Ecumenical Anthology II: The River Book (2003)

Waiting for Floating Pages “Rewrite the book... Remove the pages.... Saving face, secured in faith.”

This is how Michael STIPE describes the discovery of new horizons. New pages are written; old ones are rewritten and removed. Removed pages, thrown into a river, remain afloat for a little while and then disappear forever... ...or are picked up by someone who has been waiting for them with patience.

The River Book Central Europe knows both of these. This book favours the second approach. It might not hypnotise, it might not carry away, but it might keep afloat.

When looking at this book from a distance, searching for a keyword, one might be curious to learn what connects the chosen topics. An old question comes to mind – is colourfulness a weakness or strength?

How about making it a strength this time...

The red thread, der rote Faden, of this book might be the notion of responsibility (the reader is free to have a broader view, of course).

Responsibility can seem to be a relatively abstract and a rather philosophical topic at first glance, but in this book it is tied to two areas that are widely discussed in today’s Central Europe – culture (arts) and economy.

Before entering into the discussion on these two areas of responsibility, we have decided to introduce a chapter on identity. Again a muchdebated issue in Central Europe that creates a pre-taste for the other two. Identity can be perceived as a stronghold – a castle – from which one departs when looking for ways of behaving responsibly.

What determines us is one of the basic questions that open this book.

It also suggests a way of viewing responsibility, which is more than just political. It appears clearly already at the beginning of this book that Central Europe is not just a political unit. It is not based solely on the political legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of the Socialist Bloc or on the EU accession process – there seem to be more areas where we are connected. How can responsibility bind us together in the chosen areas? Is not the whole idea just a chimera – we are thrown together to discuss but leave for home with old burdens heavier than before?

The anthology aims at preventing historical, cultural and relational amnesia. It tries to re-collect the torn-out and forgotten pages of the thinking done in the region of Central Europe. It tries to suggest that responsibility and appreciation need not be a black hole and a white dwarf.

A Pentatonic Landscape This book is the outcome of a co-operation between students from five Central European movements (CESR) that are linked to the European branch of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF, established in 1895), ‘an ecumenical forum for student encounter and open dialogue, action and celebration, changing the present and dreaming the future.’

This subregional co-operation started in Praha in 2001, and finds its shape in the organisation of seminars, leadership and language trainings, and the planning and executing of common projects.

We started to gather, edit and put together articles and essays in 2002. The first book in the series was called A Pentatonic Landscape.

Central Europe, Ecology, Ecumenism (Ecumenical Anthology I of the WSCF Central European Subregion), and it was published in Budapest.

The core element of all our seminars (Pannonhalma and Vilémov in 2002; Spi¥ská Kapitula, and Biañowie√a in 2003) and trainings (Zvolen in 2003) is dialogue. Dialogue on ecumenical issues, on history, and on the role students of various Christian denominations can play in Central Europe. Many of the issues discussed are, essentially, about identity.

It will not be a surprise to anyone that this discussion has gained shape in the Central European Subregion, as well as in so many other circles, groups and debates around the globe. Identity is a multifaceted phenomenon that touches upon the individual and upon groups in society

and these societies as a whole. This discussion has many forms and aspects, but to focus on the ‘hot issues’ in the CESR, the main questions it brought to the front are: ‘who are we’, but also ‘who are they?’ As Austria is a part of the subregional network, the discussion is not solely about ‘West’ and ‘Centre’, but also about Central Europe and its borders.

Responsible Identity In the first chapter of this anthology (Quest for Identity), the reader is led into the aspects of identity and identity formation, which is depicted by using the image of a daisy: our identity is like a flower that has several petals. Our emotions shape our images about others and ourselves and there are three voices, as different levels of awareness of human beings that whisper in our ears how we should behave in certain circumstances, or in what way we expect others to behave.

Understanding the presence of these voices is essential in intercultural dialogue. It is not only a matter of what we think about ourselves, but also the opinion of the ‘others’: ‘who do they think we are?’ is significant. Let us make a little detour to illustrate this.

In September 2002 a small scale research was done in Amsterdam among Dutch young adults on their image of Central Europe. A small impression from the reactions: ‘schöne, blaue Donau; somewhere in the middle of Europe; centre of science, power, art, and culture’, but also ‘poverty; grey blocks of flats; concentration camps; not for tourists’, and ’people that have resisted’. Others classified it by mentioning what it does not have: no bikes, no black-and-white-stained cows and no windmills. Who has ever visited the countryside of, let us say, Hungary, knows that the latter arguments will not do.

This last remark is not to prove ‘how similar’ Western Europe is to Central Europe. However, why not ask this question? We are confronted with some triggering insights on the question where the centre of Europe and its borders are. This concept has changed many times during history, and the case of Berlin serves in our book as a focal point to follow the changes. As a city which was part of many different realms of power and influence, its image and role in literature and thinking cannot be ignored.

To further our quest for identity, we cast a glimpse on movement building and growth in the beginning of the XXth century. As a case study, we can get to know the coming of age of the Magyar Student Christian Movement, and the ins and outs of its work in Hungary.

The roots of the Magyar movement were ecumenical from its very

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beginning, for that time one among few unique cases in Europe. Magyar students were active not only on the local, but also on the regional and international level. Their involvement in WSCF was reinforcing and constructive to both sides of the line. The data show that co-operation between student movements in Central Europe has been vivid since the beginning of the previous century (Turnov and Sonntagsberg in 1921), bringing together students from various denominations.

In recent years, it has become clearer that minority rights are not a question that can be simplified. One of the issues at stake is the legitimacy of the rules that are applied to the situation of these minorities.

While living in areas that encompass several national borders, the question is what set of rules, eg. what country or state, has governance over their situation. By using the analytical model of the Cosmology Triangle in which the main term is social contract, we are offered the possibility to understand the process that has led to the present situation. By shifting focus from a ‘national social contract’ to a ‘global social contract’, the latter is proposed as a feasible strategy for minorities in advocating their cause.

It is clear that identity is not fixed, but changes over time, depending on circumstances, emotions, and geographical and political borders. It necessarily is a quest that does not have a set outcome.

Ethical Stances in Art The middle chapter (Ethical Stances in Art) is the most lengthy in the book: it deals with the responsibility of the artist and the recipient in the process of creation and reception. Together with the first chapter, it is based on the CESR Summer Conference in Biañowie√a (Poland) in July 2003 on Central European Culture – Wanted (Dead or Alive).

First, we are confronted with the question: what kind of creative process leads to a new artefact? In the most general sense, the Logos inspires the artist (Digito Dei). She or he has to find the appropriate language to be in communication with the Logos and to turn this dialogue for the creation of an artwork, using imagination and aiming most of all for catharsis.

The responsible creation of art is illustrated in a specific dimension, the relationship between images and texts, in the role of symbols in art.

The Bible is taken as a Great Text, an archetype, source and culmination of texts in our cultural circle.

The importance of a life-view in an artwork is continued in several articles throughout the chapter. Some maintain that an artwork should have

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a constitutive total-view, which is the Providence in the novel, picture or composition. A work of art reveals the attitudes of an artist and it tells us many things about her or his position and inner life. Artists are, therefore, highly responsible; their artwork flows out of their whole life. The chapter closes with the role of world-view in creating cohesive art.

The death and evaporation of the author, who has to be sacrificed, is a somewhat parallel idea that pops up again and again in the line of thoughts of the book. As Roland BARTHES put it: “the author had to be sacrificed so that the reader, spectator or listener might be born.” Since the immortal spirit of an artistic product survives the whole, authors are challenged to die away from themselves and from the world.

An artist has to have some kind of political responsibility as well, because she or he is an engineer of the human soul. Art under dictatorship is again a new topic coming back in various articles. The analysis of the postmodern music scene, especially in Central Europe and in Slovakia, is a powerful example for that in our book. Music is the glory of the creation of art, and it also serves as a framework for our chapter.

Economy and Social Responsibility Economy is one of the high-priority issues in public discourse in Central Europe. The rates of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth, direct foreign investment or the fluctuations of Central European stock exchanges can be found in newspapers on a daily basis. Burning topics, such as unemployment, tax and health care reforms, create a lot of distress in discussions on TV and largely contribute to the atmosphere in society.

In Christian circles, there is a constant debate on how the Churches as units and Christians as individuals should act, if they are to remain faithful to their identity on one side, and to perceive the signs of the times on the other. Our CESR Winter Conference in Spi¥ská Kapitula (Slovakia) in February 2003 dealt with the Perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility in Central Europe. This book also tries to offer some views in the chapter Responsibility and Economy, which might be of help for those, who try to hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. The notion with which the authors are primarily concerned is that of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

CSR is for most Central European countries a relatively new issue but has been drawing increasing attention in the recent years. The Church, who slowly but surely learns to appreciate the gift of entrepreneurship,

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calls for a just distribution of resources in society. The Church, however, offers general guidelines and principles rather than concrete economic tools for an implementation of a more just distribution of resources. Nevertheless, in the economic sphere new approaches are formulated and applied and some of them aim precisely at what the Church is calling for.

Ethical moneymaking sounds to some as a paradox. In reality, however, ethics has become an important issue in business circles, since ethical behaviour is closely linked with such crucial business phenomena as credibility, good reputation, long-term efficiency or the satisfaction of customers and employees.

Corporate social responsibility concerns the responsible behaviour of those who have material and financial power and thus are assigned a higher burden of social responsibility. Company managers, high-ranking officials or people on other levels of leadership are presented with decision-making processes, in which ethical questions play a role.

Individual value systems, personal priorities and beliefs permeate the decisions made in professional life.

But corporate social responsibility does not end with the personal level. The company is perceived as an organism with a distinct behaviour in the market. She has her reputation, relations and aims and these again are subject to alternations depending on the choices the company makes.

Socially responsible behaviour of those who have economic power is a challenging ethical issue in societies that are in transition from a centrally planned economic system to an open-market system. Maybe the Austrian experience on CSR can be of considerable interest for other Central European countries.

The chapter on corporate social responsibility examines also the features typical of societies in transition and tries to examine the factors affecting their “mood”. The notion of pessimism and satisfaction are examined as well to facilitate a deeper insight into the subjective feelings pervading the contemporary Central European societies.

Spiritual Archeology To publish an anthology, one needs a bigger team of committed contributors. Many thanks first of all to the authors; then to the art editor, SZALAY Miklós; to our copy editor, Kate WILSON; and to the translators: Eva-Maria REINER, Dorota ROMAN´CZUK, BARTALOS Tamás, CHIKÁNY Gergely and Juraj MA£URA. We would also like to thank the main organisers of

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our three conferences in 2003: Lenka MATU¥KOVÁ, Magda MULARCZYK, RIHAY Zsuzsa, Markolín O. BODNÁR and Eduard MAR£EK. We remain thankful to the Benedictine Archabbot VÁRSZEGI Asztrik, the director of the Békés Gellért Ecumenical Institute (BGÖI) for his strong support. We also remain grateful for the support of the Dominican province of Slovakia and its provincial Kon¥tanc Miroslav ADAM. We are grateful to our donors: the International Visegrad Fund (IVF), the Youth Program of the European Commission, the Békés Gellért Ecumenical Institute, Pannonhalma (BGÖI); and to our partner organisation, Panet.

In particular, we would like to thank our mother organisation, the World Student Christian Federation Europe Region (WSCF-E), and her regional secretary, Daniela RAPISARDA, for their support and valuable incentives.

Finally, we thank the artist, Zuzana ≥ICKOVÁ-ME¥KOVÁ, who provided the illustrations for the book. The technology of the pictures is monotype on plastic, using fabric or cloth. The artist is obviously fascinated by track and trail. Since her personal life and creativity are interconnected, her way to create art is based on gestures. Every illustration, she explains, represents different values in the church of our soul. These illustrations are, therefore, tracks of the visible world transformed to small archetypes.

She uses lines in the first place as main expressive means; for her, lines represent movement and change. She is inspired by Asian, especially Japanese calligraphy where she also recognizes a sense of movement. The world of illustrations is like the soil, which we should put away if we want to see what is beneath it; in that way, all of us are called to be archaeologists. Therefore, the series of illustrations in this book are findings of spiritual archaeology. They are waiting for someone to pick them up, one who has been waiting for them with patience.

NAGYPÁL Szabolcs – Peter ¥AJDA – Suzanna VERGOUWE

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Dana

£ ERMAKOVÁ

Identity: Why does it Move us so much?

Not long ago I visited Wien together with some of my friends.

We went to some museums, theatre performances and did some sightseeing. Most of the time we had nice discussions, but suddenly a very sensitive topic came up. Being the only Czech in our group, I was asked the question: “Who was the last Queen in your history?” I started to laugh and answered that there has never been any queen in the Czech history. And my friends were really very surprised. “How is it possible? And who was Maria Theresia according to you? She was officially the Queen of the Bohemian Kingdom and was crowned in ...”

A big discussion started and I really could not persuade my friends that Maria Theresia was not a Czech queen – or more precisely that she is not perceived as a Czech queen. The discussion was rather difficult and maybe a bit less friendly than before, but I found also one very positive aspect of this experience – I started to think about the issue of “identity” which was the basic topic of the whole discussion.

Defining Identity If we take the psychological definitions of the term identity, we can look at it from three basic perspectives, according to Milan NAKONE£NY´: identity can be understood as the sense of one’s own continuity in time (it is myself and not my neighbour or enemy, it is me developing in time), authenticity (it is my behaviour, my decision making, my roles and opinions) and identification with another group or idea (I belong to this or that group). The last meaning of the term is the most important one in intercultural relationships.

We all feel that we are members of groups we consider ours (this is the in-group feeling). We feel that we are members of our family (and not any other family in the world, although we might sometimes like to be members of another one), of a school or peer group, of a 13

D. £ERMAKOVÁ Identity village or city community (someone does not like people from small villages, they on the other hand think that she or he is just another haughty person from Praha), and of course one also feels a member of an ethnic group (I am Czech, probably with some Jewish roots and family members of a foreign nationality).

Identification with my in-groups gives me the possibility to live in society and besides that, it is also a training field for my social skills.

And what about the feelings towards people from other groups?

They are usually “the others” (this is the out-group feeling), different, and this perspective helps me to identify myself with my own groups of which I feel to be a member. The feeling of in- and outgroup gives me a possibility to create and build my own identity. At the same time it creates space for potential tensions which can grow into an extreme feeling, such as xenophobia.

The Petals of a Daisy We can imagine identity as a daisy. Each group we feel to be member of is a petal of the daisy. The whole flower then, is our identity.

The aim is to have more than just one daisy petal and to be also aware of it. This image is important for the next steps in thinking about the issue of identity. In his book Cross-Cultural Encounters, Richard W. BRISLIN points out that there are three basic levels of how we relate to members of out-groups: the affective, cognitive and conative level.

The affective level gives us the information about what we feel towards other people. This level can be very different from the second, the cognitive level, which shows us which kind of information we have about the members of some out-groups.

The third level, the conative one can often be the crucial one. It concerns the behaviour we use towards others. Our actions can range from the stance of profound passivity, which creates space for prejudice and indifference, to the stance of conscious and engaged presence in society.

Let us take the next step now. We talked already about the feeling of identity and how it is linked to the distinction between out-group and in-group feelings. We also tried to suggest some differences among the three levels of attitude towards members of out-groups.

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The Role of Emotions One question, however, still remains open. To explain it further, I will avail myself of an example from a seminar I was leading together with a colleague of mine. The theme of the seminar was identity and the participants were teachers from various secondary schools. It was a very homogeneous group, since all of them were from the Czech Republic and worked in Czech schools which are ethnically still very homogeneous. The only non-Czech was my colleague, who was Dutch. The first hours of the seminar passed in a very friendly atmosphere: we were talking about identity in general and about the way how we can describe attitudes towards people from out-groups. All participants could surprisingly easily agree on most of what was being said.

However, we wanted to provoke some deeper discussions and therefore raised the issue of the Sudeten Germans. (After the Second World War almost the entire Sudeten German minority, around two and a half million people, was expelled from Czechoslovakia. The issue is still very sensitive in the Czech Republic.) We used the method

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D.. £ERMAKOVÁ Identity of a role play for going deeper into the matter. The group of participants was divided into two sub-groups. One group was requested to play the role of the current inhabitants of a village in the border area.

The original German speaking inhabitants of the village had been expelled after the Second World War. Most of the present inhabitants or their ancestors moved to the village in the 1950s and do not have any relations to the original inhabitants.

The other sub-group got the role of a delegation of the original Sudeten German inhabitants who are visiting the village in 2003. The aim of the visit was to continue the activities that had started in 1990 (for example a reconstruction of the local church financed by the Sudeten German side). The delegation had one specific request: to erect a small monument together with the Czech partners remembering the names of Sudeten Germans who were killed in 1945 during the expulsion from their homes. The Czech participants were shocked by this task. They had the very deep feeling that the aim of this task was to provoke the feeling of guilt. In the end we had to cancel the role play and to talk about the reasons behind these strong feelings.

This example shows us how deep our feelings can be and what potential they have to influence our behaviour. We cannot take a rational decision not to feel our fears, guilt and anger. We have to accept our emotions but we also have to understand them.

Understanding emotions and training ourselves in looking at things from a different perspective gives us an opportunity to change our behaviour. But what are the roots of our deep feelings and where do they come from?

The Person–Structure–Culture Triangle Let me introduce a concept of Karl-Heinz BITTL, explaining the cultural differences and their levels. BITTL has been active in the field of intercultural pedagogy for more than twenty-five years. He has been engaged in projects run by FBF (Frankisches Bildungswerk für Friedensarbeit) and EICCC (European Institute Conflict – Culture – Co-operation).

Culture is one of the corners of the triangle in the following picture;

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Quest for Identity it is meant to be a part of the triangle person–structure–culture, not only in the sense of national or ethnic group. There are also cultures of skinheads, anarchists, workers from a small village, etc.: A person is an individual with her or his personal qualities, life story, behaviour and feeling of identities. Structure – the person lives in certain concrete structures – e.g. family, school class, labour circumstances or state. The structure creates also circumstances, rules and explanations. In the triangle, culture is the silent voice, which says what is right and what is wrong, legitimising behaviour, attitudes and opinions.

Three Whispering Voices Furthermore, we can imagine that this voice whispers at three different levels. The most superficial says which meals and music are good, what we should wear when going to the theatre or when hiking in the mountains. After 1990 it was a big shock to many Czechs when the first Western tourists came to Praha and went to the National Theatre wearing jeans. This was totally unacceptable from a Czech perspective. There are big cultural differences at this level, but it seems relatively easy to discuss them.

The voice goes a level deeper where it says what is right and what is wrong. It is the level where judgements find there source. We all imagine what is normal and common and what should be done. Each member of a culture has this feeling. A problem appears when two very different ideas clash.

Another situation to illustrate this: As a Czech you are going to go to the Netherlands for a business trip and you have made an appointment with your Dutch colleague back in January. Now it is May, you know that you should meet him on Friday 10th, but it has been already a long time since you agreed and many things could have changed, so you are a bit uncertain. You try to write him an email and ask again if everything is alright.

There is no answer, no reaction and the date of your departure has come. Should you go? Or did something happen and the meeting is 17

D. £ERMAKOVÁ Identity cancelled? But in spite of everything you still have the feeling that you should go, so you arrive to the meeting point and your “impossible” Dutch colleague is waiting there for you. Of course. From a Dutch perspective there is no doubt that the appointment once agreed is not cancelled. At the same time, from a Czech perspective there can be doubts in such a situation.

The deepest level is the level of basic pre-understandings. Preunderstanding is the picture you have in your mind coming to the door and opening it. You are very sure that there is another room behind the door and you take the further step. It would be a big surprise if there was nothing of that kind. We all have such pre-understandings in many deep pictures, ideas and ways of behaviour.

A good example is communication. There are two basic styles of communication: explicit and implicit. Cultures using explicit communication are able to describe things in a very pregnant way: they describe concrete situations and assign names to things. Implicit cultures use rather pictures, images, feelings and they use a concrete example only very rarely.

When a seminar with people from both explicit and implicit cultures takes place and participants are asked how they are, a very interesting situation occurs. Those from the explicit culture will talk about the journey or about what they did yesterday before arriving. The participants from the implicit culture will most probably use metaphors, they will use sentences like “I feel like a tree in the autumn” but they are unlikely to use a concrete example from their every-day life.

What do these two groups think about each other? These opinions are often not very flattering. The implicits think that the others are very superficial and the explicits may think that the others are rather indifferent. It is only a small example of how these deep things work and move us. There are studies examining the mentioned cultural differences from among whose I would like to recommend especially Allemaal Andersdenkenden written by Geert HOFSTEDE.

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Quest for Identity

Intercultural Encounters In the preceding paragraphs we have presented the basic concepts concerning identity. One important question, however, still remains unsolved: what shall we do with them? Several things should be kept in mind. Theoretical concepts are always useful tools for understanding reality better. Their aim is to reflect practical situations. As long as they are just theories on paper, they will not help us in dealing with concrete situations. Their value can be proved only in real life, in intercultural encounters. We need to learn by doing and experiencing.

We have different reasons for being interested in intercultural issues as well. Some are just interested in the issue as such and want to learn more about themselves and others. In such a case these concepts can help to understand the situation better and can broaden perspectives. Others have a practical reason for their interest. They work with people from another background, from another group. In their work they encounter religious and cultural differences. They have to cope with difficult situations which determine their need to find tools for dealing with them. Here we reach a level of new social skills, experience and learning, which requires a lot of time and energy. One needs to change some of her or his attitudes and patterns of behaviour, which is often rather difficult. In this practical, intercultural situation it is advisable to get some training in intercultural competences.

Whether one’s interest is rather theoretical or practical, one simple exercise can be particularly helpful when discussing identity. Take a sheet of paper and draw a daisy with at least seven petals. And then try to remember which groups you have ever felt yourself to be a member of and paint a symbol of the group on a petal. In the end you will have a nice picture of your own colourful identity. We all are members of more than just one group. And we all have an experience of tolerance regarding our own identities. This experience can be useful also in coping with others, members of other out-groups.

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Queen Maria Theresia Let me finally return to our visit to Wien. “Maria Theresia was officially the Queen of the Bohemian Kingdom.” I remember that sentence being painful. “Well, it is alright, if you really think it. I do not feel it that way, but taking the historical facts into account I have to agree.”

Identity is crucial to tolerance. The first step is always to understand oneself better and to be aware of one’s own identity. It is obvious that I myself have to be tolerant to my various identities and should be able to reflect and experience this tolerance.

Understanding myself can help me open my eyes for a better understanding of other people from other cultures (other regions, religious groups, other parts of the world or other parts of my hometown).

What happens then? Perhaps I will not feel the urge to judge so much and so often, and when someone has “strange” opinions I can only wonder and try to understand where these opinions come from.

Of course, this procedure is relevant mainly when talking about the personal level. In a discussion on how different groups in society are organised and how they interact we would have to widen our concepts and take into also other elements which this article has not been concerned with.

Suggested Reading NAKONE£NY´ Milan, Sociální psychologie. Portál, 1999.

HOFSTEDE Geert, Allemaal Andersdenkenden.

BRISLIN Richard W., Cross-Cultural Encounters.

LOSCHE Helga, Interkulturelle Pädagogik.

Dana £ERMÁKOVÁ studied social pedagogy, theology and anthropology. She is involved in the project “Development and Evaluation of a Method to Enhance Intercultural Competencies in Czech Schools” at the Leiden University which is intended as her PhD dissertation basis.

She worked in the Jabok Academy for social pedagogy and theology in Prague between 1998 and 2001. She was responsible for international projects in the field of pedagogy and taught intercultural pedagogy, interactive storytelling and project work. Since 1998 she has been organising seminars in the field of intercultural pedagogy. She cooperates with institutions concerned with intercultural pedagogy and works in the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic as a project manager.

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Kate W ILSON

Is Berlin in Central Europe?

Finding the Centre of Europe is hard enough – but defining the limits of this centre is almost impossible. The case has even been made for Milano and Vilnius as part of Central Europe, at the time when these great cities were true meeting points between East and West. So why not Berlin? What we need to ask is not so much where as when and how. If Central Europe is really the middle swathe of our continent that has been tragically battered by successive empires, than how can the capital of more than one empire be part of it? Yet Berlin was also divided between occupying forces of East and West for half of the last century.

If Central Europe is Slavonic, how can a Germanic city be part of it? Yet German was the native language of so many citizens in Breslau-Wrocñaw, or even Königsberg-KrólewiecKaliningrad, the language that Franz KAFKA wrote in. And where do the Magyars fit in? The only thing we can say with any degree of certainty about the centre is that it is not the edge.

No clear borders, many identities crossing and flowing into each other. At its best, the centre acts as a bridge between different peripheries. The question is when this ever was or can be true of Berlin.

North and South In the early modern period, the concepts of East and West in Europe did not yet exist. Europeans preferred to divide their continent into North (where Russia, Poland-Lithuania and Sweden were fighting for control of the Baltic) and South (where the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires rivalled with France around the Mediterranean).

The division was not a simple one of Protestant North and Roman Catholic South. Then as now there was much mixing in the centre – away from the seacoast – but the lines were drawn in a different direction.

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K.. WILSON Is Berlin in Central Europe?

Only in the seventeenth century did Berlin gain importance as the capital of Brandenburg-Prussia. After the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), Berlin grew rapidly, and by 1800 it was the second largest city in the Holy Roman Empire, surpassed only by Wien.

Windows of Enlightenment In the age when Berlin was expanding, St Petersburg was built as an imperial “window on the West”. Just because it connected East and West however, that does not mean that it was in the centre.

Can we not say the same for Berlin? Like Petersburg, it flowered in the age of what some still call “enlightened absolutism”. This was the time when the rational philosophy of the eighteenth century was used by rulers to further the strong arm of government. Exemplifying this pragmatism, Berlin’s growth was based on the influx of the Dutch, Huguenots and Jews, who were offered religious toleration in return for furthering the economic prosperity of the city. The Prussian kings and queens patronised the great minds of the age, including LEIBNIZ, WOLFF and PUFENDORF.1 Berlin was the capital of the Prussian State throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was the Prussian Prime Minister, Otto VON BISMARCK, who led the drive towards a unified Germany, and, in 1871, the Prussian King was crowned Kaiser Wilhelm I. Did this affirm Berlin’s true role as a Western “Window on the East” from which another Empire could expand into the centre?

Partition

This view of Berlin fits like a glove for many Central Europeans. One example is the Polish national story of suffering under partition between three empires ruled from Moskva, Wien and Berlin.

Poland’s greatest romantic poets sought comfort in the doctrine of messianism, a term coined by philosopher Józef Maria HOENE-WRON´SKI after a personal revelation in 1803.2 Juliusz SÑOWACKI expressed this clearly in his poetry; Poland, like the Messiah, had been crucified – partitioned – for the good of the world, and would rise again.

1 JERSCH-WENZEL Stefi, Zuwanderung als Entwicklungshilfe; KÖNIG Detlef, Frühaufklärung in Brandenburg-Preußen both in WINDT Franziska et al. (eds.), Preussen 1701: Eine europäische Geschichte II – Essays. Berlin, 2001. 109–120, 148–155.

2 Polska Akademia Nauk, 700 lat mys´li polskiej tom V. Warszawa, 1978, 108, 110.

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A jednak nie w∞tpi‰, bo sie pora zbli√a, √e to wielkie åwiatûo - na niebie zapali.

I Polski Ty, o Bo√e, nie odepniesz z krzy√a, A√ b‰dziesz wiedziaû, √e si‰ jako trup nie zwali.3 (And yet I do not doubt, because the time is coming When the great light will be lit in the heavens And You, o Lord, will not force Poland down from the cross Until you know that she will not collapse as a corpse.)

The romantic suffering view of Polish history remains the schoolbook one, despite the efforts of much later writers such as Witold GOMBROWICZ to challenge it. The protagonist of his Transatlantyk wishes “do diabûa z ojcem i ojczyzn∞! Wypuå^ chûopaków z ojcowskiej klatki!” (“To hell with father and fatherland! Free the youths from their paternal cage!”)4 This is just one suffering and partition story, in which Berlin played its part. Such stories come from other Central European nations; the Magyars were divided by the Austrians and Turks in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, for example. Could not Berlin tell the same story – it was after all partitioned between the Western allies and USSR for almost half a century?

Yet the whole of Germany was also divided into East and West during this period, and I would stop arguing that this made the German nation part of Central Europe. Surely that takes the centre too far West? And why did others move in to partition Germany and Berlin in the first place?

Totalitarianism – Berlin Voices As in Warszawa, the royal castle in Berlin was razed to the ground in the Second World War. And, as in Warszawa, the wish to restore the castle was great. The Poles were organised enough to complete their castle a couple of decades ago. Yet the Germans still have the ‘A jednak nie watpie…’ in SÑOWACKI Juliusz, Kr∞g pism mistycznych. Wrocñaw, 1982.

GOMBROWICZ Witold, Transatlantyk (1951). Kraków, 1988. 60. The protagonist rejects the ideal of fighting for one’s country, deciding not participate in World War II, and reacts against the émigré community in Argentina who are enslaved by romantic views of Poland, poetry and heroism.

3 4

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Socialist Palace of the Republic, an unusable asbestos-filled skeleton of history, on the site of the old Prussian Schloß. There is no money to even tear this down, let alone to build an “historical” wedding cake in its place – the city is almost bankrupt.

Berlin has lurched in the twentieth century from being the heart of its National Socialist empire to being a divided satellite capital of another empire, the Soviet one.

The traces of all these layers of imperial rule are visible at every turn in the city architecture today.

Should the Berliners really remove one imperial palace to replace it with the copy of another? That depends on what the Berliners think of themselves. Do they feel part of Central Europe, is it their own identity? A woman and a man from Berlin might give us some answers.

The poet Mascha KALÉKO was born to a Russian father and an Austrian mother in Poland in 1907, and spent her school years and youth in Berlin – a child of the Empire, a child of the Centre of Europe? She published and was very popular throughout the 1930s, praised by the likes of Thomas MANN, a friend of Martin BUBER. As a Jew, she was forced to flee and left for New York in 24

Quest for Identity 1938, from where she went on to live in Jerusalem and die in Zürich.

She came back to Berlin for readings – for the first time in 1956 – but never to live, she never settled anywhere.5 She passed this homelessness on to her son: Du hattest gerade deinen ersten Zahn, Da setzten sie aufs Dach den Roten Hahn.

Der Schwarze Mann, die Bittre Medizin, Sie hieß: Berlin.

Du lerntest wieder aufstehn, wenn man fällt.

Dein Kinderwagen rollte um die Welt.

Du sagtest Danke, Thank you und Merci Du Sprachgenie…

Du, den ich liebte, lang bevor er war, Du ferner Glanz aus einem Augenpaar, Ich leg dies Buch in deine kleine Hand, Du Emigrant.

When KALÉKO was young in the 1920s and 1930s, Berlin was an important cultural centre, arguably part of Central Europe, but as she grew up, and when her son was born, had Central Europe left Berlin?

In later poems she notes how the Americans react to her Europeanness as “sentimental, hopelessly continental”, and writes a Kaddish for the lost lives of her people in Poland. These are part of her past though. She has no reason to go back.6 Another citizen of Berlin, Stefan HEYM, made a similar journey to KALÉKO, emigrating to New York when Adolf HITLER came to power.

After the war, however, he returned to the German Democratic Republic and became one of its star writers. Still, he came to understand the reasons why KALÉKO did not return to Berlin.

His novel Die Architekten, set in Berlin in 1956, was written in the 1960s but only published in 2000. It brings alive the reality under and after STALIN through the story of Arnold SUNDSTROM, chief archi5 See BOGUCKA-KRENZ Katarzyna (ed.), Poetki z Ciemnos´ci-Dichterinnen aus dem Dunkel.

Kraków, 1995, 76.

6 Einem kleinen Emigranten, Kaddisch, New Yorker Sonntagskantate in KALÉKO Mascha, Verse für Zeitgenossen. Hamburg, 1980. 39, 46, 65.

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K.. WILSON Is Berlin in Central Europe? tect of the new Berlin, and of his wife Julia. Julia does not know that Arnold denounced her parents to the Gulag, but when a ghost from the past returns, she begins to find out buried secrets. HEYM recreates wonderfully the deadening atmosphere in the East of the city.

The Russians are everywhere, the vodka flows, the West might as well not exist – or does it? Already in the second chapter, Julia is shocked to find that her colleagues are using architecture sketches from West Berlin as models for their own designs. And that these are rather better than what the rest of the collective can produce. These sketches from the other half of her city are the first crack in the façade that begins to fall all around her. East and West are still connected.

So when Berlin was partitioned, did it become truly Central European? Certainly the ties with Central European neighbours grew closer. A Central European who has much to say about the totalitarian empires of the twentieth century brings our picture of the city closer up to date. KERTÉSZ Imre studied in East Berlin in 1980, and recorded his impressions.

KERTÉSZ’s East Berlin, “monströses Symbol des Absurden”, is a stifled, deadened city where nobody smiles. It takes him days to work out what eerie sound accompanies him everywhere he goes – the rattling of ceremonial flagpoles in the wind. For KERTÉSZ, as for Julia, the West is clearly connected to the East in Berlin. At the Brandenburger Tor, the Westerners come in buses to look over the Wall. At Checkpoint Charlie, the traffic is heavy. And when he goes out to dinner with an Austrian and the woman from the Ministry of Culture, she will not leave him alone: “Überebende Juden haben für deutsche Frauen offenbar eine sexuelle Anziehungskraft.” (Jewish survivors are clearly sexually attractive to German women.) The city’s past is still very present.7 It is a past that is deeply connected to the Centre of Europe, but not always on an equal footing. Berlin’s relationship to Central Europe has been one of close cultural and political ties, but also one of dominance.

All of these temporary Berliners – indeed a real Berliner is in many ways a temporary one, coming from somewhere else and going to

7

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KERTÉSZ Imre, Galeerentagebuch (tr. SCHWAMM Kristin). Berlin, 2002. 95–103.

Quest for Identity somewhere else but, for now, making this city their home – found in Berlin a place where East and West were still connected over the Wall. Did they find a Centre to unite these two halves?

Wiedervereinigung In today’s Berlin you have to look for the signs of a city divided between East and West. You do not have to search hard, however.

Only the old East has trams – they were ripped out in favour of private cars in the old West. The city has three airports, three opera houses, three universities. On the Warschauer Brücke and Potsdamer Platz you can see the cracks which have not quite been painted over, yet, where the Wall used to run. East and West Berliners are united in their contempt for authority however. Forbid something, be it barbecuing in public parks or playing football in front of the Bundestag, and Berliners flock to do just that.

Westerners are pouring in. The universities are oversubscribed with Wessis, Americans, Brits and French who colonise the newly hip districts of former East Berlin with their art galleries and boutiques, replacing the coal stoves with central heating as they come. No surprise that the original East Berliners might feel ready to move.

So are the Easterners. If you do not hear English or French on the bus, it’s Polish, Russian, Turkish. The original West Berliners’ currywurst stands are being taken over by falafel and börek on every corner.

Perhaps the true Central Europeans in Berlin are the increasing number of Kurds – today’s people without a polity, partitioned three ways between Turkey, Iran and Iraq, caught up in a “clash of civilisations” between the forces East and West whose power games deny them a state. So is Diyarbakir the new Central Europe? If so, why not Berlin?

In favour of Berlin today, it is a place where it is possible for East and West to meet each other on the neutral ground, in the mixture of tolerance and indifference that makes a true city. Against Berlin, although it is a meeting point, it is not always a mixing point. East and West – even the old East and West Berliners – can live side by side without communicating.

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K.. WILSON Is Berlin in Central Europe?

Is Central Europe too a place of tolerance mixed with indifference?

Central European states have had their own expansionist tendencies, their own problems with minorities, at different points in their history. They are far from being the eternal martyrs that the romantic messianists would have us believe. So why exclude Berlin from their number?

The traces of history are everywhere, but perhaps Berlin has been reabsorbed into the West, as it became part of a unified Germany and joined the European Union. Does this then mean that the states which join the EU next year are automatically part of the Western club and the new Wall between East and West will be the EU’s Eastern border? Many people think so.

Berlin has been in Central Europe and probably will be again, but not all the time. I hope I have raised enough questions to help you decide when – if ever – the city fulfils your criteria for what makes Central Europe. For me, the centre is a bridge, the place where the edges collide and identities mix. This happened for example in 1989, when Berlin was the focus of the world as the Wall came down. Pockets of this collision between East and West are still present in Berlin today, but as the new German capital it is well on the way to becoming a Western metropolis. Who knows how long it will remain so…

Suggested Reading BOGUCKA-KRENZ Katarzyna (ed.), Poetki z Ciemnos´ci-Dichterinnen aus dem Dunkel. Kraków, 1995.

GOMBROWICZ Witold, Transatlantyk (1951). Kraków, 1988.

HEYM Stefan, Die Architekten (1960s). München, 2002.

KERTÉSZ Imre, Galeerentagebuch (tr. SCHWAMM Kristin). Berlin, 2002. KERTÉSZ Imre, Gályanapló.

Budapest, 1992.

KALÉKO Mascha, Verse für Zeitgenossen. Hamburg, 1980.

SÑOWACKI Juliusz, Kr∞g pism mistycznych. Wrocñaw, 1982.

WINDT Franziska et al. (eds.), Preussen 1701: Eine europäische Geschichte II – Essays. Berlin, 2001.

Kate WILSON is a Roman Catholic from Wales, living in Berlin. She is coming to the end of a PhD about the politics of toleration in early modern Great Poland. She is a member of the Executive Committee (ExCo) and the European Regional Committee (ERC) of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF).

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N AGYPÁL Szabolcs

Activating the Latent Angels: WSCF and the Magyar SCM (1895-1930) “We make possible the more effective release of spiritual resources latent in the various movements as a result of sharing together our experiences and our faith.” 1 Henri-Louis HENRIOD

During my years as a student of ecumenical theology in the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland, I made a research in the Genève archives of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), where I was looking for all the Hungarica (documents written by, to or about Magyars) embracing first the decades between 1895 till 1930. As a result, I found more than one hundred and thirty documents, mostly in English, but also in German, French and Magyar. They provide us with an invaluable source of knowledge and inspiration in a time when ecumenically minded Magyar and Central European students are looking for ancestors to learn from and roots to be nurtured by.

We have to activate the latent angels, the spiritual resources in ourselves and in our history.

WSCF is considered the first ecumenical organisation of the world; some count the beginning of the ecumenical movement from 1895, the establishment of the Federation in Vadstena in Sweden. She has also been an important organisation in the academic field: WSCF is one of the first international student organisations as well. The founding Student Christian Movements (SCMs) were from North America (USA) and from Northern and Western Europe (United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Norway). The first general secretary of WSCF, John R. MOTT is among the leading evangelists and missionaries in the history of Western Christianity. He made extensive journeys around the globe, preaching in universities and organising SCMs. Surprising or not, in his first world tour in 1895 he immediately visited Central Europe, Wien and Budapest 2.

1 2

Letter of Henri-Louis HENRIOD to OLT Károly on 1 October, 1926 (1926/3) POTTER Philip – WIESER Thomas, Seeking and Serving the Truth. The First Hundred Years of

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NAGYPÁL Sz.. WSCF and the Magyar SCM

A Growing SCM The first initiatives for interdenominational student work in Hungary were the Bethlen Gábor Körök (Bethlen Gábor Circles), established in 1901 by MEGYERCSY Béla and MIKLÓS Elemér 3. Their members gathered for Bible Study Groups, social and cultural activities. When MACLEAN from the WSCF staff visited Hungary in 1904, he found such Bible Study Groups in many university cities. His visit inspired these groups to establish the Magyar SCM on 23 October 1904, her first chairperson being SZILASSY Aladár. This was, however, still only a movement at that time, and not a legal body. A further impetus was given to legally establish the Magyar SCM when MOTT visited Hungary again in 1909. VICTOR János, a young Reformed pastor, became the first travelling secretary of the new movement. The constitution of the Magyar SCM was approved a year later, when FORGÁCS Gyula was elected to be the first general secretary.

In 1908 WSCF started to publish The Student World, the first ecumenical journal of the world. The Magyar SCM took up the initiative, and started to publish her own ecumenical journal, Diákvilág (Student World) already in 1909, edited by VICTOR. The first important period of the Magyar SCM came to an end in 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War. Their last pre-war conference was in Losonc (today Lu£enec in Slovakia) in 1914. During the war, they published the Háborús Diákvilág (Wartime Student World); and since the student generation was at war, they started to concentrate more on pupils, publishing Az Erô (The Power or The Strength) from 1917 on. Four years later, this magazine had a subscription list of more than three thousand people.

After the war, the movement showed signs of growth again. In the Summer Conference in 1921, three hundred participants were present, one third of them being women 4. In 1924, the Magyar SCM was 3 For some data about the Magyar SCM, I also used a Master’s paper: GYÔRFFY Eszter, A budapesti egyetemi gyülekezetek története a XX. században (The History of the University Chaplaincies in Budapest in the XXth Century). Budapest, 2003.

4 The SCM even had a women’s secretary, BACHMANN Lili, who made sure that the WSCF women’s magazine Challenge would be received in Hungary regularly.

5 “Jede Ungarische Universität hat ihre CSV Gruppe” (every Magyar university has its own SCM group), says MOJSISOVICH Margit in her letter to Margit WRONG on 1 May, 1924 (1924/10).

