lanzan piedras antes de una escucha y una comprensión sincera.

T: En el mundo no hay equidad, respeto y sinceridad, ¿dónde podremos encontrar justicia y equidad?

P: Dios, las fuerzas de mercado en la globalización nos hacen vivir en un sinsentido. Enormes brechas de pobreza se abre, el ecosistema es sacrificado, por el mercado, nuestra herencia local es arrasada por los poderes del mercado global.

Miles de personas abandonan sus hogares y familias para buscar una vida digna, y se encuentran con discriminación, explotación y violencia.

T: En el mundo vemos destrucción. Dios, ¿cómo brindar paz, amor, justicia y equidad a nuestros y nuestras semejantes? ¿Cómo vivir a la luz de Tu imagen y ser plenamente humanos? ¿Cómo asumir la responsabilidad para con el prójimo? Dios, ayúdanos, y escucha nuestra oración.

ORACIÓN DE COMPROMISO (para Willem A. VISSER’T HOOFT) Dios, ayúdanos a llevar adelante tu tarea en la comunidad estudiantil. No permitas que nos interpongamos en Tu camino, o que nos tomemos a nosotras y nosotros mismos, o a nuestros Movimientos, demasiado seriamente. Permite que los Movimientos Estudiantiles Cristianos anuncien claramente tu Reino en las universidades en esta y otras tierras, y danos la valentía y la sabiduría de ser tus embajadores y embajadoras entre las y los estudiantes. Muchas voces nos llaman: ayúdanos a reconocer tu llamado. Ayúdanos también a servirte con nuestra mente, así como con nuestro corazón y nuestro compromiso. Llámanos siempre a Ti, para que nuestra fe pueda ser profundizada y podamos ser uno en el gozo de servirte. Amén.

HIMNO DE COMPROMISO BENDICIÓN Y ENVÍO P: Que la bendición del Espíritu de Dios nos transforme; que la dulzura del Espíritu de Dios nos guíe; que los dones del Espíritu de Dios nos capaciten, para servir y alabar Dios, nuestro Creador, Redentor y Consolador, en la vida cotidiana y siempre, hasta resucitar a la vida en abundancia. Amén.

P: Vayamos en paz y sirvamos al Señor.

T: Demos gracias a Dios. Aleluya. Amén.

Journée Mondiale de Prière pour les Étudiants (JMPÉ) 2004 Talitha koum: réveille-toi pour la vie en abondance! (Marc 5,41) APPELLE À LA PRIÈRE Officiant: Dieu, Le Créateur, Ton œuvre nous entoure.

Tous: Avec gloire, nous acclamons.

O: Dieu, Le Rédempteur, Ton amour nous garde toujours.

T: Avec joie, nous acclamons.

O: Dieu, Source de vie, Ton Esprit nous anime.

T: Avec Espérance, nous acclamons.

(L’officiant allumera une bougie sur ‘L’autel de paix’ au moment où la congrégation dédie un symbole de vie à l’autel.)

CHANT PRIÈRE DE CONFESSION T: Dieu, Tu nous connais tel que nous sommes. Nous nous prosternons devant Toi et confessons notre orgueil et notre arrogance. Nos jalousies, nos amertumes, nos peurs, notre aveuglement délibéré, notre manque de foi, notre manque de sagesse, notre égoïsme, nos préjugés, notre comportement cupide et égocentrique, notre incapacité de demander pardon à ceux que nous offensons. Dieu, avec Ta Miséricorde, Ta Grâce et Ton Amour, pardonne nous nos offenses et nos iniquités, nous voulons être renouvelés et complets.

O: Dieu, les guerres et les conflits sont devenus normaux dans nos murs. Les enfants sont affamés, les familles sans abris, les gens vivent dans la peur et dans l’incertitude du lendemain.

T: Le monde est brisé, quand aurons-nous la paix?

O: Dieu, les maladies mortelles telles que le VIH/SIDA ne cessent de se multiplier. Des milliers de gens meurent chaque jour à cause du manque de soins médicaux et de pauvreté déshumanisante. Leurs familles les négligent et personne ne s’occupe de leur vie misérable.

T: Le monde est déchiré. Où trouverons-nous l’amour?

O: Dieu, des milliers d’étudiants font face à des défis graves dans la poursuite de leur éducation supérieure: Commercialisation de l’éducation et réduction injuste de budget alloué à l’éducation. Les milieux éducatifs ne sont plus à mesure de promouvoir un enseignement actif, critique et réflectif.

T: Le monde ne prend plus soins des étudiants. Comment cultivons nous nos étudiants?

O: Dieu, il y a toujours beaucoup de cas de discrimination, d’oppression et de violence contre les femmes et autres groupes marginalisés. Les femmes sont discriminées dans les sphères domestiques, dans la gestion des affaires tant ecclésiastiques que publiques, dans l’éducation comme dans les medias. Il n’y a plus de partenariat équitable même si les femmes sont aussi créées à l’image de Dieu.

T: L’équité, l’intégrité et le respect mutuel des uns et des autres est mise en cause.

O: Dieu, le monde vit dans un chao irréfléchi conditionné par les forces négatives

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du marché mondial. Les gouffres immenses entre les riches et les pauvres ne cessent de s’approfondir. L’écosystème est sacrifié au détriment du marché. Le patrimoine naturel et local sont engloutis par des puissances hégémoniques créées par l’injustice économique mondial. De nombreuses familles sont déracinées de leur bercail dans la recherche d’une vie meilleure mais ils sont souvent accueillis par la discrimination, l’exploitation et la violence.

T: Le monde est rempli de détresse et de destruction. Dieu, comment allonsnous donner la paix, l’amour, la justice et l’égalité à nos semblables ? Comment malgré notre nature pécheresse allons-nous vivre dans la lumière de ton image?

Comment allons nous prendre soins et être responsables les uns des autres?

Dieu, aides nous et écoutes nos prières. Dépouilles nous de notre vielle nature et revêtis nous de la force, la sagesse, le courage, l’amour, la compassion et la fidélité qui nous ont été réservés afin que nous puissions œuvrer dans l’abnégation et l’espérance pour une vie en abondance.

SILENCE CHANT DE LOUANGE LECTURES DES ECRITURES Ancien Testament: Ezéchias 37,1–14 Nouveau Testament: Marc 5,35–43 RÉPONSE: Dieu Soit Loué RÉFLEXION PRIÈRE D’INTERCESSION (Litanie de la Paix) PRIÈRE D’ENGAGEMENT (prière pour les MECs et la FUACE, par Willem A. VISSER’T HOOFT): Dieu, aides nous à être à Ton service dans le milieu Estudiantin. Ne nous permets pas de résister à Ta volonté, ou de considérer nous même ou notre mouvement mieux que les autres. Fais que les Mouvements des Étudiants Chrétiens puissent proclamer Ton règne dignement dans les universités d’ici et d’ailleurs, donne nous le courage et la sagesse d’être Tes ambassadeurs parmi nos collègues étudiants. Beaucoup de voix nous appelle, aides nous à reconnaître Ton appel et à y répondre humblement. Aides nous à te servir avec notre intelligence aussi bien que nos cœurs et notre volonté. Appelles nous encore à Toi pour que notre foi puisse être approfondie afin que nous soyons unis dans la joie de Te servir. Amen.

CHANT D’ENGAGEMENT BÉNÉDICTION FINALE O: Que la puissante bénédiction de l’Esprit de Dieu nous transforme; que la douceur de l’Esprit de Dieu nous conduit; que de nombreux dons de l’Esprit de Dieu nous surabondent; et nous donnent la force de te servir et de T’adorer. O Dieu, notre Créateur et Rédempteur, Soutiens nous dans notre vie quotidienne, jusqu’à l’obtention d’une vie en abondance; maintenant et à jamais. Amen.

O: Allez dans la Paix et servez Dieu!

T: Gloire à Dieu. Halleluah. Amen.