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already present in all the universities5, having twenty branches and a Senior Friends Network helping and supporting her work.

During these difficult years, WSCF helped the Magyar SCM to find its strength. The Magyar leaders put together an illustrated booklet 6 about the economic conditions in Hungary in 1920. The publication did not fail to point out one of the core causes of the sufferings: the trauma of the Versailles Treaties, and its tragic consequences on the movement among which the significant increase in the number of refugee students from former Magyar territories. The booklet reached its aim: in 1920 WSCF paid the whole budget of the Magyar SCM, and they paid half of it in 1921. The sum was spent on employing a Budapest, a travelling and a women’s secretary. WSCF also Some Facts about the Students of Budapest, the Capital of Hungary, Illustrating their Economic Conditions in 1920. Budapest, 1920.; A Survey of the Economic Conditions of the Students of Budapest. Budapest, 1920.; Housing and Food Conditions among Students in Budapest. The Student World 1921/1. 24–26.

6

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NAGYPÁL Sz.. WSCF and the Magyar SCM supported the publications of the Magyar SCM in 1920–21. All these served as emergency support for the movement dealing with a lost war and a major national tragedy.

A longer-term project of the Federation in Central Europe was the opening of three Student Hostels in three capitals. In 1921 WSCF and the American YMCA appointed C. H. LAW as Business Administrator for the Student Hostels at Praha, Wien and Budapest. He helped the Magyar SCM to open a hostel, Diákok Háza (Student House, at the address: Hársfa utca 59/b.) in 1921, for 110 male students. In 1923 the WSCF Women’s Secretary, Margit WRONG, sent a considerable support for maintaining the Women Students’ Hostel (established in 1921) with ten places for accommodation7. Later on, as the Magyar economy strengthened, some Senior Friends were even in the position to donate to WSCF, in that way changing the direction of support to a mutual exchange 8.

Hungary was at the crossroads of the Federation’s attention from the beginning. In the archives, several traces of movement visits can be found. There were three kinds of movement visits: lectures, participation in local events and exchange. On lecturing tours or evangelistic campaigns 9 renowned and respected WSCF leaders and senior friends came to Hungary, to speak to the local Student Christian Movements, keeping their motivation and commitment high.

The second type of movement visit was the participation 10 in the events and conferences of the national SCM. These provided opportunities for WSCF leaders to have an insight into the life and activi7 Interestingly enough, in 1928 the offices of the Magyar SCM moved to the same street (Üllôi út 19.) where the official headquarters is situated now as well, be it in another building (Üllôi út 24.).

8 HOLLÓS Pál supported the Federation with fifteen Pengôs (currency) in 1927 and with the same amount also in 1928. See the letters between HOLLÓS Pál and Conrad HOFFMANN on 3 and 21 October, 16 and 21 December, 1927; and 16 and 29 August, 1928 (1927/17–18, 1927/25–26, 1928/15 and 17).

9 Movement visits to Hungary: MOTT (1895 and 1924), WILDER (1921), HENRIOD (1921 and 1922), WRONG (1921 and 1923), BIDGRAIN (1923 and 1924), RUTGERS (1923), GRAY (1924), HOFFMANN (1927) and KULLMANN (1928).

10 International participants in Magyar SCM events: GAY (appointed to the Summer Conference in 1921 but prevented by ill-health and financial reasons), ROUGEMONT (Staff Meeting in 1921), LEGATE and CHENG (Leader’s Conference at Pápa in 1921). The Leader’s Conference at Sárospatak in 1922 had also international guests.

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Quest for Identity ties of, in this case, the Magyar movement. The experience with international guests was so good that the Magyar SCM decided not to have a Summer Conference without foreign delegates.

Finally, the third type of movement visits were the student exchanges 11 among different SCMs. The evangelistic campaigns, the participation in national events and the student exchanges served as sources of first-hand information on the vivacity of the Magyar movement. Generally, these exchanges among SCMs also ensured the intellectual and spiritual blood-circulation within the constituencies of the Federation.

Magyar Participation in the Life of WSCF Parallel to the movement visits, members of the Magyar SCM were actively involved in the life of the Federation even before the First World War. MAJOR László was one of the first Magyars to take part in a WSCF event, namely in the Liverpool Conference in 1912. VICTOR published the first Magyar article12 in The Student World in 1913 on the various aspects of Magyar student life. The war years meant a major setback in the international activities of the Federation13, but after the war, the relations and the involvement got strengthened again14. The Universal Day of Prayer for Students (UDPS, started in 1898 as the first regular ecumenical prayer event) was celebrated in Hungary during the whole of the 1920s. In 1929, for example, the Magyar SCM sent a letter of greetings to the Genève office on that occasion15.

Soon, some leaders of the Magyar SCM gained a good reputation 11 In 1928, WSCF facilitated the visit of four American students to Hungary, who were obviously Magyar émigrés: BÁRDOSY Matilda, FEHÉR Milton, KONTZ Emil and VARGA Zsigmond. See the Letter of Conrad HOFFMANN to HIRSCHLER Zoltán on 5 November, 1928 (1928/22).

12 VICTOR János, Aspects of Hungarian Student Life. The Student World 1913/2. 58–67.

13 See VICTOR János, The Hungarian Christian Student Movement and the War. The Student World 1920/2. 45–51.

14 Magyar participants in WSCF events: VICTOR (Glasgow in 1920, World Alliance to Promote International Friendship through the Churches in Genève in 1921, Life and Work in Stockholm in 1925, Faith and Order in Lausanne in 1927, a visit to the WSCF Headquarters in Genève in 1927), MIKECZ Ödön (Elmau in 1922), OLT Károly (Leaders’ Conference in Hardenbroek in 1927), SCHULEK Tibor (Hardenbroek in 1928), HOLLÓS Pál (a visit to the WSCF Headquarters in Genève in 1928), HILSCHER Zoltán (Swanwick in 1928), SZABÓ Irén and TÖRÖK István (Genève in 1929).

15 Letters of OLT Károly and the Bethlen Gábor Kör to WSCF on 17 February, 1929 (1929/3–4, answer: 1929/6–7)

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NAGYPÁL Sz. WSCF and the Magyar SCM in the Federation. VICTOR János, the “Magyar John R. MOTT”, together with BJÖRKQUIST, G. G. KULLMANN, LEO, Hanns LILJE and Tissington TATLOW, was appointed by the Executive Committee in Lake Mohonk in 1927 to be in the Preparatory Committee of the European Senior Conference in 1928. SCHULEK Tibor was invited to be a representative of the Federation in a pilgrimage and movement visit to the United States of America in the summer of 1929, which he had to refuse because of financial reasons.

In 1926, WSCF organised a Forum de Genève, which brought a huge profit to the Federation. SZÖRÉNYI L. Sándor and others took part in the event with their artwork in an art exhibition in the Rath Museum, while BARANYAI and SZÁNTHÓ Dénes gave a concert 16.

In the growing shade of racism, the International Missionary Council (IMC) and WSCF organised a meeting in Budapest in 1927, where a resolution against anti-semitism was passed: “We urge Christians everywhere to repentance for prejudice and persecution.

We believe that all un-Christian treatment of the Jews and all race prejudice are great stumbling blocks to the acceptance of the Christian message.”17 VICTOR was asked to contribute to the issue of The Student World on the Jews in 1927. Indeed, an article was published in this issue on the Jewish question, but as author was only mentioned “a Hungarian University Student.”18 From the documents and WSCF publications it is obvious that the Federation was not silent in this testing case for Christian witness19.

The fifth European Christian Endeavour Convention was held in Budapest in August 1927, and WSCF was represented by posters and publications in the exhibition (for instance, issues of The Student 16

When SZÁNTHÓ got ill in Switzerland, he was visited and supported by WSCF leaders in the hospital. BARANYAI offered to have a concert tour with his trio in the Netherlands and in Denmark a year later, but he was refused by HENRIOD, saying that financially it could turn out to be hazardous for the Federation.

17 Resolution on Anti-semitism. The Student World 1927/2. 192–193.

18 It may well have been VICTOR who wrote the article but was uneasy to give his name to it, or he asked another member of the Magyar SCM to analyse and interpret this highly sensitive and important issue. A Hungarian University Student, Some of the Causes of Anti-Jewish Sentiment in Eastern Europe. The Student World 1927/3. 284–286.

19 The Jewish question was tackled from time to time in The Student World. Another example: PARKES James, The Jewish Problem in Eastern Europe. The Student World 1930/4. 391–401.

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Quest for Identity

World and Cantate Domino, the first ecumenical hymnal, published in 1924 by the Federation). Leaders of the Magyar SCM were among the organisers.

The Magyar SCM was asked to assist the World Federation of Educational Associations (WFEA) in preparing a Student Day in May 1928 in Budapest. They refused to help, and one of their main reasons was the following: “After the Romanian atrocities committed recently in Transylvania, public opinion would consider lectures on international good-will as mockery,”20 as HIRSCHLER phrased it. A year later, however, the International Student Confederation (ISC) had its conference in Budapest, where PADÁNYI GULYÁS Béla was among the organisers.

It is clear from the archives that in the twenties the Magyar SCM was so actively participating in the life of WSCF, as only very few other movements. The Magyar student leaders were not only welcome in the conferences, but they were asked to represent the Federation in various events as official delegates and organisers. The value of the Magyar SCM originated not only from her activism, but also from her structures and organisational principles.

Ecumenical Character From an ecumenical point of view, the Magyar SCM was a pioneer on the Magyar church scene, as well as in the European and global scene. Although originally she had been established as a Protestant interdenominational revival movement, she soon became a flagship of ecumenically open student work, especially in the years following the First World War. It might not be surprising, that Central Europe has been a pioneer in including Roman Catholics into the Federation.

Apart from France, it was only in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary that Roman Catholics were accepted as members in the SCMs in the 1920s21. Interconfessional encounter and dialogue was part of the daily routine of the organisation.

Not everyone was happy with such a setting, though. The first ecumenical crisis came when the Budapest Reformed College, finding the SCM too open towards Roman Catholics, deliberately broke con20

Letter of HIRSCHLER Zoltán to Conrad HOFFMANN on 4 January, 1928 (1928/1) POTTER Philip – WIESER Thomas, Seeking and Serving the Truth. The First Hundred Years of the World Student Christian Federation. Genève, 1997. 87.

21

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NAGYPÁL Sz.. WSCF and the Magyar SCM tact with the leadership, and became a spiritual movement on its own, organising a separate conference in 1921 in Siófok only for CalvinistReformed theology students. The crisis was solved in the end, thanks to the untiring efforts of the SCM leaders, by incorporating the group as a separate denominational branch of the Magyar SCM. But most of the students considered the full involvement of all denominations natural and desirable22. In 1928, every second week confessional meetings were organised. Among the topics for the public discussion evenings we find explicitly ecumenical themes, like “The Confessional Question from the Christian Point of View” or “What are we Primarily: Hungarians or Christians?” 23 The second serious ecumenical crisis, however, came in 1928, when the Magyar Református Diákok Soli Deo Gloria Szövetsége (SDG, Soli Deo Gloria Reformed Student Federation, established in 1924) asked for affiliated membership in the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). The YMCA immediately contacted her sister organisation, WSCF, and asked the opinion of the Federation and of her Magyar member movement, the ecumenically organised Magyar SCM, about the inquiry. The response of the Magyar SCM was very clear: “The admission of the Soli Deo Gloria Federation to the YMCA would not further the friendly relations between us and the Soli Deo Gloria,” 24 as HIRSCHLER, the general secretary, put it.

The opinion of WSCF was equally clear-cut, and went along the same line: “It is most desirable for the cause of the Kingdom of God that there should not be a number of different Christian organisations among students and young people, and I hope very much that there will not be a new National Federation of Protestant Students 22

In the Winter Conference of the Magyar SCM in 1928, apart from the common plenaries, there were separate confessional meetings for the three major denominations, with three different topics, taking into account the supposed different interests of the three student groups. On Sunday the three confessions went to their churches separately to celebrate the Eucharist.

23 Sometimes humorous and self-critical attitudes were present, too, among the students. The Magyar SCM Winter Conference in 1928 had the title: “Hungarian Heathenism versus Hungarian Resurrection”. The three days had three different emphases: “On the Track of the Miraculous Deer”, “Iran and Turan” and “The Blood of the Lamb”. Two discussion circles were especially interesting in the event: “Heathen Elements in our Religious Life, Inborn Christianity in the Hungarian Soul” and “Debit and Credit of Irredentism”. Letter of SCHULEK Tibor to Francis P. MILLER on 12 February, 1928 (1928/3) 24 Letter of HIRSCHLER Zoltán to Francis P. MILLER on 24 July, 1928 (1928/12)

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Quest for Identity but that our World’s Student Christian Federation will be able to gather round its ideal most of the National Student Christian Movements as affiliated members, or create and maintain close contact with such organisations which do not feel they can subscribe to our aim and purpose. The interdenominational principles of the Federation must be safeguarded: the sole growth of our World Fellowship through decades and its present position and attitude, which have keen respect and cooperation in growing constituencies of non-Protestant students, cannot be jeopardised.” 25 Henri-Louis HENRIOD (the second general secretary of WSCF, 1920–32) summarised with these words the ecumenical Credo of the international student Christian movement. The request of SDG for membership was rejected by the YMCA.

Membership in WSCF But how and when did the Magyar SCM become a member of WSCF? In the course of history, WSCF has had three types of relations with national SCMs. Some of them were considered growing movements (today their name is contact movement), others were already in an official contact with the Federation, being corresponding movements (nowadays they are called associated members), while after a period they could become affiliated (full) members, following a decision made by the Federation’s authorities. We have seen that the foundation of the Magyar SCM was inspired by WSCF 26.

Henceforth, since its origins in 1904, the SCM Hungary had been a contact movement for the Federation. It is unclear, when it became an associated member, but it had this status in 1921 for sure, maybe even before the First World War. The affiliation for full membership came in several stages.

“I feel assured that in the course of half a year our movement will have arrived at such a stage as to correspond to the requirements of Federation membership,” 27 VICTOR wrote in 1921. He had to review his opinion, however, three months later: “Only by artificial haste 25

Letter of Henri-Louis HENRIOD to HIRSCHLER Zoltán on 8 September, 1928 (1928/18) “We owe the very existence of our movement to the Federation.” VICTOR János, Past Services and Future Tasks of the Federation: an Hungarian View. The Student World 1925/4. 177.

27 Letter of VICTOR János to Henri-Louis HENRIOD on 18 August, 1921 (1921/5) 28 Letter of VICTOR János to Henri-Louis HENRIOD on 28 November, 1921 (1921/7) 26

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NAGYPÁL Sz.. WSCF and the Magyar SCM might our Movement be in the right shape for admission within a few months,” 28 and he enlisted financial reasons, difficulties with the headquarters and the mentioned crisis with the Budapest Reformed College as reasons for postponement. HENRIOD personally came to check the situation and attended a Magyar SCM conference in 1922.

He reported his experiences on the admission to the WSCF General Committee (today’s General Assembly or GA) in Peking (Beijing) in China which he deemed too early as well.

The second General Committee Meeting after the war was held in High Leigh 29 in the United Kingdom in 1924. On that occasion the Magyar SCM (represented by VICTOR) was accepted into affiliated membership in WSCF, being the seventeenth affiliated movement in the history of WSCF; and for long occupying a unique place in the European scene. “It will be a very real weakness in the (General Committee) meeting (in Mysore in India in 1928) if the General Secretary of the Hungarian Movement is not among the delegates since you represent the only Movement of any strength affiliated with the Federation in Central or Eastern Europe,” 30 as HENRIOD emphasized in 1927.

Cooperation in Central Europe Surprisingly enough, already in the first half of the XXth century the Central European youth gatherings played a very important role in large-scale ecumenism (including Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations) and in the ministry of post-war reconciliation. The greatest problem and challenge after the First World War was the stream of refugees all over Central Europe31, many of them being students. The European Student Relief, founded in 1920 by 29 Apart from the sixteen affiliated member movements, from Central Europe two corresponding movements were represented: Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Among the participants from growing movements we also find Poland and Austria. Thus, it was the first official meeting of the Federation where four Central European countries were present. POTTER Philip – WIESER Thomas, Seeking and Serving the Truth. The First Hundred Years of the World Student Christian Federation. Genève, 1997. 75.

30 Letter of Henri-Louis HENRIOD to OLT Károly on 15 December, 1927 (1927/24) 31 POTTER Philip – WIESER Thomas, Seeking and Serving the Truth. The First Hundred Years of the World Student Christian Federation. Genève, 1997. 63.

32 The delegation of the Magyar SCM was led by MIKECZ Ödön and HOLLÓS Pál.

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Quest for Identity WSCF, organised an important conference in 1921 in Turnov in Czechoslovakia32. A year later it was repeated in Hungary, in which Polish, Czech, Slovak, Magyar, Romanian, Yugoslav and even German students participated. There were not only Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic participants, but also Jewish, Muslim and non-affiliated students. These were the first conferences which brought together students from Central and South Eastern Europe.

The other miraculous adventures at that time were the so-called South-Eastern Europe Conferences (SEE), organised by WSCF. In the twenties they brought together young Poles, Czechs, Magyars, Austrians, Slovaks, and also Romanians and students from Yugoslavia and other Balkan States33. The lecturers came in an equal number from the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. They were characterised by a well-balanced structure, but there were hot issues at stake, following the vicissitudes of the war that had seriously unbalanced the political situation in Central Europe.

In the first SEE Conference in Sonntagsberg in Austria in 1921, for example, following the request of the Magyar delegation, the conference could not express itself on the question of war. Hungary was in a delicate situation after the Versailles Treaties: two-thirds of the country got annexed to the newly formed neighbouring states.

Consequently, millions of Magyars became citizens of others states, thus constituting one of the largest nations in Europe of which a large part was living as a minority. Hungary was in an uneasy, if not inimical relationship with all the neighbouring states. Speaking about international reconciliation under the banner of Christianity was rather scandalous from the point of view of the protagonists of the national case. The Magyar SCM was dancing on a cutting edge. The five Magyar participants in the conference had to justify themselves before the their fellow-students: “The new arrangement of frontiers 33

The core countries included Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary and the Balkan States.

One of the aims of the events was “to bring together representatives of the less developed movements in Eastern and South Eastern Europe and meet their special needs, not excluding of course a few representatives of the more advanced movements.” This goal was in a sharp contrast with the Student Discussion Conferences to which only movements affiliated to the Federation were invited. See the Letter of Henri-Louis HENRIOD to VICTOR János on 5 January, 1923 (1923/1) 34 Letter of DEME László, MAJOR László, MOJSISOVICH Margit, VICTOR János and VICTOR Zsófia to Henri-Louis HENRIOD on 21 May, 1921 (1921/2)

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NAGYPÁL Sz. WSCF and the Magyar SCM as imposed upon Hungary by her neighbours is irreconcilable with the demands of international justice and goodwill,” 34 DEME László, MAJOR László, MOJSISOVICH Margit, VICTOR János and VICTOR Zsófia stated in their declaration to the officers of the Federation.

The presence of the Magyar delegation at this conference, as they explained, was due to an appreciation of the power of Christ, transcending all these difficulties, and capable of uniting women and men of very different and even conflicting national points of view in loyalty and devotion to His Kingdom. They expressed their hope that the participants would be used by God Almighty to render the most valuable contribution towards the solution of the existing problems.

The outcome was expected to be the growth of a general atmosphere of goodwill amongst all people of Central Europe.

As a possible solution, HENRIOD had the plan to divide the SEE Conferences into two: one for the Balkan States and another one for “Eastern and South Eastern Europe” 35. The Magyar SCM, on the contrary, requested that the boundaries of the conference would be drawn as wide as possible. “If only South Eastern Europe would be represented in a strict sense, half or even more than that of the delegates might come from countries the political relations of which to Hungary are constantly very bad.” The suggested countries to be invited were not only the Baltic States, Switzerland and Germany, but also Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland, in that way “widening the conference into a Central European affair” 36. Another important point which they made was that the problem of war and international relations be excluded from these conferences, because the movements in the region were not strong enough to feel competent and responsible to tackle questions relating to the political life in their countries.

It shows the graveness of the situation that in the second SEE Conference in £eská Kubice in Czechoslovakia in 1922 there were no official delegates from Hungary. The Federation had to react in order to safeguard her vocation in the international field: “We should do everything we can for preventing the formulating of any declaration on war or international relationship (we had too many of such reso35 36

Letter of Henri-Louis HENRIOD to VICTOR János on 5 January, 1923 (1923/1) Letter of VICTOR János to Henri-Louis HENRIOD on 12 December, 1922 (1922/3)

Quest for Identity lutions lately), unless it is unanimously requested by the conference,” HENRIOD promised in his above-mentioned letter when trying to involve the Magyar SCM again in the work of the subregion.

For the third SEE Conference in Visegrád in Hungary in 1923, the Magyar SCM, quite surprising considering the antecedents, suggested the topic “The International Sin”, dealing with the application of Christian principles to international problems. “There are several bitter international problems, but none so complicated as the problem of Hungary versus her neighbours. In the other problems either one nation is involved versus another or one state versus a group of its citizens. In this problem a whole group of nations is involved,”37 was the opinion of VICTOR. Ecumenical sensitivity prevailed: the date of the event (the Easter holidays) was planned in such a way that Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox denominations would have an equal chance to be represented. An open and considering atmosphere towards the Greek Catholic Church was felt, too 38.

Similar SEE conferences were held in Zakopane 39 in Poland in 1924, in Austria 40 in 1927 and in Luha£ovice 41 in Moravia in Czechoslovakia in 1928. At the end of the decade the SEE Conferences were so prestigious that in the ninth SEE Conference in Balatonfüred in Hungary in 1929 we find even the famous Russian theologian and philosopher, Nikolai BERDIAEFF (Nicolas BERDYAEV) among the lecturers.

At a certain moment the Central European question came up even at the global level. In the General Committee Meeting in Mysore in India in 1928, two lectures were planned on Central and Eastern Europe: KULLMANN was to speak about the “Orthodox Countries” and Josef HROMÁDKA from Czechoslovakia about the “New Countries in Eastern Europe”. When they saw the program, the Magyar SCM immediately protested.

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Letter of VICTOR János to Henri-Louis HENRIOD on 14 February, 1923 (1923/3) Letter of BACHMANN Lili to Suzanne BIDGRAIN on 13 November, 1923 (1923/7) 39 MAJOR László led the delegation of the Magyar SCM. The venue of the sixth and seventh conferences was not included in my sources.

40 It also had an explicit and balanced interconfessional nature: equally one third of the delegates were Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, and the same was the rate among the lecturers.

POTTER Philip – WIESER Thomas, Seeking and Serving the Truth. The First Hundred Years of the World Student Christian Federation. Genève, 1997. 85.

41 There were seven Magyar participants, OLT Károly leading the group.

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NAGYPÁL Sz.. WSCF and the Magyar SCM The Magyar delegation had basically two problems with the formulation, a historical and a political one. The great historical error, according to them, was that “Hungary is not a new country, but the oldest of the present European states. Since 896 Hungary has existed in the Carpathian Basin as a state.” The political reason, on the other hand, was that “there is a very deep chasm between Hungary and Czechoslovakia,”42 and furthermore, HROMÁDKA had never been to Hungary, as HIRSCHLER pointed out in his letter. The Magyar SCM felt that HROMÁDKA was definitely not the person to speak about the student situation in Hungary.

The reactions of both HROMÁDKA and HENRIOD were generous: they mentioned the possibility to change the title of the lecture to “Old and New Countries in Eastern Europe.”43 They also took seriously the mentioned reservations, so they offered VICTOR a possibility to speak about Hungary in the General Committee Meeting himself.

The Central European cooperation and its organs, the SouthEastern Europe Conferences (SEE) continued until well into the thirties, even in the shadow of the coming war. Albeit sometimes marked by tensions, they provided a meaningful model and a befit42

Letter of HIRSCHLER Zoltán to Francis P. MILLER on 24 July, 1928 (1928/12) Letter of Henri-Louis HENRIOD to HIRSCHLER Zoltán on 8 September, 1928 (1928/18) 44 LEHTONEN Risto, Story of a Storm. The Ecumenical Student Movement in the Turmoil of Revolution. Helsinki, 1998. 17.

45 The name of the Magyar Student Christian Movement changed twice during the decades. She was established as Magyar Evangéliumi Keresztyén Diákszövetség (Magyar Evangelical Student Christian Federation, MEKDSz) in 1904. The Magyar SCM adopted a new name in 1925: Magyar Diákok Pro Christo Szövetsége (Magyar Student Pro Christo Federation), but they continued to use both names even in official papers. As all the Christian and student organisations, they were banned in 1948, during the Communist takeover in Hungary. After 1989 when freedom and democracy were re-instituted in Central Europe, MEKDSz got re-established as well. They sought contact with WSCF, but the ecumenical scene had changed in the meantime, because in 1947 the evangelical line of the students left WSCF and started the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). The new MEKDSz felt closer to this group, maintaining an evangelical, nondenominational line herself, and joined IFES in the early nineties. The ecumenically minded students, on the other hand, again inspired by WSCF, re-established and re-affiliated the Magyar SCM to the Federation in 1995, under the name Keresztény Ökumenikus Diákegyesület (KÖD, Magyar Ecumenical Student Christian Movement). The relationship between the two organisations is occasional but friendly, and both of them look to the previous MEKDSz as their ancestor, from the time when evangelicals and ecumenicals, although not always without conflicts, could still be in the same student movement.

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Quest for Identity ting methodology for international and ecumenical dialogue in the subregion and in the continent. And last but not least, they “mobilized the best minds for ecumenical discussions on critical issues.” 44

A Handful of Pioneers As has been shown above, the Magyar SCM45 is one of the first movements of the Federation. She was among the first ten SCMs that were contact movements for WSCF (since 1904), and she was one of the first twenty SCMs to become affiliated with the Federation (since 1924). The Magyar SCM was among the first two affiliated movements, if not the first one, where not only open-minded but deliberately full-scale ecumenism was an everyday praxis.

The cooperation of the countries of Central Europe also has a long tradition, dating back to 1921. Since then, in spite of the political differences, a strong tradition has been created to build and maintain friendship, dialogue and appreciation between the nations living side by side in this part of the world. Although interrupted by the Second World War and the decades of Socialist dictatorship, the cooperation got revived in the form of a subregion (WSCF Central Europe Subregion, CESR) in 2001.

To understand the role of WSCF and the SCMs in activating the latent angels of their time, let me finish with the words of VICTOR János, the founding father of the Magyar SCM: “All of us are far yet from being able definitely to mould the mind and the attitude of our respective peoples. We represent just a handful of pioneers, who will have to work hard and patiently, before they can really represent a large and influential element in their country’s life.” 46 The result is to come generations later.

Suggested Reading The Archives of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). Genève, 1895–1930.

Some Facts about the Students of Budapest, the Capital of Hungary, Illustrating their Economic Conditions in 1920. Budapest, 1920.

A Survey of the Economic Conditions of the Students of Budapest. Budapest, 1920.

A Budapesti Evangéliumi Keresztény Diákegyesület és a Budapesti Evangéliumi Leánydiákegyesület Értesítôje (The Leaflet of the Magyar SCM). Budapest, 1929.

GYÔRFFY Eszter, A budapesti egyetemi gyülekezetek története a XX. században (The History of the 46

Letter of VICTOR János to Henri-Louis HENRIOD on 21 May, 1921 (1921/2)

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NAGYPÁL Sz. WSCF and the Magyar SCM University Chaplaincies in Budapest in the XXth Century). Budapest, 2003.

ADLER Elisabeth (ed.), Memoirs and Diaries. The World Student Christian Federation (1895–1990). Genève, 1994.

ADLER Elisabeth – MORITZ Torsten (eds.), Remember all the Way… Senior Friends Meeting Berlin. A Report. Berlin, 1996.

DIETRICH Suzanne de, Fifty Years of History. The World Student Christian Federation (18951945) (tr.: ABRECHT Audrey). Genève, 1993.

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

LEHTONEN Risto, Story of a Storm. The Ecumenical Student Movement in the Turmoil of Revolution. Helsinki, 1998.

VICTOR János, Aspects of Hungarian Student Life. The Student World 1913/2. 58–67.

VICTOR János, The Hungarian Christian Student Movement and the War. The Student World 1920/2. 45–51.

Housing and Food Conditions among Students in Budapest. The Student World 1921/1. 24–26.

VICTOR János, Past Services and Future Tasks of the Federation: an Hungarian View. The Student World 1925/4. 177–179.

A Hungarian University Student, Some of the Causes of Anti-Jewish Sentiment in Eastern Europe. The Student World 1927/3. 284–286.

PARKES James, The Jewish Problem in Eastern Europe. The Student World 1930/4. 391–401.

FÓNYAD Dezsô, Students and the Church in Eastern Europe. The Student World 1937/4.

337–345.

NAGYPÁL Szabolcs (1974) is a graduate in law, literature and ecumenical theology. 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), and is currently a member of WSCF Central European Subregion (CESR) Board, European Regional Committee (ERC) and global Executive Committee (ExCo). He is the editor-in-chief of Mozaik (the European ecumenical journal of WSCF, 1992) and Student World (the global ecumenical review of WSCF, 1908).

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E. RIJNIERSE Participation of Minorities and Peoples that the only justifiable base for any political structure is the open acknowledgement that developing the meaning of freedom must be its prime commitment to the society it governs. Any other foundational principle, he argued, is illegitimate, devoid of any moral justification and thereby of any moral claim on the loyalty of its subjects2.

His unconditional emphasis on freedom as a guiding principle was conceived as a threat to society at that time.

Although his thoughts appeared revolutionary, ROUSSEAU opposed violence and believed that education, not revolution, was the key to the development of free societies. He saw the Social Contract as the result of a choice, consciously made by a society 3, rather then the ‘necessary outcome of historical events’ or ‘the result of clashing historical forces’. Therefore he ultimately considered society to be responsible for the creation of such a structure.

ROUSSEAU’s understanding of the social contract, the social contract as a conscious pact within society and based on freedom, forms the heart of this article. The pair of concepts, freedom and responsibility, sounds very familiar in the current discourse on universal human rights, fundamental to the definition of minority rights.

It will be argued that equality may be the leading principle of the National Social Contract, the binding notion of the nation-state.

However, the suggestion is that a Global Social Contract, if it starts from the Universal Human Rights, can be based fully on the concept of freedom. Might there be a fundamental contradiction between creating the sovereign nation-state and elaborating a political system based on universal human rights? Is this shift from equality to freedom also the very basis of the current shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’?

If so, ROUSSEAU may be considered to have lost his battle with the outcome of the French Revolution. However, the current struggle for the respect of Universal Human Rights can be seen as the revival of the struggle of ROUSSEAU, as a Second Enlightenment. Fundamental discussions are now being revived, raising questions like: ‘How is freedom possible?’, ‘What are the operating principles that define a 2

ROUSSEAU Jean-Jacques, Of the Social Contract or Principles of Political Right. Discourse on Political Economy (1772) (tr. SHEROVER Ch. M.), New York, 1984. XVII. 3 “Paul Ricoeur, an outstanding contemporary French philosopher, relates Rousseau’s philosophy to Aristotle… in voluntarist language. Where Aristotle speaks of ‘nature’ and ‘end’, Rousseau uses ‘pact’ and ‘general will’; but it is fundamentally the same thing; in both cases, the specific nature of polity is reflected in philosophical consciousness.” RICOEUR Paul, History and Truth (tr. KELBLEY C. A.). Evanston, 1965. 251–253.

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responsible governing structure of a free society?’

Effective Participation is an inclusive concept. The objective is to facilitate conditions that encourage the fulfilment of Universal Human Rights, including Social and Economic Rights.

The project, far from being confined within national borders, presupposes co-operation between all actors needed for its realisation, regardless of borders, at all levels of society.

The idea of “Effective Participation” refers to the concept of Freedom as a leading principle for creation of the ‘polity’, of the Social Contract under which a society chooses to live. Amartya SEN, author of the book Freedom as Development, calls for an inclusive interpretation of the concept of Freedom: “In pursuing the view of development as freedom, we have to examine – in addition to the freedoms involved in political, social and economic processes – the extent to which people have the opportunity to achieve outcomes that they value and have reason to value.” 4 Legal instruments designed to assure equal rights for minorities are an important element in the strategy towards their effective participation. Juridical instruments alone, however, are not 4

SEN Amartya, Freedom as Development.

New York, 1999. 291.

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E. RIJNIERSE Participation of Minorities and Peoples enough to face existing power relations in their full complexity: even if minorities are entitled to equal participation, they may not have equal capabilities. Creating an environment in which all can use their full potential requires the strengthening of these capabilities as well as an active management of power relations; such an environment will allow marginalized minorities and peoples to claim their rights as laid down in international and national law.

The Cosmology Triangle The Cosmology Triangle is a model that shows the characteristics of three basic political constellations. Analogous to the idea that the full range of the colours we know can be understood as composed out of the three basic colours red, yellow and blue, the idea behind the Cosmology Triangle is that all possible political configurations can be understood as composed out of three basic cosmologies. The suggestion is that it should be possible to analyse meaningfully the current “chaos”, referred to as the “New Medievalism”, with the help of the Cosmology Triangle 5.

The Cosmology Triangle is a model for analysis and composition in Global Social Architecture. A Cosmology is defined as a social universe shaped by socio-economic power relations, political institutions and discourse. The Cosmology Triangle reflects three basic Cosmologies that are produced and reproduced everywhere in the world, throughout time, based on three fundamentally different social contracts, which are implicitly or explicitly assumed in the shaping and use of political institutions and structures. The Dominant Features of the three cosmologies:

6

Quest for Identity The Cosmology Triangle suggests that ‘Government’ can be understood as an elaboration of a National Social Contract: the general agreement that ultimately a national political authority is responsible for the economic and social well-being of the citizens and nationstate. In contrast, the concept of ‘Governance’ may be seen as the operationalisation of a Global Social Contract. Many Ethnically or Religiously based Social Contracts are also currently operational: especially in places where the national state has imploded and the ‘international community’ is absent, ethnic and religious structures are strengthening.

The scheme can be read in two ways. Generally, the global, long term - mainly Western - perspective would see a succession in history of the dominance of the yellow, blue and red cosmologies. The French Revolution can be seen as the transition from a Religious Social Contract to a National Social Contract, with the major paradigm shift towards separation between church and state. The globally dominant ideology at this moment reflects the ideal to install representative democracy in every state, including the creation of the institutions of a parliamentary democracy. This reflects the spread of the second, blue cosmology.

Simultaneously, however, globalisation puts the national state under pressure and alters the nature of the game 7. Noreena HERTZ for example argues that national representative democracy is not adequate to meet the needs of the global community, which is actually shaped by the dominance of multinational corporations 8. The creation of a system of global accountability and strategic finance aimed at social stability, peace and a good environment mean a transition from the current system of national sovereign states to a system of national states, which fall within international law based on Universal Human Rights. Such a change may imply a similar fundamental shift 5

The Cosmology Triangle is the result of a research executed in West Africa, entitled: “Democratization and Globalization in Benin”. The process of building this theory is described in RIJNIERSE Elly, La démocratie dans un monde multi-cosmologique. Une expédition d’exploration menée depuis l’Afrique. In BINSBERGEN W. van –HESSELING G. – KONINGS P. (eds.), Trajectoire de libération en Afrique contemporaine. Paris, 2000.

6 Reflexivity: a developing worldwide elite and popular consciousness of global interconnectedness reinforced by the globalization of communicatins infrastructures and the mass media industries. In : HELD D. – McGREW A.-PARRATON J., Global Transformations. Politics, Economics and Culture. Cambridge, Polity Press, (1999), pp. 430.

7 HELD D. – McGrew A. – GOLDBLATT D. – PERRATON J. 1999. 432–435.

8 HERTZ N., The Silent Takeover – Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy. London, 2001.

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E. RIJNIERSE Participation of Minorities and Peoples of paradigm to that encountered by Western society during the French revolution.

From a local perspective, the logical succession in phases does not reflect reality. National states that functioned to a certain extent have imploded in many places on the globe. Therefore many communities have been forced to fall back on ethnic or religious structures and networks, often facilitated by the development of information technology on a global scale. Especially from a non-Western perspective the functioning of a national state cannot be taken for granted and the de facto dominance of the multinational corporations (which seems to have been recently ‘discovered’ by the Western common consciousness) is a reality that has since long been felt locally in many nonWestern areas. The complexity of politics as we see it today starts from this double truth, aided by all kinds of information transmitters.

I would like to stress three points: Firstly, in the set of concepts representing each cosmology, economic, political, philosophical, technical and cultural aspects are brought together. The lists are not exhaustive. It is an attempt to develop a holistic, but still operational, tool for analysis.

Secondly, concepts have different meanings in different contexts.

The most important issue is related to democracy. The three basic concepts that make up the philosophy of democracy are freedom, equality and brotherhood. It appears that if one takes one of these concepts as the leading concept, it alters the meaning of the others.

The philosopher Pieter BOELE VAN HENSBROEK in his thesis “Political Discourses in African Thought” presents this idea.9

9

HENSBROEK Pieter Boele van, Political Discourses in African Thought. 1860 to the Present.

London, 1999.

10 An example of this logic is described by MALCOLM Noel, Kosovo. A Short History. New York, 1998. In an anthropological analysis of customary law of the Malesi in Kosovo, the Kanun of Lek Dukagjin: „One leading scholar has summed up the basic principles of the Kanun as follows. Its founding principle is personal honour. Next comes the equality of persons. From these flows a third principle, the freedom of each to act in accordance with his own honour, within the limits of the law, without being subject to another’s command. And the fourth principle is the word of honour, the bese, which creates a situation of inviolable trust.”

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Quest for Identity The meaning of Freedom is therefore determined by the rules set in the logic of brotherhood 10. The same is true for Equality, which appears to be the leading principle for the national state and civil law: it alters the implications of sisterhood and brotherhood in the political structures and mechanisms.

Thirdly, current global developments suggest that a shift from the National Social Contract to the Global Social Contract may have radical institutional consequences. The development of the current international state system was accompanied by the separation of politics and religion. It was characterised by ‘rationalisation’ and ‘secularisation’ of political leadership. The basic entities of the international political system have become sovereign states instead of for example feudal city-states.

The actual shift from ‘government’ of national politics to ‘governance’ of transnational society may be accompanied by a similarly radical change of the structure of the global political system. The structure that may come into being is most difficult to imagine, but a possible main feature is suggested here.

The main characteristic of a new structure may be the separation of the national administration into an economic and a social administration. Both would be linked to the local level (decentralisation) and the regional level (regionalisation) and even the global level. The idea that carries this change is the need for structural redistribution of funds in the economic as well as the social domain over the national borders (inclusion). The main objective of politics should change from competition between states into strategic financing aimed at the creation of optimal chances for the total world population: a change from Power Politics to Quality Politics. Could a global social administration come into being, parallel to a global economic administration, both with transparent and accountable structures at the local, national, regional and global level?

Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe The collapse of Communism and the federal states in Central and Eastern Europe (similar to the collapse of the colonial states in Africa) brought about the regrouping and reshaping of national, ethnic and religious identities. The relationship between minorities and majorities in relation to the new states is being re-established with in most cases negative consequences for “new” minorities. The new states are in the process of creating laws on national, ethnic and cultural minorities. The status of these groups differs per country.

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E. RIJNIERSE Participation of Minorities and Peoples These socio-cultural changes brought about the reestablishment of religion and its role in the society. Being oppressed in the past and not having any experience with pluralism, the traditional churches in Central and Eastern Europe entered the competition for territorial and ethnic domain and were simultaneously forced to face new religions entering the region. It is important to note that with the dissolution of federal states and the ideology that had held them together, the traditional religions were the only bastions of identity, not only religious, but also ethnic and national.

Thus ethnic and the religious identities became sealed together again, as in the old empires (Ottoman, Habsburg). In order to protect their influence and privileged position in relation to the State, the traditional churches competed and are still competing to seal their status with formal legal agreements (concordats). This competition aggravated the relationships between the other social and political minorities and majorities in the region.

It is important to mention the Romani people, the only minority in each of the “new” states that did not get its protection under the umbrella of religious or other identities. Thus they missed the boat in terms of equal access and opportunities within the new states, especially after the adoption of privatisation laws. The Romani people were already socially disadvantaged in previous regimes, although, in some aspects, national laws protected them. Some of the new states have already established a legal status for the Roma groups, and others are in the process of doing so, but their status differs in each state. This discrepancy is being corrected by new international, regional and European bodies, which watch over the rights of Roma people and represent them in various international and supranational forums.

In 1998 the Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HR) organised a workshop on “The Role of Minorities in International and Transborder Relations in Central and Eastern Europe”11. The aim was to analyse the problems that the minority groups are confronted with and to support the formulation of strategies, also addressing the impact of the possible integration in the European Union. The main arguments and dilemmas mentioned in this report will be discussed further on the basis 11

Minority Rights Group International – Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, The Role of Minorities in International and Transborder Relations in Central and Eastern Europe, Warszawa, 30 April – 3 May 1998. www.minorityrights.org

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Quest for Identity of the Cosmology Triangle. The arguments will be labelled regularly as red, yellow or blue, corresponding to the three cosmologies. The results of the workshop held in Warszawa is taken as the focal point for this exercise.

The complexity of the international context in this paper is described as follows: “Minorities need to establish their role amid such competing tendencies as: increasing integration on a European level, possible tendencies to concentrate central government power in the areas of competency that remain with the state, and standards that call for local and regional devolution through implementation of subsidiarity12 as the guiding principle of governance.”13 The strengthening of national state power and the adoption of subsidiarity as the guiding principle of governance correspond respectively with the second cosmology (blue) and the third cosmology (red). Currently the national state is the dominant institution. It is elaborated with mandates on the executions of policies and the obligation of accountability. A system of global governance, based on the principle of subsidiarity, is not yet fully operational. Codes of conduct and international watchdog organisations are formed, promoting the standards of governance, but where the ‘international community’ is called upon to take action, most of the time no unequivocal institution can be held accountable, as these still lack the adequate mandates. This is clear from the problems with which minorities are confronted.

A big step forward was the adoption of the Council of Europe’s Framework for the Protection of National Minorities, which came into force in 1998. This framework aims at the maintenance and the fur12

The subsidiarity-principle implies that social responsibility is located primarily at the level of the smallest social actors, such as the individual, the company, the ‘grass roots organisation’ or financial institutions. All other levels of public administration from the local to the regional and the global level facilitate the functioning of the primary actors. The premise of the subsidiarity principle is the consciousness of the human being as related to all other human beings and to the environment as a whole. It is a cosmic awareness, which is claimed to be traceable in all religions and spiritual understandings of the world. See KLEIN Goldewijk B. – SCHEFFERS V., Het primaat van de sociale ethiek. In JONG E. de (ed.), Naar gelijkwaardige partners?! Van Gorum, 1998. 22.

13 Minority Rights Group International – Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, The Role of Minorities in International and Transborder Relations in Central and Eastern Europe, Warszawa, 30 April – 3 May 1998. www.minorityrights.org. All further quotes in this article are taken from this document.

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E. RIJNIERSE Participation of Minorities and Peoples thering of human rights and fundamental freedoms of national minorities. Frustration was expressed, however, with the monitoring mechanisms: national governments can not be forced to fulfil their obligations. The problem is even deeper: what are the criteria for judging the performances of a state, in particular comparing ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ states? If states are clearly violating basic values of the Convention, how can they be punished (even if they signed it) and which institute should give the verdict?

During the conference it was agreed upon that states should promote the highest standards and learn from good practice elsewhere, while allowing varied implementation strategies to suit the different needs and aspirations of specific groups. “The success of international standards may depend on the effectiveness of international monitoring mechanisms to ensure compliance. These mechanisms should not consist of complaint procedures only, but should also ensure positive, institutionalised implementation.”

These claims may be contradictory. The state is addressed as the focal point of political power: “The states should promote the highest standards” (blue). Simultaneously, the creation of new, transnational institutions is advocated, to facilitate the fulfilment of the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms (red). In that case, the state as a sovereign entity seizes to exist, becoming part of a local-national-global administrative network. At that point the shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’ is made.

If the national state is responsible for upholding these standards, the GDP is the source of finance for these policies. If positive, institutionalised implementation of these (universal) rights has to be realised by transnational institutions, what will be the link between the national budget and international financial resources? This link is essential to implement such standards.

The enlargement of the European Union entails opportunities as well as risks. “On the positive side, the EU accession process can assist in the implementation of minority rights in CEE. The EU has made it clear in Agenda 2000 that enhancing respect for minority rights, and particularly for those of Roma communities, is an important political criterion for entry.”

Yet “the new European frontiers may result in ‘Fortress Europe’ in which freedom of movement across EU boundaries becomes harder. … This has important implications for minority communities, they may be separated across new frontiers when some countries enter 54

Quest for Identity the EU and others stay outside.” This may also have a strong economic component. Poland is given as an example, where transborder trade, in which minority communities were heavily involved, dropped dramatically. The economic situation of these groups was adversely affected.

It was argued that minorities would not only be economically affected. “De facto restrictions will hamper personal, civic and commercial interactions between members of the same minority community living across borders.” Many minorities are in a unique position to work with their ethnic kin in other states, as well as with other minorities, to foster the co-operation that generates integration. But it was argued that “there must be practical implementation of human rights standards before sufficient confidence is generated to promote integration.”

Thus EU enlargement creates a contradiction. It promotes universal human rights, as it is expressed by the political pressure put on aspirant members of the EU (red). Yet the integrative capacity of minorities, cultural, economic and social, is not explored. On the contrary, stabilising structures in the regions may be hampered by the creation of the new borders, by the reinforcement of the ‘inside-outside’ dynamics (blue).

While the opportunities offered within the European Union may be favourable for minorities within the (new) European states, their kin groups outside the EU may not profit from these facilities. This inside-outside dynamic and difference of opportunity may create cleavages within the group itself.

It is mentioned that there “must be practical implementation of human rights standards before sufficient confidence is generated to promote integration” (red). This may be the case, but to create more confidence in general, inside and outside, is a task beyond the capacity of the political institutions of Europe alone. The continent should aim at the creation of a Global Civil Society in order to create stability on a more general level. The contradiction may be that Europe should take the lead in ‘social globalisation’ so as to live up to its own standards internally (red). Unfortunately, instead, a new ‘Euronationalism’ is developing in order to help build the ‘New Europe’ (blue).

Here we may have laid out the basic problem: the aspirations of minorities are nothing but human. But is the sovereign state well equipped to facilitate these aspirations? Does the current interna55

E. RIJNIERSE Participation of Minorities and Peoples tional state system produce the right mechanisms to promote the interests of the minorities? The mechanisms of state politics are counterproductive in many instances.

A clear example of this is the ‘politics of reciprocity’ between socalled ‘kin-states’ of which the majority of one state is the minority in the other: “In a region where it has been customary to conceive of the state as the home of one ethnic ‘nation’, relations between host states and kin states are often marked by negotiations over the treatment of minorities. These are usually in the context of the kin state seeking to protect members of the same ethnic group in other, often neighbouring, countries – countries that might, in turn, be the kin state of minorities in the country.”

This kind of politics, although a logical consequence of the existence of the national state as the representative of the national population, was rejected. This ‘politics of reciprocity’ represents the reign of politics rather than the rule of law. It was argued that minority groups “should not be hostage to inter-state politics”.

The general assessment was that while the kin state can provide valuable resources and support for the ongoing development of the minority group, there is a risk that preferential treatment by the kin state can generate tensions (blue); these tensions might outweigh the benefits. It was recommended that it is better to put resources into empowering local initiatives on a non-ethnic basis so as to support overall development and ensure an equal standard of living for all (red).

Most of the dynamics described until now have been the possible reactions of minorities to state policies. This dynamic can also be turned around. “Governments are not the only actors when it comes to initiating transborder relations. Minority organisations have been instrumental in developing inter-state strategies and programmes to address their concerns. A number of examples concerned what the group began to describe as ‘multi-state minorities’, or those groups who form minorities in a number of different countries. Co-operative ties can be particularly important for minorities without a kin state.

Many participants pointed to the important role of minorities working together to promote awareness of their situation in international bodies. Coalitions between minorities from different states can be an effective strategy to ensure that decision-makers listen to minorities concerns.”

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Quest for Identity Inter-state strategies of one ethnic group, however, with the ultimate aim of political secession (yellow) are also a possibility.

International bodies which can be addressed about the cases of particular ethnic groups may only have instruments for political pressure on national states, but may lack mandates, legal and financial means to address the situation directly. Nevertheless, in the long run such policies may also be aimed at the strengthening and/or creation of these mandates (red).

Conclusion The opinions voiced at the Warszawa workshop on The Role of Minorities in International and Transnational Relations in Central and Eastern Europe reflect the dilemma between the reality of the existing international state-system (blue) and a new but often still imaginary system that facilitates the fulfilment of universal human rights (red). While national states should aim at the highest level of respect for international standards on human rights and minority rights, in practice representative governments appear to be natural advocates of the interests of the majority within the country.

The main question of the project “Effective Participation of Minorities and Peoples� is: Is the struggle for equal access to national resources (material and immaterial) the only possible strategy for minorities to fulfil their needs? Or can we accept both a responsibility of minorities for the creation of there own environment, and a legitimate political claim to all actors involved (from local and national governments to multinational companies and international institutions) to co-operate and to facilitate these efforts, aiming at the fulfilment of Universal Human Rights? The first option refers to the National Social Contract, the second to a Global Social Contract.

However, the concrete terms for the institutionalisation of such social responsibilities still have to be elaborated. For many Minorities and marginalized Peoples the second line may provide an alternative, additional strategy. Minorities and marginalized Peoples might even play a pioneering role in the process of the elaboration of the Global Social Contract.

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E. RIJNIERSE Participation of Minorities and Peoples Suggested Reading BINSBERGEN W. van –HESSELING G. – KONINGS P. (eds.), Trajectoire de libération en Afrique contemporaine. Paris, 2000.

BULL H, The Anarchical Society, a Study of Order in World Politics. London, 1977.

HAJER M., A. REIJNSDORP, In search of a new public domain, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam, 2002.

HELD D. – McGREW A.-PARRATON J., Global Transformations. Politics, Economics and Culture. Cambridge, Polity Press, (1999) HENSBROEK Pieter Boele van, Political Discourses in African Thought. 1860 to the Present.

London, 1999.

HERTZ N., The Silent Takeover – Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy. London, 2001.

JONG E. de (ed.), Naar gelijkwaardige partners?! Van Gorum, 1998.

KLEIN Goldewijk B. – SCHEFFERS V., Het primaat van de sociale ethiek. In JONG E. de (ed.), Naar gelijkwaardige partners?! Van Gorum, 1998.

MALCOLM Noel, Kosovo. A Short History. New York, 1998.

Minority Rights Group International – Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, The Role of Minorities in International and Transborder Relations in Central and Eastern Europe, Warszawa, 30 April – 3 May 1998. www.minorityrights.org RICOEUR Paul, History and Truth (tr. KELBLEY C. A.). Evanston, 1965.

RIJNIERSE Elly, La démocratie dans un monde multi-cosmologique. Une expédition d’exploration menée depuis l’Afrique. In BINSBERGEN W. van –HESSELING G. – KONINGS P. (eds.), Trajectoire de libération en Afrique contemporaine. Paris, 2000.

ROUSSEAU Jean-Jacques, Of the Social Contract or Principles of Political Right. Discourse on Political Economy (1772) (tr. SHEROVER Ch. M.), New York, 1984.

SEN Amartya, Freedom as Development. New York, 1999.

Elly RIJNIERSE is working at the Department for Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East of CORDAID (Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development Aid) in the Netherlands.

She is a Program Officer for Albania. In collaboration with the Justice and Peace Commission of the Netherlands, she is working on the project Equal and Effective Participation of Minorities in Europe. Her background is Political Science, International Relations and Political Anthropology. She made a research on Democratisation and Globalisation in Benin, West Africa (1994–1998). She worked at the Africa Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and at the European Centre for Conflict Prevention in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

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Daniel P ASTIR ÂŁ Ă K

Spirituality of Creative Processes in Art

How do we create art? Or more precisely: what kind of creative process leads to a new artefact? We are asking these questions in a theological context. We need to take a closer look at the whole sequence from initiation, when eternity in a heart meets with symbols of eternity in the beauty of the creation to final realization. There are three elements in whole sequence.

Initiation comes from message written in the depth of our experience of reality. There are inklings of meaning, content and glory. That experience initiates us into the process. It comes to us in a spontaneous and authentic way. Therefore the first move starts from outside. We have to live life, in order to have material, from which we can create the art. So in the beginning there is the message coded in the universe we live in.

Inspiration comes through our ability to perceive, to contemplate, to decode message written inside our experience with reality.

Through inspiration what is outside comes inside. We open ourselves to the stream of meaning and fascination flowing to us from the outward Logos; it awakens the deepest desires in us.

Realization represents creative coding of the decoded message to a new concentrated form, an artefact. Through realization we speak out what we have discovered when eternity in our hearts met with the symbols of eternity in the beauty of creation.

I. Initiation: Whispers of Logos According to classical Christian theology, we have general revelation in nature and in our souls, a special revelation in the written tradition of the Scripture and at the top of all revelations we have incarnation. We need to place cultures somewhere in the picture, as something between general and special revelation. Culture is a heritage of cumulative knowledge, the semiotic system of symbols, 59

D. PASTIR£ÁK Spirituality of Creative Processes in Art myths and signs, habits, behavioural patterns. All types of revelation have the character of a complex semiotic structure, a complex language. Incarnation is the key to all revelations in nature, in the Scripture and in culture. Its nature is the paradox. If we turn to the language of the Apostle John, we can speak of Logos, in the book of creation, in the Scripture and culture, and incarnated in Jesus Christ.

1. Logos in Creation: Logos in God, All Things in Logos God communicates with us by nonverbal communication. God did not write a book of letters. He wrote a book in the sign language of all created forms. Logos in the creation is composed of the grammar of things, happenings, relations, structures, colours, shapes, sounds, fragrances, touches and stories. Psalm 19 is describing the whole scale of created existence as a never-ending talk without speech, a never-ending message coming out from all things. So God is continuously speaking to us without interruption.

God did not write a book of theology or philosophy or natural science; God rather, as a means of communication, chose a huge and complex artefact, the universe. And God lets us write books of theology, philosophy or natural science by reading God’s artefact. God creates the universe by the Logos, out of nothing. John describes the line of processing the Logos in this way: Everything around us exists in and from the Logos, God. We do not need to travel in time in order to see the moment of creation.

Creation is with us at each and every moment. Every moment is composed of the dance of quarks in empty spaces, of the dance of electrons and neutrons in empty spaces and of the dance of atoms in empty spaces. The whole dance is governed by the principle of uncertainty. Our minds cannot grasp the mechanics and logic of the dance. Logos is the Lord of Dance. Art is a special reflection on the perpetual presence of creation in our human creativity.

If we were to travel through different layers of existence, we would have to start at the level of the “dead or inorganic matter”. But dead matter is not dead at all: all shapes of matter are held in their existence by the dance of quarks. If the dance stopped even for a second, everything would fall into nothingness. Then, as we travel to other levels of existence and the matter becomes more complex, we 60

see a new phenomenon: vegetative life with a new quality of growth.

On still another level we find biological life with a new quality of movement. Then the very complex life of conscious beings with new qualities of sensation, feelings and will.

At the top of all created visible life forms we find the human life: a bio-spiritual life with the quality of consciousness and conscience.

Life becomes the light of humans. The light of knowing that I am, being aware of right and wrong, the light of knowing good and bad.

We are created as an image of God. God creates the universe by Word: we are reflecting his image by creating words. Adam is giving name to the animals. The basic act of human creation is giving names to the unknown parts of reality. By giving proper names we establish the relationship of intelligent perception. What was outside us becomes part of us. By giving names we recognise Logos in the created beings and translate it into the language of our own consciousness.

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D. PASTIR£ÁK Spirituality of Creative Processes in Art Postmodern thinkers hold the opinion that human consciousness is created and established by our language. If God, as Absolute consciousness, is Logos, then human beings as a reflective consciousness are quite understandably bound to a linguistic reality. We are placed in the context of an overwhelming sentence of the cosmos.

Logos is all around us, but Logos is also within us. We do not know the inside world of created things. We do not know what it is like to be a stone or a tree, or a horse; we do, however, know what it is like to be a human being. In a special case we see the world not only from outside, but also from within. The initiation of Logos in creation comes to us from outside as well as from inside.

2. Logos in the Scripture As Christians we also talk about Logos in the sacred scriptures of the Bible. Most of the greatest works of art were inspired by the Logos of the Scripture. Does God write a book? Yes and no. God’s people write books, led by God’s spirit of inspiration. But they write it in the limited and relative language of their own cultures. They translated their experiences with spiritual realities into different types of literature with different linguistic strategies. Then yet other people came, and by God’s inspiration, chose some of them as a special measure of spiritual truth: the canon. Finally, we have in our hands the “library” we refer to as the Bible.

When we use the canon, we exercise relationship with two kinds of cultural heritage. With one in which the books of the Scripture were conceived and nurtured and with the one in which they were chosen as the canon. We need to understand these cultures in order to decode messages coded in the books of the Bible, and we need to understand our own cultures in order to translate the spiritual content into our own context. There is, by necessity, a correspondence between the Logos in the Scripture and the Logos in cultures.

Languages of the Scripture contain different strategies, from descriptions of historical facts, philosophical reflections, poetical metaphors to mystical language of symbols and myths.

When the Bible speaks about God, it always uses a symbolic language: the Lamb of God, Dove, Tongues of Fire, Lord or the King of Kings. These are all words borrowed from our earthly experience 62

Ethical Stances in Art serving as verbal pictures of the invisible realities of God. Even God’s name I am who I am or in short I am contains a symbolical quality in relation to God by necessity. Our inner experience of self-consciousness comes from the experience with the limited human reflective consciousness. The human awareness I am is serving here as a symbol of God’s absolute awareness I am Who I am.

The notion that God is Spirit is also of a symbolic quality. The Hebrew word for spirit (ruah) means “wind” or “breathing”. Wind and breathing serve as symbols of the invisible quality of God’s substance. The substance of our language contains only material derived from our experience of our earthly, created life, from the world of time and space. But, when we speak of God, we speak of the One Who exists in the realm without limits, out of time and space in eternity.

The apostle Paul teaches us to look in the Scripture not for the letters, but for the spirit. In order to perceive the spirit in the letters we need to develop an ability to decode the meaning of symbols. And symbol is a basic feature of the artistic type of communication. To speak about God we need tools of artistic expression. We are coming to a conclusion that the Logos in the Scripture has analogical position to the Logos in nature. In nature, Logos is hidden in the complex body of natural phenomena; in the Scripture, Logos is hidden in the complex body of languages of different cultures and literary styles. In both cases we search for the spirit which animates the bodies.

3. Logos and Languages Logos as God’s communication to us has a holistic quality, whereas our languages have a fragmentary quality. In order to decode the message hidden in the created world we as humans must use many parallel, complementary languages from science, philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology and economics to poetry, music, dramatic and visual arts. What is in human consciousness divided into different languages is in Logos united in one body. Everything from logic and technicalities to symbols is materialized in nature. Logos contains reason and logic as well as poetry and chains of analogies, metaphors, associations and symbols, elements of mathematics as well as elements of music, economy and philosophy.

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D. PASTIR£ÁK Spirituality of Creative Processes in Art

II. Inspiration: God’s Coding and Human Decoding There are lots of initiative stimuli around us: some come from nature, some from our psyche, some from our culture with the whole body of knowledge, habits and artefacts and some from sacred scriptures.

Something has to happen in order that these outward powers would move us to an existential state of creation. By inspiration we mean an inner process in which these outward powers reveal to us their spirit.

Spirit comes in from the outside: in-spiration. The process of inspiration can be described as concentration, contemplation and adoration.

1. Concentration In order to absorb an outside impulse, we need to exercise the discipline of concentration. We are surrounded by amazing colours, shapes, sounds, stories and dramas, but often we do not perceive them clearly enough. Our senses are unfocused. We need to learn the special habits of concentration. We need inner silence.

Concentration is the virtue of perception. Without a clear perception there cannot be an inspiration. We have to learn how to empty ourselves, how to become poor in spirit in order that the Logos of the Kingdom around us would reveal His glory.

2. Contemplation We also need to learn how to perceive what our senses tell us in an intelligent and thoughtful way. Contemplation is about our mind. It is the way in which we connect our perceptions with our intelligence.

What stacks our senses must stack our minds. In contemplation we use our intelligence in an associative, metaphoric and symbolic way.

We make discoveries through symbolic connections. Similarities reveal meanings. We connect a tear with a raindrop and a raindrop with a star and a star with an angel an angel with a bird and a bird with persons with tears in their eyes, and in these connections we cumulate special, otherwise unspeakable meanings. The Greek deity, HERMES, is the patron of artists, an archetypal figure for associative thinking. Associative thinking is the basic way how we connect our perceptions with our mind in an artistic way. Through contemplation we give order to otherwise unordered perceptions.

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Ethical Stances in Art

3. Adoration If our ideas did not dress themselves up in emotional clothing we would have no symbols, we would work just with abstract notions and technical illustrations. The initiation from the Logos has to enter the state of adoration through a clear perception and an intelligent reflection. Adoration touches the deepest heart of our will, where the desire for eternity rests. Adoration is a state of awe, a state of overwhelming wonder. Symbols of eternity in the beauty of creation meet there with a desire for eternity in our hearts. The state of adoration is a religious state by definition.

Here we are in an area where spirituality and artistic creativity overlap.

The words concentration, contemplation and adoration are all representing certain spiritual disciplines. Every inspiration has its religious quality. Maybe we should not object to the romantic idea that inspiration comes to us always in a spontaneous way. But even though inspiration many times has an uncontrolled and spontaneous character we can tune ourselves for it, cultivate ourselves to become more and more perceptive of such spontaneous happenings. We need to care for our sail if we want to cage the wind. Our spirituality and creativity spring from a similar if not the same fountain. Let me quote here great modern poet T.S. Eliot: The artistic sensitivity is impoverished by its divorce from the religious sensitivity, the religious by its separation from the artistic.

If we are here to cultivate our spiritual life, even when art is not our vocation, we need to develop a kind of artistic perception. Theology without art cannot lead to real mystical life. It leads only to dead sets of presuppositions. We need artistic perceptions if we are to think deeply and intelligently about God and to experience God in the deepest possible way: in creative adoration or artistic devotion. But also all the artists with the ambition to create artefacts with a universal and lasting value need to learn the same spiritual disciplines of concentration, contemplation and adoration.

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D. PASTIR£ÁK Spirituality of Creative Processes in Art

III. Realization: The Fundamental Qualities of Artistic Language There are many different kinds of arts, from music, drama, literature to visual arts. There are plenty of different techniques and media in every different kinds of art, and there are even many different multimedia forms of art, so there are multiple ways of realization. We have to describe the basic qualities which an object must possess in order to become an artefact. Every artefact necessarily carries in itself the quality of a symbol or a myth. Musicians and composers can object to this proposition by asking the question: what kind of symbol or myth could we find in instrumental music or in abstract painting. By a symbol we understand a situation in which something takes the place of something else in representation. The pink Valentine heart does not depict an exact human heart, but it represents an invisible quality - love. We use symbols if we need to represent some invisible qualities of our life: love, truth or freedom.

An artistic symbol aims higher: it not only represents something invisible, it mediates its presence. It not only tells us that we are speaking about love, it moves us to experience this love by a form of expression. Even music as a structure of rhythms and sounds points to something else behind itself. Music from all kinds of art creates situations where a symbol is closest to the reality it represents. It symbolizes the mystery of eternal realm to us in a way, where we can for a while experience it as an exact reality. By a symbol we understand a visual or sonic image or a picture of symbolic value. By myth we understand a whole story composed of symbolic images where the whole line of story has a symbolic quality.

1. Functions of Symbols and Myths If I speak about symbol as the basic quality of artistic language I am not proposing symbolism as the only good and possible way for art.

All artefacts are in some sense symbolical. The sunflowers of VAN GOGH represent and mediate an inner passion and excitement which moves the artist to paint them. In the picture we see what happened to the painter when the beauty of sunflowers meets the desire for eternity in the painter’s heart. And in this sense the sunflowers are symbols.

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Ethical Stances in Art Symbols unite knowledge with experience. One basic quality of a symbol or a myth is that it enables us to experience what can be otherwise known only as an abstract principle. Symbols help us to form the whole picture of reality out of our partial knowledge. Our knowledge of reality is helplessly partial and fragmentary. At the time of the Communist regime we learnt at school what was then called the scientific world view. But there never was and never will be a scientific world view. Natural sciences work only with fragmented facts.

Science has only facts and theories about potential facts. Every world view is by necessity mythological. We have evolution as a scientific theory. But evolution as a universal key to everything is well-established modern myth.

We can compare our human condition of knowledge to the fragments of a fresco discovered in an ancient sanctuary. In one corner we discover a part of a leg, in another a head of a horse, in the middle a hand with a sword. If we want to have an idea of what was originally painted on the wall, we need the brush of a myth, someone with the powers of imagination to give us the vision of the whole picture. And we cannot live without a whole picture. In order to find the way how to live, in order to find some understanding of the meaning of our life we need to place ourselves into the context of the whole reality. In order to understand our little stories, we need to place them into the grand narrative, to imagine its beginning and to envision its end.

This visionary and prophetic function is the calling of an artist. An artist uses symbols and myths to connect our fragmentary knowledge of reality with a holistic perspective. All good novels are myths, through them we come to understand our situation in life and in the best situation they even help us to find a direction.

2. Three Elements of Symbol and Myth So let me finally describe three qualities which compose art, symbol and myth. I am not suggesting here that all of them must be present in every work of art. But I am convinced that every work of art has by necessity some of them.

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D. PASTIR£ÁK Spirituality of Creative Processes in Art

Imagination There cannot be a symbol without imagination. Imagination is needed if one is to create an object of symbolic value. One needs imagination to connect that object to the reality it represents. Our consciousness possesses not only reflective but also creative powers. These creative powers lie in our faculty of imagination.

Everything we call civilization has been created with the help of imagination. We are created in the image of the Creator. We are co-creators. We are reflecting that Image by exercise of mental powers which enable us to create new images.

From the material we receive from our perceptions we can create images that are not visible to our eyes, we can even create images that don’t exist in outside reality. We can create a horse with wings, red rivers and white grass. By the power of imagination we can relate things and happenings we observe, or experience a new structure of connections and by doing so we can discover in them new hidden meanings.

Oscar WILDE in his novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray created a powerful symbol by connecting the painted portrait of Dorian Gray to his inner life. By that he created a living symbol for our divided, ill self.

By an unreal connection he brings to us a deeper reality of our existential struggles with our sinful nature. We can identify with Dorian, and by reading the novel, we can experience our own inner divisions and our desire for wholeness.

Worthwhile examples are also the paintings of Francis BACON. He connected in one of his paintings by power of imagination meat from a butcher’s shop with a human body and human body in a bedroom with an iron cage. By this he created a powerful symbol of human existence as it is viewed by atheistic materialism: a human person as a piece of meat cut off by the bars of the iron cage of determinism, thrown into the empty universe.

Dramatization: Catharsis An artistic symbol contains also a certain dramatic quality, a conflict, a contrast or a disharmony, which opens up the paradoxical nature of reality. Drama is aiming at strongly concentrated and con68

Ethical Stances in Art flicting emotions, at existential states of the human psyche in order to make us experience what the Greeks referred to as catharsis – a moment of awakening, cleansing of our senses, minds and emotions from all unimportant and secondary things. Most of our life we spend in a very mediocre way untouched by existential realities of birth and death, love and despair. Symbol in visual art, in drama, in literature or in music is a kind of a concentrate. It concentrates existential material spread throughout our life to one vivid emotionally active point, where we in one moment experienced what was important to us through all our life.

J. R. R TOLKIEN called this event eucatastrophy. He means by it a catastrophe which leads us to joy. Eucatastrophe is paradoxical in its nature and in final analysis points towards the eucatastrophe of Christ’s cross. Catharsis is life coming out of dying, Resurrection out of crucifixion.

Let us mention in this context also the fairytale of H. Ch. ANDERSEN, the Little Mermaid. The little mermaid desires to become human in order to have an immortal soul. But she can gain eternal life only if there is a man who will fall in love with her and marry her. She sacrifices her beautiful voice in order to become human. She becomes dumb.

The little mermaid saves at a certain point the life of a beautiful prince. As things develop she happens to live in the prince’s palace.

She has no tongue to explain to him who she is. So the prince finally marries another girl. As a result the little mermaid has to die.

Everything is lost for her now. But before she dies her sisters brings her a knife. If she kills the wife of the prince, she will live and become again a little mermaid.

Here is the climax of drama. She refuses the temptation. She throws the knife into the sea and throws herself into it. She dies. But in her death she is transformed into the spirit of the air. She is now on her way to immortality - a beautiful example of catharsis, or as TOLKIEN calls it, eucatastrophe.

In Hollywood ANDERSEN’s story was turned into a film. The film ends with a happy-end. Just before the wedding, a miracle happens and the mermaid can speak again. Everything is explained and she 69

D. PASTIR£ÁK Spirituality of Creative Processes in Art becomes the wife of the prince. What a sad marriage – it takes away all the symbolic power of the story.

Let us mention in our considerations also the place assigned to humour. Humour is the light side of the drama. Humour is another way of pointing to the same paradoxical nature of our birth, growth, life and death. Humour is the celestial brother of drama. Good humour leads us through a different corridor to the same place where catharsis does.

Glory: Music The third quality of an art symbol is glory, or if you like music. To me personally the glory of things and the music of things is the same phenomenon. Glory resides on the top of a hill. It is present only in the best of all artefacts. Glory starts where catharsis ends. Catharsis opens up our deepest self. Glory is calling us out of ourselves to something overwhelmingly bigger than us. Glory is horrifying, because it reveals to us how unimportant we are and that there is something limitlessly bigger than our personality. To let that music, that glory enter us is like letting in death. We are thrown into the endless sea of eternal magnificence, which is not ours, for which our existence is secondary or irrelevant.

Glory which is revealing itself to us as music: this unspeakable untouchable quality translatable in the best way to the structures of sounds or proportions of abstract shapes and colours. Glory is an inkling of eternity reflected in the object of an artefact. It is in my opinion the highest ambition of every art to catch glimpses of that glory in the material of an art-symbol. If the artist succeeds in capturing it his artefact becomes an icon, a window to the hidden heavens of eternity.

Daniel PASTIR£ÁK (1959) is a poet, prose-writer and essayist. He graduated in Protestant theology in Bratislava, Slovakia. He works as a preacher of the Free Evangelical church (Bratská cirkev). His book “Damian’s river” (1993) was listed on the List of Honour of International Board of Books for Youth. His other books are “Tehilim” and “Cintet”; the latter was honoured as the best Slovak book for youth of the year. He is also engaged in art and exhibited in galleries in Slovakia and abroad.

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Iva B ERANEK

Art: Fantasy or Worldview?

A work of art does not reveal the attitudes of an artist and it cannot tell us anything about the artist. Art is, therefore, neutral. Would you agree with such a statement? My opinion is completely the opposite. I have to note that these thoughts are still being formed in my mind and, although I have been concerned with them for quite some time now, they have not been finalised yet. I believe that my thoughts about this subject might be settled in a few years (or even decades). For if it took years for great thinkers to conceptualise certain ideas, even more time it will take for me – not that I am justifying myself, but I am only trying to be realistic. In my essay I will speak generally and partly hypothetically, ie. about the way things should be (in theory) rather than the way they are (practically), which sums up my previous statement.

Before discussing art, it is necessary to define art. Art is a creative presentation of what made an impression on an individual and what has been received from the environment. It is often the ordinary that impresses the individual in a special way. An artist creatively processes impressions through colour, voice, word, movement or painting. An artist works out of what she or he is, out of herself or himself. Art is a part of life. The understanding of style “contributes to a better understanding of life at a certain stage, not the other way around” (Radovan IVAN£I£). We know that life is not neutral and we cannot be indifferent towards it. If similarly art is not neutral, then we can observe it from a moral perspective as well. Wouldn’t it be, however, unexpected and surprising to talk about morality of art in a world where morality is often neglected and ignored?

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I. BERANEK Art: Fantasy or Worldview?

The Art of Encounter It is understandable that an artist is not necessarily what she or he writes, paints or simply says (creates). An artist is, however, building her or his work with the material of her or his thoughts enweaved by the strings of her or his personality. Art is not separated from life, it points to life and is part of it; sometimes amazes, sometimes confuses, but there is always a message present in it – no matter whether it prompts us towards admiration or it draws our attention to small neglected things or even to something so ordinary that we would never notice.

An artist is, primarily, a person with attitudes. She or he, like politicians or scientists, wants to say something, but uses a different method. In this essay I am in the first place concerned with Christian artists. Rather than evaluating works or talking about beauty in art, I will try to touch upon the meaning of art and its role in Christianity.

I am planning to explore this meaning at least in a partial sense, as the application of art is wide and we cannot talk here about all its complexity.

Therefore, when we will be talking about a Christian artist, we will discuss neither religion as such nor different religions – it would be too broad an area to research. The role of art in religions can be very different (depending on the nature of the religion) and there are so many religious communities that each could present their own way of looking at the topic; they have different perspectives and starting points. Therefore in this study I am interested in art in Christianity.

In Christianity all perspectives are included, both the frog’s – a person is in that case in a frog’s perspective, she or he croaks about the miracle of life, – and bird’s – God’s perspective – for it is written that “the Spirit of God dwelled upon the waters” (Genesis 1,2). Art in Christianity is a space where the Triune God meets with a person who lets God to find her or him hidden in a garden of life’s noise and complicity.

We differentiate between Christian art in a wide sense and Christian art in a narrow sense – sacral or liturgical art. Some would define Christian art in a wide sense as “religious”, which it really is, if it applies to the inner perception of Divine reality. Sometimes religion

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is defined as a search for God (upward movement) whereas Christainity is God’s advent among people and their response to it (both downward and upward movement). A personal contribution is not the sole one, even though it is crucial. It is necessary for a person to be approached by God, and from that encounter Christian art is created.

Christian art should be a fruit of prayer. Prayer is the explicit encounter with God in silence, composure, where a person is alone with God in conversation. Prayer is a “friendship with God which, if done consistently, changes the person” (St. Theresa of Avila).

Rajmund KUPAREO, a Dominican theologian, refers to works that are the fruit of prayer as “works of mystical inspiration”. Under the expression of mystic he defines “that practical comprehension of 73

I. BERANEK Art: Fantasy or Worldview?

God in the depth of soul which has its roots in dedicatory grace, imputed virtues, and finally in faith and love, as well as in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That comprehension is called contemplation, intuition of truth whose motif and purpose is love.”

Hunger for Depth If we look at the spiritual atmosphere of our time, we notice the hunger of people, hunger for something beyond everyday reality. But this is often just an aimless wandering, partly because those who reached the goal do not point people clearly enough towards it. First of all, it seems to be necessary to listen to people’s questions and only then to give answers so that we would not answer unraised queries with words people do not understand. If we are (and we are indeed) in the era of postmodernism, then we have to speak in the “spirit” of postmodernism, with image and through experience. Art is full of images, whether produced by words or a paintbrush.

Religious experience, the experience of meeting the Lord Jesus Christ, is crucial for a living faith. Just as we cannot tell someone what a hug means but one has to experience it by herself or himself to know its true meaning, the same goes for faith – it cannot be explained nor an exact scheme of it can be drawn. It can only be lively and truthfully transmitted through words, a paintbrush or a sound, so that others can wish to experience it, to experience a handshake or a hug, a hug from God. A piece of art can testify that Christian artists cannot keep silent about the secret God has given us - the secret of God’s love. I will just mention here a theatre play entitled “Brother Donkey”, directed

by Rene MEDVE¥EK and played in ZKM in Zagreb, which tells us of St. Francis who so devotedly loved the Lord that he took everything in life as a gift from God. The play is a testimony of faith through the words and manners of todays’ people. It is contemporary and yet speaks of the eternal and touches depth, touches God.

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Ethical Stances in Art

Responsibility of an Artist It is necessary to accentuate the responsibility of an artist and thus her/his art as well, since there she or he talks in a creative way about the Truth. Creativity is a method, a means, whereas Truth is the goal.

“Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1, 17). Maybe you ask yourselves what grace has got to do with it. Grace is a completely undeserved gift; and so is talent. We did not make any efforts to obtain talents but they were given to us without any regard to our credits. As parents cannot give their children talents, they are often surprised when they discover their children’s talents. Therefore the only One who could have given us our talents is the Parent of all parents.

The question raised here is whether art is neutral. My answer is a definite no; it is not neutral. Whatever a human being does it is not neutral because we are responsible and moral beings. Moral values are not just a kind of the values but the values themselves (in a sense of what is good and therefore desirable), which is being respected by respecting the objective value scale (as a Magyar Jesuit, WEISSMAHR Béla defines it).

Through her/his art a creator touches certain values coming out of her/his inner self implying thereby the moral aspect of her/his work of art. Those aspects can be hidden and inexpressive. But art can both insult or praise and admire – the creature and the Creator.

Therefore it is not neutral. Christian art is not only that which uses biblical or other Christian topics. Not the topic but the spirit of an artistic work is the one that makes someone’s work Christian or not Christian. As I have already mentioned, “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1, 17).

If art brings us to the Truth, we will know the truth, and the truth shall set us free (John 8,32). Only the One Who is truly free can set free, but we are often addicted to what surrounds us and burdened by worries and pressures of all kinds. Often a person longing for relief, rest and a break from the usual rush approaches art. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mathew 11, 28). A great responsibility rests on the shoulders of a Christian artist not to bring constant restlessness but peace and hope, not to tread and curse but to praise and bless.

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I. BERANEK Art: Fantasy or Worldview?

But it needs to be emphasized that Christian art is not equal to mysticism: “Art cannot replace mysticism. Art falls to the area of signs, and mysticism is God’s life. The time will come, if God wills, when we will say »goodbye« to signs, when we will not have a need to comprehend, love or taste created things.” (MONCHANIN)

Art out of Life A person acts out of fullness of her or his heart. The same happens in art. If the artist realizes that the Lord God loves her or him, she or he will work and live out of love, to God’s glory. Just as St. Augustine said: “love and do whatever you will”. Artists are not invented characters who have no real life; all sorts of musicians and actors face the questions that ordinary people struggle with. Many celebrities go through identity crises; which means that defining who they are is not always easy for them. The same goes for Christian artists.

An artwork is a pearl that needs to be taken out of the shell. A person is a shell to whom God has given many pearls, creativity that points to the Creator. The First and the Last artist is God. We humans are simply trying to follow God’s example. An artist who seeks truth and has enough humility to admit that she or he was given a gift of creativity, just as life itself, is open to see that we shall always fail in understanding all that we are. Understanding this gift is far beyond our comprehension.

Of course, it is not just Christian artists who have a responsibility when producing art, even though these responsibilities may vary from one artist to another, however we may choose to define the artist. There are many things people would like to call artistic but one could doubt whether those very products of human activity should so easily be given the label of art. What is more, we all have some sort of creativity within us, but only some of us manage to let life flow out of that creativity.

Rainer Maria RILKE in his Letters to a Young Poet says: “Be honest with yourself: would you die if you were forbidden to write? This above all: ask yourself in the quietest time of night: »Am I really compelled to write?« Dig deeper for the answer. If the answer is »Yes«, if you can respond to such a question by a strong, simple, »I must«,

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Ethical Stances in Art then organize your life around this necessity. Your life, even in its emptiest, most indifferent moments, must become a sigh and witness of such a compulsion.”

What would we die for? What would a Christian artist die for?

Evidently enough, I cannot provide an answer to this question. I suppose, however, that we can make art out of life by dying in order to experience small moments of impression that draw us closer to the adventure of life, in the same way as a film or a book can do it. When enjoying the richness of life artists might become aware that all that impressions in the end come from the Impresser, the One Who reaches out to show what a smile or hug means.

People being impressed with life and art can turn life into poetry. If you cannot and “if your daily life seems paltry, do not blame it. Blame yourself for not being poet enough to discover its richness” (Rainer Maria RILKE). The richness of art shows that it has much to do with life. Both life and art can reach out to meet the Lord. To some extent – depending on us – they already do.

Suggested Reading FALZON Christopher, Philosophy Goes to the Movies. An Introduction to Philosophy. London – New York, 2002.

GAUNT W., The Aesthetic Adventure. London, 1945.

IVAN£I£ Radovan, Stilovi – razdoblja – øivot. Skripta. Zagreb, 1993.

KUPAREO Rajmund, Estetski uøitak. Zagreb, 1990.

KUPAREO Rajmund, ^ovjek i umjetnost, Zagreb, 1993.

LEWIS C. S., Essay Collection.. Literature, Philosophy and Short Stories. Glasgow, 2000.

LITCH Mary M., Philosophy through Film. London – New York, 2002.

MARITAIN J., Art et Scolastique. Paris, 1920.

MONCHANIN J., De l’Esthétique à la Mystique. Tournai, 1955.

NEWMAN John Henry, The Idea of a University. New Haven – London, 1996.

NOUWEN Henri J. M., The Return of the Prodigal Son. London, 1994.

ROOKMAAKER H. R., Modern Art and the Death of a Culture. London, 1970.

SENNE René Le, Introduction à la Philosophie. Paris, 1947.

WEISSMAHR Béla SI, Philosophische Gotteslehre. Stuttgart, 1994.

Iva BERANEK is a graduate of the Jesuit College in Zagreb in the field of philosophy and religious culture. She is Roman Catholic and has been involved in ecumenical work in Croatia for the last four years. The present article was translated from Croatian by Gabrijela ALTHALLER.

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Peter

¥ AJDA

Are Ecumenical Novel-Writers the Hope of Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι?

(A Study in ANDERSEN’s and KIERKEGAARD’s Discussion on the Importance of a Life-View in a Novel)

PART I Perseus – The Journal for Positive and Independent Thought On Thursday, August 9, 1838 at 2 a.m. Michael P. KIERKEGAARD, the father of SØren Aabye KIERKEGAARD, dies at the age of 82 1. The father’s death is one in a long chain of deaths in the KIERKEGAARD family. Sadly the father had outlived not only his wife but also most of his children.