CHANT DE CLÔTURE

Universal Day of Prayer for Students (UDPS) 2004 Talitha Cum: Arising to Life in Abundance (Mark 5,41) CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: God, the Creator, Your work surrounds us.

People: We respond with praise.

L: God, the Redeemer, Your love keeps us always.

P: We respond with joy.

L: God, the Life-Giver, Your Spirit makes us move.

P: We respond with hope.

(The leader lights a candle and people dedicate a symbol of life on the altar of peace.)

HYMN PRAYER OF CONFESSION P: God, You understand us as we are; we bow before You and confess of our pride and arrogance, our jealousies, our bitterness, our fears, our deliberate blindness, our lack of faith, our lack of wisdom, our judgemental attitudes, our selfishness, our prejudices, our greed and desires to win over others, and our inability to say “I am sorry” when we are in the wrong. God, with Your mercy, grace and love, please, forgive our wrongs and negativities; we want to become new and whole again, to slough off the old and regain the strength, wisdom, courage, love, compassion, and faithfulness that You meant for us to be, so that we could work in selflessness and in faithfulness, for life in abundance.

SILENCE HYMN OF PRAISE READING OF THE WORD OF GOD OLD TESTAMENT READING: EZEKIEL 37,1–14 GOSPEL READING: MARK 5,35–43 P: Praise God. MESSAGE HYMN INTERCESSION (LITANY FOR PEACE) L: God, wars and conflicts have now become a common sight in the world.

Children are hungry, families are homeless, people are living in fear and uncertain of their future.

P: The world is broken; when do we have peace?

L: God, deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS are rising rapidly. With no available medicine and living in great poverty, thousands of people lay dying everyday.

Families shun them; others ignore them and do not care about their lives.

P: The world is torn apart; where do we find love?

L: God, thousands of students are facing grave problems in higher education:

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commercialisation of education, budget cuts to schools and curricula toward the global market. Education is no longer a place for active, critical and reflective learning.

P: The world does not care about students; how do we cultivate our students now?

L: God, there are still so many instances of discrimination, oppression and violence against women and minorities. Women are discriminated in both the domestic and public spheres, in the Church, in education, in the media. There is no equal partnership even when women are creations in God’s image. There is still much violence against sexual minorities. No one cares to hear their voices, nor wants to comprehend their situation. Stones are cast before sincere listening and understanding.

P: The world is without equality, respect, and sincerity towards each other; where can we find justice and equity?

L: God, the world is living in mindless chaos influenced by the market forces of globalisation. Large gaps of unbalanced poverty are created. The ecosystem is sacrificed for the market. Local heritages are overhauled by the hegemonic powers of the global market. Thousands of people leave their homes and families to look for a decent living, but are met with discrimination, exploitation and violence.

P: The world is filled with sorrow and destruction. God, how do we give peace, love, justice and equality to our fellow beings? How do we live in the light of Your image, while bearing the human name? How do we take care and be responsible for each other’s well-being? God, please, help us and listen to our prayers.

PRAYER OF COMMITMENT (Prayer for SCMs and WSCF by Willem A. VISSER’T HOOFT) God, help us to do Your work in the student world. Do not allow us to stand in your way, or to take ourselves, or our Movement, too seriously. Grant that the Student Christian Movement may clearly announce Your Reign in the universities of this and every land, and give us the courage and wisdom to be Your ambassadors among our fellow students. Many voices are calling us; help us to recognise Your call. Help us to serve You with our minds as well as our hearts and wills. And call us ever again to Yourself, so that our faith may be deepened and we may be united in the joy of serving You. Amen.

SONG OF COMMITMENT (SCM SOLIDARITY SONG) BLESSING AND SENDING FORTH L: May the empowering blessing of God’s Spirit transform us, may the gentleness of God’s Spirit lead us, may the many gifts of God’s Spirit equip us to serve and worship God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer in our everyday life now and always until we arise to life in abundance. Amen.

L: Go in peace and serve the Lord.

P: Thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Amen.