SØren’s brother Peter Christian (the later bishop of Aalborg) lost his wife Maria one year earlier2 and his father’s death only increases the tension in his life. SØren and he did not have an easy time getting along with each other in these months.

SØren seems to need quite an acute sublimation of all the tension accumulated over the past months (years). Full of fears and sorrows and shortly before his father’s death he starts writing an article about H. C. ANDERSEN. One month before his father’s death he moves home from a flat in LØvstræde where he had escaped the tense atmosphere of the home caused by the previous deaths in the family3. But now death with all TUDVAD Peter, Homo Nekropolis, Kierkegaard og kirkegården. Unpublished (quoted in GARFF). 62.

2 Ibid. 67.

3 GARFF Joakim, SAK, SØren Aabye Kierkegaard, En biografi. KØbenhavn, 2002. 105.

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her wicked games seems to be chasing him again. Sensing the upcoming death of his father he escapes into writing.

On July 20, 1838 SØren KIERKEGAARD’s only friend Emil BOESEN 4 reports to his cousin Martin HAMMERICH that KIERKEGAARD has written “a piece about ANDERSEN that shall go to HEIBERG’s Perseus. It is in a bit heavy style, but otherwise excellent.”5 Perseus has 133 subscribers and is the leading journal of the Danish intellectual elite. According to the Danish Hegelian and stylephilosopher Johan L. HEIBERG (the later director of the Danish Royal Theatre), who is the editor-in-chief of Perseus, this journal publishes authors who are able to “express positive and independent thought in the realms of arts, religion and philosophy.” 6 As he puts it – it is the journal for speculative thought.

“From the Papers of One Still Living” The title of KIERKEGAARD’s article about ANDERSEN is From the Papers of One Still Living (Af en endnu Levendes Papirer, 1838). At first hearing, it sounds strange and early biographers have estimated it enigmatic and weird. It refers to an unknown and never-finished farce written by S.A. KIERKEGAARD at a very early stage of his writing career. HEIBERG returns the article to KIERKEGAARD asking for more readable Danish 7. KIERKEGAARD rewrites the article and slowly but truly is beginning to realise that he is writing for his future audience – the Symparanekromenoi (Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι).

Whose Face is behind the Veil of Symparanekromenoi?

At first glance it can seem that this long Greek word is one of the many strange inventions of the young solitary philosopher. But in fact, Symparanekromenoi (Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι) are not KIERKEGAARD’s invention. Or just partly. It is in the Greek satirist and 4 BOESEN is referred to as “the only friend” (den eneste Ven) by KIERKEGAARD himself. Cf. Breve og Aktstykker vedrØrende SØren Kierkegaard (published by THULSTRUP Niels). Nr. 8. 40ff. In a closer study BOESEN really appears as the only lifelong friend of KIERKEGAARD. 5 WELTZER Carl, Stemninger og Tilstande i Emil Boesens Ungdomsaar. In Kirkehistoriske Samlinger. 7 række. KØbenhavn, 1952. 413.

6 BORUP Morten, Johan Ludvig Heiberg. KØbenhavn, 1948. vol. 2, 174.

7 Cf. GARFF. 125.

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P. ¥AJDA Life-View in a Novel rhetorician LUCIAN that he finds the name paranekroi (παρανεκροι), which he translates in the singular as “the one who is dead, just like me”. On January 9, 1838 he notes in his diary that this is the special class of people who can become his future readers 8.

To add some clarity to KIERKEGAARD’s concept of this enigmatic circle of readers let us just say that in the context of his thinking “to die (at dØ) means in fact to die to/away (at afdØ) – to die to this world, to your own immediacy, in order to resurrect in the spirit’s world to a different immediacy.”9 So let us put two and two together. Let us put Symparanekromenoi (Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι) and From the Papers of One Still Living together. A question emerges right away – if KIERKEGAARD calls himself “the one still living” how can he be in company with those who are “dead just like him”? Can he be still living and dead at the same time?

A Novel without a Life-View H. C. ANDERSEN is known best as a fairy-tale writer. He might be less known as a novel-writer, but it is exactly his third novel, Only a Fiddler (Kun en Spillemand, 1837) that inspires KIERKEGAARD to write his first published treatise10.

Some time after ANDERSEN’s novel has been published, KIERKEGAARD and ANDERSEN arrange a rendez-vous and after a pleasant talk ANDERSEN’s expectations appear to be high – an utterly positive critique of his book from the pen of the young theologian11. In fact, in August 1838 he complains in his diary that KIERKEGAARD still has not published his critique. But the literary Providence is not asleep – in a week KIERKEGAARD’s critique is published... and ANDERSEN is shocked 12.

KIERKEGAARD attacks several aspects of ANDERSEN’s novel. He attacks the way geniality is pictured in the main (autobiographical) character 13, ANDERSEN’s confusion of genres14, but most importantly he SØren Kierkegaards Papirer (published by HEIBERG Pa. A., KUHR V., TORSTING E., edited by THULSTRUP Niels) II A. 690.

9 GARFF. 129.

10 KIERKEGAARD SØren Aabye, Af en endnu Levendes Papirer. In Samlede Værker (Bind I).

KØbenhavn, 1995. 45.

11 Cf. GARFF. 125.

12 SØren Kierkegaard Skrifter (published by N. J. CAPPELØRN & Co.). KØbenhavn, 1997ff. 74.

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attacks the fact that ANDERSEN’s novel lacks a life-view, en LivsAnskuelse.

The twenty-five-year-old theology student asserts in a sharp diction that ANDERSEN’s novels “lack the constitutive total-view (a lifeview).”15 He spiritualises his point by claiming that “a life-view is actually the Providence in the novel, it is its deeper unity that gives the novel its weight. It frees the novel from the danger of becoming accidental and aimless, as the aim is immanently present everywhere in the piece of art. When, however, such a life-view is missing, the novel tries to insinuate all kinds of theories (dogmatic, doctrinal compositions) at the expense of poetry, or enters into an infinite and accidental relationship with the writer’s flesh and blood.”16 14

Cf. ibid. 55. According to KIERKEGAARD, ANDERSEN’s novel is not really a novel.

Ibid. 41.

16 Ibid. 39.

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P. ¥AJDA Life-View in a Novel It is this last warning that applies to ANDERSEN. KIERKEGAARD believes that ANDERSEN’s novel lacks what makes a novel a novel – “the immortal spirit that survives the whole.”17 He does not mind the presence of the author’s opinions in the novel (on the contrary, that is what he is asking for), but he minds the “residuum of the writer’s finite character.”18 In his diary KIERKEGAARD notes that “a writer should always give some of his personality, just like Christ feeds us with His Body and Blood,”19 but he believes that ANDERSEN goes in a wrong direction – without a life-view his literary sharing becomes an infinite and accidental relationship with the writer’s flesh and blood. Not ANDERSEN steers the wheel of the novel but the novel takes over and picks arbitrary fragments from ANDERSEN’s personality instead of illustrating the inner infinity of human richness. A flesh-and-bloodbound novel does not approach its readers de profundis 20.

KIERKEGAARD hits hard and states cruelly that “(ANDERSEN’s) novels are in such a physical connection with the author that their origin cannot so much be considered a production, but rather an amputation.”21 He demands the detachment of the novel-writer from his novel in order to enable him to bring forward as much of his maturity as possible. Otherwise reflection might be replaced by images and depth by a shiny veneer. KIERKEGAARD speaks about the “temptation to produce, instead of developing oneself, to hide inner emptiness under colourful pictures” and even goes on to accuse ANDERSEN of having a “poorly developed mind.”22

Symparanekromenoi vs. Andersen?

The harsh critique of KIERKEGAARD can sound unjust especially when one inspects the hard inner fight ANDERSEN tried to depict in his novel.

The novel is in ANDERSEN’s own words “a truly spiritual flower that grew out of the tension I suffered from between my poet-nature and the exceedingly hard surroundings.”23 17

GARFF. 127.

KIERKEGAARD, Af en endnu Levendes Papirer. 39.

19 SØren Kierkegaards Papirer. II A. 739.

20 KIERKEGAARD, Af en endnu Levendes Papirer. 25.

21 Ibid. 41. / 22 Ibid. 32.

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Ethical Stances in Art But to defend the other party, let us say that KIERKEGAARD as a critic is not identical with KIERKEGAARD as a reader. The last page of his treatise makes this clear and speaks about his feeling of gratitude towards ANDERSEN and about ANDERSEN’s contribution to the poetic atmosphere of the contemporary society that KIERKEGAARD pegs as ecclesia pressa 24.

And in fact KIERKEGAARD seems to have a sense of self-criticism too.

GARFF notes in his KIERKEGAARD biography that “from this perspective the title (=From the Papers of One Still Living) can be read as KIERKEGAARD’s indirect admission that he cannot call himself dead/detached (afdØd) either, that he too is still alive and just like ANDERSEN does not fulfil the desired dimension of a life-view. His critique of ANDERSEN’s autobiographical work thus has to a certain degree an autobiographical character.”25 But let us go back to KIERKEGAARD’s future friends – Symparanekromenoi (ie. Symparanenekromenoi, συµπαρανενεκρωµενοι).

As we have mentioned, KIERKEGAARD found the term in the Dialogues of the Dead of LUCIAN of Samosata in the form of paranekroi (παρανεκροι)26. He becomes interested in the term and looks for it in other sources. He finds it in the Bible in the form nenekromenos (νενεκρωµενος, Letter to the Hebrews 11, 12)27. The term is also used by Greek Church fathers in yet another form – synnekroysthai (συννεκρουσϑαι, to die away with someone).

Slowly but surely the concept becomes one of the central concepts of KIERKEGAARD’s philosophy and theology. It is not possible to elaborate the far-reaching implications of this concept within the framework of this study, but some partial explanations have to be given.

But before entering the discourse on the meaning of “dying away”, let us reiterate that KIERKEGAARD joins ANDERSEN in the company of the imperfect (GARFF: ufuldkommenhedens fællesskab) by alluding to the fact that he himself is not dead enough either. Thus neither SØren nor Hans Christian can see themselves as Symparanekromenoi (Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι).

KIERKEGAARD, Af en endnu Levendes Papirer. 57.

GARFF. 129.

26 LUCIAN of Samosata, Dialogues of the Dead. 2, 1.

27 SØren Kierkegaards Papirer. II A. 490.

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P. ¥AJDA Life-View in a Novel

AfdØelse – Dying away (Jerusalem and Athens) “The words Dying (to, away), to Die (to, away), One Who Has Died (to, away), are relatively rare in Danish. The Danish terms consist of forms of the verb “at dØ” (to die) and the preposition “af” (from) which denotes negative movement and the actualisation of something negative. (...) Though the Danish terms have the same contents as the Latin mortificatio, mortificare and mortificatus, they differ from the Latin in being intransitive,”28 Marie MIKULOVÁ THULSTRUP explains in her exposition of KIERKEGAARD’s terminology.

She also remarks that the Danish terms AfdØelse, AfdØen and AfdØethed refer rather to the ‘state of mortification’ than to the process itself 29.

In the Bible that KIERKEGAARD owned (Lutheran edition, published in 1824) the term “at afdØ” appears in this form only twice (Colossians 2,20 and 1Peter 2,24). But KIERKEGAARD understandably enough looked for it elsewhere too.

MIKULOVÁ THULSTRUP remarks that one of the authors that definitely influenced KIERKEGAARD’s understanding and usage of the concept of dying away (to) was Johann ARNDT, whose books (written originally in German) were published in Danish in Christiania (Oslo). In one of his writings ARNDT asks God: “grant me two things: that I may die from myself and the world. For without these two things it is impossible to become a true Christian.” 30 Devotional literature was, however, not the only source of KIERKEGAARD’s formulation of the mentioned concept. KIERKEGAARD, who as a Lutheran theology student had to master Latin and Greek to a considerable extent 31, did not shy away from the originals of the antique sages. In his examination of dying away he availed himself of PLATO, most notably of his dialogue Phaedo, where SOCRATES’ process of dying is pictured in a spectacular way. He refers to a 28 THULSTRUP MIKULOVÁ Marie, The Significance of Mortification and Dying away (to). In The Sources and Depths of Faith in Kierkegaard. KØbenhavn, 1980. 160.

29 Ibid.

30 ARNDT Johann, Sex BØger om den Sande Christendom. Christiania, 1763. 75; see also Fire BØger om den Sande Christendom (translated from “Sintenis”) Christiania, 1829.

31 KIERKEGAARD read just for his graduation 11.000 verses and 1.250 pages of prose in Latin and almost ten thousand verses and three hundred pages of prose in Greek. (Cf. GARFF, SAK. 19–20.)

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Ethical Stances in Art Phaedonic dying philosopher in his Concept of Anxiety (Begrebet Angest, 1844) where he actualises SOCRATES’ words: “I am afraid that other people do not realise that the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death.”32 KIERKEGAARD goes back to PLATO’s Phaedo again in his Concluding Unscientific Postscript (Afsluttende Uvidenskabelig Efterskrift, 1846) when mentioning dying “in a Pythagorean sense,”33 which is a reference to the figure of PHILOLAUS whom SOCRATES suggests for study to his pupils CEBES and SIMMIAS before drinking his fatal cup of hemlock34. And in KIERKEGAARD’s diaries there is one more mentioning of dying like SOCRATES, which, however, remains unexplained 35.

It is, however, not the reflection on his own physical death that prompts KIERKEGAARD to look at SOCRATES as a dying philosopher.

KIERKEGAARD is not CATO who reads Phaedo before committing suicide in order to escape CÆSAR’s tyranny 36. Neither is he SENECA who orders the Phaedonic cup of hemlock to escape a more humiliating death by NERO37. KIERKEGAARD is not in a situation of outer danger when he reads PLATO’s Phaedo. He reads Phaedo in his armchair while writing his dissertation On the Concept of Irony. But it is exactly Socratic irony that makes KIERKEGAARD reflect on detachment, dying away and emptying out. He senses that irony produces creative emptiness, which is the space where detachment is born. “One can ask with the purpose of getting an answer (…) or one can ask without the interest in an answer; but with the aim to use the question to suck out the seeming contents and to leave emptiness behind.”38 In his dissertation, KIERKEGAARD bears in mind his critique of ANDERSEN and develops it in connection with SOCRATES. He presents a Cf. KIERKEGAARD SØren Aabye, Begrebet Angest. In Samlede Værker (Bind IV). KØbenhavn, 1995. 396.; Quote from PLATO, Phaedo. In Complete Works (ed. COOPER John M.). Indianapolis / Cambridge, 1997. 55.

33 Cf. KIERKEGAARD SØren A., Afsluttende Uvidenskabelig Efterskrift. In Samlede Værker (Bind VII). Gyldendals Bogklubber, Nordisk Forlag, KØbenhavn, 1995. 296.

34 PLATO, Phaedo. 53.

35 Cf. SØren Kierkegaards Papirer. X, 4 A. 463.

36 Cf. PLUTARCH, Cato the Younger. In Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans. New York, 1992.

37 Cf. TACITUS, The Death of Seneca. In The Annals of Imperial Rome. London, 1976.

38 KIERKEGAARD, SØren Aabye, Om Begrebet Ironi. In Samlede Værker (Bind I). KØbenhavn, 1995. 92.

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P. ¥AJDA Life-View in a Novel comparison of three “biographers” of SOCRATES – XENOPHON, PLATO and ARISTOPHANES. And similarly to his critique of ANDERSEN he blames XENOPHON for losing the total-view of the Socratic irony. In contrast to ANDERSEN and XENOPHON, he pictures SOCRATES as a master of detachment: “The more SOCRATES undermined existence, the more deeply and necessarily must every expression have gravitated towards the ironic totality, which as a spiritual state was infinite, bottomless, invisible and indivisible. But this secret XENOPHON never sensed.” 39 It seems to be KIERKEGAARD’s interest to picture SOCRATES as a thinker who naturally cares about the detachment of his readers whenever he phrases his statements. In this sense, he is again contrasted to ANDERSEN, whose flesh-and-blood-bound writing style KIERKEGAARD so sharply criticised. “Just like we in nature find examples of places designed in such a bizarre way that those who stand the closest to the speaker cannot hear him, but only those who stand on a certain spot, often quite distant; so it is also with SOCRATES’ statements.”40 It is needless to add that KIERKEGAARD believes that serious irony is a “substantial element in PLATO’s Phaedo.”41 As KIERKEGAARD grows older, the notion of dying away (to) assumes more and more an exclusively Christian character. He argues that only in this way one can understand that there are times when “suffering is more blessed than pleasure”42 or that “whenever a new quality arises, conceptions are changed.”43 In the Concluding Unscientific Postscript he also speaks of “inward martyrdom” and “hidden inwardness”44 as dimensions pertaining to the process of dying away (to).

KIERKEGAARD increasingly begins to understand that dying away (to) is a way to the spiritualisation of one’s own being. He claims that this kind of dying is linked with the obligation to become spirit and to understand the importance of suffering 45.

39

Ibid. 78. / 40 Ibid. / 41 Ibid. 117.

SØren Kierkegaards Papirer. X, 5 A. 79.

43 Ibid. XI, 2 A. 212.

44 KIERKEGAARD, SØren Aabye, Afsluttende Uvidenskabelig Efterskrift. In Samlede Værker (Bind VII). KØbenhavn, 1995. 497–498.

45 Cf. SØren Kierkegaards Papirer. X, 4 A. 588.

46 Ibid. XIII, II C 28. 113.

42

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Ethical Stances in Art Based on the lectures of H. L. MARTENSEN that KIERKEGAARD attends in Copenhagen he notes in his diary the concept of positive/negative immortality that MARTENSEN expounds in his addresses: “In the positive immortality, the possibility changes into actuality. This begins with rebirth. This is a perpetual coming into being too, therefore we may say: ‘One dies to the world.’”46 But KIERKEGAARD (just like PLATO or ECKHART) is realistic enough to know that what he writes about is rather the end than the beginning.

Thus he remarks with his distinct irony that “if anyone in Denmark were to fulfil the requirement of dying away, one would be looked upon as a madman.”47 And he does not have too many illusions about himself either: “I am he who has a conception of dying away from the world which is so painful that it makes me wince.”48

The Critics of KIERKEGAARD’s Concept of Dying

KIERKEGAARD’s concept of the necessity of dying away (to) as a way of detachment did not seem very convincing to several philosophers of the modern age. Let us mention just three who considered his concept of dying away (to) as dangerous for the notion of (Christian) love: Martin BUBER, Theodor W. ADORNO and Knud E. LØGSTRUP. There is not enough space within this study to picture deeper levels of the mentioned critiques, but it might be helpful to mention some of their main concerns.

It is mainly BUBER’s dialogical philosophy that sees the danger of an excessive individualisation in the concept of dying away. BUBER warns the reader that KIERKEGAARD’s ideal of an individual (den Enkelte) is in fact not too far from Max STIRNER’s ideal of a radical individualist (der Einzige)49. BUBER also seems to be afraid of the potentiality that one’s “dying” brings oneself away from one’s neighbour and makes one a half-autistic individuality, talking just to God and oneself. For this BUBER quotes the statement of KIERKEGAARD 47

Ibid. XI, 1 A. 166.

Ibid. X, 3 A. 194.

49 Cf. BUBER Martin, Die Frage an den Einzelnen (Das dialogische Prinzip). Heidelberg, 1984.

213; See also STIRNER Max, Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum. Stuttgart, 1972.

50 BUBER. 215.

48

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P. ¥AJDA Life-View in a Novel where he says that “everybody should chary about having to do with ‘the others’, and should essentially speak only with God and with oneself.”50 As a detailed contextual explanation is to be found in the quoted article of Robert L. PERKINS, I will not go deeper into the sketched polemics51.

Theodor W. ADORNO presents an even sharper criticism of KIERKEGAARD’s individualised and mortified individual. ADORNO’s critique against KIERKEGAARD is no less sharp than KIERKEGAARD’s critique of H. C. ANDERSEN. ADORNO proceeds from criticising KIERKEGAARD’s style of writing, which he pegs as an “endless monologue” and “purposeful boredom,”52 to the critique of KIERKEGAARD’s interpretation of the Christian doctrine of the love for the neighbour. ADORNO argues that KIERKEGAARD teaches just the love for the human in her/his abstractness but does not care about individual human beings. The neighbour becomes just an “incentive” to love, love is transformed into “pure inwardness” and the personal subjective qualities of the neighbour are disregarded. Love becomes objectless (objektlos)53.

“There is no more neighbour” (es gibt den Nächsten nicht mehr)54, the motto of love is amo quia absurdum and love is transformed into qualityless lovelessness (qualitätslose Lieblosigkeit)55.

ADORNO also touches upon a very sensitive point for our discourse when he asserts that “this dialectics of love leads to lovelessness. It requires from love that it should relate to all humans as if they were dead.”56 In fact, ADORNO goes on with an analysis of KIERKEGAARD’s treatise “How we Remember the Dead” from his book Works of Love (Kjerlighedens Gjerninger, 1847). He calls the love for the helpless dead sorrowful and even adds to it the attribute baroque 57.

PERKINS R. L., A Philosophic Encounter with Buber. In Bibliotheca Kierkegaardiana 8.

KØbenhavn, 1971. 255.

52 ADORNO Theodor W., Kierkegaards Lehre von der Liebe. In Konstruktion des Ästhetischen.

Frankfurt am Main, 1966. 269.

53 Cf. ibid. 270–272. / 54 Ibid. 277.

55 Cf. ibid. 270–274.

56 Ibid. 272. / 57 Ibid. 290.

58 LØGSTRUP Knud E., OpgØr med Kierkegaard. KØbenhavn, 1967. 61–62.

59 GRØN Ame, Gegenseitigkeit in Der Liebe Tun? In Kierkegaard Studies. Berlin – New York, 1998.; GRØN Ame, The Dialectic of Recognition in Works of Love. In Kierkegaard Studies. Berlin 51

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Ethical Stances in Art Knud E. LØGSTRUP follows the main lines of BUBER’s and ADORNO’s critique. He elaborates mainly on the social aspect of KIERKEGAARD’s mortified individual, whose love he pegs as acosmic (not world-oriented) and whose ethics he calls worldless (verdenslØs)58. LØGSTRUP is afraid that excessive mortification and individualisation would lead to the loss of interest in social and political aspects of human life and would transform the individual into a pseudo-mystical unit that ceases to be a zoon politikon.

It is not the task of this study to confirm or refute the mentioned critical arguments, as there are other studies which deal with such important aspects of KIERKEGAARD’s mortified love as dialectic of recognition or reciprocity (A. GRØN59), moral blindness and moral vision (M. J. FERREIRA60) or the phenomenon of repetition (L. REIMER61).

Let us just close this chapter with a comment by Gregor MALANTSCHUK, concerning LØGSTRUP’s socio-political concerns about the involvement of KIERKEGAARD’s mortified individual, in which he touches upon KIERKEGAARD’s doctrine of the movement of the infinite resignation which is fundamental for the understanding of detachment: “The movement towards the infinite means for KIERKEGAARD a movement towards the transcendent as a reality human is supposed to relate to. This movement means first of all a requirement to the human to renounce, ie. a certain kind of negation. This negation is necessary in order to facilitate a differentiation between the transcendence and the immanence that the human hangs on with all of her/his soul. LØGSTRUP remarks about this movement that “for KIERKEGAARD there is no access to transcendence as a positive but through annihilation.”62 But the way in which KIERKEGAARD uses the word ‘annihilation’ cannot be matched with ‘nothingness’, as LØGSTRUP uses it in this connection.”63

FERREIRA M. Jamie, Moral Blindness and Moral Vision in Kierkegaard‘s Works of Love. In Kierkegaard Studies. Berlin – New York, 1998.

61 REIMER Louis, Die Wiederholung als Problem der Erlösung bei Kierkegaard. In Kierkegaardiana 7. KØbenhavn, 1968.

62 LØGSTRUP, OpgØr med Kierkegaard. KØbenhavn, 1968. 166.

63 MALANTSCHUK Gregor, LØgstrups OpgØr med Kierkegaard. KØbenhavn, 1971. 176.

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P. ¥AJDA Life-View in a Novel

Death c Life-View c Novel-Writing c Symparanekromenoi It may seem to the reader that we have gone too far without highlighting the links between the topics we have opened. Let us go into that now.

What is the connection between the conflict KIERKEGAARD–ANDERSEN, the concept of detachment, the dying SOCRATES and the death of KIERKEGAARD’s father?

SOCRATES answers this question in an implicit way in his dialogue Phaedo: turning the seemingly sad necessity of dying into a positive depth-fed life-view. In fact, KIERKEGAARD does the same – in the shadowy atmosphere of a family stricken by death he writes a treatise asking for a life-view in novel-writing. In fact, LUCIAN of Samosata does the same in his ironic dialogue between Charon and Hermes where he suggests ways how life-lovers can learn from death64.

It seems that death can be viewed as a reminder. A reminder of the necessity of detachment. Detachment in turn can function as an incentive for depth-quest, which in KIERKEGAARD’s opinion creates a solid basis for serious novel-writing. And serious novel-writing produces timeless novels that survive the author’s temporality. Such novels are, according to KIERKEGAARD, the precious legacy of humankind and will always find readers that are scattered throughout the different ages of human history. Their name is Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι and their most fundamental requirement for a novel is its de-profundis-character.

64 65

90

Cf. LÚKIÁNOS, ≥lehy a úsmêvy. Praha, 1969. 22ff.

Cf. PLATO, Phaedo. (118a.) 100.

Ethical Stances in Art

PART II A Vision of the Birth of Ecumenical Novel-Writing Starting the second part of this study, let me first of all congratulate the Slovak language on a new philosophical term that will enter into the world history of novel-writing: ekuromán (ecunovel). It is one of the few terms of the philosophy of arts that have been coined in Slovak.

It seems reasonable to suppose that our era is ripe for the birth of ecumenical novel-writing. It is the author’s belief that in the era of postmodern and post-denominational literature it could become the herald of depth-based literary reflection inspired by genuine detachment, long-term openness to dialogue and interest in grace and kenotic love. As the connection between death and resurrection would naturally be at its core, its incorporation of the notion of the dying novel-writer might be an ecumenical continuation of SOCRATES’ dream of the dying sage as a Phoenix that cannot be killed in an ultimate way.

Ecumenical novel-writing, based on the fruits of the personal contemplation of the author (ie. life-view), might follow the line of the medieval attitude of contemplata aliis tradere – ‘share the fruits of your contemplation with others’. The authors of this genre – due to their respect for spiritual depth – might turn out to be some of the finest connoisseurs of irony based on sophia, rather than sophistry.

Irony as a means of communicating depth might also be groundbreaking for the theological level of ecumenical dialogue. On the other hand, however, ecunovels would most probably only marginally deal with theological or ecclesiological issues of the ecumenical dialogue – they would rather cultivate those parts of the human soul that naturally converge towards depth-based unity, as well as they might try to elaborate new tools of ecumenical communication (eg. ironic dialectic, koan-like dialogue, etc.). These might further understanding on deeper and previously undiscovered levels of dialogue.

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P. ¥AJDA Life-View in a Novel The author believes that Symparanekromenoi (Συµπαρανεκρω− µενοι) would become curious about ecunovels. A closer elaboration of the reasons for this supposed curiosity transcends the scope of this article. But to finish this study with a hint for further consideration, let us surround the mentioned curiosity with the haze of a myth.

It might namely happen that if a reader of ecunovels decided to celebrate the birth anniversary of SOCRATES by bringing a cock to the temple of ASCLEPIUS65, her/his curiosity would increase as s/he would be approaching the temple. She or he might namely start to wonder whether the line of people with baskets in front of the temple does not by chance include some of her/his fellow-symparanekromenoi...

Suggested Reading ANDERSEN Hans Christian, Kun en Spillemand. KØbenhavn, 1988.

GARFF Joakim, SAK, SØren Aabye Kierkegaard, En biografi. KØbenhavn, 2002.

KIERKEGAARD SØren Aabye, Af en endnu Levendes Papirer / Om Begrebet Ironi. In Samlede Værker (Bind I). KØbenhavn, 1995.

MACLEOD M. D., Lucian – A Selection. Westminster, 1991.

PLATO, Phaedo. In Complete Works (ed. COOPER John M.). Indianapolis / Cambridge, 1997.

THULSTRUP MIKULOVÁ Marie, Kierkegaard i kristenlivets historie. KØbenhavn, 1991.

Peter ¥AJDA was born in 1977 in Bratislava. He completed his studies in Modern Philology in 2001 at the Philosophical Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava. He is Roman Catholic, and a member of the Order of Preachers. He has been involved in a comparative research of medieval philosophy and the thinking of the Danish philosopher SØren Kierkegaard for a number of years. He has participated in research programmes in Denmark and has published studies in various philosophical and literary journals in Slovakia and abroad.

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Zuzana ¥ ICKOVÁ M ESÿ KOVÁ

Text and Picture in Different Situations

If according to the medievalists Jacques LE GOFF and JeanClaude SCHMITT image was the most expressive word that characterized the Middle Ages, the present Western culture can be described with the word ‘text’. Text as a medium in books, magazines, articles, as a message in newspapers as well as an advertising medium. We live in a culture of texts. What do text and picture mean? How great is the significance of the Bible?

What was the culture in the medieval period like? How does the transmission of meaning from the text world to the pictorial representation work? Why is symbol so important in this transmission? What are the present relations between text and image?

It is almost impossible, or at least maybe too bold, to write about text and image in general. Both are important parts of culture and are deeply rooted in our consciousness. They are not only mutually connected but are also inevitable parts of societies subject to the process of civilisation. As such they can be neither ignored nor can they be fully defined or conceptualised. Therefore it is our aim not only to inspect their mode of influence but also to point out the various aspects of their mutual influence. Furthermore, we would like to show how they are related, and how they benefit from each other in the sphere of art and societal system.

Defining Text and Picture An artistic picture is a created imitation of reality. It always has a form, context and function. From the aesthetic point of view it is what a person is presented with in a moment, especially in a moment of relative immobility. Picture has two meanings according to the lexis of aesthetics. We will not focus on picture as an item of imagination and mental image, but will rather examine picture as a presentation of a person or a thing in art.

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Z. ≥ICKOVÁ-ME¥KOVÁ Text and Picture We usually look at a picture to challenge our dreaming through colours and shapes. A picture feeds our attention, supplies new stimuli and evokes feelings. We could say that the creation of a picture belongs to the natural expressions of humanity. Text is appropriated with picture with regard to noetic, epistemological, social, class, ethical, sensual and other aspects of existence and practice. A picture can have very different functions – it can be anything from a subject of veneration to a purely documentary material.

We understand text as a sequence of expressions with a marked beginning and end that creates an autonomous unit with internal cohesiveness. The identities of many cultures are linked to text. Jurij M. LOTMAN in his book Text and Culture states that thanks to the concept and the used view of European culture, the term of culture is viewed as a term that is related to the writing that is a base of the culture. Everyone understands that the text expressed in writing, on which we are focusing in our study, is a complex composition of a number of words and letters or even textual sub-units.

The word, as a unit, records ideas. Text is a sign of civilisation within the framework of such a culture which is focused on expanding the number of texts and it does not rely on building up a collective memory. Thus the text has its own value and necessity. The spirituality of word and its meaning for the existence of humanity is underlined also by the Bible. Before the world was created, the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1,1).

What is valid for textual expressions is valid in a special way for visual representations. Picture and text have a number of common features. The basic feature of most texts and pictures is polysemy.

That means that both of these elements of culture can have a different interpretation at the same time with regard to the fact that every “reading” of any text or picture becomes a structure that takes into account the principles that are typical of it and at the same time includes the elements of individual creativity (the term “to read a picture” is linked with icons and we will use it in a different sense too).

94

Bible as the Great Text In general, text as a window offers a variety of interpretation possibilities to various levels of thinking, with regard to its polysemantic character. It is very different, however, in case of the Bible. None of the literary works of art has influenced the cultural history of humanity to such a great extent as the Bible. Christian culture is based on the biblical text and its images. It presents itself with their help, it draws inspiration from them when developing, and a productive and continuously changing process originates, as both of the elements are creative. The meaning of the Bible, as a sacred and true text, is tremendous for all the aspects of human society. It pervades our existence more than we can imagine.

We agree with Umberto ECO who with regard to the above mentioned states about the Bible: “The Bible must have a sole meaning, i.e. the 1

ECO Umberto, Arte e belleza nell´estetica medievale. Bompiani, 1997. 182.

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Z. ≥ICKOVÁ-ME¥KOVÁ Text and Picture one intended by the Lord, its author, and it must signify only one thing.” 1 The image that originates as an impetus from the Bible can be read as a text. The image, the bearer of faith as an evidence, the image as an impetus for a growth of spiritual values, as a message of the text by which the image was inspired. The greater and the richer the textual message, the greater and the stronger is the image message.

The current culture has relegated the Bible to the religious sphere of life; it is linked with denominations or text interpretations or with the notions regarding the mission of image. The picture as a decoration of modern churches has been lost in comparison to Baroque or Classicism. In the past, the presence of image was manifested as one of the possibilities to express our faith, but now a “net, simple or even strict” church architecture has the leading place.

Relation of Text and Picture in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts The close relation between text and image can be documented by many cultural treasures. The illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period belong to the most intriguing and plentiful examples. They point out a very sensitive relation between text and picture. These manuscripts include paintings that supplement the Biblical text. As a matter of fact it was the picture that dominated the medieval period, and its importance for the text was underlined by the Bible as an inspiration source of messages and the bearer of education as well as the source of God’s Word. Image and text were the basis of the medieval culture, and in their combination the words of the Bible were transmitted into an artistic image.

The relation between picture (illumination) and the Biblical text is not as simple as it may look at the first sight. There is a silent struggle between the text and its illuminated counterpart. It is quite frequent that one of them is clearly emphasized in the book. Though the meaning and contents of a picture correspond to the message of the illustrated text and there is a close relation to the text, the illumination, as a pictorial reflection of the text, exists autonomously, as the contents of the picture has it own functional structure. Thus the illumination has its own notional value, quite often without any relation to the text of the Bible.

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Ethical Stances in Art

Transferring Text into Pictorial Form When transferring text into a pictorial form or reflecting a Biblical text in images, the artist first of all makes her-/himself familiar with the text and analyses it. The transfer of a Biblical text into an artistic picture form is done through a process during which the transmission of a mental image or idea that originated after reading a Biblical text into a visually perceivable picture happens. Prayer; the determination of key items in the text, the attributes that characterise a relevant topic; the reduction of textual items into a simpler expression through a picture; the choice of artistic figurative and abstract expressions; the creation of symbols for the display of action.

Expressing the sacred text in a pictorial form is of course complex.

Medieval culture considered the intricacy of this book just a primary and shallow impression. When creating the picture where the basis is the Bible, the problem lies in the discovery of rules. Umberto ECO maintains that correct rules are those that are situated under the surface, whereby it is also necessary to remove all the false procedures.

If the Bible was written digito Dei (by God’s finger), then the Lord represents the principle of its identity and the text of the Bible cannot evoke contradictory meanings. How is it with the picture then?

Can the picture created on the basis of a Biblical text evoke contradictory notions? If yes, how to avoid this?

On the one side there is the viewer and on the other side the author of the picture. The artists interpolate qualities of their creative activity into the picture so that the picture might be the bearer of a valuable message, as the topic and its contents create a valuable text. As pictures are created for various objectives their perception has various purposes. The viewer, as Erich MISTRĂ?K states, with regard to her or his full aesthetic perception, needs to achieve a certain psychical distance from what is going on in the work of art to differentiate his/her present feelings, evoked by the work of art -the picture- from herself or himself as an undivided personality.

There are two processes present: perception and experience. The values and experiences can only be brought about by such an art that wants to show and evoke feelings. It is such a picture that offers the viewer a creative dialogue. And it may happen only through symbols

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Z. ≥ICKOVÁ-ME¥KOVÁ Text and Picture and signs, because the transformation of ideas and spiritual notions, without further specifications of interpretation, can be best transferred through symbols and signs.

Symbols of Image and Text Symbols animate and remind of what is not present at the moment.

They not only record ideas, they also start chains of associations that help to decode the meanings of symbols. A picture full of symbolic imagery represents a truth that could be difficult to understand otherwise. Thus it is one of the tasks of the symbol to create a relation between the visible and the invisible world. It is possible to transfer interpretation from the textual world into the pictorial world by means of a symbol. And vice versa, the meaning of a symbolic interpretation of a topic can be at times better understood through words.

We agree with Carl Gustav JUNG who claims that symbols not only provide the historical interpretation of the world, but also the theological one. Thus thanks to symbols it is possible to represent the text of the Bible.

When artists express a subject based on a text from the Bible, the presented topic assumes the function of a symbol. The subject becomes the bearer of a much wider meaning than it originally was.

Symbols are linked with chains of associations. Associations are necessary in order to understand the links and relations at the level of both text and picture. The word symballein was used in expressions meaning “to hide, to cover, to collect”. Thus the word from the Bible is rather uncovered than covered. The visible image uncovers its meaning in its substance. We can decode the pictured text in the picture through the symbols.

The variability of image represents a fertile soil for an artist as it provides her or him with a wide scale of picturing. Diarmuid MCGANN 2 describes this meeting with the text that contains a symbol as follows: First, the reader perceives the text with a barrier or a distance.

When we enter the text, we move from the position of a viewer to the position of one who analyses and who has a scientific attitude at the same time. We analyse and decode the text based on its internal structure and we ourselves explain it.

2

98

MOORE Robert L., Carl Jung and Christian Spirituality. New York, 1988.

Ethical Stances in Art

Image and Text under the Doctrine of Dictatorship The contemporary art of Central Europe still ‘feels the touch’ with image and text that were connected with an ideology (Nazism or Communism) and with its doctrine during and after the Second World War. Fear, deception and lie were widely symbolised in art of that period.

Dictated by an ideology and in an oppressive political system, the liberty of text and image is often connected only to the individual concept of the artist. She or he transformed art by symbols if she or he wanted to escape ideology. These symbols have been identified as the basis of neomodernism, as Mária ORI¥KOVÁ describes this period.

Symbols were transformed into innovations of meanings which wanted to find their originality. On the other hand, the image of the “real culture” was linked to the dominant categories, such as cleanness as aim, decorum as effect, historicism as operation, museum as context, artist as original, work of art as a unique object.

The name of the culture that wanted to be free and independent during the era of the Eastern Block could be the code culture, as there were only two ways of dealing with text and image for those who did not want to give up the connection with liberty in art (e.g. dissidents or emigrants). The first one was the way of escape and isolation with searching for new transcendence. The second one was the way of opposition against society and its authority.

Text and picture were divided into official and unofficial. The vicious circle of the totalitarian regime went from lies to hide-outs and back.

ORI¥KOVA quotes Roland BARTHES, who maintains: “Every text as image has another foregoing image or text, and there is no original and definitive meaning called »textuality«.” 3 A truthful meaning of text and image has now started to appear. Universality and true value is in the present time more and more important, maybe even more in the realm of text which seems to have a larger influence today than the realm of image.

3

ORI£KOVA M, Double Voice. Bratislava, 2002. 166.

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Z. ≥ICKOVÁ-ME¥KOVÁ Text and Picture

Image and Text in Today’s Art A new point of view concerning the terms picture and text is visible in contemporary art. Independent and individual existence is emphasized. Text and picture transform again their context in the name of pluralism. Artists have started to produce a different deformation as a new reality through the unity of form, context and function of text and picture. It is visible in their symbiosis. The traditional point of view has lost its importance. Tradition is overshadowed by new styles, which are based on a different notion of text and image. Let us just mention lettrism, based on the notion of script, experimental poetry or interpreted book.4 In all contexts of societal and political systems, we should remember that in general, picture and text help human beings to expand their consciousness about themselves, about the world and God. Text as well as picture is the bearer of both spheres of knowledge – sensual and intelligible.

Bibliography MISTRÍK Erich, Introduction to Art. Nitra, 1994.

ECO Umberto, Arte e belleza nell´estetica medievale. Bompiani, 1997.

SCHMITT Jean-Claude, La raison des gestes dans l´occident médiéval. Paris, 1990.

LOTMAN Jurij M., Text and Culture. Philosophy to the Pocket. 1994.

ORI¥KOVÁ Mária, Double Voice Art History. Bratislava, 2002.

MOORE Robert L., Carl Jung and Christian Spirituality. New York, 1988.

Zuzana ¥ICKOVÁ–ME¥KOVÁ was born in 1977 in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. She is Roman Catholic, an assistant of French language in the Comenius University, Bratislava. She studied art education and French in Bratislava, and art history in the University Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Her individual expositions include CROUS in Clermont-Ferrand (June 2002) and Con-Tiki in Bratislava (December 2002). She participated in the following collective exhibitions: BB-art, Banská Bystrica (June 2003), Maison de Mandrin, Brioude (France, April 2003), Omine High School, Mine City (Japan, September 2002) and University in Hradec Králové, (Czech Republic, April 2001). She made the cover illustration of the book Price of Life (Banská Bystrica, 1998).

Dictionary of International and Slovak Art in the Second Half of 20th Century. Bratislava, 1999.

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Diana R AUCHOVÁ

Musical Tendencies in the 1980s and 1990s in Slovakia and their Developmental Determinants

„In all its infinite colourfulness the world did not manage to offer anything more than superfluously coloured alternatives of notoriously familiar themes.

Why again, the x th time, describe this or that strange mechanism that was born from the imagination of Nature in its effort to fulfil all its commitments?

One of such “invariants” is – if we speak generally enough – undoubtedly music.“ 1 Pierre SCHAEFFER

The Death and Evaporation of the Author Philosophy and culturology, as well as the discourse in the field of literary science have been emphasising for several decades the themes of the elimination of reality, the death of metaphysics, the end of history or the death of the author. A gradual sublimation of the author from several types of discourse provoked Michel FOUCAULT to pose the BECKETT-like question, whether it is important at all who is talking. In his effort to find a satisfying answer FOUCAULT came across the relatedness of writing (écriture) and death. He maintains that contemporary culture turned the Oriental and Antiquity convention of recounting – as a prolongation of the hero’s life or even her/his eternalisation – upside down and sacrificed the author, often at the expense of the work of arts.

“The work, whose task was to bring immortality, got now the right to kill its author, become her/his murderer.” 2 And even though this unfavourable state of affairs is according to FOUCAULT caused by the authors themselves, since they mask and blur their individual identity, it is our duty to try to lay down the axes of the space that the SCHAEFFER Pierre, Trychtofané (O hudbê). In SCHAEFFER Pierre, Prominÿ te, umírám. Praha, 1990. 128–144.

2 FOUCAULT Michel, Co je to autor? In FOUCAULT Michel, Diskurs, Autor, Genealogie. Praha, 1

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D. RAUCHOVÁ Musical Tendencies author has left behind, or diagnose the functions freed through her/his vanishing. FOUCAULT does not claim that the author does not exist (s/he just eludes or is overshadowed by forms), he just admits the existence of a culture (even if just fictive) that does not know the institution of authorship – some sort of a “copyrightless” culture functioning as a circulation of discourses.

The name of the author is according to him not just a passive component of a given discourse. On the contrary, through the fact that s/he co-operates actively in re-grouping, mutual interlinking and juxtapositioning of texts, or even in their elimination, s/he serves as an instrument of manifesting the “way of being” or character features of individual texts. In this understanding culture appears as a sum of expressions, in the framework of which the function of the author might or might not come into effect. Or as the most renowned investigator of the death of the author Roland BARTHES puts it – the author had to be sacrificed so that the reader, spectator or listener might be born.

Sacrificed Author – Newborn Audience New language – new listening, we could paraphrase John CAGE, risking, however, the babylonisation of the musical universe. The code which suppressed the author weaves texts according to a new note scale and no language causes it trouble. Texts get more dynamic, they open up and become crossroads of new types of writing, semiotic monads, generators of meaning. They are not subject to the laws of evolution anymore, because in the semiosphere in which they constantly circulate, create layers, swallow each other, get recycled or merge, they do not die but only suppress and deactualize each other.

And they devour their authors – the spiders that wove them.

In connection with the sublimation of the author, the interconnection of the communication model author–artefact–addressee I am attracted to the fantasies elaborating on the non-traditional relationship between the addressee and the work of art. The idea that creative criteria and parameters of works of art would not be determined by their creators but by addressees (customers, clients and consumers) is terrifying, evoking the image of prostitution. The hypothetical consequences of such a scenario would degrade all theory, philosophy or aesthetics of arts to ephemeral physiological hobby.

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This could potentially lead to a communication chain brought to absurdity, having its origin in fashionable technocratic reduction of artistic production to a sign-construction of a multi-interpretation character (easily decipherable). But communication has been profanized in the last decades above all by the artists and curators themselves, when they expanded (hypertrophied) it at the expense of expressional and meaning-related qualities of works of art. Also in music the process of preparation and realisation of the musical intention is often more attractive than the final artefact itself and as a consequence the communicational aspects of creation have been pushed into the foreground. In short, we are living in an age in which media are artificially aesthetised and at the expense of the contents of transmitted information their formal characteristics and technological parameters are fetishised.

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D. RAUCHOVĂ Musical Tendencies

Active and Passive Reflection in Art One of the basic characteristics of art is the reflection of the actual state of the world in which the artist lives. If the state of the world is rich in difficult and controversial events, they simply have to be reflected in the art, as it is a highly sensitive sensor. Reflection in art can be basically of two kinds: a direct reaction to the events of the age, or an indirect reflection, be it in the form of resignation, counter-reaction or seeming disinterest in the events of the age. In both cases there is an expression of the life-feeling of the artist in relation to her/his surroundings, but contrary to the first case, in which s/he uses her/his art to affect actively the course of events and change them for the better, in the second case s/he approaches them rather passively and creates art which is seemingly detached from the world in which s/he is living.

Reflections in Contemporary Slovak Music So how does contemporary Slovak music reflect the problems of our age? What determined the origin and development of its characteristic orientations? Before we focus on these questions, let us specify the term contemporary music. Everything what is being performed or produced in the present moment can be considered contemporary music. Even if it sounds paradoxical, this term includes the performance of music of older style periods of the European music, as well as music imported from different corners of the world.

We include simply all that can be heard, known and absorbed now, ie. as present art. Similarly the newborn music could not remain untouched by the advanced interpretational practice of old music in the framework of historical imitation which developed in the last fifteen to twenty years. It is our ambition to evaluate briefly the production of Slovak composers of the present age, with an emphasis on those who in the last twenty years came up with new concepts.

This will be accompanied by a characterisation of fundamental developmental determinants that contributed to the rise of these tendencies. I pay more attention to professional authors with academic or non-traditional autodidactic (or non-academic private) education,

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Ethical Stances in Art whose art does not have commercial entertainment character. From this point of view a large jazz, folk and rock scene would be of interest but is not treated in this article.

Developmental Determinants The following trends and developments, essential to the shaping of tendencies in Slovak music, can be distinguished: Social and cultural isolation during the Communist regime after August 1968, which produced a wave of counter-reactions in art.

Democratisation processes and the desire for self-realisation after the revolution of 1989, which led to the rise of festivals and groups of new and non-traditional music, projects and compositions of broad scope of orientation.

New possibilities of exchange in the form of scholarships abroad, active and passive participation in festivals, concerts and other artistic events, import and export of art.

Presently performed music and arts of different historical periods and of different nations naturally influences newly formed musical production.

Information explosion, email and internet are incentives for a rise of new kinds of art, as well as new tendencies.

The rising interest in the problems of the age, eg. the threat of an ecological or military catastrophe, to which artists respond with a critical stance.

Inclination towards spiritual values is linked with the increasing familiarity of Eastern philosophies and life-styles, as well as with the feeling of excessive desire and desperate quest for property and material goods, which are necessarily reflected in artistic production.

Co-existence of generations and a number of diverse groups and personalities, whose background was formed in different cultural and political conditions.

The speeding up of development at the end of the millennium.

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D. RAUCHOVÁ Musical Tendencies

Styles and Genres Due to the platform of the mentioned developmental determinants, the following tendencies are partly similar to broader style-trends in Europe and the USA, but nevertheless they are characterised by specific features conditioned by the different socio-political development in Slovakia, as well as by the individual contribution of authors. Their enumeration manifests a plurality of expressions, styles, sub-styles, types and genres, as well as fusions of different kinds and genres, or even art-styles themselves. These are characteristic for the Slovak music of the 1980s and 1990s.

Public expressions aimed against official music, produced by young composers, graduates of the University of Fine Arts in late seventies and early eighties include the work of: Vladimír GODÁR, Martin BURLAS and Peter BREINER. Non-public (underground), unofficial alternative music of young professional and non-professional musicians and artists in the eighties before the Velvet Revolution include: Martin BURLAS, Peter MACHAJDÍK; the groups Ma∫kovia, Ospalÿ pohyb – Zabudnutÿ ohyb (Sleepy Move – Forgotten Bend).

New public, unofficial, West-oriented performances of young professional composers, which appear in the second half of the eighties include: Peter ZAGAR, Peter MARTIN£EK, Alexander MIHALI£, Róbert RUDOLF, Daniel MATEJ, Ivan BURLAS, Pavol MALOVEC, Juraj D ÿ URI¥; group VENI ensemble, event Obraz a hudba (Image and Music). Non-conformist production of young professional and non-professional composers and musicians after the revolution of 1989 includes: Milan ADAM£IAK, Peter MACHAJDÍK, Michal MURIN, Martin BURLAS, Daniel MATEJ, Marek PIA£EK, Peter ZAGAR; Transmusic comp., Sneh, Poøonÿ sentimentál, Vapori del Cuore.

Postmodernist orientations in the nineties arising simultaneously with broader progressive tendencies in the world include: Vladimír GODÁR, Martin BURLAS, Iris SZEGHY, Alexander MIHALI£, Róbert RUDOLF, Daniel MATEJ, Peter MACHAJDÍK, Peter MARTIN£EK, Peter ZAGAR, Egon KRÁK, Kristián SEIDMANN, Milo¥ BETKO, Róbert GA¥PARÍK, Milo¥ KROUPA, Mirko KRAJ£Í, Jevgenij IR¥AI, Juraj Dÿ URI¥, Marek PIA£EK, Igor JAN£ÁR: group VENI ensemble, Societa rigata, Opera aperta. These represent new “neo-retro-style” orientations in the latest production of the 106

Ethical Stances in Art youngest composers who turn more towards the European moderna and older traditions of European music, emphasizing structural sophistication and compositional virtuosity.3

Newly Lived Ancient Elements Postmodernity is understood in this article as a collection of style orientations connected by a common paradigm. This paradigm originated through a change of the old paradigm, which was represented in music and art by the desire for originality, experimenting, efforts to deviate from the tradition and from the known, as well as by the rise of new norms that would determine the further course of art (parallelisms with Atticism). Contrary to these, postmodernity represents a return to the tradition of European as well as nonEuropean music, to the art and thinking of the present and the near and far past.

In this sense we can speak of a certain “recycling” of known material (in the form of quotes, allusions, affinities, analogies, transformations, insertion of myths, symbols or signs) in order to produce new ideological substance. It is a new wave of Asianism (contrary to Atticism as a pure expression created according to norms). It represents a living (passionate and pathetic) expression in a heterogeneous, in terms of norms “unclean” form, not respecting any limits of genre or style. In music, postmodernity is characterised by fusions of diverse styles and genres, which can reach deep into the past; the recycling of already produced and known material; a simplification of means and the return to the primary magic role of music affecting the addressee.

Future without Live Art? Which of the mentioned newborn tendencies has the highest chance to influence the course of musical development? The prophetic text The Future of Music from the pen of John CAGE, his creed from 1937, begins with the following words: “I believe that the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments which will 3 MARTINÁKOVÁ Zuzana, Sú£asná slovenská hudba z konca tisícro£ia. In Slovenská hudba.

1997/3–4. 235.

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D. RAUCHOVÁ Musical Tendencies make available for musical purposes any and all sounds that can be heard.” 4 Today we can claim that his prophecy has been fulfilled.

The linear speeding up of technological and informative progress, the aggressivity of media and efficiency of distribution might have trivialised CAGE’s words a bit, but still they undeniably had a largescale effect on the current structuring of music. CAGE could not have presumed the destructive potential of the virtual space, neither could he have guessed all its negative consequences for human creativity.

His philosophical optimism, however, dispersed the worries about the future of live and meaningful music “in the era of its digital reproductivity” and he possibly prevented even higher losses caused by its technocratic prism.

There is, however, an increasing number of voices prognosing the elimination of art as such. I am not pointing to a loss of faith into its power of representation, neither to nihilist scepsis, but to natural integration, which was some time ago formed into an optimistic conviction by Marvin MINSKY (research pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence), claiming that we are facing an era of symbiosis of science, art and psychology. In fact, something similar has been for long in the day-dreams of many inter-media and action artists.

Marina ABRAMOVI£OVÁ formulated her creed ten years ago in the following words: “I believe that the XXIst century will be a world without art as we know it today. It will be a world without objects, in which the human will reach such a high degree of consciousness and such a powerful state of mind that a transmission of thoughts and energy will be possible without intermediary objects. There will be sculptures, paintings or installations. Just the artist will face an audience with highly developed capacity of reception of message or energy.

They will be seated as samurais in ancient Japan, watch each other and transmit energy.” 5 Jozef CSERES maintains in his book Musical Simulacra that “art gave up a long time ago mimetic conventions, broke the bonds with objective reality and resigned to its former Messianic ambitions. Already CAGE John, Budúcnost´ hudby: credo. In Slovenská hudba. 1996/1–2. 294.

ABRAMOVI£OVÁ Marina, Interview. In TISDALL C. – WIJERS L. – KAMPHOF I. (eds.), Art Meets Science and Spirituality in a Changing Economy. ´s Gravenhage – Amsterdam, 1990. 298.

4 5

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Ethical Stances in Art in the era of early Modernism it focused its attention on its own language, accentuating its non-discourse specificities and in the postmodern stage this orientation was further enriched by the knowledge of the non-existence of a universal language, perspective or criterion. This thorough Babylonisation was injected even into the discourse of humanistic sciences. Art reminds us today of WITTGENSTEIN’s language games and returns elegantly to the Dadaist concepts of the beginning of the century, stripping them off political overtones and innovating them through technological and mediarelated novelties. These games, however, by no means lack an intellectual spark, it is only masked in a sophisticated way by the “innocent” nature of homo ludens. The playful character of contemporary art, with fiction, nostalgia, banality, irony, camouflage and humour is at times bound to reflect the metaphysical, as well as academic dimension of art. Serious things cannot be presented in a serious way today, since it often leads to a false pathos, which consequently trivializes the original intention. Even cultural institutions, theory and criticism have to adapt their presentational and explanatory strategies to the altered situation.”6

Contrast and Complementarity Slovak music of the end of the millennium (especially its last twenty years) shows certain common features with the art nouveau of the late XIXth and early XXth century. New elements can be seen in mixing and fusing different styles of the European music of the past and the present, European and non-European music, folk, jazz, rock, pop and other genres with so-called classical music.

It is probable that this phenomenon is a consequence of the elimination of the antagonistic systems of socialism and capitalism, of the fast information exchange, development of computer science, electronics, mass media, fast transmission of data, easy import and export of cultures and migration. As a consequence of this development, when through internet and software one can receive and generate an arbitrary number of compositions without any deeper

6

CSERES Jozef, Hudobné simulakrá. Bratislava, 2001. 176.

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D. RAUCHOVÁ Musical Tendencies knowledge of compositional processes and principles the authorship of a work of art loses its importance.

Authorship is dubious in works of art which are a collective project (Transmusic comp. or Poøo~ sentimentál) or are a product of a computer program, which was produced by a different author than the one who generated a composition through it (PIA£EK). It may be worthwhile to mention also works of art that are compositions of quotes or allusions (GODÁR, MACHAJDÍK, MATEJ or PIA£EK). Insertion of an already existing musical material of the past into a new context is by these authors referred to as the process of recycling. This process is analogical to the increasingly promoted recycling of used paper or other garbage.

Another characteristic feature is the mixing of different artistic disciplines, which led to the rise of multimedia music and art (MACHAJDÍK, Transmusic comp. or D ÿ URI¥). In connection with this multi-layered process there have appeared counter-reactions in the approach of younger composers who point out the seriousness of the artistic mastership of a musical work and thus of the authorship itself.

This development is subject to the expected inner metabolism, to certain rules and principles. One of the main ones is the principle of complementarity. This means in practice that everybody tries to produce something different, which, however, creates a complementary whole with the production of her/his colleagues (BURLAS, GODÁR, BREINER, groups Poøo~ sentimentál, Vapori del Cuore or Opera Aperta).

The principle of contrast is to be seen in reactions to preceding philosophico-aesthetic conceptions (the generation of BURLAS, GODÁR and BREINER versus the generation of the sixties; or the generation of MATEJ and PIA£EK versus both of the generations). Many of these tendencies do not originate as a reflection of the desire for originality or uniqueness, but rather as a consequence of the need to fill blank spaces caused by the uneven development in a formerly Communist country. They are also expressions of the moment of joy linked with collective musical production, the participation of the listener in the “game”, the activisation of her/his emotional interestedness.

The art of the end of the millennium brought an extraordinary plu110

Ethical Stances in Art

rality of expressions: everything is allowed and everything is accepted. This is most probably linked also with the much emphasized democratisation activities in all spheres of life of the former Socialist Bloc. We can claim with silent humility and pride at the same time, that one of the most prestigious “trophies” of the last two decades of Slovak art is the fact that artists have not only been continuing the broader progressive trends of the music of the contemporary world, but have also been their co-creators.

Suggested Reading ABRAMOVI£OVÁ Marina, Interview. In TISDALL C. – WIJERS L. – KAMPHOF I. (eds.), Art Meets Science and Spirituality in a Changing Economy. ´s Gravenhage – Amsterdam, 1990.

CAGE John, Budúcnost´ hudby: credo. In Slovenská hudba. 1996/1–2.

CSERES Jozef, Hudobné simulakrá. Bratislava, 2001.

FOUCAULT Michel, Diskurs, Autor, Genealogie. Praha, 1994.

MARTINÁKOVÁ Zuzana, Sú£asná slovenská hudba z konca tisícro£ia. In Slovenská hudba.

1997/3–4.

SCHAEFFER Pierre, Prominÿ te, umírám. Praha, 1990.

SCHAEFFER Pierre, Trychtofané (O hudbê). In SCHAEFFER Pierre, Prominÿte, umírám. Praha, 1990.

128–144.

TISDALL C. – WIJERS L. – KAMPHOF I. (eds.), Art Meets Science and Spirituality in a Changing Economy. ´s Gravenhage – Amsterdam, 1990.

Diana RAUCHOVÁ (1974) is the graduate of the Conservatory in øilina where she studied oboe. She continued her studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University in Bratislava (department of musical science) where she participates in a PhD programme at the moment.

She is a lecturer of the Department of Aesthetics and Science of Art at the Philosophical faculty of the University of Pre¥ov. She is a producer of specialised musical programmes in the ecumenical Radio Lumen.

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Aljosÿ a G ADZÿ IJEV

Laibach: the Group of Power and Secrets (Scream of Totalitarianism from Central Europe)

The cultural identity of Central Europe carries a certain characteristic feature of the region, which is manifested – in the history of its countries – as some sort of “being-in-between” or “middle-ness” between the so-called Eastern and Western part of the European civilisation. Various Central European artists can serve as a good illustrative example of this feature.

One of them is surely Laibach, a world famous Slovenian musical-artistic group. Its phenomenon as well as its musical expression is very special. Both reflect post-modern artistic eclecticism of cultural influences from all sides and periods, as well as a very unique way of creative critique of political and organisational forms of social life, primarily on the local level, i.e. in Slovenia, on the regional level (mostly ex-Yugoslav), and later even the European and the globally-Europeanized level of the contemporary world.

Both formal and conceptual levels of the group’s activity are aimed at showing the totalitarian background of each governmental authority – Laibach acting as its “simulation” – and “its” power. The group was, however, never really transparent in its press releases (manifests and interviews) about the very essence of totalitarianism, which might have given the impression as if it in fact sympathised with it. Thus the group tries to trigger deeper reflection (or even polemic) which is aimed primarily at the recipient him/herself. In this way also the author of this article tries to follow the riddle presented by Laibach through its provocative creativity, and herewith intends to offer some hints for uncovering the mystery.

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The Birth of Laibach Laibach was established by a group of youngsters from Trbovlje, a small Slovenian town (with a long tradition of mining industry and ideology of socialism), on June 1st, 1980, less than a month after the death of the famous Yugoslav president Josip BROZ TITO. TITO was a charismatically honoured legend of the national liberation struggle during the Second World War, a Communist revolutionary and a post-war leader of the newborn Socialist country, which should in its development slowly move towards the more democratic West.

Laibach covered with its artistic critical “mantle” acted in a spirit that was apparently opposite to this general trend. It evolved into a cultural-artistic collective of mainly musical creators (Laibach Kunst), and in 1984 (and later) was joined by other artistic groups – Irwin, a group of painters; the theatre ensemble Theatre of Sisters Scipion Nasice (later The Red Pilot and later again Noordung), the architects Builders (Graditelji), the designers New Collectivism, the Department for Pure and Practical Philosophy of the thinker Peter MLAKAR, etc.; thus creating a collective named Neue sSlowenische Kunst (New Slovenian Art) that favoured the totalitarian structure of social organisation with its culture and art as its reflection.

The first concert and artistic exhibition of the group in the town of Trbovlje was banned, since the communal authority accused the group of “incorrect” and “irresponsible” use of symbols. The group’s name (which is the German name for the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, used in the time when Slovene countries were parts of AustroHungarian Empire, and during the Second World War in the time of German ucupation), uniforms, marches, their flirting with Nazi and other totalitarian (eg. Stalinist) symbols (eg. the group’s symbol – the MALEVI£’s cross in a cogwheel), their revolutionary-agitative mode of “singing”, all that was shocking in a society fed on socialist post-revolutionary culture. Even if punk was already “hanging” in the air, being very critical of the society (even revolting), the very phenomenon of Laibach was the one to shock the public in a very special way.

The members of the group published their official stand towards artistic activity in the so-called Ten Points of Convent 1 in the New 1

LAIBACH, in Neue slowenische Kunst (NSK). Zagreb, 1991. 18–19.

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Review (Nova revija), an intellectual magazine of critical culturalpolitical opponents of the Slovenian regime of that time. Their art and art in its essence wants to be politicised and ideological, and as such it does not want to exclude totalitarianism, but it abolishes the illusion of individual freedom.

Also music as power against the always threatening anarchy of liberals and as a sign of sedation of the antagonisms within the society, especially in times of crisis, disciplines individuals in the form of a systematic (psycho-physical) terror by means of provoking collective emotions and automatic associations (through the destruction of individual critical judgement), creating a mass acting as one humble collective, responsible for its own position in the system of production. Each subject becomes totally politicised (sub-object).

Political Artist – “Engineer of Human Soul” Thus politics – as the “highest art” – essentially joins with industrial production (here the idea of absolute authority can be recognised).

For this reason Laibach could consider themselves politicians, and could arrogate sentences of dictators (e.g. Hitler and Stalin): “Laibach [in place of art] is a superior mission, that binds up to fanaticism” and “we, Laibach [in place of artists] are engineers of human souls”. However, in the case of Laibach this fanatical mission of art and its engineering expresses also the unbridgeable split between the unity of politics,ideology and industrial production on the one, and spirit on the other hand. This is a crucial view which brings the turnabout in the understanding of Laibach’s “mission” and “engineering”.

Laibach puts it this way: “All art is subject to political manipulation, except that which speaks with the language of that same manipulation.” This language is composed of the so-called material of Laibach-manipulation: taylorism (rationally organised working process in capitalist factories), bruitism (display of the world in a non-embellished form), Nazi-kunst (the art of the Third Reich) and disco (as a psychological expression of our culture representing the other three “elements”). Thus Laibach speaks with a language of

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political manipulation. But why? Is it nothing but a means to wrench from disposability of the political manipulation (and through this of the absolute authority) as such?! 2 The saturation of art with the symbols and sentences of Nazism and Stalinism in a region, “where political bureaucracy was allergic in both forms of totalitarism”3, was naturally a serious provocation.

However “does not Laibach intensify the totalitarian motifs precisely to reveal them in their absurdity, disagreeableness, unacceptability, monstrosity, and – being essentially military, and military being the essence of society – in their unyielding authenticity, that sprouts only ‘from behind’, ‘from outside’?”4 asks (himself and us) the philosopher Taras KERMAUNER. Of course this doesn’t go only for the Slovenian society and authorities of that time. “Nowadays all regimes of the world are totalitarian (politically, economically or in both aspects),” 5 says KERMAUNER, “Laibach tends to reveal the fictitious115

A. GADøIJEV Laibach

ness of ideology within each system and to direct to the reality which makes decisions.”6 Last but not least also the texts of the songs prove this, being as likely as not an expressions of exorcist rebellion against the suppressive authorities – for the sake of defending freedom, moreover at the same time also addressing everybody to real social co-responsibility.

Banned Laibach and the Discussion on Modernity Slovene authorities of that time could not accept such a criticism, since it was too unmasking. In the television broadcast Tednik on June 26, 1983, it performed a presentation of danger to people and caused public indignation that led to the ban of the group (in Slovenia; the use of the name “Laibach” was prohibited).

Consequently Laibach could not publish its first album (Nebo zÿari / Red-hot Sky). Therefore the members decided for a breakthrough abroad, mostly in Germany and Britain. They made Tthe Occupied Europe Tour and in 1985 publish the double album Recapitulation 1980–84.

The Heidegger- and Christian-oriented Slovene philosopher Taras KERMAUNER, being one of the first critics of Laibach, realises that. In his essay X+(–)11=? (in Nova revija) he writes: “For Laibach challenges are the basic poetic (and existential) means. To name your own poetic (and broadly also artistic, esp. musical) group as Laibach Kunst – moreover when considering that the group comes from a nation, that was formed out of a precluding conflict (and finally war) with the German nation, Germans in general (not only Nazis), is an indecency in itself; dadaistically a more successful turn can not be thought of. The name of the group is their most successful poetic idea. The group provokes the established authority, which is the direct form of the winners over Germans, provokes guardians of tradition to declare it as treacherous, as the fifth column, as a military enemy. (Military enemy is graduated class and religious enemy; is a specimen of enemy as such. The essence of the state is political-military.) Laibach superbly suspects: only with as radical challenge as this it is possible to tear apart the nice and empty appearance: to induce state terrorists, that they imagine a scapegoat and force the truth: sacralising murder. Namely society can not be consecrated again without a scapegoat and collective lynching of the selected victim, unconsecrated society however is only a simulated and ludistic society. The paradoxical, witty touching intention of Laibach is to re-create the socius through personal martyrdom and with the help of tremendous insult of Slovene ideal and existential tradition. Meaning, that Laibach barbarously enter from outside (in the society this is possible only from the standpoints of “nomadism” – as “criminal, devil” – or of “divinity” – as “Jesus”; as foreigner into Slovene home (the same however can be said for the home of every nation), and discredit it with the intention of purifying it; meanwhile those who praise it, they in reality disgrace it?” KERMAUNER Taras, X+(–)11=?. Nova Revija 1983/13–14. 1474.

2

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Ethical Stances in Art At home they operated illegally (e.g. an anonymous concert in memory of Tomaø HOSTNIK, one of their members, who committed suicide in december 1982, anonymous album, etc.), while intellectuals quarrelled about the validity of the ban on their behalf. The philosopher Lev KREFT wrote: “The prohibited event is a double event: it forces one part of the society towards an ideologically repressive escalation of the right populist type, but others it excites to the utmost efforts to ensure freedom of activity to the retrograde. Both parts of society were provoked by retrograde and upon this provocation they show their cards.”7 Retrogradism is an expression of an artistic style within postmodernism that Laibach – as well as the total collective of NSK (Neue sSlowenische Kunst) started to apply in the mid-eighties of the XXth century. Within art, postmodernism itself is dedicated towards overcoming the modernistic experience, the typical feature of the latter being a radical cut with tradition. In his study “Shot during the concert” 8, the philosopher Mladen DOLAR characterises traditionalist art as a reminder of hope for a restitution of the former era of non-conflict organic community beyond ideological notches, where music should constitute harmonic community of consensual reconciliation and concordance beyond any antagonisms that might threaten social unity. In its illusiveness, however, this just hides basic contradictions and tensions of the real social structure, where its general dysfunctionality (social-ness beyond society) exquisitely “functions” as the manipulative mechanism of the governing ideology, and acting as the fetish substitute object meaning conformist withdrawal from the thing itself, from the emptiness within.

Precisely this fact uncovers modernism, that in this manner wants to take apart this ideological mechanism and its art becomes a symptom, which brings – contrary to the comfort of a phantasm – essential dis3

BARBER-KER¥OVAN Alenka, Laibach – Ten Years of Provocation. Delo, 15th May 1993. 26.

4

KERMAUNER Taras, op. cit. 1475.

Ibidem, 1477.

6 Ibid. 1485.

7 KREFT Lev, Aesthetics and Mission. Ljubljana, 1994., 172.

8 DOLAR Mladen, Shot during the Concert. In ADORNO Theodor W., Introduction to the Sociology of Music. Ljubljana, 1986. 300–357.

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A. GADøIJEV Laibach comfort, pain, incomprehensibility, and senselessness. In the sphere of language and poetry the game between the metaphor and metonymy, overcoming and condensing, as a continuous slithering of marking process (transforming the marker into the marked) goes on.

However music now reflects – with its immanent structure – that very essential inner social splitting, uncovers the usually covered fact of its non-entirrty, non-organicity (the organic community is “always already lost”), now exposing exactly its own untamed conflict-ness and entire obscurity of the (human) world, which thus it “takes upon itself”.

With this it brings an unbearable experience. It becomes “unheimlich” (unfamiliar, which is essentially deeper familiar, however also downtrodden), the herald of motherland-less in a false motherland, where this art-symptom is manifested as a single possibility of the critique of the world, respinned with ideology, on whose side stands phantasm. Atematism, atonality, dissonance, incompleteness of musical composition, even the concert without listeners (as an extreme), mostly however the never-ending (manifestive) theorisation and interpretation of his creations on the part of the artist – all these are characteristic elements of this kind of music.

Also through Laibach9 it is possible to recognise the modernistic properties that painfully “cut” into the entertainment layer of popular music and its mass culture, strongly influenced by overseas trends (e.g. jazz, rock’n’roll, rock and disco).

All this reminds of ADORNO’s reply to the false emancipation of freedom of jazz, which supposedly – through its spontaneous improvisation – serves hidden reproduction of a small number of rhythmical forms, which it does not destroy with constant syncopating, but rather strengthens, turning manifold dissonance into consonance at

It goes mainly for the initial period of industrial rock (dating from the early eighties), that was typical for bands, that – “following the motto ‘boredom against boredom’ – describing the sound environment of hi-tech society as a loud-voiced, inexorable, ever recurring noise, [and whose] sound orgy [the bases] are blunt strokes of bass-drum, whose brutality causes that the rock-typical ‘groove’ is missing [and through which] there spread monumental stacks of acoustic waste, reaching physiological threshold of pain, that do not pay regard to any development, that do not move towards any summit and that instead of reproducing the catharsis rather reproduces uninterrupted noise of industrial production”, as it is defined by the publicist Alenka BARBER-KER¥OVAN, op. cit.

9

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Ethical Stances in Art last. Therefore ADORNO’s (modernistic) demand is “a painful and severe elaboration, discipline, the only one leading into atonality, harmonic discenterness, of new rhythmical and formative structures, up to the radical split with traditional forms.”10 Essentially this is the punk avantgarde, musicians whom the rock sociologist Simon FRITH in his book Sound Effects presented as those, who “disproved the assumption that music acts as an emotional code, ie. the individual sensuality can be grasped from the musical expression. They (i.e. the musicians) developed punk-style voices claiming that the singer should not be attached to the song, since the voice is only an instrument for singing, but not necessarily the medium through which one sings. In parallel, electronic devices were emphasised, machines, that one could not watch or listen to emotionally. Electronic instruments can not be played or symbolised that way. Having proper programme, everybody can create exactly the same programme, irrespective of individual ‘feeling’.”11 Planning in advance, self-discipline and intellectual selfishness are crucial, surely more important than the power of feelings and passion. For the punk avantgarde all music is constructed. Newly the question emerged as to “how music grasps experience, controls it and interferes with it.”12 So these musicians appreciated artificiality, pop quality and they were interested in rhythmical rules (in disco, funk and reggae). One can notice the exposure of sole mechanisms of technical-rational manipulation with elements of musical structure and its construction emphasizing the “cold” intellectual side. The same goes for the total10 Precisely in the context of mass culture Mladen DOLAR recognises punk as “a late response to jazz, that in its initial gesture meant precisely affirmation of the blunt, unbearable, unadorned mechanical rhythm, endlessly repeating itself with some elementary melodious forms – however through this very uncompromising attitude, which is literally unbearable and does not allow the subject any enclave or spontaneousness, it probably far the best presented the blunt pressure of ideology and – without distance – made it seen as bluntness of mechanical repetition, that is blurred by ideological gesture, in other words being made bearable and acceptable.”

Op. cit., 309–310.

11 FRITH Simon, Sound Efects. Ljubljana, 1986. 161-162.

12 Ibid. 163.

13 HOSTNIK Tomaø, On the Delicacy of New Romantics. In Neue sSlowenische Kunst (NSK).

Zagreb, 1991. 27–28.

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itarianism of Laibach. This is indicated already in their affinity towards the German band Kraftwerk and its “trailblazer’s” techno (known also as “industrial folk-music”), in opposition to the phenomenon of new romantics 13, even if Laibach uses pop elements as well. Thus the style of Laibach clearly manifests modernistic and postmodernistic qualities.

Postmodernism’s Cure for Hipocrisy Postmodernism transcends the modernistic experience, in which it recognises a fundamental hypocrisy. Its phantasmatic function does not coincide easily with ideology and the function of symptom does not coincide with the critique of ideology. In the analysis of DOLAR, the fundamental illusion of modernism was that it demanded the abolishment of phantasm, as if it has been just an illusion. In this manner phantasm comes back, but the symptom remains. The symptomatic foundation of phantasm is preserved. Modernism forgets as well that symptom does not bring only pain, but also enjoyment.

On account of all this, DOLAR rejects the apology of modernism and Frederick JAMESON’s14 critique of postmodernism as shallow and superficial. DOLAR speaks of the postmodernistic return to art-work, a return to its aura (in Greek: breath of Muse, power of inspiration; commonly transcendental shine, particularly – sacred value of the artwork, which in modernism is broken, lost in its “illusiveness”). He speaks of the return to audience (even to populism), to fascination, to story, form, object, to harmony and melody – all these being a step back (“retro” of the retrogradism can be recognised as such) towards phantasm. This return, however, does by no means mean a simple regression, simple reactualisation of traditional art and its quasiarchaism.

After the experience with modernistic notch supposedly this should not be possible any more. “If the modernistic attitude has lost its authenticity and the traditional art cannot be brought back, then the art has just one option left: remake as a great postmodernistic method”15.

The sublime object (of symptomatic phantasm) of the postmodernist 14 15

JAMESON Fredric, Postmodernism. Ljubljana, 1992. 5–56.

DOLAR Mladen, op. cit. 351.

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Ethical Stances in Art art remains (becomes) “merely” a mask of unabolishable shortfall, emptiness in a structure (essentially – from the other point of view – of plentifullness of secret, mistery!), something, that is within aura painfully fascinating, and thus it does not mean anything, it just exists.

Since postmodernism nevertheless bets on such an object, it can stop modernistic never-ending (marking) process and maybe only then it truly emphasises advantages of the object (that ADORNO speaks about) and thus can a subject “surrender” to the object.

In its musical expression Laibach started to introduce more stimulative rhythms, which pointed to dance-ness, preserving however brutal shock-ness, whose obscure atmosphere in its common monotony enables mystic meditation and “is illuminated by heroic bright wind-instruments, mostly trumpets and horns”16, as well as by other classical instruments, mostly strings, piano and organ, and electric rock-guitars. Additionally a mixed choir can be heard more and more audibly. Both the album New Acropolis (Nova Akropola, 1986) as well as the musical “score” for the theatre spectacle of NSK titled Baptism under the Triglav (Krst pod Triglavom; dealing with the history of Slovene trauma of Germanic Christianisation, presented through the poems of France PRE∞EREN and Dominik SMOLE.) already include these elements, however “Opus Dei” (1987) is the work that with fullness of these expressions brings to the group world-wide success as well as a “triumphant” return to the Slovenian scene.

Laibach Defeats Communist Censorship The new set of reform-oriented Communist authorities in Slovenia (led by Milan KU£AN, the later president of Slovenia) namely abated under the critiques favourable towards Laibach as well as under the group’s consecutive successes, and they annulled the ban of the group and of its name “Laibach”. Then Laibach publishes the album “Slovene Acropolis – Parliament of Our Freedom” (Slovenska Akropola – parlament na¥e svobode), which conveys the spirit of the newly rising national consciousness. The group wins recognition for its special style, that is fed on different musical influences (eclecticism of idyllic-traditionalistic, militaristic-neoclassicistic, heroic16

BARBER-KER¥OVAN Alenka, op. cit.

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quasiarchaic and traumatic-modernistic) and for its ability to “sponge on” well-known pop-music hits.

The composition One Vision of The Queen is revived as Geburt einer Nation, follewed by the hit Life is Life of the band Opus, as well as Sympathy for the Devil (1988) of The Rolling Stones. The complete album Let It Be of The Beatles appears in 1988. Correspondingly Laibach starts to use English and German rather than Slovene. Sound impression becomes easier to listen to, gets more attractive, even if it essentially preserves some pathetic fearfulness. In spite of that it cathartically relaxes the listener for pleasure. It works as “mysterium tremendum et fascinans” (Rudolf OTTO), in which a distinctive power of this music is manifested. This is recognised also by the critics.

Laibach, however, connects this fact to the concept of totalitarianism, which thus becomes not so evident but rather a mysteriously questionable matter.

Gesamtkunstwerk on Stage Laibach shows the fullness (total(itar)ity) of its artistic audio-visual expression especially in its concerts, which as some sort of rituals realise the group’s planned conceptual multimedia artistic project and are perceived as Gesamtkunstwerk (integral art-work; according to Richard WAGNER). Although part of the music is recorded in advance onto the matrix (choral-classical and techno-rhythmical part), the experience is very powerful especially due to the very loud music, due to the scenography of the stage (flag with crosses, antlers, usage of spotlights to pierce the darkness, laser or projection of films) and mostly due to theatrical actor-like poises of performers.

PRIBAC Igor, Upon First Decade of Tito Laibach. Evropa, 10th January 1991, 38.

“The audience finds it hard to realise that Laibach uncovers as totalitarian what they are fond of, and they do not like it, since rock should be against totalitarism. They get angry, even if they are excited by the quality of Laibach’s music. They are aware of the fact that trumpets, drums and the noise of Laibach produce much better rock than rock itself does. Exactly this fact makes them angry far the most. When they become aware of that, they become part of an intellectual process, which itself is in contradiction with rock, which is supposed to be instinctive. They realise, however, that also within this higher level of response to the idea they can find pleasure. In this probably lies the greatest success of Laibach,” says Biba KOPF in the film Bravo of director Peter VEZJAK in TV Slovenija in 1993.

17 18

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Ethical Stances in Art On the stage the performers are extremely static and serious, the front man however is convincingly solemn due to his heroic-spiritualised movements and due to his way of singing, which is an essentially pathetic-exclaiming declamation in a roughly crunching voice, that reminds one of an “agitator’s proclamation from revolutions of different origin”, in the analysis of Alenka BARBER-KER¥OVAN. The usual setting of the stage is also very typical – she continues – with two “symmetrically standing army drummers, which with severe faces, hypnotic gaze and mechanistic-schematic gestures ominously [reminds us] of Hitlerjugend.” “’You will dance as the stick will beat the drum membrane,’ it echoes within the intestines of visitors of their concerts.”17 On the pop-culture scene such music surely sounds very peculiar18.

The Question of Totalitarianism and Democracy Laibach – together with the complete collective of NSK – therefore makes us think through provokation of our sensual-emotional moods, asking us to be aware of our own position in social reality.

Publicist Marko MILOSAVLJEVI£ quotes the statement of psychoanalytical philosopher Slavoj øIøEK, that namely “’Laibach does not function as a response, but rather as a question.’

Its audience – says øIøEK – is obsessed with longing for the Second and asks itself: what position does Laibach actually stand on? Is it truly totalitarian or not? Since Laibach avoids the definite answer, it forces us to take our own view and to decide according to our wishes. Thus it leads to psychoanalysis in the end. In psychoanalysis the patient expects the final answer [via transfer] from his analyst, although he already feels the answer within himself. Laibach is as an analyst that clearly says: ‘I do not know the answer. You have to find it by yourselves.’ Therefore it is not odd, that Laibach is seen as fascistic by those who on the inside hide seeds of fascism; Laibach is regarded as cynical by those who are cynics themselves; and is regarded as un-serious teaser by those who actually are un-serious teasers.” 19 MILOSAVLJEVI£ Marko, Rhetoric Steadiness and Practical Fragility. Delo, 15th October 1994, 30. It presents also a critique of Laibach from the book Metastases of Enjoyment by Slavoj øIøEK. 19

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A. GADøIJEV Laibach Laibach is in fact a mirror of self-criticism for their spectators and listeners. Laibach alone therefore does not shoulder any responsibility, but it carries a provoking appeal to responsibility, which should essentially and existentially affect everybody.

In the late eighties and early nineties radical political and economic changes took place in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

The Communist one-party system and Socialism were replaced by parliamentary democracy and a capitalist economy respectively. The Warsaw Pact was abolished, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia disintegrated – the latter in a tragic and bloody war. Laibach, however, even if considered by many in Slovenia as a contributor to the decay of Central and Eastern European totalitarianism, had their own opinion on all that.

In public statements following the publication of two new albums, Kapital (1992; in techno-gothic style) and NATO (1994; with arrangements of anti-war compositions of the groups Europe, Status Quo and Pink Floyd), it unmasked democracy as merely a disguise for totalitarianism (or even of fascist authorities) of the capital 20. The consequence may even be war, sometimes artificially managed, which is profitable for the capital, so that the capital can “feed its vampire-like living lifelessness” with corpses of war. This lifelessness can ultimately be destroyed (only) by the capital’s own greed.

Thus Laibach mercilessly criticises the mass culture as well as its pop music, which it compares to the mechanisms of the totalitarianism of religion(s), whose critique the group presented in the album Jesus Christ Superstars (1996) in a heavy-metal-oriented sound setting. 21

20

“Eastern ideological (Communist) totalitarism happened exclusively as a reaction to economic colonialism and totalitarism of the West. Totalitarism as a political system is a typical phenomenon of Western-European nihilism, which manages with the power of financial capital. Democracy is just a milder term for developed totalitarism. East has decayed, since it blindly believed Western utopian definition of freedom of the individual. West however keeps itself only due to the fact, that it has a guilefully introduced system, which persists in the freedom of people, however – via its corporative economic logic – it introduced also a system of unconscious collective bondage, meaning that in democracy people believe, that they act according to their will and wishes. Democracy blinds people with utopian injection of wishes and dreams into the social blood circulation. The industry of entertainment is the needle of its injection. This is a common needle, and common needle leads to expansion of diseases. Democracy has no cure for its own disease.” LAIBACH, http://www.ljudmila.org/embassy/3a/exc/13.htm.

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Shepherds as Wolves Meet God and the Devil “Pop music is music for sheep, we however are wolves disguised as shepherds.”22 The conflict between the Devil and God, truth and untruth (as an inheritance of the split between reason and sensuality, with the loss of trust in sensuality-emotionality due to relativism of Greek sophists, and continued later as absolutism of Mind in philosophy and theology) is totally problematicized: “God invented the Devil – unless of course the Devil invented God. God is God and the Devil is the Devil, however God is maybe not so good as we think and also the Devil is not so evil as they present it. God is love, but love is the Devil. Devil is what is human in God, is its intentional mistake and phantom/punishment of God. Laibach comes from God and from Devil, our sympathy is for both of them. Those who love us, they themselves come from God too; those who dislike us, to them we show the Devil. God is in each of us. The one who finds God within oneself, shines like a superstar.” 23 “Our mission is to bring Evil out of the mind. We are there, where Evil begs for mercy.” 24 “God alone can subjugate Laibach. People and Devil cannot do that.” 25 Neither the authorities of any politics or ideology. Indeed Laibach does not give up easily. After a longer creative break in autumn 2003 they publish the most recent album WAT, which contains the group’s apocaliptyc view of the present danger, leading towards the end of the western civilisation (by its inner evil, although it seams to be seen as comming from the out“Priests of rock’n’roll totalitarism try to suggest to their worshippers an illusion of perfection of alternative freedom, that is supposed to be an expression of radical revolt against establishment and realisation of the utopia. It is the very establishment, however, which owns and manages radio and TV programmes, magazines with the highest circulation and publishers of the records with the most powerful distribution; moreover idols of rock and pop music are nothing but the instruments of this very establishment; by using them, pop culture, mass concerts and mass rave-parties establishment successfully introduces the system of frustration as well as it stultifies religious audience, corrodes their intellectual level and castrates the potential, truly revolting and socially creative energy of the youth. That who remains is an ideal consumer.” LAIBACH, in GOLI£ Janez, God and Devil. Stop, January 1997, 65.

22 LAIBACH, in Neue sSlowenische Kunst (NSK). Zagreb, 1991. 59.

23 LAIBACH, in GOLI£ Janez, God and Devil. Stop, January 1997, 65. 64–65.

24 LAIBACH, in Neue sSlowenische Kunst (NSK). Zagreb, 1991. 58.

25 MILOSAVLJEVI£ Marko, Pop Music is Music for Everybody, We however are Wolves 21

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side…), and some of the group’s un-covering answers to the basic question about them, such as ”what do they do? ” and ”what are they?” At the end they mysteriously say: “We are time”!.

Will to Power, NSK-State and the Broadness of God Laibach has, throughout its entire creative period, preserved a collective spirit, criticising the creative ego-trip of individualistic artists, who do not realise that their creations become “common property” and that this is their only reasonable and practical value Laibach has persisted in its sympathy to totalitarianism. But what kind of totalitarianism is it? I believe that this totalitarianism has to be seen in a double perspective, which proceeds from the two-logicalities of philosophy of Friedrich NIETZSCHE 26, whose concept of will to power can express either the tendency of an individual or a group in fighting others for power over everybody (totalitarianism) or a tendency for power alone – of God Dionysius, transforming its abundance into celebration, which can be responsibly completed by passionate people, to whom the trust in sensuality, emotional moods and mental discussion with others has returned.

Maybe through this duality the riddle of totalitarianism itself can be solved. In the nineties, Laibach, together with the other members of NSK, launched an unusual artistic project and established the “NSKState” (with it own apparatus, passports and embassies), in opposition to “real” states of national territories, that are more and more subordinated to transnational associations and to the imperialism of multinational corporations. The NSK-State is a state mobile in time, without borders and territory, an abstract exposure of mechanisms of state administration representing a key frame, which enables and protects social co-existence of citizens and which converts a material capital into a spiritual one. Laibach claims that “democracy is a system, where subordination of minority to majority is implemented.

In Communism however it is vice versa, whereas the NSK-State is an 26 URBAN£I£ Ivan, Zarathustra’s Tradition I-II. Ljubljana, 1993 and 1996. URBAN£I£ Ivan, Power and Authority. Ljubljana, 2000.

27

http://www.ljudmila.org/embassy/3a/exc/131.htm HRIBAR Tine, Introduction to Ethics. Ljubljana, 1991. HRIBAR Tine, Phenomenology I-II..

Ljubljana, 1993 and 1995. HRIBAR Tine, To Allow to Be. Maribor, 1994.

28

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all-inclusive [therefore: totalitarian!] mixture, in which subordination is a universal imperative of common happiness.”27 The issue is basically the striving for the balance of the freedom of the individual, who should not exaggerate it on the account of others.

It may also be a surplus of categorical imperative of Immanuel KANT, which in its formality (the impulse of the individual is directed towards that what everybody should do – all the same) is a summary of every “common mind” morality and its essentially authoritative totalitarianism of deficiency, may it be fulfilled with whatsoever contents. Therefore it does not accept any secret into its uncovering, and by that it essentially lies before the fact of its un-covering. It is closer to HEIDEGGER’s fundamental-ethic synthagm “to allow to be” 28, which permits everybody her or his existential and essential uniqueness; altogether however it keeps within such a loving (and also painful) coexistence as a momentum of conversational culture of communication.

Only that way the call of “Fate of God” can be fulfilled truly, which connects us with all our different particularities into a civil society, whose richness we altogether compose. Here I recognise the totalitarianism of superabundance of power (of God), which in the authenticity of its mysterious uncovering into uncoverness, allows and connects manifoldness of its heterogeneous manifestations. Therefore many of the different appearances of people as well as their motives and habits will not be understood as “Satanistic” resistance to the uniform “God”, but as the sole expression of God’s fundamental richness, being holy in the entire life-game of the world, into which everything invites us from the depths of its never completely and finally exploited secret. Maybe Laibach in its power carries precisely this message.

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A. GADøIJEV Laibach Suggested Reading ADORNO Theodor W., Introduction to the Sociology of Music. Ljubljana, 1986.

BARBER-KER¥OVAN Alenka, Laibach – Ten Years of Provocation. Delo, 15th May 1993, 26.

DOLAR Mladen, Shot during the Concert. In ADORNO Theodor W., Introduction to the Sociology of Music. Ljubljana, 1986. 300–357.

FREUD Sigmund, Lectures for Introduction into Psychoanalysis. Ljubljana, 1977.

FRITH Simon, Sound Effects. Ljubljana, 1986.

GOLI£ Janez, God and Devil. Stop, January 1997, 64–65.

HEIDEGGER Martin, On the Way towards the Language. Ljubljana, 1995.

HEIDEGGER Martin, Existence and Time. Ljubljana, 1997.

HRIBAR Tine, Introduction to Ethics. Ljubljana, 1991.

HRIBAR Tine, Phenomenology I-II.. Ljubljana, 1993 and 1995.

HRIBAR Tine, To Allow to Be. Maribor, 1994.

JAMESON Fredric, Postmodernism. Ljubljana, 1992. 5–56.

KERMAUNER Taras, X+(–)11=?. Nova Revija 1983/13–14, 1470–1489.4.

KREFT Lev, Aesthetics and Mission. Ljubljana, 1994, 172.

LACAN Jacques, Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. Ljubljana, 1996.

LAIBACH, Exerpts from Interviews (1990–1995). http://www.ljudmila.org/embassy/3a/exc/13.htm.

MILOSAVLJEVI£ Marko, Pop Music is Music for Everybody, We however are Wolves Disguised as Shepherds. Delo, 15th October 1994, 30.

MILOSAVLJEVI£ Marko, Rhetoric Steadiness and Practical Fragility. Delo, 15th October 1994, 30.

Neue slowenische Kunst (NSK). Zagreb, 1991.

NIETZSCHE Friedrich, Will of Power. Ljubljana, 1991.

OTTO Rudolf, The Sacred. Ljubljana, 1993.

PRIBAC Igor, Upon First Decade of Tito Laibach. Evropa, 10th January 1991, 38.

URBAN£I£ Ivan, Zarathustra’s Tradition I-II. Ljubljana, 1993 and 1996.

URBAN£I£ Ivan, Power and Authority. Ljubljana, 2000.

Aljo¥a GADøIJEV is a scholar from Slovenia. His article is based on his graduation thesis in Philosophy and Sociology of Culture: Some Philosophical and Sociological Aspects of Contemporary Musical-Artistic Creativity” (Laibach – ‘The Sounds of Our Speech’), at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana. The article has been translated from the Slovenian by Peter PEHANI.

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Ivan V OJTASÿ Sÿ ÁK

Democratisation Processes in the Postcommunist Countries and the Roman Catholic Social Doctrine

In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. Thirteen years have passed since the crash of the Soviet block – a dead end of Marxist-Leninist visions of the millenarian empire – of a paradise on Earth for the working class – proletarians. These changes affected the socio–ideological framework of the countries of the former Communist block. Ideological changes were decisively influenced by Christian opposition to ruling ideologies. Dialectical materialism was also pushed out by liberal visions in economics, as well as in the whole socio-cultural context. Also Roman Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is attracting increasing attention, Christian oriented political parties, professional unions and associations are being formed, but on the practical level CST still has relatively limited influence. Yet, former Marxist ideologists, who now often present themselves under a liberal or even national label, confront Christian ideas in the struggle for influence on public opinion.

Are modern Christians familiar enough with CST and are they able to distinguish the “signs of the times” and be adequately equipped for the “battle of the soul”, which is a constant one?

Roman Catholic Social Teaching (CST) The Christian ideal of person and society is different from the Marxist-Leninist one. Regarding the historical development, the communist attitude was based on the primordial accentuation of class-divided society, on the theory of the class struggle, on the elementary factor of divergences between production forces and relations, and on the dialectical laws of progress.

The Roman Catholic attitude does not divinize the notion of development –progress. It is rather a coherent holistic doctrine, based on the Bible and on the tradition of the Fathers and Mothers of the Church. As a formulated doctrine, it began with Pope Leo XIII, who 129

I.VOJTA¥¥ÁK The Roman Catholic Social Doctrine in 1891 published the encyclical Rerum Novarum. The Roman Catholic Church had, however, attempted to react to the activities of the liberals, socialists and communists earlier as well. CST has been evolving as time went by in order to respond to the changes in societies and in the world. Concisely it can be characterised by ten “pillars“, on which it rests: Human Dignity; Respect for Human Life; Association; Participation; Preference of Poor and Marginalized; Solidarity; Stewardship; Subsidiarity; Human Equality and the Common Good.

CST sees its fundaments in the dignity of every human being as a person created in the image of God. CST emphasises the dignity of every human as a person created in the image of God, saved by Jesus Christ, which gives her/him an immense value and right to honour as a member of the human family. Its fundament is the idea of person from the conception on. A human being is born into a society, which she or he is to organise in such a way that it creates space for the fulfilment of everybody’s gifts. The society is ruled by rights and duties, which are to act in balance. Society must protect its weak and vulnerable members. Society must guide its members towards sharing – eg. the more affluent members with the poorer ones. CST emphasizes in its vision, that humans are only stewards of the goods bestowed upon them and they are obliged to act responsibly in relation to future generations. Society must guarantee for every human the possibility to reach her/his fulfilment and satisfaction in such a way that proper human dignity is respected.1 CST reflects the conclusions of the Second Vatican Council, which has evaluated in a complex way the actual state of affairs and has produced recommendations on the solutions of urgent problems. In the document Gaudium et Spes (GS), the Roman Catholic Church emphasizes the need to be attentive to the “signs of the times” and to react properly. Practically CST teaches that the dignity of humans must be seen in a free search for the good and in choosing and enacting what is considered meaningful. The other aspect of dignity is (in the vision of) dialogue with those who have different world-views and 1 BYRON William J., Ten Building Blocks Of Catholic Social Teaching. www.americapress.org/articles/Byron.htm 2 SHANNON Thomas A., Roman Catholic Social Thought: Historical, Methodological, and Analytic Perspectives. Collegeville, 2000.

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Responsibility and Economy in a definition of human life that takes into account the self-realisation and fulfilment of human beings. The notion of “the common good� includes welfare, social justice and morality.2 CST has insofar been completed by the last social encyclical of John Paul II Centesimus Annus (CA), which focuses on the position of a human being and her/his creative and entrepreneurial capacities. John Paul II underlines that an increasingly important role is played by well-organised and creative human work, as well as by the capacity to motivate and to give impetus to entrepreneurial activity. He maintains that the greatest wealth of the society is the human being her-/himself (CA 32). He spurs people to participate in voluntary activities actively. The Church supports the cooperation of all, in order to strengthen participation in the development of society. The Pope claims that human activities have their place in a culture that creates space for creativity, intellectuality and knowledge of the world and humanity (CA 49 and 50). The encyclical emphasises the fact that the peace building must take into account development, which is to be steered towards the common good. Therefore there exists 131

I.VOJTA¥¥ÁK The Roman Catholic Social Doctrine not just a common responsibility to prevent wars, but also a collective responsibility to support development (CA 52).

Considering the practical application of CST, let us mention the claim to freedom of conscience and the right to its public declaration.

These were the main issues of many activists of the so-called “Secret Church”, such as Augustín NAVRÁTIL, Cardinal TOMÁ¥EK, martyr reverend COUFAL in Czechoslovakia, Cardinal WYSZYN´SKI, martyr reverend Jer√y POPIEÑUSZKO and the Independent Solidarity Union in Poland with its president Lech WAщSA, as well as many others.

The role of Christian thinking in its struggle with totalitarian ideology departs from its different vision of humanity and society. The greatest difference between the secular and Christian vision of human and society lies in the comprehension of authority and power, in the different evaluation of the dignity of every human being and above all in the understanding of the representatives of society as its servants and in prioritising common good. The Church officially does not give preference to any socio-economic formation (capitalism or socialism), as it does not pass judgement on different economic models. Social development is influenced by initiatives and activities of all citizens of society and all of them are guided by certain moral, cultural and other principles.

The subjective feeling of satisfaction or happiness varies in different countries, based on the particular historical and cultural milieu. It can be characterised by many factors, as e.g. economic prosperity, social security, political freedom or social equality.3 On the global scale, shifts of values can be seen in different regions: in the most prosperous regions there is an apparent shift of values from the material towards the so-called post-material, in some post-communist countries, an opposite shift can be noticed: towards survival values.4 The transition process in the postcommunist countries often incorporates societal changes of which the politicians and social scientists have no experience. The development is often not linear, which fills many citizens with the feeling of disappointment and pessimism.

3 OUWENEEL Piet – VEENHOVEN Ruut, Cross-National Differences in Happiness: Cultural Bias or Societal Quality? In BLEICHRODT N. – DRENTH P. J. (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Cross-cultural Psychology. Amsterdam, 1991.

4 KIESLING Stephen, The Changing Pursuit of Happiness. Spirituality and Health Magazine, fall 1998.

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Responsibility and Economy The transition of human thinking from directive rule towards free participation and a responsible approach of every person requires time. People are to understand the importance of social capital, linked with active political engagement: the necessity of and trust in establishing informal associations.5

Basic Studied Values The measurement and evaluation of the obtained data in a country gives us the possibility to evaluate the character of the country and to place it into a region of countries with similar values. So it is possible to classify countries and to obtain regions of typical characteristics, as well as to illustrate changes of accepted values during a certain time period. Such maps provide us with an image of sensitivity to values in a country based on inquiries rather than declarative acts.

(Source: R. INGLEHART, 1997.)

LETKI Natalia – EVANS Geoffrey, Social Trust and Responses to Political Economic Transformation in East-Central Europe. London, September 2001.

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Directions and Trends in the Development of Society If we intend to illustrate the direction and trends of societal development, we have to find a way of expressing quantitatively different indexes and parameters that would characterise the state of the society today and in the past. The most common index used is gross domestic product (GDP), and the human development index (HDI) expressed in the figures of purchasing power parity (PPP).

Source: United Nations, Human Development Report 1998. World Bank, World Development Report 1996.

Freedom House, Freedom in the World 1997/98. JOHNSON Bryan et al., Index of Economic Freedom 1999.

Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 1998.

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Responsibility and Economy Today different statistical indexes and sociological studies are available, enabling us to compare the development in different countries – its directions and trends. To illustrate these directions and trends of societal developments it is proper to use the methods used by Professor R. INGLEHART in his World Values Study elaborated at the Michigan University.6 Countries of the world are classified according to the results of measurement of the sensitivity of their citizens to certain values.

These are measured according to sociological methods, producing data, which are manifested on the value map (fig. no. 1). In this map the different values are placed in an orthogonal axes system. The axis “x” is the reference axis for values of survival versus well-being (self-expression); the axis “y” stands for values of traditional versus secular and rational authority. These two components give one coordinate for different values, e.g. importance of God, national pride, classical family values, respect of authority, differentiation of good and evil, the role of state, trust in people and trust in science.

Socio-cultural Changes and their Acceptance by Citizens The post-communist countries are marked by a painful social transition. This process is characterised by the following components: loss of vision of meaningful development, of social security, of employment security, and of security provided by an omnipotent State.

In these societies several serious notions are to be tackled: phenomena linked with an insufficient or incorrect legal framework, insufficiencies in judicial administration or a lack of control mechanisms. As a consequence, these societies experience pessimism and scepticism. This is manifested in a relatively high suicide index, as well as in high numbers of citizens who consider their life as being dissatisfactory and unhappy. These phenomena are to be viewed also in connection with the fact that there are other countries, belonging to the same zone of the average GDP per capita, or even poorer, which manifest a higher ratio of citizens who declare themselves satisfied and happy with their life. (left) 6

INGLEHART R., World Values Study. http://www.isr.umich.edu

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I.VOJTA¥¥ÁK The Roman Catholic Social Doctrine The values of the World Values Survey show the data of gross national product expressed in unified purchasing parity.

Economic development of a society is directly linked with the frame of free activity, manifested by the index of freedom.

With this factor another subjective factor is linked: the feeling of satisfaction, or happiness. In the next table the data of subjective happiness or satisfaction with life as a whole can be found.

CST’s Message for Today’s Central Europe

Source: WVS, GNP/cap PP WB, WDR, 1997.

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Christian ideals have substantially motivated citizens to oppose the totalitarian MarxistLeninist Empire. We have outlined the fundaments of Roman Catholic Social Teaching and its basic principles. We have also mentioned the trends in sensitivity towards certain values, on the basis of the study of WVS. The study focuses also on traditional values, such as the importance of belief in a transcendent God, acceptance of traditional religion, cultivation of traditional family, as well as acceptance of values, which in practice are seen by many as contradictory to them – eg. atti-

Responsibility and Economy tudes towards divorce, homosexual habits or abortion. It takes into account other important values as well – those of trust, self-realisation and achievement of success.

A number of values which are usually considered secular, or at least not necessarily religious, can prove to be of interest for CST. As CST tries to respond to the signs of the time, its role and task modify together with societal changes. The opposition against Communist dictatorship in Central and Eastern Europe is largely an issue of the past, so CST can now draw inspiration from other burning issues of the contemporary society.

On the other hand some traditional approaches, which constitute the very basis of CST, can enrich secular thinking with serious values fundamental for a healthy long-term development of society.

CST was sometimes viewed as a prophetic voice in the times of Communist censorship, but in the post-communist society its task of bringing an up-to-date message to the citizens has by no means ceased to exist. It just needs to realise how its principles are applicable in the given societal setting.

It would be good to know how eg. self-realisation would be defined if it took into account the claims of Roman Catholic Social Teaching concerning the dignity of every human and the principle of dialogue in active participation of every person in the problem-solving in society. In the same way we could ask where to put other important principles of CST, such as solidarity, subsidiarity or the common good.

On the other hand, it could be also useful to enrich CST by new considerations on important factors of societal development, such as social capital, based on the value of trust.

The current situation in many post-communist countries has prompted citizens towards an evident shift to the values of survival or secular-rational. There is still a strong trust placed in a social state, which should accordingly take care of the disabled, the weak, and those unable to obtain the minimum level of material security.

The notion of social capital is seen ambiguously, even if social trust is the basis for obtaining a true image of the society and tailoring proper solutions to its problems. The ambiguity is seen in the countries of the former USSR, where the level of trust is highest, even if the indexes of suicide are also highest.

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Suicide rates are extremely high in the European countries of the former USSR unlike in its Muslim and Caucasian republics. In the same manner, these indexes are high in other European ex-communist countries, particularly in Hungary and Slovenia.

Roman Catholic Social Teaching faces a great challenge of bringing its teaching closer to people, into the practical consciousness of citizens. In doing this, it is important to follow societal developments, trends, and to formulate proper reactions to new challenges and impetuses life brings along. It can be useful to remember an old scholastic principle that differences push towards search, search brings inventions, inventions cause joy and joy leads to unity.

Suggested Reading BYRON William J., Ten Building Blocks Of Catholic Social Teaching. www.americapress.org/articles/Byron.htm INGLEHART R., World Values Study. http://www.isr.umich.edu KIESLING Stephen, The Changing Pursuit of Happiness. Spirituality and Health Magazine, fall 1998.

LETKI Natalia – EVANS Geoffrey, Social Trust and Responses to Political Economic Transformation in East-Central Europe. London, September 2001.

OUWENEEL Piet – VEENHOVEN Ruut, Cross-National Differences in Happiness: Cultural Bias or Societal Quality? In BLEICHRODT N. – DRENTH P. J. (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Cross-cultural Psychology. Amsterdam, 1991.

SHANNON Thomas A., Roman Catholic Social Thought: Historical, Methodological, and Analytic Perspectives. Collegeville, 2000.

Ivan VOJTA¥¥ÁK, born in 1943, received his education at the Slovak Technical University.

After the graduation and post-graduate studies he participated in a two-year-study-programme of technical creativity and legal patents. For a number of years he worked as an advisor in the office of the Mayor of Bratislava. He was the secretary of the Justice and Peace Council of the (Roman Catholic) Slovak Bishops’ Conference and has been interested in Christian Social Doctrine for a number of years. He is married and has two daughters.

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Andrzej P AWLUCZUK

Christian and Business Ethics’ Relevance for Corporate Social Responsibility

In recent years ethics and corporate social responsibility have been some of the main topics in policy discussions of the European Union, in particular in its Green Paper “Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility” issued in July 2001. Also the World Bank has formed a working group and considered a special website devoted to this matter.

The concept of ethics in business has evolved significantly since the time when the first questions were asked about the values applicable to business environment and its link to the social community around it. The roots of this ethical thinking date back to antiquity. Even though Christian doctrine opposed usury in the Middle Ages certain enterprises had a large scale effect on society 1. Discussion on business ethics within the Church have lasted for centuries. A great step forward was when Protestant thinkers declared that profit is essential for trade and conducting business.

As business activities expanded and production grew after the Industrial Revolution, the problem of appropriate treatment of employees emerged as a burning issue. When certain corporations acquired a considerable share in the world market, many new ethical problems arose – what influence should economic entities in command of resources and power exert upon society, what should be their relationship with local and national governments, how far does their accountability go, etc? It is not easy to answer these questions. One of the attempts to answer them at least partially is the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

MAÑGORZATA Greszta, Na drodze do odpowiedzialnego biznesu. ROK Bolesñaw (ed.), Wiëcej ni√ zysk, czyli odpowiedzialny biznes. Programy, strategie, standardy. Warszawa, 2001. 17.

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I. People of Good Will What is ethics, what dimensions does it have? Ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with the evaluation of human conduct.

Philosophers commonly distinguish between descriptive ethics (the factual study of the ethical standards or principles of a group or tradition), normative ethics (the development of theories that systematically denominate right and wrong actions), and applied ethics, (the use of these theories to form judgements regarding practical cases) 2.

Among the many kinds of ethics, one encounters also Christian ethics, based on the Decalogue 3. It has a heteronomous character, meaning that behavioural rules are not obeyed because people consider them right, but because they come from God. Assessing human conduct is a complex matter and therefore it might be useful to introduce a term right from the beginning that can possibly help us to describe ethical impetuses for CSR: the people of good will.

Dividing people into groups is always a tricky matter. We can distinguish Christians and non-Christians, believers and non-believers, but let us stick to Jesus’ own division as found in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25: those who love another human being, help him/her in need, give bread, water, clothes on one side, and those not loving on the other. The Last Judgement is said to be based on this division.

All of those who love another person and help her or him in their needs, we simply refer to as people of good will 4. Let us, however, say right at the beginning that the world is not black and white but there are many shades of grey. This goes for human conduct too, which needs to be monitored over a period of time. A good man can get corrupted and a sinner can be converted.

People of good will may be characterised according to two pillars.

The first pillar concerns the following features: open mind, critical approach, concentration and ability to read signs. Open mind is according to the philosopher Henri BERGSON an ability to see things, humans and events in a wider context, and not only as separate pieces. People who follow these principles put questions searching 2

www.philosophypage.com/dy/n5.htm http://wiem.onet.pl/wiem/012e7e.html 4 PRZECÑAWSKI Krzysztof, Etyka i religie na przeñomie tysi∞cleci. Warszawa, 2001. 136–139.

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for the meaning of life, truth and beauty. Critical approach means the ability to have one’s own opinions, to put questions, when hearing, reading or watching.

HIRSZFELD puts it in this way: “Put away ten foreign thoughts, to have one of your own”.

Concentration is the ability to focus on one object, the ability to watch and to listen. The last one – ability to read signs – enables us to live consciously, to take appropriate decisions, including the most important ones, related to vocation.

The second pillar concerns the emphases of one’s value system.

These include the four basic relations. The relation to God is the basis of a human person and is linked with our approach to holiness and sacredness. The relation to oneself concerns our sense of internal freedom and the relationship with our conscience. It also concerns our relation to hope and inner consistency. The pattern “behaviour = words = thoughts” characterises authentically living people. Taking into consideration the relation to another human we can say that there are people who understand their life as a service for other people, but there are also those who relate to others in

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A. PAWLUCZUK Christian and Business Ethics an instrumental way. Our relationship to the world (environment and culture) also characterises our lifestyle. Our involvement in society can be creative, engaged and responsible, but it can also be marked by fear or indifference, reducing us to mere observers. By our interaction in society we choose and create our roots.

To put it very simply: for those who love God, oneself, other humans and the world around them, these constitute important personal values. It is obvious that our personal ethical system pervades our attitude to business, as well as ideas of leadership. This is where business ethics become important.

II. Business Ethics Business ethics is most narrowly defined in terms of what is right/wrong (non-consequentialists) or good/bad (consequentialists), or as the process through which individuals apply their personal values, beliefs, and attitudes to new, dynamic situations in the workforce in order to make, implement, and evaluate optimal decisions. The system of business ethics means different things to different people and thus implies different notions of what is right or wrong in the workplace.

1. Ten Principles of Positive Business Ethics Business ethics are built on personal ethics 5. There is no real separation between doing what is right in business, and in your personal life.

Business ethics are based on fairness. Would a disinterested observer agree that both sides are being treated fairly? Are both sides negotiating in good faith? Does each transaction take place on a “level playing field”? If so, the basic principles of ethics are being met.

Business ethics require integrity. Integrity refers to wholeness, reliability and consistency. Ethical businesses treat people with integrity; they back up their promises, and they keep their commitments.

Business ethics require truth-telling. The days when a business could sell a defective product and hide behind the “buyer beware” 5

http://www.philiphumbert.com/Articles/10BusinessEthics.html

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Responsibility and Economy defence are long gone. You can sell products or services that have limitations, defects or are out-dated, but not as first-class, new merchandise. Truth in advertising is not only the law; business ethics require it.

Business ethics require dependability. If your company is new, unstable, about to be sold, or going out of business, ethics requires that you let clients and customers know this. Ethical businesses can be relied upon to be available to solve problems, answer questions and provide support.

Business ethics require a business plan. A company’s ethics are built on its image of itself and its vision of the future and its role in the community. Business ethics do not happen in a vacuum. The clearer the company’s plan the stronger its commitment to ethical business practices.

Business ethics apply internally and externally. Ethics is about respect in the conference room, negotiating in good faith, keeping promises and meeting obligations to staff, employers, vendors and customers. The scope is universal.

Business ethics require a profit. Ethical businesses are well-run, well-managed, have effective internal controls, and clear expectations of growth. Ethics is about how we live in the present to prepare for the future, and a business without profits (or a plan to create them) is not meeting its ethical obligations to prepare for the future well being of the company, its employees and customers.

Business ethics are values-based. The law, and professional organisations, must produce written standards that are inflexible and universal. While they may talk about “ethics”, these documents are usually prescriptive and refer to minimal standards. Ethics are about values and ideals; even if ethical businesses may not always live up to these, they are clear about their intent.

Business ethics come from the boss. Leadership sets the tone, in every area of a business. The executives and managers either lead the way, or they communicate that cutting corners, deception and disrespect are acceptable. Line staff will always rise, or sink, to the level of performance they see modelled above them. Business ethics starts at the top.

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2. Two Areas of Business Ethics MADSEN and SHAFRITZ, in Essentials of Business Ethics 6 (1990) further explain that managerial mischief includes “illegal, unethical or questionable practices of individual managers or organisations, as well as the causes of such behaviours and remedies to eradicate them.” More often, though, business ethics is a matter of dealing with dilemmas that have no clear indication of what is right or wrong.

The other broad area of business ethics is moral mazes of management and includes the numerous ethical problems that managers must deal with on a daily basis, such as potential conflicts of interest, wrongful use of resources, and mismanagement of contracts and agreements.

According to a 1997 business ethics survey the key influences on ethical behaviour in companies are: personal values, supervisor influence, senior management influence, internal drive to succeed, and friends/co-worker influence. The opposite of these, are the key causes of unethical behaviour such as: encountering overly aggressive financial or business objectives, meeting schedule pressures, etc.

3. Ethics in Leadership Ethics in leadership is extremely important for successful management. According to the author, a Company’s Ethics Policy is an invaluable source of ethical solutions. This is a framework for employees who can use the standards of conduct to solve ethical dilemmas.

Such a policy should be based on five fundamental principles 7: A purpose combines the vision and the values of your business. It comes from the top and outlines specifically what is considered acceptable and unacceptable conduct in your business. Pride builds dignity and self-respect. If employees are proud of their work, they are much more apt to act in an ethical manner. Since you must focus on long-term versus short-term results, you must develop a certain degree of patience. Without it, you will become too frustrated and will be more tempted to choose unethical alternatives.

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http://www.managementhelp.org/ethics/ethxgde.htm http://www.onlinewbc.gov/Docs/manage/ethics.html

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Persistence means standing by your word. If you are not committed to the ethics you have outlined, then they become worthless.

Perspective is the last principle. In a world where there is never enough time to do everything we need or want to do, it is often difficult to maintain a perspective. However, stopping and reflecting on where your business is heading allows you to make the best decisions both in the short-term as well as the long-term.

4. Codes of Conduct One way to avoid the problems connected with resolving ethical dilemmas by employees is a company’s business ethics policy, which sets certain standards. The company establishes a policy (the codes of conduct, or code of values, code of compliance) which must be followed by each employee. It may regulate such matters as: confidential information, restrictions on trade practices, copyrights, bribes, payoffs, gratuities and conflict of interest (e.g. each employee may be obliged to disclose any interests, which may impede the company’s economy or efficiency), rewards and fines, quality, privacy at work and home 8. Appropriate working codes of ethics allow to reduce costs and increase profit, decrease the occurrence of corruption, embezzlement, increase the confidence of customers and deliverers, the credibility of staff, the loyalty of employees and the corporation’s reputation.

5. Ethics and Business Let us now look at a comparative analysis of ethical and unethical behaviour in business and in our everyday life. Ethics are dynamics - ideas on what is ethically acceptable behaviour change over time, between countries, cultures and religions. Business affairs represent a particular aspect to the “good life”.

The relationship between the directors and shareholders is another crucial issue. The shareholders want the director to be successful in profit and growth terms. Rewards to attract and retain directors are thus a different ball game compared to the wages of hourly paid WOJCIECH Gasparski, Programy etyczne firm i ich projektowanie. BOLESÑAW Rok (ed.), Wiëcej ni√ zysk, czyli odpowiedzialny biznes. Programy, strategie, standardy. Warszawa, 2001. 26.

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A. PAWLUCZUK Christian and Business Ethics operatives. The latter make up the biggest part of the company’s wage bill and hence costs.

Businesses have to find a balanced relationship with the ecosphere.

They often lobby against community regulation constraining their freedom of action over the use of natural resources (water, land and air).

Managers often face ethical dilemmas and display their ethical colours by their action or inaction, living their ethics without reflecting too often about the basis of their moral values. Moral philosophising is perhaps too theoretical, bookish and prescriptive for the pragmatism and stresses of managing. Is there a value as rel-

Source: Mirosñawa Rybak, Spoñeczna odpowiedzialnos´c´ biznesu – idea i rzeczywistos´c´, Gospodarka Narodowa 2001/3 s. 30, by A. B. Carroll, Business & Society. Ethics and Stakeholder management.

Second Ed., South-Western Publishing Co, Cincinnati Ohio, 1993, s. 35

Responsibility and Economy evant to everyday behaviour as it was in Athens long ago other than the classical Aristotelian “virtuous character”?

Business is productive, generating wealth and value beneficial to the individual and the community, which gives certain freedoms and support needed for practice of business. Business is a contributor to liberal democratic processes. There is a danger in business practices, which undermine the liberties of citizens in a civic democratic framework. Also business is significant vis-à-vis the ecosphere and enabling or potentially debilitating for employees and their families affecting their aspirations for “the good life”.

III. Corporate Social Responsibility The doctrine of CSR was for the first time used by A. CARNEGIE in his book Wealth Gospel, which pointed out two rules (charity and stewardship) as know-how derived from the Bible 9. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is based on the assumption that, apart from purely commercial goals, market activities should be compatible with the interests of society10. The Green Paper defines CSR as “a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis” as they are increasingly aware that responsible behaviour leads to sustainable business success.

Philip KOTLER predicts that soon, as more products become standardised, the pro-social image of the firm will become a main competition factor. According to a research conducted among customers from twelve European Union countries in 2000, more than 70% claim that social responsibility of a firm is the main positive factor in deciding for buying a product or a service11. About half of the respondents agreed to pay more for a product that is friendly for the environment and society. Almost 60% underlined that too few firms consider the issue of social responsibility.

Mirosñawa Rybak, Spoñeczna odpowiedzialnoå^ biznesu – idea i rzeczywistoå^, Gospodarka Narodowa 2001/3 p. 25 10 DOMAN´SKA Agnieszka, Corporate Responsibility. Warsaw Voice, 2002.

11 Stakeholder Dialogue, Consumer Attitudes, Market and Opinion Research Institute to Order CSR Europe. September 2000.

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A. PAWLUCZUK Christian and Business Ethics In keeping with the basic credo of CSR, a modern company should not only focus on the economic results of its operations, but also consider business ethics, transparency, and a proper approach to employees, consumer protection, environmental protection and cooperation with the local community.

Despite the wide spectrum of approaches to CSR, there appears to be a consensus on its main features 12 : CSR is the behaviour of businesses over and above legal requirements, voluntarily adopted because businesses deem it to be in their long-term interest. CSR is intrinsically linked to the concept of sustainable development: businesses need to integrate the economic, social and environmental impact in their operations. CSR is not an optional “ad-on” to business core activities – but about the way in which businesses are managed.

Another concept of corporate responsibility is given by A. B. CARROLL with reference to Abraham MASLOW’s pyramid. A commercial firm that cares first about profit resembles a human caring about his/her mere existence. When the firm has satisfied its profit need, it proceeds towards social responsibility 13. A. B. CARROLL describes four types of responsibilities: economic and legal (required by society), ethical (expected by society) and lastly philanthropy, which is desirable.

IV. CSR in Poland In Poland the involvement of companies in various types of noncommercial and social activities is usually associated with charity or environmental protection. However, a truly responsible business is much more than that. In the West, companies have discovered that projects linked to priorities such as social welfare, regional development and support for culture have proven unusually helpful in developing brand recognition and building a strong position in the market.

In Poland, much still needs to be done in the area of corporate social responsibility. For most companies, profit is the only priority at the moment, while thinking about the welfare of employees, conCommission of the European Communities, Corporate Social Responsibility: A Business Contribution to Sustainable Development. Brussels, 2002.

13 DRUCKER Peter, Management Task, Responsibilities, Practices. New York, 1993. 343.

14 PIETRAS Jarosñaw, under-secretary of state at the office of the Committee for European Integration (UKIE), Poland, in review for Warsaw Voice, Corporate Responsibility, 2002 12

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Responsibility and Economy sumers or environmental protection is a rare practice14. With the country still in transition, businesses are only beginning to become aware of the responsibility towards to the entire community.

Still, the past several years have seen several nationwide initiatives that have produced positive results. These include programmes for businesses such as the Cleaner Production Program and the Responsibility and Care project, in addition to the introduction of ISO 9000 and 14000 standards to management strategies.

The Corporate Responsibility Forum (FOB), in operation for two years now, is promoting CSR in Poland. In co-operation with managers in leading businesses, the organisation spreads knowledge about CSR and facilitates co-operation among businesses, administration officials at all levels and non-governmental organisations modelled on Western practices.

FOB has prepared the 21 Companies for the 21st Century programme aimed at gathering and promoting other countries’ experiences in CSR and adapting these experiences to Polish conditions.

Promoting the idea of CSR is especially significant in the context of Poland’s prospective membership in the EU. Even though adopting appropriate regulations in this area is not obligatory for Poland, it is important to refer to the models and standards set forth in the Green Paper. In order to show that Poland as a future EU member is guided by the same ideals as the current EU member countries. It is also worth following in the footsteps of several Western companies, which have introduced interesting solutions in Poland in co-operation with local communities, on environmental protection and personnel policy.

One example is BP, which as part of its ecological policy has added Poland to its global project called the Cleaner Fuel Program. This project is designed to withdraw leaded gasoline in favour of low-sulphur and sulphur-free fuel. A part of this initiative is the Cleaner Cities project introduced in more than seventy large cities worldwide including Warszawa and KrakĂłw. The project is based on selling fuels with the lowest possible content of hazardous substances and promoting environment-friendly fuel such as LPG.

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A. PAWLUCZUK Christian and Business Ethics Another example of CSR is the substantial subsidising of a hospital in Kwidzy? by the U.S. Corporation International Paper. SpedPol Transport Company, on the other hand, is introducing employeefriendly management that stresses the importance of partner-like relations between employees at various levels. Employee involvement in company operations is designed to create the nucleus of business ethics.

In Poland many students know the initiative of British Tobacco. In leading universities or business schools the firm organises TV-conferences world famous economists and managers. It is a valuable and interesting new form of education with advanced techniques.

A number of international corporations such as Intel have similar activities in many countries. Intel’s principles for responsible business cover workplace practices, labour standards in the supply chain, protection of the environment and good corporate conduct15.

Their activity in the field of education is varied. The project called Innovation in Education focuses on strengthening mathematical, scientific, and engineering education in more than 20 countries on five continents. Through a wide variety of projects, the global programme’s aims are to improve science and maths in primary and secondary education, increase the effective use of technology in classroom teaching and broaden access to technology.

Recently, the business sector’s position has grown because of increasing privatisation and globalisation process. Simultaneously, many countries have cut public spending on education, health care, pensions system etc. Lesser responsibility of governments calls for more corporate involvement. Here is the space for CSR. The idea of CSR is fairly widespread in countries which already have some tradition in it, but in Poland and other EU accession countries it is only beginning to gain popularity. It is the modest aspiration of this article to be an incentive for a wider discussion on and implementation of this idea in the contemporary Central European context.

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CSR Magazine. January 2003, 24.

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Responsibility and Economy Suggested Reading Commission of the European Communities, Corporate Social Responsibility: A Business Contribution to Sustainable Development. Brussels, 2002.

CSR Magazine. January 2003.

DOMAN´SKA Agnieszka, Corporate Responsibility. Warsaw Voice, 2002.

EMSHWILLER J. – RAGHVAN A. – SAPSFORD J., Top Banks Aided Enron’s Financial Moves. The Wall Street Journal 14. January 2002. 13.

MADSEN P. – SHAFRITZ J. M., Essentials of Business Ethics. Pengium Books, 1990.

PRZECÑAWSKI Krzysztof, Etyka i religie na prze?omie tysi?cleci. Warszawa, 2001.

ROK Bolesñaw (ed.), Wiëcej ni√ zysk, czyli odpowiedzialny biznes. Programy, strategie, standardy. Warszawa, 2001.

RYBAK Miroslawa, Spoñeczna odpowiedzialnoå^ biznesu – idea i rzeczywistoå^. Gospodarka Narodowa 2001/3.

S´WIDEREK Tomasz, Trudno odbudowa^ zaufanie. Rzeczpospolita 2. December 2002. B5.

TISCHNER Józef, Myålenie wedñug wartoåci. Kraków, 1993.

WEBER Max., Etyka protestancka a duch kapitalizmu. Lublin, 1994. www.philosophypage.com/dy/n5.htm http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/~jarvis/bola/ethics/whatis.html http://www.apu.edu http://www.managementhelp.net/ethics/ethxgde.html http://www.onlinewbc.gov/Docs/manage/ethics.html http://www.metaethics.org/mbp/mbp0928.html http://www.ebbf.org/ethics.html http://www.philiphumbert.com/Articles/10BusinessEthics.html http://www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/manage/ethics.html http://wiem.onet.pl/wiem/012e7e.html www.csreurope.org Andrzej PAWLUCZUK (1974) is Orthodox, born in Biañystok, Poland. He is a lecturer at the Biañystok Technical University in the Department of Management. He is an Economics graduate from the University of Biañystok. Currently he is a PhD student at the Warszawa School of Economics. He focuses on knowledge-based economy.

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Eduard M AR £ EK

Social Responsibility and Community Involvement of Companies

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept of management which has recently been gaining importance, wider acceptance and application in everyday practice of more and more companies. There are several definitions of this issue depending on various perspectives, points of view and authors. In short it could be described as doing business with broader than just profit-oriented focus or purpose. It is about making social and environmental aspects part of a company’s business operations while taking into account several stakeholders (“individuals, communities or organisations that affect, or are affected by the operation of a company” in the Green Paper) and their interests.

I. The Business in Society In other words, corporate social responsibility is about understanding a company and its activity as an integral part of society and its life. As such, a business enterprise is not only a means for earning money for its owners or shareholders, or a job giver for its employees. This concept tries to imply that companies should not only be concerned with their profitability and economic efficiency, but rather broaden their concerns and respect environmental impacts and social involvement too. These three priorities are interconnected in the so-called triple bottom line (“the idea that the overall performance of a company should be measured based on its combined contribution to economic prosperity, environmental quality and social capital” in the Green Paper).

The elements, which corporate social responsibility consists of, can be illustrated as follows (opposite): 152

As can be seen in the picture above, corporate social responsibility has several areas of concern1. They range from the purely marketoriented ones through social to environmental concerns. All in all they should cover the overall quality of how a company is managed and what positive impact on society it creates.

There are different players or stakeholders with their own interests in each of the fields. If we look at the marketplace, a company should operate efficiently and ethically not only in relation to its customers, suppliers or financial analysts, but also to its owners (shareholders), competitors or to any potential players in a marketplace. The internal stakeholders as employees and unions should be treated with respect to their rights in order to provide them with sufficient satisfaction and motivation. These two dimensions have a lot in common BAKER M, Corporate Social Responsibility – What does it mean? http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/definition.html.

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E. MAR£EK Community Involvement of Companies with the overall corporate performance on the market and efficient corporate governance (“a set of relationships between a company’s management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders” in the Green Paper).

The other external fields of concern cover environmental and community involvement by means of co-operation with local authorities, government, non-governmental organisations and the general public. A company’s behaviour towards community and environment can be described as an expression of responsible corporate citizenship (“the management of the totality of relationships between a company and its host communities, locally, nationally and globally” in the Green Paper).

II. Why Adopt a Socially Responsible Approach?

Corporate social responsibility has two dimensions: internal (towards internal stakeholders such as employees, unions, managers) and external (towards customers, suppliers, partners, shareholders, financiers, competitors and local communities).

1. Internal Dimension In order to be “strong” on the inside, an enterprise must have a skilled and motivated work force and correct relationships with unions. People are one of the major business success factors. A responsible approach towards them values their work, creates proper conditions for health protection and safety at work, promotes their continuous education, respects their need for leisure and family activities. It also allows them to take part in running and co-owning the company together with a right to share in the profits earned.

Satisfied employees can then devote their abilities, power and motivation to the company’s success story.

2. External Dimension Relationships to people and entities outside the company are essential for the company’s functioning. Enterprises nowadays face several challenges in the marketplace and in society. A tightening compe154

tition forces them to search for new ways of quality improvement, cost cutting, market differentiation, attraction of new customers, increasing profitability and overall efficiency. In many ways the creation of long-term and fair relationships within supply chains and with customers helps to enhance the company’s competitiveness. Ethics in this respect means focussing on efficient, ethical and environmentally friendly treatment of partners, customers and even competitors in all situations. And even though adopting these principles might seem costly in its initial phases, in the mid- and long-term perspective it helps to create trust, enhances the positive image and reputation of the company, lowers the costs and attracts new customers. And thus adds value to the company’s identity and positively influences its economic performance.

3. The Ethical Stance A very important issue in adopting social responsibility within a business is adopting certain ethical values. Ethical behaviour, respect for legal framework and transparency, protection of human rights – these are all topics which are of high interest for the general public, media and politicians, taking into account not

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E. MAR£EK Community Involvement of Companies only specific recent occurrences (accounting scandals of Enron, WorldCom or Ahold), but the Central European reality in general.

The level of corruption in Central European countries is still high and companies and societies face the challenge of making their existence and operations transparent. The example of some of them, who have adopted a code of conduct (“a formal statement of the values and business practices of a company and sometimes its suppliers; a code is a statement of minimum standards together with a pledge by the company to observe them and to require its contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and licensees to observe them” in the Green Paper), proves that a structured approach to this problem is possible, and moreover pays off.

4. Taking Responsibility for the Environment A socially aware company also reflects its environmental responsibility in practice. An environmentally friendly strategy leads to the lowering of natural resource consumption, prevention of environmental (air, water, and soil) pollution and the protection of the nature. Moreover, clean technologies and know-hows usually help companies to save on the input side of production, or even prevent them from paying fees or compensations for potential environmental damage. By adopting this approach a company can also communicate this aspect of its operation and thus create a message of a green or healthy producer. In the eyes of customers and partners this can then become a positive means of further differentiation from other competitors.

5. Community Involvement Every company operates in a community, a place where it interacts with other stakeholders: local people, authorities, the government and non-profit organisations. Their positive attitude towards the company and the creation of positive relationships can be of great business importance, not only because it contributes to the company’s overall business and promotes its brand name or image. In a situation where crisis management and communication need to be adopted (like unexpected accidents, suspicions or rumours), a previous positive 156

Responsibility and Economy perception and experience of the public helps to tackle the situation more effectively and with less negative impact on the company. The community involvement can concern several fields and levels. They can range from a support of local sport, culture, health care and social services, public facilities, schools through the support of local nonprofit non-governmental organisations and their projects to strategic cooperation with local governments and authorities on solving local issues. Companies are thus becoming valuable and valued citizens of their communities and create positive public perception.

6. Getting the Message Through In order to communicate a message that a customer is “dealing with“ a socially responsible company, several ways to make it public are being used. Businesses can publish - besides the annual and account reports - their own social, environmental and sustainability audits, or e.g. triple bottom line, citizenship and corporate responsibility reports. These materials are interesting not only for the public and journalists, but also for analysts, competitors and investors.

Furthermore, companies sub-brand their products and services with labels like “environmentally friendly product”, “part of the earnings are donated to disadvantaged children”, “not tested on animals”, or “chlorine free paper”.

These eco- and social labels (“words and symbols on products which seek to influence the purchasing decisions of consumers by providing an assurance about the social and ethical impact of a business process on other stakeholders” in the Green Paper) are becoming means of positive influencing of customers. Communication of responsible treatment of resources and production is becoming a way of stronger differentiation through positive impacts on society.

The maxim could be summed up in the following way - “By doing our business, we are doing good to the place where we operate.” And there is also a new trend in investing and indexing investors. Socially responsible investors are establishing new funds which invest in a responsible way: promoting socially and environmentally respectful business. Indexes are being created in order to rank these investors and investments; a broader way of doing business and investing is getting popular.

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7. Pros and Cons Naturally, adopting a CSR way of managing a company has its disadvantages too. First of all, CSR is a voluntary decision of a company, though there are more and more recommendations of authorities being released to summon businesses to do so. Presumably some of the CSR aspects might soon become even required or obligatory, e.g. in contracts with public authorities. Being not obligatory it still encompasses a strong internal motivation and dedication of stakeholders. Social responsibility needs to be managed and handled as any other way of managing a company. But this perspective has not entered into all managerial layers of businesses so far.

Many critics say that it is not the task of companies to adopt this kind of ‘do-gooding’ or control themselves in the mentioned ways; their business should be concerned with making money, following the law and paying taxes. In order to react to these objections one could say that there are issues which governments or NGOs – for whatever reasons – objectively fail to solve. Moreover, the economic and even political power of certain multinational companies in the globalised environment is many times stronger than regulatory abilities of any government. Self-control and the adoption of ethical and responsible principles is then a must, as there are customers and public who require that, endangered environment which needs protection and deprived communities calling for help and involvement.

Another argument, which is used against corporate social responsibility, is that companies simply cannot afford to pay the costs. In situations when they are struggling for their mere survival and elementary profitability, the higher costs of CSR simply seem like sheer madness. But as we tried to imply above and as several empirical studies2 have even proved, CSR has a direct effect on lowering environmental and production costs, on attracting and retaining a skilled workforce, and on disclosing new niches or even new markets.

Through communication and publicity a business can promote its BURSON-MARSTELLER, The Responsible Century? London, 2000.; CSR Europe, The European Survey on Socially Responsible Investment and the Financial Community. 2001; Environics International, Corporate Social Responsibility Monitor. 2002.

3 BAKER M., Arguments Against Corporate Social Responsibility, http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/against.html.

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Responsibility and Economy positive image and perception, discover new customer groups and attract them and enhance the loyalty of the already existing ones.

These aspects, though they may seem costly, support the company’s overall success3.

III. Community Involvement of Companies and Social Entrepreneurship of Nonprofits We shall now elaborate more on the aspect of community involvement, which might be of the greatest interest to non-profit organisations and local authorities. Not-for-profits, especially in a Central European context from where generous Western funds are slowly shifting eastwards, see companies as potential sources of income.

The matter then concerns not only dedication of the corporate sector to the support of communities, but also the non-profits’ professional approach when addressing for-profit businesses for support.

Only when there is a conviction on the side of a business and a clear vision and presentation of counter-values, though sometimes limited, on the side of a non-profit organisation, the co-operation between partners can start. Having already touched upon the possible areas of co-operation (sports, health care, education, social services or supporting disadvantaged people), we can now examine its various forms. Community involvement of companies can appear on three different levels: voluntary philanthropy, more commercial cause-related marketing and strategic multisectoral partnerships for local and regional development.

1. Philanthropic Traditions Philanthropic donations and charity giving are based on the goodwill of a donor to support a cause with an expectation of a small or no return at all. On the corporate side it may be a simple ad hoc approach to requests they get from non-profits. Alternatively, companies may adopt a more sophisticated approach. They can either design structured giving principles and schemes, programme priorities they fund, or can even co-operate with their own non-profit partners in strategic and long term ways. Though there has been some tradition of com159

E. MAR£EK Community Involvement of Companies panies’ giving to the communities in which they operate even in the past, the overall philanthropic giving, either individual or corporate, has not been much developed in our Central European societies so far. Contrary to this experience stands the example of mainly multinational companies paving the way and bringing their community involvement programmes into Central European markets4.

2. Cause Related Marketing A more structured and even strategic form of cooperation with nonprofit organisations is the cause-related marketing. It is a more commercial and marketing partnership, in which a non-profit organisation provides or leases its logo to a commercial product, or expresses its direct recommendation of a company. Business on the contrary heavily promotes this “social” support in its marketing activities and adds thus a social dimension or value to its products. This makes a difference from competitors and appeals more to customers. In return, the company promises to provide a certain percentage of earnings from product sales to the cause. Non-profit organisations can thus benefit from a more diversified and stable income to solve a problematic issue (e.g. help to flood victims, the computerization of schools or support of blood giving).

3. Multi-sectoral forms of co-operation The third and most strategic level of co-operation are multi-sectoral partnerships between business, non-profit and even public partners.

They are used mainly in local and regional development planning and strategizing. Partners are urged (also by the European Union since the partnership principle is a key criteria in EU funding) to get together, co-operate and use the advantages of all sectors when planning, implementing and evaluating projects. The aim is higher quality and more sustainable development of European regions and communities. However, the Central European truth is that partners (especially corporate ones) often do not see the benefits and the necessity to cooperate in and enter such partnerships5. But there is at least hope 4

Citicorp (CITIBANK), ING, Danone, Unilever, US Steel, Provident Financial and others.

MAR£EK Eduard – DLUHÁ M., Podniky a neziskové organizácie. Analy´za vzájomnej spolupráce na Slovensku. Bratislava, 2002.

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Responsibility and Economy (and the first successful examples prove this) that EU funding requirements for partnerships will make them consider and develop effective co-operation. And though often implemented from above, the partnership principle will be a new way how to involve business more in the life of the community where it operates.

4. Self-financing and Social Entrepreneurship If we look more closely at non-profit organisations and their financing, co-operation with the business sector forms only part of their stability. And besides traditional sources of income, such as grants, donations or public support, more and more attention is paid to their self-financing strategies. Through own income generating techniques, self-financing aims at supporting the non-profits’ independence, its strategic management and above all, its mission. Profits or money earnings are nothing impure or bad in this respect, though these are often understood in that way by many nonprofits. Taking into account the current difficult situation, in which many funds are withdrawing their support from Central Europe, self-financing seems a necessity if a non-profit organisation wants to survive even tougher financial conditions.

Self-financing methods range from membership dues, fees for provided services, product sales, to income from hard assets (machinery or inventory), soft assets (patents or methodologies) and dividends on investments made. These income generating strategies can be used more or less as supplementary to other ways of financing. But a situation can arise when a non-profit organisation decides to develop a fully entrepreneurial activity. If successful, this social entrepreneurship leads to the organisation’s greater financial stability and support of its mission. However, the running of an own business needs lots of professional management and dedication, sufficient capacities and skills, an innovative approach to the market and possible competition. If a non-profit organisation fails to run the business successfully, it risks losing not only invested capital or even its own property, but also its image, reputation and as a consequence its whole non-profit mission and existence could be threatened.

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E. MAR£EK Community Involvement of Companies In conclusion, we can mention the following example regarding social entrepreneurship of non-profit organisations. In order to promote social entrepreneurship within Central European non-profit organisations (so far in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia), and thus support their stability and independence, the Non-profit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team has started its activities. An international US–Chilean organisation operating both in Latin America (Santiago de Chile) and Central Europe (Budapest) is providing complete training, professional consulting, coaching and even financial venture investments into prospective activities of social entrepreneurship across the region and thus guides them into the world of money for social purposes. With its wide network of business advisors and skilled staff, rich theoretical background, resource materials and pioneering activities, NESsT (http://www.nesst.org) is a great contribution to Central European nonprofits’ sustainability and a leading example for nonprofits on how to face future challenges.

Resource Materials Corporate social responsibility is not only the concern of managers or owners, but because of its wider impact it attracts the attention of politicians, governments and even intergovernmental organisations. In one of the pioneering countries in this field – the United Kingdom – there has even been a minister for consumer and corporate affairs (including CSR) appointed in the government. There are recommendations and guidelines of international institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (http://www.oecd.org), the International Labour Organisation (http://www.ilo.org/public/english/comp/business) or the European Union (http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/soc-dial/csr/csr_index. htm).

Non-governmental organisations take initiatives in this sphere as well as organise events, collect materials and disseminate information, promote the concept among companies, and get the business, academic and political officials together. There are some organisations operating on an international scale such as the Prince of Wales International Business Forum (http://www.pwblf.org), the Business in the Community (http://www.bitc.org.uk), the CSR Europe (http://www.csreurope.org), the Business Impact (http://www.businessimpact.org), the Copenhagen Centre (http://www.copenhagencentre.com), the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship (http://www.bc.edu/cccr), the Business for Social Responsibility (http://www.bsr.org) and others.

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Responsibility and Economy Suggested Reading European Commission Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs, Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility. Green Paper. Luxembourg, 2001.

Department of Trade and Industry: Business and Society. Developing corporate social responsibility in the UK. London, 2001. Available: http://www.societyandbusiness.gov. uk, [online].

CSR Europe, Corporate Social Responsibility. The European Business Campaign. http://www.csreurope.org.

FORRESTER Ch.-Bailey – R.-WESTLAND P., Building Cross-Sectoral Partnerships. A Study for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. London, 1998.

Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, Good Company. Guidelines for Corporate Social Performance. Vancouver, 2002. http://www.cbsr.ca.

Good Corporation, Case Studies. 2002. http://www.goodcorporation.com/en.

DAVIS L.-Etchart N., Profits for Nonprofits. Santiago, 1999.

ATKINSON R. – MESSING J., Planning for Sustainability. Supporting NGO Self-financing Ventures. Szentendre, 2002.

MAR£EK Eduard – DLUHÁ M., Podniky a neziskové organizácie. Analy´za vzájomnej spolupráce na Slovensku. Bratislava, 2002. http://www.panet.sk.

DLUHÁ M. – MAR£EK Eduard, Medzisektorová spolupráca v komunitách na Slovensku.

Monitoring a prípadové ¥túdie. Bratislava, 2003. http://www.panet.sk.

Suggested Websites Business Ethics Canadian Business for Social Responsibility Cause Related Marketing Corporate Citizenship Company Corporate Responsibility Group Corporate Social Responsibility Forum Corporate Social Responsibility News Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire Ethical Corporation Ethics In Action EurActiv Forum for the Future Good Corporation Mallen Baker SME Key UK Department of Trade and Industry World of Corporate Social Responsibility

http://www.business-ethics.com http://www.cbsr.bc.ca http://www.crm.org.uk http://www.corporate-citizenship.co.uk http://www.corporateresponsibilitygroup.com http://www.csrforum.com http://www.csrnews.com http://www.csrwire.com http://www.ethicalcorp.com http://www.ethicsinaction.com http://www.euractiv.com http://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk http://www.goodcorporation.com/en http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr http://www.smekey.org http://www.societyandbusiness.gov.uk http://www.worldcsr.com

Eduard MAR£EK is a graduate of the Faculty of Commerce (Business and Marketing) of the University of Economics in Bratislava (Slovakia) and of Lancaster University (England) and the Department of Sociology (Economy and Society) of the Central European University in Warsaw (Poland). He worked in a multinational company and is now active in the non-profit organisation PANET promoting CSR and multisectoral co-operation in Slovakia.

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B ORBÉLY Emese

Corporate Social Responsibility: Business Future or Future Business?

“You are responsible for the rose you tamed.”

(Antoine DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY)

World leaders are under increasing public pressure to alleviate endemic hunger and rural poverty in the world; the trust in capitalism and multinational companies has hit a low.

Corporations have to react. “Businesses are not asking why anymore; they are asking how,” says Mads OVLISEN, the present CEO of Novo Nordisk and Chair of the Copenhagen Centre.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices offer an answer to this question. But it is not easy to turn the CSR concept into a daily business reality, since integrating CSR in a company is an issue of organisational change.

Taming the Rose Each individual has responsibilities in different fields of life. We feel responsible for things we can influence in some way. Today a very heavily discussed topic is Corporate Social Responsibility. This seems easy to define: it is the responsibility of the corporations, businesses, multinational companies. We feel ourselves far away from it.

However, what we often forget is that a corporation does not act by itself, but it is based on the opinions and behaviour of individuals.

According to Antoine DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY, “to be a human being means exactly to be responsible”. In the second half of the twentieth century it became clear that a person is not only a rational human being who can exploit the resources of nature, but she or he became such a mighty force that she or he could endanger not only herself or himself, but her or his whole community. Immanuel KANT says, we should act in such a way that we could wish the motivation, the principle behind our acts to become common law.

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There is no clear-cut recipe for companies to succeed in socially responsible decisions. As each company is unique, each company has to find its own way. CSR will only make a visible difference if it is fully integrated into corporate principles and if the process is continuously monitored. Additionally “the societal benefits of CSR practices will remain limited unless they can be integrated into broader strategies, and public policies certainly have a role to play in this respect,” says Pascal LAMY, the present European Commissioner for Trade. The aim is to develop a new agenda for business which respects staff, shareholders, society and environment.

Defining Corporate Social Responsibility What does CSR exactly mean? Corporate Social Responsibility means business practices that are “based on ethical values and respect for employees, communities and the environment. It is designed to deliver sustainable value to society at large, as well as to shareholders.” This subject is as broad as it is complex. Responsible business practice is a very dynamic and a very pressing topic which corporate leaders face today. It is becoming more and more important to balance the economic, social and environmental components and to increase shareholder value additionally.

There are many Corporate Responsibility Clusters, which refer to the way in which companies compete, collaborate and respond to responsibility demands. Three different clusters are identified: confrontational, multi-sectoral and statutorial. Confrontational responsibility is achieved by the campaigns of non-governmental organisations (for example, against Shell and BP in the late 1990s) where because of the external pressure, new business policies are adopted in the company.

Multi-sectoral initiatives are characterised by the efforts of governments and public agencies to enable and support private voluntary agreements which satisfy social and environmental aspects and promote them in different sectors and in different parts of the world. The statutory dimensions include regulatory developments and all incentives associated with social responsibility (such as export credit guarantee and public procurement).

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Inequalities in the World However good and relevant it may be to talk generally about CSR, it is more important to learn how it affects us and what our role is in this question. We are always happy if we can buy a product at a lower price. But what does it cost for others? How far does our responsibility reach?

According to Oxfam International, nearly twenty-five million coffee farmers in Latin America, Asia and Africa have seen prices fall by seventy percent in the last five years. Coffee farmers sell their beans under the production costs which means that free trade has failed.

Justice has failed. There are many other data supporting this fact: 1.2 billion people world-wide live on less than one US dollar a day, and 2.8 billion on less than two US dollars a day (Human Development Report 2001). Inequalities in trade strengthen these inequalities: for every US dollar generated through exports in the international trading system, low income countries account for only three cents.

The rapid globalisation of trade has a huge impact on people and environment. A big concern is that as a result of globalisation inequalities between the rich and the poor are widening both between and within countries. European Trade Commissioner Pascal LAMY summarised the problems related to the globalisation process in the following way - Firstly finance and trade liberalisation is happening so fast that there is not enough time to elaborate on an international regulatory framework for these changes; secondly there are big differences between the economic and social regulations between the industrialised and developing countries, and thirdly there is a big imbalance between the well-developed economic pillars of global governance (the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation) and the social and environmental pillars of this system.

But voluntary social and environmental efforts (going beyond the companies’ legal obligations) could mitigate these drawbacks.

Corporations can make contributions to poverty alleviation (first of all in developing countries) by providing access to capital (Foreign Direct Investment, FDI), technologies and markets as well as through the improvement of quality, employment practices and working conditions, and through knowledge and technology transfer.

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Fair Trade The idea of Fair Trade is one of the efforts to do something against the imbalances resulting from globalisation. Fair Trade certification was developed in the Netherlands in the late 1980s with the aim to guarantee fair wages to producers of coffee, chocolate, bananas and some other commodities, which are widely used in the developed world, by buying directly from the farmers (bypassing intermediaries who took the main share of the profit) and paying them a higher price. More than fifty developing countries depend heavily on primary commodities, usually two or three of them account for the half of their exports. By means of this ‘fair trade’ farmers are given a fair chance to compete on the market, even if they depend on the one or two goods they produce.

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There are many social and environmental criteria which have to be fulfilled to receive the fair trade certification for a product.

International sales in 2002 for Fair Trade products amounted to four hundred million US dollars, being sold in more than 50.000 supermarkets and 70.000 other stores and cafes. This shows that there is a big demand for high quality products that respect producers, their communities and the environment and this affirms the willingness of people to pay for such products.

Financial Sector In the financial sector Ecobanks and Environmental Banks are new phenomena where investors’ money goes to countries in the developing world, or to finance projects which take measurements to protect the environment. For the “double dividend” (benefit for the poor and the environment and for the investor at the same time) most of the people are willing to take more risk into account. According to a questionnaire, some of them would not regret losing their investment if they knew that their money was used to reach the defined goals.

One example is the GSL Gemeinschaftsbank which offers a “green account”. This means that by using the investors’ money they provide credits for different projects in fields such as bio-agriculture or improved efficiency in the use of energy and natural resources. In Europe social and the ethical funds have grown by 58% in only eighteen months over the period of January 2000 to July 2001 (CSR Europe, Avanzi Study 2001).

On the international level corporations should try to follow the existing CSR guidelines such as the “Code of Conduct for Multinational Enterprises” or the United Nation’s Global Compact. It is not easy to adopt guidelines which were created on a very theoretical level, but corporations should try to find the best combination of contracts, agreements and business decisions from which everybody can make some kind of financial or moral profit.

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Morality and Reputation Let us examine the national level now, our country, and look at the companies we are in a daily contact with. Why should companies care about their social and environmental responsibilities? They have both financial and moral reasons. The moral ones tend to be clear but what about the financial ones? We must hope that responsible business decisions toward society and environment can make a business more competitive, resistant and well-performing and that they can keep both consumers and good employees more easily.

Additionally, as socially responsible investment is growing, a socially responsible company may be more attractive to investors, banks and insurers.

Moreover, one of the most valuable assets of a company can be improved: its reputation. Consumers’ trust can be won. 94% of company executives believe the development of a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy can deliver real business benefits (Ernst & Young Survey 2002). More than a hundred empirical studies published between 1972 and 2000 showed that in 68% of the cases there is a positive relationship between the social and financial performance of a corporation (London Business School 2001).

This is the point where many of us might think that all of this is just some kind of manipulation, a new and very effective business strategy. It is a strategy. The question is, however, whether it is just a marketing strategy or whether there is a real conviction or at least practice behind the strategy. There is a way how to find it out, but at times it might not be easy to follow. We have to take a look at the annual report a company is obliged to publish. Nowadays we can usually do it even via the internet which makes the procedure much easier.

We have to turn our attention also to the role of employees. How can an average person influence the social performance of the company she or he works for? According to a Cherenson Group study in 2001, 78% of employees would rather work for an ethical and reputable company than receive a higher salary. CSR can have a big effect on attracting, motivating, winning and retaining good employees. Remuneration is not the only motivation for employees. People want to feel proud of the company they work for.

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Values as Motivation Motivation is often based on values rather than cash. In the case of multinational companies, however, it is not easy (not even for employees) to find out where the money comes from and where it is going (of course there are ways of inspection, e.g. records). Yet surely if an employee works for a company, she or he must feel in the atmosphere, what is going on and how decisions are made.

Ethics has to come from the top, from the management.

If an employee feels that the company is not working on creating a fair and sustainable environment, she or he should quit. That would be the ideal situation. People leave the companies that are socially and environmentally irresponsible and they then go slowly bankrupt.

Unfortunately this scenario is not very realistic. At a time when most European countries are struggling with high unemployment rates, people are happy to have a job and are afraid of being fired. But we can do our best in the company and take at least those decisions seriously that are up to us.

Sometimes it might seem illusionary that CSR as part of the business strategy would bring financial advantages. Let me briefly mention potential advantages of CSR. Practising CSR can result in a higher efficiency in operations (and a reduction of operating costs), for instance in the use of energy and natural resources, by reduction of waste, by selling recycling materials or simply by reducing labour turnover costs (because of the employees who feel proud of their company and do not quit). A good example is Dow Chemical Co. which invested $3.1 million to reduce the production of twenty-six toxic chemicals and is now saving $5.4 million a year.

The Consumer Decides But who are the most important players in the business? All of us – the consumers. Some companies seem to be really unchangeable, but there is one thing that motivates them to change quickly: the market. And a huge share of the market belongs to the consumers.

Our job is to influence trade by responding to the companies in the way we buy, work and invest on a daily basis.

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Responsibility and Economy (CSR Europe, MORI 2000). One out of six shoppers says that they frequently boycott products because of the bad reputation of a company. These figures show that consumers do not only want good and reliable products, but they want to know that what they buy is produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way. This is very optimistic and it is clear that many consumers try to act in a responsible way; the question is, however, what their decision actually costs.

Fair Trade products, for instance, have at least by 50% higher prices than similar products in the market. What people buy depends heavily on the wealth of the society and of the individuals. In Western European countries people tend to be willing to pay more for products which respect people and environment and this idea is getting more and more influential, while in poorer regions most of the consumers just try to find the best quality-price combination. Thus this matter in practice concerns not only one’s idea of moral credibility but also one’s purse.

Framework and Strategy Corporate Social Responsibility can only make a visible difference if it is fully integrated into the business strategy, principles and practices and if progress is monitored over time. Supplying information to the employees, consumers and other parties through internal and external reporting plays a significant role in this process and the involvement of these parties can improve credibility. Third parties that are interested and involved in the implementation of CSR practices are mostly the government and the non-governmental organisations.

Governments have to create the legislative and economic policy frameworks for CSR. Increasing globalisation (which makes us responsible for almost the whole world), however, makes it more difficult for governments to drive healthy competition into the market and drive out those forms of competition that have damaging social and environmental consequences. The government of one state cannot monitor all happenings of the international market. That is why it is important and necessary that international organisations also take over this job: “Let us choose to unite the powers of markets with the authority of universal principles.” (ANNAN Kofi, UN Secretary General: UN Global Compact).

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Non-Governmental Organisations It was the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that first tried to put pressure on businesses to adopt CSR practices. They used to have a confrontational role (e. g. organising campaigns). Now most of these organisations try to bring about positive societal change in a different way. They are emerging as vital ingredients in the market with having a huge advantage: they are more trusted than any other market factors and participants, which means that they have a bigger impact. Of course these advances go with new challenges.

If NGOs engage with business and governments to reform markets and search for solutions to different problems, they have to face growing financial, competitive and accountability pressures and react fast. They have to become more similar to their business partners in terms of funding and disclosure of information about effectiveness. Because of the growing competition, they have to establish themselves as good investment targets (they cannot always wait for money of people who feel guilty) and they need more commercial understanding to be able to work in partnership with businesses and government.

Open Future?

With things changing fast, we do not know what business will look like in ten or one hundred years. But we can influence it, since we have the chance to educate future leaders. Courses like “business ethics” or “social policy” are not new phenomena, but they are still too often found among optional classes. Facing increasing social and environmental challenges, companies will need more people familiar with CSR, an argument which will hopefully move educational institutions to integrate it more centrally, giving it an appropriate place. It seems crucial to learn at school the triple responsibility of business: economic, social and environmental. Additionally, CSR should become a research topic, too. By doing this we might regain trust in economy, economists and business as a science.

What Corporate Social Responsibility practices really want is to balance inequalities in the world. There remains the question ‘how’? It is difficult to find the right way to help, but it is a crucial issue. A vital 172

Responsibility and Economy principle is “helping people help themselves”. This means that helping efforts should be able to concentrate on long-term solutions to the problems of the society. Education and information are conditions of socio-economic developments in a country. The HOPE project for instance focuses on supporting education of health care professionals on five continents in order to enable them to improve the health care system of their own country.

Besides the transfer of know-how, many other things can be shared in the field of environment, social affairs and cultural consciousness in a two-way direction. One should not forget that exporting knowledge and experience is not everything, import is needed too. Living in the first world we sometimes think that we should only ‘give’. But why don’t we look for things we could receive and learn from those who have a different experiential background? They might know better in certain cases. Who knows?

Bibliography GÁLL Ernô, A felelôsség új határai (The New Borders of Responsibility). Budapest, 1999.

Making Fair Trade. Straus Communications 08/14/2003.

Special Report. CSR Magazine 4/2.

COWE – WILLIAMS, Who are the Ethical Investors?

Playing the Game or Selling out? SustainAbility 06/26/2003.

CSR in Business Schools – a New Agenda for Research and Teaching. CSR Magazine 2/2.

European Business Summit. CSR Magazine 2/2.

Communicating CSR. CSR Magazine 4/2.

Integrating CSR in International Trade. CSR Magazine 4/2.

Grünes Geld. Der sanfte Kapitalismus. Greenpeace Magazin 2003/4.

Zocken für den Klimaschutz. Greenpeace Magazin 2003/4. www.co-operativebank.co.uk www.texasrealtoronline.com/issues/0602/commercial/0602environment.html www.ecobank.com www.idealswork.com www.business-ethics.com/the_legacy_problem.htm#Equal%20Exchange BORBÉLY Emese was born in 1979 in Budapest. She graduated at the Austrian Secondary School in Budapest in 1999. In her senior year she decided to continue her studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Her majors are social policy, information technology and international trade. In the future she plans to work in the field of social issues. Her focus is also the potential improvement of conditions at state orphanages and old-age homes.

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Kniha rieky.

Identita, kultúra, zodpovednosî

Kniha ñeky.

Identity, kultura, zodpovëdnost

•••••••••••••• Dana £ERMÁKOVÁ: Identita – Pro£ se nás téma tolik doty´ká?

Téma identita je nutno nahlíøet ze tãech rÙznÿch perspektiv. Identita ve smyslu v≈domí sebe sama, identita ve smyslu autenticita a kone£n≈ identita jako ztotoøn≈ní se s n≈jakou my¥lenkou nebo skupinou. Tãetí zmín≈ná je pro interkultuní setkání nejdÙleøit≈j¥í. V¥ichni vnímáme sv≈t rozd≈lenÿ na nejrÙzn≈j¥í “in-group” a “outgroup”. Na¥e socializace a hledání vlastní identity probíhá práv≈ na základ≈ rozli¥ení lidí, kteãí jsou ti “moji” od t≈ch, kteãí jsou “jiní”. Bez tohoto rozli¥ení by nebylo moøné nalézt vlastní identitu. Zárovenÿ práv≈ díky n≈mu mÙøe dojít aø k nebezpe£nému a £ernobílému vid≈ní sv≈ta, které nazÿváme xenofobním. Identita ve smyslu pãíslu¥nosti k n≈jaké skupin≈ je také vnímaná jako kulturní identita v ¥ir¥ím slova smyslu. Kultura je zde rozum≈na jako sou£ást konceptu, kterÿ kulturu ãadí vedle osoby a struktury, ve které tato osoba øije. Kultura je zde chápána jako systém legitimizující chování a kulturní rozdíly jsou pak vyjádãeny na základ≈ hodnocení, souzení a odsouzení pãíslu¥níkÙ jinÿch skupin. Práv≈ na rovin≈ hodnocení a legitimizace chování je tedy tãeba s tématem zacházet. Krátce ãe£eno, porozum≈ní tématu kultura nás vede k men¥ímu zdÙrazn´ování toho, co je odli¥né a tedy i ke snadn≈j¥ímu dorozum≈ní.

Kate WILSON: Je Berlín ve Stãední Evropê?

Tenhle £lánek se snaøí prov≈ãit hranice stãední Evropy otázkou, jestli je Berlín její sou£ástí. Kritickÿ pohled na historii m≈sta a zaposlouchání se do pãíb≈hÙ n≈kterÿch spisovatelÙ, kteãí tam øili, pomÙøe rozhodnout, jestli si Berlín mÙøe d≈lat nárok bÿt stãedoevropskÿm hlavním m≈stem. Odpov≈d závisí na definici stãedu: tedy, zda je Stãední Evropa vnímána jako místo, kde se hranice kãíøí a splÿvají identity. Platilo to n≈kdy o Berlín≈? Nakolik to dnes platí pro jiná místa v regionu?

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Summary

NAGYPÁL Szabolcs: Aktivace latentních andêlu°: WSCF a mad´arské studentské kãest’anské hnutí (1895-1930) Tento £lánek je zaloøen na vÿzkumu uskute£n≈ném v øenevskÿch archivech WSCF a soustãedí se na ranou historii mad´arského studentského kães∫anského hnutí. Pãiná¥í tãi pãekvapivé vÿsledky. Za prvé, ekumenické studentské hnutí v Mad´arsku je jedno z prvních hnutí federace. Bylo jedním z prvních deseti hnutí, která byla kontaktními hnutími federace (od roku 1904) a bylo jedním z prvních dvaceti hnutí, která byla pãidruøena k federaci (1924). Za druhé je faktem, øe spolupráce státÙ Stãední Evropy má dlouhou tradici a je datována od roku 1921. Navzdory politickÿm rozdílÙm byla vytvoãena silná tradice budování a udrøování pãátelství, dialogu a porozum≈ní mezi národy, které øijí bok po boku v této £ásti sv≈ta. D≈lo se tak pãedev¥ím prostãednictvím ro£ních konferencí WSCF v Jihovÿchodní Evrop≈. Za tãetí, Stãední Evropa se stala prÙkopníkem v za£lenÿování lidí ãímsko-katolického vyznání do federace. Nehled≈ na Francii, ve dvacátÿch letech to bylo jen v Rakousku, £eskoslovensku a Mad´arsku, kde byli ãím¥tí katolíci akceptováni jako £lenové studentskÿch kães∫anskÿch hnutí. Tudíø mad´arské hnutí bylo jedno z prvních dvou pãidruøenÿch hnutí, ne-li první, kde byl nejen nepãedpojatÿ, ale i uváøenÿ ekumenizmus kaødodenní praxí.

Elly RIJNIERSE: Efektivní ú£ast men¥in a národu°: Pãípady ze Stãední a Vy´chodní Evropy.

Od „vlády“ ke „správê“: Od ‚národní sociální dohody‘ ke ‚globalní sociální dohodê‘ Vzhledem k rozli£nÿm pozicím a moønÿm strategiím men¥in a národÙ ve Stãední Evrop≈, je potãebnÿ posun od “vlády” (obzvlá¥∫ národní vlády) ke “správ≈” (zahrnující v¥echny stupn≈ veãejné správy jakoøto i mimovládní organizace), a to z lokalní na globální úrove~. Komplexnost této reality je diskutována pomocí tzv. “Cosmology Triangle” (kosmologického trojúhelníku), kterÿ identifikuje rozli£né politicko-institucionální scénáãe, které práv≈ sout≈øí v globálním politickém systému. Rozli¥uje tãi formy sociální dohody: národní, globální a etickou £i náboøenskou. Tyto formy tvoãí základ tãí “sv≈tonázorÙ”. Ve druhé £ásti je tzv. “kosmologickÿ trojúhelník” pouøit k alanÿze a prodiskutování zpráv z workshopu na téma “Role men¥in v mezinárodních a pãeshrani£ních vztazích ve Stãední a Vÿchodní Evrop≈”, jenø byl zorganizován mezinárodní organizací Minority Rights Group International a Helsinskÿm vÿborem pro lidská práva v roce 1998.

Daniel PASTIR£ÁK: Spiritualita tvorivy´ch procesov v umení Autor vo svojej práci nahliada do tajomnÿch priestorov, v ktorÿch sa prelína umelecká kreativita a spiritualita. Hl’adá stopy vz∫ahu medzi duchovnÿm a tvorivÿm tak, øe sleduje procesy umeleckej aktivity od prvotnej iniciácie, cez ¥tádium in¥pirácie aø k samotnej realizácii. Iniciácia pochádza z Logu vo stvorení, v Písme a v kultúre. In¥pirácia nás podnecuje k rozvíjaniu duchovnej disciplíny koncentrácie, kontemplácie a adorácie. V realizácii sa umelec zaoberá symbolom a mÿtom a ich kvalitami predstavivosti, dramatizácie a slávy. Vo v¥etkÿch tÿchto oblastiach dochádza k potrebnému a plodnému stretnutiu spirituality a kreativity.

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Iva BERANEK: Umêní: Fantazie nebo svêtonázor?

Um≈ní je sou£ástí øivota. Víme, øe øivot není neutrální a my k n≈muv nemÙøeme bÿt lhostejní. Podobn≈ pokud um≈ní není neutrální, tak na n≈j mÙøeme nahlíøet také pães morální aspekty. Není v¥ak ne£ekané a pãekvapující mluvit o morálnosti um≈ní ve sv≈t≈, kde je morálka £asto opomíjena a ignorována? Kdyø mluvíme o kães∫anském um≈ní, odli¥ujeme kães∫anské um≈ní v ¥ir¥ím smyslu od kães∫anského um≈ní v uø¥ím smyslu - sakrálního nebo liturgického um≈ní. N≈kteãí by definovali kães∫anské um≈ní v ¥ir¥ím smyslu jako “náboøenské”, coø skute£n≈ je, kdyø se vztahuje na vnitãní vnímání duchovné reality. Kães∫anské um≈ní by m≈lo bÿt ovocem modlitby.

Tyto druhy d≈l nazÿvá Rajmund KUPAREO, dominikánskÿ teolog, “díla mystické inspirace”. Kães∫anské um≈ní není jediné, které pouøívá biblická nebo jiná kães∫anská temata. Ne téma, ale duch um≈leckého díla je to, co £iní dílo kães∫anskÿm, nebo nekães∫anskÿm. Bohatství um≈ní ukazuje, øe velmi souvisí se øivotem. Jak øivot tak i um≈ní mÙøe vztahovat ruku k setkání s Bohem. Do ur£ité míry – v závislosti na lidech - je jiø vtahující.

Peter ¥AJDA: Sú ekumenickí románopisci nádejou Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι? (¥túdia diskusie medzi Andersenom a Kierkegaardom o doˆlezitosti pohl’adu na zivot v románe) Autor upriamuje pozornos∫ £itatel’a na konfrontáciu medzi H. C. ANDERSENom a S. A. KIERKEGAARDom ohl’adne teórie románopisectva. KIERKEGAARD tvrdí, øe v ANDERSENovÿch románoch absentuje pohl’ad na øivot, ktorÿ povaøuje za nutnú podmienku kaødého románu. KIERKEGAARD predstavuje anonymné £itatel’ské publikum Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι, ktoré v románoch hl’adá hl´bku, odpútanos∫ a spojitos∫ øivota a smrti. Autor d’alej rozoberá fenomén odpútanosti, ako aj fenomén zomierajúceho filozofa. Na£rtáva moønos∫ ekumenického románopisectva ako plodného zdroja in¥pirácie pre Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι.

Zuzana ¥ICKOVÁ-ME¥KOVÁ: Text a obraz v roˆznych situáciách Autorka sa zaoberá roˆznymi polohami a pohl’admi na obraz a text, ktoré pomáhajú £loveku uvedomova∫ si seba, svet a Boha. Skúma a porovnáva ich fungovanie z kultúrneho aspektu, pri£om pod£iarkuje vÿznam Biblie, ako vel’kého textu. Na príklade iluminovanÿch rukopisov zo stredoveku opisuje prenos Boøieho slova do textu, ktorÿ je problémom. Tento problém z £asti rie¥ia symboly, a to hlavne pri prenose obsahu textu do obsahu obrazu. Viaøu my¥lienku posolstva textu do obrazového posolstva. Sloboda posolstiev obidvoch zloøiek preøila £as diktatúry komunizmu vd’aka konceptualizmu. V sú£asnom umení je obraz a text samostatnou a individuálnou existenciou s dôrazom na pluralitu ich vÿznamov, £o sa prejavuje v ¥irokej ¥kále umeleckÿch smerov.

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Summary

Diana RAUCHOVÁ: Niektoré tendencie v hudbe 80. a 90. rokov 20. storo£ia na Slovensku a ich vy´vinové determinanty Umenie z konca tisícro£ia charakterizuje mimoriadnu pluralitu prejavov. Nové prvky sú£asnej doby moøno vidie∫ v premie¥aní a vo fúzii roˆznych ¥tÿlov európskej hudby minulosti a prítomnosti, európskej a mimoeurópskej hudby, folklórnych, døezovÿch, rockovÿch, populárnych a inÿch øánrov s tzv. váønou hudbou. V doˆsledku vÿvoja (kolektívne participovanie na diele, produkty po£íta£ového programu) sa vynára fenomén straty autorstva umeleckého diela. K zauøívanÿm kompozi£nÿm postupom patrí proces recyklovania, práca s koláøou, citáciami, alúziou. Dÿal¥ím charakteristickÿm znakom je premie¥avanie roˆznych umeleckÿch disciplín, ktoré viedlo ku vzniku multimediálnej hudby £i umenia. V súvislosti s tÿmto mnohovrstvovÿm procesom vznikajú aj protireakcie v postoji najmlad¥ích skladatel’ov, ktorí upozor~ujú na váønos∫ umeleckého majstrovstva hudobného diela a tÿm aj na samotné autorstvo. Tento vÿvoj podlieha tu¥enému vnútornému metabolizmu, ur£itÿm zákonitostiam a princípom. K najdoˆleøitej¥ím patrí princíp komplementarity a princíp kontrastu.

K najprestíønej¥ím úspechom poslednÿch dvoch desa∫ro£í v oblasti umenia na Slovensku patrí fakt, øe tvorcovia nielen nadväzujú na ¥ir¥ie progresívne línie v hudbe a umení sú£asného sveta, ale ich aj spoluformujú.

Aljo¥a GADøIJEV: Laibach –skupina síly a tajemství (vy´krik totalitarizmu ze Strední Evropy) Autor by cht≈l pãedstavit hudebn≈-um≈leckou skupinu ze Slovinska, Laibach, která je nejznám≈j¥í slovinská skupina v moderní pop-kultuãe. Autor se snaøí £tenáãe (a moøného poslucha£e jejich hudby) provést historií vzniku a práce skupiny, jejich hudebními kritikami a informacemi vysv≈tlujícími porozum≈ní mezi tradi£ními, moderními a postmoderními um≈leckÿmi charakteristikami (speciáln≈ hudebními), které se staly dÙleøitou sou£ástí eklektické kreativity skupiny, známé jako retrogardizmus.

Na konci £lánku prezentuje také n≈které své vlastní názory na mysteriózní dvojzna£nost skupiny, se kterou se pozorovatelé jejich práce a vystoupení £asto nemÙøou vypoãádat. Ukazuje, øe totalitarizmus, jejich nejpouøívan≈j¥í koncepce, spojená s um≈ním jako zrcadlem spole£nosti a politické organizace (jako stát), lze chápat dv≈ma zpÙsoby, vycházejíc z hlubokÿch etickÿch problémÙ.

Ivan VOJTA¥¥ÁK: Demokratiza£ny´ proces v postkomunisticky´ch krajinách a katolícka sociálna náuka Pred niekol’kÿmi rokmi sme zaøili revolu£né zmeny, ktoré viedli k eliminácii komunistickej ideológie. Tieto zmeny sa udiali aj pri£inením kres∫anskÿch aktivistov, z ktorÿch mnohí boli katolíkmi a riadili sa katolíckou sociálnou náukou. Táto náuka stojí na desiatich „pilieroch“, l’udskou doˆstojnos∫ou po£ínajúc a princípom spolo£ného dobra kon£iac. øijeme v dynamickom globalizovanom svete. V na¥om spolo£enskom prostredí vznikajú nové vz∫ahy, nové zoskupenia a tradi£né hodnoty

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sú nimi ovplyv~ované. L’udské spolo£enstvá vykazujú posuny v citlivosti k niektorÿm hodnotám. øijeme v zmenenom kultúrnom a historickom rámci. Vo vyspelÿch krajinách posun hodnôt smeruje k tzv. post-materialistickÿm hodnotám, v mnohÿch postkomunistickÿch krajinách sú zmeny nasmerované k hodnotám preøitia alebo smerom k sekulárno-racionalistickému pólu. Je katolícka sociálna náuka schopná by∫ aj dnes rukovä∫ou pre angaøovanÿch kres∫anov v postkomunistickom prechode k demokracii?

Andrzej PAWLUCZUK: Du°leøitost krest’anské etiky a etiky podnikání pro spolo£enskou odpovêdnost v podnikání (Corporate Social Responsibility) V tomto £lánku je zváøen vliv kães∫anské etiky a etiky podnikání na pãedstavu spole£enské odpov≈dnosti v podnikání. V první £ásti autor charakterizuje lidi dobré vÙle. Barva pleti, národnost nebo víra jsou mnohem mén≈ dÙleøité neø osobní etika.

Sou£asná osobní etika se £asto zakládá na Desateru, které je také základem kães∫anské etiky. Definice etiky, její hlavní principy a rozd≈lení, role vedoucího a pravidla ãízení jsou diskutovány ve druhé £ásti. Ve tãetí £ásti je posuzován koncept spole~enské odpov≈dnosti podnikání. Sou£ástí jsou i pãíklady spole£ností pÙsobících v Polsku.

Eduard MAR£EK: Spolo£enská zodpovednost’ podnikov a ich zapojenie v komunite

£lánok sa snaøí predstavi∫ manaøérsky koncept tzv. spolo£enskej zodpovednosti podnikania a £iasto£ne sa dotÿka aj situácie v tejto oblasti v strednej Európe.

Spolo£enská zodpovednos∫ podnikania (CSR) je o integrovaní sociálnych a environmentálnych rozmerov do podnikatel’skÿch aktivít firiem, pri£om doˆraz sa kladie na roˆznych stakeholdrov (záujmové skupiny) a ich záujmy. Predstavené sú viaceré rozmery, pozitívne i negatívne stránky CSR. Zdoˆraz~uje sa doˆleøitos∫ a roˆzne formy zapojenia sa podnikatel’skÿch subjektov do podpory komunít, v ktorÿch poˆsobia.

Takéto programy podpory komunity vytvárajú predpoklady pre spoluprácu s neziskovÿmi organizáciami a podporu ich financovania. Ako vÿzvy pre neziskové organizácie a ich budúcu udrøatel’nos∫ sú predstavené aj samofinancovanie a sociálne podnikanie.

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Summary

BORBÉLY Emese: Spolo£enská zodpovednost’ podnikania: Budúcnost’ v podnikaní alebo podnikanie v budúcnosti?

Svetoví lídri sú pod stúpajúcim tlakom verejnosti zmierni∫ endemickÿ hlad a chudobu vo svete; doˆvera v kapitalizmus a nadnárodné spolo£nosti dosahuje svoje minimum. Korporácie musia reagova∫. Podniky sa uø viac nepÿtajú: „pre£o?“, ale skoˆr: „ako?“. Aktivity spolo£enskej zodpovednosti podnikania (CSR) ponúkajú odpoved’ na túto otázku. Av¥ak v£leni∫ koncepciu CSR do kaødodennej reality podnikania nie je voˆbec jednoduché, ked’øe integrácia CSR do podniku je otázkou organiza£nej zmeny. Neexistuje firma, ktorá uø tÿmto procesom úspe¥ne pre¥la a moˆøe ukáza∫, ako funguje v praxi. A ked’øe kaødá firma je jedine£ná, musí si vytvori∫ svoj vlastnÿ model. CSR dosiahne viditel’né zmeny, iba ak je naplno integrovaná do spolo£nÿch princípov a ak tento proces je neustále monitorovanÿ. Navy¥e spolo£enskÿ úøitok aktivít CSR zostane obmedzenÿ dovtedy, kÿm oni samé nebudú moˆc∫ by∫ integrované do ¥ir¥ích stratégií, v £om by mala zohra∫ svoju úlohu verejná politika.

Ciel’om je rozvinú∫ novÿ program pre podnikanie, ktorÿ re¥pektuje zamestnancov, akcionárov, spolo£nos∫ a øivotné prostredie.

179

Das Flu§buch.

Identität, Kultur, Verantwortung

••••••••••••••

Dana £ERMAKOVÁ: Identität: Warum bewegt sie uns so?

Man kann den Begriff „Identität“ von drei verschiedenen Perspektiven betrachten.

Identität als Bewusstsein seiner selbst, Identität als Authentizität und schließlich Identität als eine Identifikation mit einer Idee oder einer Gruppe. Die dritte Perspektive ist die wichtigste bei interkulturellen Beziehungen und Kontakten. Wir alle nehmen die Welt als in verschiedene „In-Gruppen“ und „Out-Gruppen“ geteilt wahr. Unsere Zivilisation und die Suche nach unserer eigenen Identität basiert auf der Unterscheidung zwischen Menschen, die „die meinigen“ und Menschen, die „die anderen“ sind. Ohne diese Unterscheidung könnten wir nicht unsere eigene Identität finden. Durch diese Unterscheidungen entsteht aber auch das gefährliche schwarzweiß Denken, das zur Fremdenfeindlichkeit führen kann. Identität als Zugehörigkeitsgefühl zu einer Gruppe wird auch im weiteren Sinne als kulturelle Identität verstanden. Kultur wird hier verstanden als Teil eines Konzepts, das Kultur im Bezug auf eine Person und die Strukturen, in denen diese Person lebt, betrachtet.

Kultur wird hier als ein System verstanden, das das Verhalten rechtfertigt. Kulturelle Verschiedenheiten werden durch die Basis der Bewertung, Beurteilung und Verurteilung von Mitgliedern von anderen Gruppen ausgedrückt. Eben wegen dieser Verurteilungen ist es wichtig, so ein Thema zu behandeln. Das Verstehen von Kultur führt uns zu einem schwächeren Urteil über das, was fremd ist und erleichtert so die Interaktion.

Kate WILSON: Ist Berlin in Zentraleuropa?

In diesem Artikel werden die Grenzen von Zentraleuropa anhand der Frage, ob Berlin ein Teil davon ist, hinterfragt. Die kritische Betrachtung der Geschichte der Stadt und die Geschichten von Autoren, die hier lebten, helfen zu bestimmen, ob Berlin ein Anrecht darauf hätte, sich als zentraleuropäische Hauptstadt zu betrachten. Die Antwort hängt von der Definition Zentraleuropas ab. In diesem Artikel wird Zentraleuropa als Platz, wo sich Grenzen überschneiden und Identitäten sich vermischen, gesehen. War das jemals der Fall in Berlin? Wie wahr ist das heute für andere Orte in der Region?

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Summary

NAGYPÁL Szabolcs: Aktivierung der latenten Engel: WSCF und das ungarische SCM (1895–1930) Dieser Artikel basiert auf einer Forschung in den Genfer Archiven des WSCFs, sie konzentriert sich auf die frühe Geschichte des ungarischen SCM und bringt drei überraschende Ergebnisse. Erstens, dass die ökumenische Studentenbewegung in Ungarn eine der ersten Bewegungen der Föderation war. Sie war unter den ersten zehn SCMs, die Kontaktbewegungen für den WSCF (seit 1904), und eine der ersten zwanzig SCMs, die als Mitglied in der Föderation aufgenommen wurden (seit 1924).

Zweitens ist es bekannt, dass die Zusammenarbeit in den zentraleuropäischen Ländern eine lange Tradition hat, bis ins Jahr 1921 zurück. Trotz der politischen Unterschiede wurde eine starke Tradition durch jährliche WSCF SüdosteuropaKonferenzen (SEE), wo Freundschaften, Dialog und Wertschätzung zwischen den Nationen, die neben einander leben, aufgebaut und gepflegt wurden, geschaffen.

Drittens war Zentraleuropa auch ein Pioniere in der Miteingliederung von römischkatholischen Bewegungen in die Föderation. Neben Frankreich waren nur in Österreich, der Tschechoslowakei und Ungarn Katholiken als Mitglieder der SCMs akzeptiert.

Das ungarische SCM war unter den ersten beiden, wenn nicht das erste, das nicht nur aufgeschlossen war, sondern wo umfassende Ökumene tägliche Praxis war.

Elly RIJNIERSE: Erfolgreiche Mitwirkung von Minderheiten und Völkern: Fälle aus Zentral- und Osteuropa.

Von „Goverment“ zu „Governance“: Vom nationalen Sozialvertrag zum globalen Sozialvertrag Unter den verschiedenen Positionen und möglichen Strategien von Minderheiten und Völkern in Zentral- und Osteuropa ist das Bedürfnis eines Verlagerns von „Goverment“ (Konzentration auf die nationale Regierung) hin zu „Governance“ (Miteinbeziehung aller Schichten von öffentlicher Administration sowie von lokalen bist zu weltweit agierenden NGOs) zu erkennen. Die Komplexität dieser Realität wird mit Hilfe des „kosmologischen Dreiecks“, das verschiedene gesellschaftspolitische Szenarios, die derzeit im globalen politischen System konkurrieren, darstellt, diskutiert. Dabei werden drei Formen von sozialen Verträgen betrachtet: der nationale, der globale und der ethnische oder religiöse. Diese bilden die Basis für drei unterschiedliche Sichtweisen der Welt. Im zweiten Teil folgt ein Bericht vom Workshop „Die Rolle von Minderheiten in internationalen und grenzübergreifenden Beziehungen in Zentral- und Osteuropa“. Dieser wurde von der internationalen Gruppe für die Rechte von Minderheiten und der Helsinki-Stiftung für Menschenrechte im Jahr 1998 organisiert, diskutiert und die Schwierigkeiten werden mit Hilfe des „kosmologischen Dreiecks“ analysiert.

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Daniel PASTIR£ÁK: Spiritualität der kreativen Prozesse in der Kunst Der Autor wirft einen genauen Blick auf verborgene Orte, an denen sich künstlerische Kreativität und Spiritualität zu überlappen scheinen. Dabei begibt er sich auf die Suche nach Spuren von Zusammenhängen zwischen Spirituellem und Kreativem, indem er den Prozess der Entstehung eines Kunstwerkes verfolgt. Der Beginn kommt von Logos in der Schöpfung, in der Bibel und in der Kultur, die Inspiration fordert uns auf, spirituelle Fähigkeiten wie Konzentration, Kontemplation und Verehrung zu entwickeln, bei der Umsetzung beschäftigt sich der Künstler mit Symbolen und Mythen und ihren Eigenschaften in Bezug auf Vorstellung, Dramatisierung und Ehre. In allen diesen Bereichen des Prozesses treffen Spiritualität und Kreativität in notwendiger und fruchtbarer Weise aufeinander.

Iva BERANEK: Kunst: Phantasie oder Weltsicht?

Kunst ist ein Teil des Lebens. Wir wissen, dass das Leben nicht neutral ist und wir können dem Leben gegenüber nicht gleichgültig sein. Wenn Kunst analog dazu nicht neutral ist, können wir das durch moralische Aspekte betrachten. Dennoch, ist es nicht ungewöhnlich und überraschend, über Moral in der Kunst zu sprechen, wenn es doch eine Welt ist, wo die Moral oft vernachlässigt und ignoriert wird? Bei der Betrachtung christlicher Kunst wird zwischen christlicher Kunst im weiteren und christlicher Kunst im engeren Sinne, nämlich sakraler oder liturgischer Kunst, unterschieden. Man könnte christliche Kunst im weiteren Sinne als „religiös“ definieren, was sie wirklich ist, wenn sie auf die innere Wahrnehmung der göttlichen Realität angewandt wird. Christliche Kunst sollte eine Frucht des Gebetes sein. Diese Werke nennt Rajmund KUPAREO, ein dominikanischer Theologe, „Werke von mystischer Inspiration“. Christliche Kunst ist nicht nur Kunst, die biblische und oder andere christliche Themen darstellt. Nicht das Thema, sondern der Geist eines Kunstwerkes macht es zu einem christlichen Kunstwerk – oder auch nicht. Die Reichhaltigkeit der Kunst zeigt, dass sie viel mit dem Leben zu tun hat. Leben und Kunst können beide hinausreichen, um den Herrn zu treffen. Und teilweise tun sie das schon.

Peter ¥AJDA: Sind ökumenische Romanschreiber die Hoffnung von Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι ?

(Eine Studie von Andersens und Kierkegaards Diskussion über die Wichtigkeit einer Lebenssicht in einem Roman) Der Autor zieht die Aufmerksamkeit des Lesers auf die Konfrontation zwischen H. C. ANDERSEN und S. A. KIERKEGAARD über die Theorie des Romanschreibens. KIERKEGAARD behauptet, dass es in den Romanen von ANDERSEN an Lebenssicht fehlt, die er als notwendige Bedingung für jeden Roman betrachtet. KIERKEGAARD führt die anonyme Leserschaft von Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι, die in den Romanen nach Tiefe, Abgeschiedenheit und die Verbindung zwischen Leben und Tod suchen. Außerdem untersucht der Autor die Begriffe von Abgeschiedenheit sowie den Begriff des ster-

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Summary benden Philosophen. Er sieht die Entwicklungsmöglichkeit des ökumenischen Romanschreibens als eine fruchtbare Quelle der Inspiration für Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι.

Zuzana ¥ICKOVÁ-ME¥KOVÁ: Text und Bild in verschiedenen Situationen Die Autorin behandelt verschiedene Positionen und Situationen, in denen Bild und Text vorkommen, die Menschen helfen, sich selbst, die Welt und Gott zu begreifen.

Sie erforscht und vergleicht ihre Situation im kulturellen Zusammenhang und sieht die Bibel als Großen Text. Das Wort des Herrn in Bilder umzuwandeln kann ein Problem darstellen, wie man vor allem in den bebilderten mittelalterlichen Manuskripten sieht. Symbole können diese Probleme lösen, indem sie den Inhalt eines Textes im Bildform übertragen. Durch das Aufzeichnen von Ideen werden die Symbole des Textinhaltes in einen Bildinhalt verwandelt. Die Freiheit der Bilder und Gemälde überlebten die Zeit der kommunistischen Diktatur als individuelle Konzepte eines Künstlers oder einer Künstlerin. In der heutigen Kunst haben Text und Bilder eine eigenen Existenz mit einer Betonung auf die Mehrdeutigkeit. Dieser Prozess wird anhand der breiten Spanne von neuen Kunstwerken sichtbar.

Diana RAUCHOVÁ: Ein Umriss der musikalischen Tendenzen in den 1980ern und 1990ern in der Slowakei und die entscheidenden Faktoren ihrer Entwicklung Die Kunst am Ende des Millenniums ist charakterisiert durch eine ungewöhnliche Pluralität des Ausdruckes. Neue Elemente unseres Zeitalters können in der Mischung und Fusion von verschiedenen Musikstilen aus Europa, aus der Vergangenheit und der Gegenwart, aus nicht-europäischer Musik, Folklore, Jazz, Rock, Pop und anderer Genres mit der klassischen Musik gesehen werden. Als eine Konsequenz der jüngsten Entwicklungen (kollektive Teilnahme im kreativen Prozess, Produkte von Computerprogrammen) taucht das Phänomen des Verlustes der Urheberschaft eines Kunstwerkes auf. Weitverbreitete Annäherungen zu einer Komposition sind Recycling, Zitieren, Collagen und Anspielungen. Ein anderes charakteristisches Merkmal ist eine Mischung von künstlerischen Disziplinen, was zu einer multimedialen Musik und Kunst führt. In Verbindung mit diesem vielschichtigen Prozess entstehen Gegenreaktionen, die von der jüngsten Generation von Komponisten repräsentiert werden, die auf die Ernsthaftigkeit von künstlerischer Fertigkeit für ein musikalisches Werk und die Urheberschaft bestehen. Diese Entwicklung beruht auf innerer Formveränderung und bestimmten Gesetzen und Prinzipien, vor allem das Prinzip der Ergänzung und das Prinzip des Kontrasts. Eines der wichtigsten charakteristischen Elemente der letzten zwei Dekaden der Kunst in der Slowakei ist die Tatsache, das Komponisten nicht nur weitere fortschrittliche Linien in der musikalischen und künstlerischen Entwicklung verfolgen, sondern dass sie auch zum Teil ihre Schöpfer sind.

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Aljo¥a GADzIJEV: Laibach – die Gruppe mit Kraft und Geheimnissen (Schrei des Totalitarismus aus Zentraleuropa) Der Autor möchte eine slowenische Musikgruppe namens Laibach vorstellen, die die berühmteste slowenische Gruppe der Popkultur ist. Der Autor versucht den Leser (und möglichen Hörer der Musik der Gruppe) durch die Geschichte der Erscheinung und der Arbeit der Gruppe und durch kritische Berichte über sie zu führen. Er liefert einige Informationen, für das grundsätzliche Verständnis von traditionellen, modernen und postmodernen künstlerischen (vor allem musikalischen) Charakteristiken, die ein wichtiger Teil der eklektischen Kreativität der Gruppe sind. Am Ende des Artikels präsentiert er einige seiner eigenen Ansichten über die mystische Zweideutigkeit der Gruppe, die jedem Beobachter ihres Werkes und Auftretens auffällt. Er zeigt, dass Totalitarismus, ihr meistgenutztes Konzept, verbunden mit Kunst als ein Spiegel der Gesellschaft und ihrer politischen Organisation (als ein Staat), auf zwei Arten verstanden werden kann, kommend aus tiefen ethnischen Problemen.

Ivan VOJTA¥¥ÁK: Demokratisierungsprozesse in den postkommunistischen Ländern und die römisch-katholische Soziallehre Vor einigen Jahren erlebten wir revolutionäre Umbrüche, die zu dem Fall der kommunistischen Ideologie führten. Das geschah unter anderem mit Hilfe von christlichen Aktivisten, von denen viele Katholiken waren, die von der römischkatholischen Soziallehre geleitet wurden. Diese Lehre ist auf zehn „Säulen“ aufgebaut, beginnend mit menschlicher Würde bis zum Gedanken des Gemeingutes. Wir leben in einer sich verändernden globalisierten Welt. In unserem sozialen Umfeld erscheinen neue Beziehungen und Gruppierungen und traditionelle Werte werden von ihnen beeinflusst. Menschliche Gesellschaften zeigen gewisse Verschiebungen in ihrer Sensibilität gegenüber Werten. Wir leben in einem veränderten kulturellen und historischen System. In entwickelten Staaten finden die Verschiebungen häufig in Richtung der sogenannten post-materialistischen Werte, in den post-kommunistischen Staaten gibt es Veränderungen hin zu Werten des Überlebens oder zum weltlich-rationalen Pol. Kann die römisch-katholische Soziallehre immer noch ein Leitfaden für sozial engagierte Christen im post-kommunistischen Übergang zu Demokratie sein?

Andrzej PAWLUCZUK: Die Relevanz christlicher und unternehmerischer Ethik für die soziale Verantwortung der Unternehmen (Corporate Social Responsibility) In diesem Artikel wird der Einfluss von christlicher und unternehmerischer Ethik auf das Konzept der sozialen Verantwortung der Unternehmen (CSR) betrachtet. Zuerst charakterisiert der Autor die sogenannten „Menschen guten Willens“. Dabei ist Hautfarbe, Nationalität und Glaube viel weniger wichtig als die persönliche Ethik.

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Summary Diese persönliche Ethik ist oft auf den zehn Geboten, die auch den Grundstein der christlichen Ethik bilden, begründet. Die Definitionen von Ethik, ihre wichtigsten Grundsätze und Klassifikationen, die Rolle von Vorbildern und Verhaltenskodex werden im zweiten Teil des Artikels diskutiert. Im dritten Teil werden das Konzept der CSR und einige Beispiele von polnischen Firmen betrachtet.

Eduard MAR£EK: Soziale Verantwortung der Unternehmen und die Beteiligung in Gemeinden Dieser Artikel versucht, einen Leitfaden für die sogenannte Corporate Social Responsibility (soziale Verantwortung der Unternehmen) zu präsentieren und behandelt dabei insbesondere die Situation in Zentraleuropa. Bei CSR geht es darum, soziale und ökologische Aspekte als Teil der Unternehmensstrategie zu betrachten, während man auch die Interessen der Teilhaber berücksichtigt.

Verschiedene Dimensionen, gute und schlechte Seiten von CSR werden beschrieben. Schließlich wird die Wichtigkeit der Involvierung der Firmen in die Gemeinden und verschiedene Formen, in denen das geschehen kann, betrachtet.

Solche Programme schaffen auch die Vorbedingungen für eine Zusammenarbeit mit Non-Profit-Organisationen und ihrer finanziellen Unterstützung. Außerdem werden Selbstfinanzierung und soziales Unternehmertum als Herausforderung für NonProfit Organisationen und ihre zukünftiges Bestehen präsentiert.

BORBÉLY Emese: Soziale Verantwortung der Unternehmen – Unternehmenszukunft oder Zukunftsunternehmen?

Die Herrschenden der Welt befinden sich unter wachsendem öffentlichen Druck, ländliche Armut und Hungersnöte zu lindern. Das Vertrauen in den Kapitalismus und die multinationalen Konzerne hat einen neuen Tiefstand erreicht. Konzerne müssen reagieren, Unternehmen fragen nicht mehr warum, sie fragen wie. Die Verfahren der Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) bieten eine Antwort auf diese Frage. Aber es ist nicht immer leicht, das CSR Konzept im Firmenalltag umzusetzen, nachdem das Integrieren von CSR in eine Firma auch organisatorische Veränderungen betrifft. Es gibt keine Firma, die es schon erfolgreich umgesetzt hat und jetzt genau vorzeigt, wie es geht. Nachdem jede Firma einzigartig ist, muss auch jede Firma ihren eigenen Weg finden. CSR macht nur dann einen sichtbaren Unterschied, wenn es ganz in die Firmengrundsätze integriert und der Prozess fortlaufend beobachtet wird.

Außerdem werden die sozialen Nutzen beschränkt bleiben, wenn sie nicht in weitere Strategien eingebettet werden, hier muss sicher auch die öffentliche Politik eine Rolle spielen. Das Ziel ist es, eine neue Agenda, die Beschäftigte, Aktionäre, Umwelt und die Gesellschaft behandelt, für Unternehmen zu entwickeln.

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Ksi†Øka rzeka.

ToØsamo{}, kultura, odpowiedzialno{}

••••••••••••••

Dana £ERMAKOVÁ: Tozsamos´c´: Dlaczego prousza nas tak czeþ sto?

Istnieje potrzeba, aby spojrze^ na termin ‘to√samoå^’ z trzech ró√nych perspektyw: to√samoå^ jako åwiadomoå^ samego siebie, to√samoå^ jako autentycznoå^ i wreszcie to√samoå^ jako identyfikacja z ide∞ lub grup∞. Dla relacji i kontaktów mi‰dzykulturowych najwa√niejsze jest trzecie spojrzenie. ƒwiat postrzegany jest jako podzielony na kliki. Nasza cywilizacja i poszukiwanie wûasnej to√samoåci oparte s∞ na dzieleniu ludzi na ‘swoich’ i ‘tych innych’. Bez tego podziaûu niemo√liwe byûoby odnalezienie wûasnej to√samoåci. Równie√ dzi‰ki temu mo√emy unikn∞^ niebezpiecznego czarno-biaûego patrzenia na åwiat, czyli ksenofobii. To√samoå^ w znaczeniu przynale√noåci do grupy jest rozumiana jako to√samoå^ kulturowa w szerokim znaczeniu. Kultura oznacza tutaj cz‰å^ poj‰cia, które stawia kultur‰ obok osoby i struktur w jakich √yje ta osoba. Kultura to system, który uzasadnia nasze zachowanie. Ró√nice kulturowe s∞ wyodr‰bniane na podstawie oceny, os∞du i pot‰pienia przez czûonków innych grup. Konieczne jest zaj‰cie si‰ poziomem os∞du i uzasadnienia. Zrozumienie kultury prowadzi nas do ûagodniejszego os∞du tego, co jest obce, a to uûatwia wzajemne relacje.

Kate WILSON: Czy Berlin lezy w Europie S´rodkowej?

Artykuû próbuje okreåli^ granice Europy ƒrodkowej poprzez pytanie, czy Berlin jest jej cz‰åci∞. Krytyczne spojrzenie na histori‰ miasta i sûuchanie opowiadaõ pisarzy, którzy tam mieszkali, pomaga w ustaleniu, czy Berlin mógûby si‰ ubiega^ o to, aby by^ stolic∞ Europy ƒrodkowej. Odpowiedz´ zale√y od tego, w jaki sposób definiujemy centrum: tutaj Europa ƒrodkowa jest miejscem, gdzie granice krzy√uj∞ si‰, a to√samoåci û∞cz∞ i scalaj∞. Czy tak kiedykolwiek byûo w Berlinie? Czy dzieje si‰ tak obecnie w innych miejscach w regionie?

NAGYPÁL Szabolcs: Ozywianie ukrytych aniolÚów: WSCF i wëgierski SCM (1895–1930) Artykuû powstaû na podstawie badaõ genewskich archiwów WSCF-u i koncentruje si‰ na wczesnej historii w‰gierskiego SCM-u, uzyskuj∞c trzy zaskakuj∞ce rezultaty. Po pierwsze, studencki ekumeniczny ruch na W‰grzech jest jednym z pierwszych w Federacji. Wåród pierwszych dziesi‰ciu SCM (od 1904 r.) istniaûy organizacje kontaktowe z WSCF, a jedna z pierwszych dwudziestu (od 1924 r.) zostaûa stowarzyszona

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Summary z Federacj∞. Po drugie, faktem jest tradycja wspóûpracy paõstw Europy ƒrodkowej si‰gaj∞ca 1921 roku. Dzi‰ki corocznym konferencjom WSCF dla Europy PoûudniowoWschodniej, aby budowa^ i utrzyma^ przyjaz´õ, dialog i zrozumienie pomi‰dzy narodami, których przeznaczeniem byûo √y^ obok siebie w tej cz‰åci åwiata, pomimo ró√nic politycznych narodziûa si‰ gû‰boka tradycja. Po trzecie, Europa ƒrodkowa byûa pionierem we wû∞czeniu Rzymskich Katolików do Federacji. W latach dwudziestych oprócz Francji tylko Austria, Czechosûowacja i W‰gry przyj‰ûy Rzymskich Katolików jako czûonków SCM. Wynika z tego, √e w‰gierski SCM byû jedn∞ z dwóch pierwszych stowarzyszonych organizacji, jeåli nie pierwsz∞, gdzie wolny od uprzedzeõ ekumenizm na peûn∞ skal‰ byû na porz∞dku dziennym.

Elly RIJNIERSE: Efektywne uczestnictwo mniejszos´ci i narodu: Przypadki ze S´rodkowej i Wschodniej Europy.

Od ‘rzadu’ do ‘rzadzenia’: Od ‘narodowego spolecznego kontaktu’ do ‘globalnego spolecznego kontaktu’.

Wåród ró√norodnoåci pozycji i mo√liwych strategii mniejszoåci i narodu w ƒrodkowej i Wschodniej Europie istnieje potrzeba przesuni‰cia od ‘rz∞du’ (koncentracja na rz∞dzie krajowym) do ‘rz∞dzenia’ (wû∞czenie do sprawowania wûadzy wszystkich szczebli administracji publicznej, jak równie√ organizacji pozarz∞dowych, od lokalnego do globalnego poziomu). Kompleksowoå^ tej rzeczywistoåci jest rozwa√ana przy pomocy Kosmologicznego Trójk∞ta, który identyfikuje polityczno – instytucjonalne scenariusze konkuruj∞ce obecnie w globalnym systemie politycznym. Trójk∞t wyró√nia trzy formy kontaktów spoûecznych: narodowy, globalny i etniczny lub religijny. Tworz∞ one podstawy trzech ró√nych ‘Pogl∞dów na åwiat’. W drugiej cz‰åci artykuûu analizowane s∞ przy pomocy Trójk∞ta Kosmologicznego problemy oraz przedstawiony jest raport z warsztatu „Rola mniejszoåci w mi‰dzynarodowych i przygranicznych relacjach w ƒrodkowej i Wschodniej Europie” zorganizowanego przez Mi‰dzynarodow∞ Grup‰ Praw Mniejszoåci (Minority Rights Group International) i Helsiõsk∞ Fundacj‰ Praw Czûowieka w 1998 roku.

Daniel PASTIR£ÁK: Duchowos´c´ kreatywnych procesów w sztuce Autor przygl∞da si‰ z bliska mrocznym miejscom, gdzie artystyczna kreatywnoå^ i duchowoå^ wydaj∞ si‰ zaz‰bia^. Pod∞√aj∞c od samego pocz∞tku za procesem artystycznej aktywnoåci poprzez stan inspiracji, a√ do realizacji, poszukuje zwi∞zku pomi‰dzy duchowoåci‰ i twórczoåci∞. Pocz∞tek pochodzi od Logos w kreacji, w Piåmie ƒwi‰tym i kulturze, inspiracja wzywa, abyåmy rozwin‰li duchow∞ dyscyplin‰ koncentracji, kontemplacji i uwielbienia, natomiast podczas realizacji artysta ma do czynienia z symbolem i mitem oraz jego wûaåciwoåciami wyobraz´ni, dramatyzowania i chwaûy. We wszystkich tych sferach duchowoå^ i kreatywnoå^ spotykaj∞ si‰ w zbli√eniu, które jest konieczne i owocne.

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Iva BERANEK: Sztuka: fantazja czy poglad na s´wiat?

Sztuka jest cze´åci∞ √ycia. Wiemy, √e √ycie nie jest neutralne, a my nie mo√emy pozosta^ wobec niego oboj‰tni. Je√eli w podobny sposób sztuka nie jest neutralna, mo√emy j∞ postrzega^ poprzez moralne aspekty. Jednak√e, czy√ nie jest nieoczekiwanym i zaskakuj∞cym mówi^ o moralnoåci w sztuce w åwiecie, gdzie moralnoå^ jest cz‰sto zaniedbywana i ignorowana? Kiedy mówimy o sztuce chrzeåcijaõskiej, oddzielamy sztuk‰ chrzeåcijaõsk∞ w szerokim znaczeniu od sztuki chrzeåcijaõskiej w w∞skim znaczeniu – sztuki sakralnej lub liturgicznej. Niektórzy zdefiniowaliby sztuk‰ chrzeåcijaõsk∞ w szerokim znaczeniu jako ‘religijn∞’, któr∞ w rzeczywistoåci jest, je√eli odnosi si‰ do wewn‰trznego postrzegania boskiej rzeczywistoåci. Sztuka chrzeåcijaõska powinna by^ owocem modlitwy. Rajmund KUPAREO, dominikaõski ksi∞dz nazywa tego rodzaju prace „pracami mistycznej inspiracji”. Sztuka chrzeåcijaõska to nie tylko ta, która podejmuje biblijne lub inne chrzeåcijaõskie tematy. Nie temat, ale duch pracy artystycznej czyni j∞ chrzeåcijaõsk∞ lub niechrzeåcijaõsk∞.

Bogactwo sztuki pokazuje jak wiele wspólnego ma ona z √yciem. Zarówno √ycie jak i sztuka mogûyby wyci∞gn∞^ r‰k‰ do spotkania z Panem. Do pewnego stopnia – w zale√noåci od ludzi – ju√ to robi∞.

Peter ¥AJDA: Czy ekumeniczni powies´ciopisarze sa nadzieja Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι?

(Studium dyskusji Andersena i Kirkegaarda dotyczacej wagi zyciowego spojrzenia w powies´ci) Autor zwraca uwag‰ czytelnika na konfrontacj‰ pomi‰dzy ANDERSENem i KIRKEGAARDem dotycz∞c∞ teorii powieåciopisarstwa. KIRKEGAARD twierdzi, √e powieåciom ANDERSENa brakuje prawdziwego √yciowego spojrzenia, co wedûug KIRKEGAARDa jest koniecznym elementem ka√dej powieåci. KIRKEGAARD wprowadza anonimowego czytelnika Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι, który szuka w powieåciach gû‰bi, obiektywizmu i poû∞czenia √ycia ze åmierci∞. Autor dogû‰bnie analizuje motyw obiektywizmu oraz umieraj∞cego filozofa. Sugeruje on potencjaû ekumenicznego powieåciopisarstwa jako owocnego √ródûa inspiracji dla Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι.

Zuzana ¥ICKOVÁ-ME¥KOVÁ: Tekst i obraz w róznych sytuacjach Autorka podejmuje temat ró√norodnych pozycji obrazu i tekstu w kulturze, która pomaga ludziom realizowa^ siebie, åwiat i Boga. Odkrywa i porównuje ich funkcj‰ w kulturalnym aspekcie, kûadzie nacisk na Bibli‰ jako Wielki Tekst. Problem przeksztaûcenia boskiego Sûowa w obraz widoczny jest gûównie w åredniowiecznych iluminowanych r‰kopisach. Symbole rozwi∞zuj∞ go poprzez przedstawienie znaczenia tekstu w formie obrazu. Poprzez niesienie idei, symbole zamieniaj∞ wiadomoå^ tekstow∞ na wiadomoå^ obrazkow∞. Wolnoå^ obrazu i wizerunku przetrwaûa czas dyktatury komunistycznej jako indywidualna koncepcja artysty. W dzisiejszej sztuce sûowo i obraz egzystuj∞ indywidualnie z akcentem na pluralizm ich znaczeõ. Ten proces jest ukazywany poprzez szerok∞ rozpi‰toå^ nowych stylów w sztuce.

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Summary

Diana RAUCHOVÁ: Zarys tendencji muzycznych w latach 80’ i 90’ na SlÚowacji oraz determinanty ich rozwoju Sztuka koõca tysi∞clecia charakteryzuje si‰ niezwykû∞ ró√norodnoåci∞ ekspresji.

Nowe elementy naszego wieku s∞ widoczne w mieszance ró√norodnych stylów europejskiej muzyki dawnej i wspóûczesnej, muzyki spoza Europy, folkloru, jazzu, rocka, popu i innych gatunków û∞cznie z muzyk∞ klasyczn∞. Konsekwencj∞ najnowszych osi∞gni‰^ (wspóûuczestnictwo w procesie tworzenia, programy komputerowe) jest zjawisko utraty autorstwa. Powszechne podejåcie do utworu obejmuje przetwarzanie, cytowanie, kola√ i aluzj‰. Inn∞ charakterystyczn∞ cech∞ jest û∞czenie dyscyplin artystycznych, co prowadzi do multimedialnej muzyki i sztuki. Ten wielopoziomowy proces budzi reakcj‰ najmûodszej generacji kompozytorów, którzy domagaj∞ si‰ powa√nego podejåcia do artystycznego mistrzostwa muzycznej twórczoåci oraz do autorstwa. Proces ten jest przedmiotem wewn‰trznych przemian oraz pewnych praw i zasad, a zwûaszcza zasad uzupeûniania si‰ i kontrastu. Jedn∞ z najwa√niejszych cech dwóch ostatnich dekad w sûowackiej sztuce jest fakt, i√ kompozytorzy nie tylko û∞cz∞ szerokie post‰powe linie muzyki i artystycznego rozwoju wspóûczesnego åwiata, ale równie√ s∞ ich wspóûtworzycielami.

Aljo¥a GADøIJEV: Laibach – grupa silÚy i sekretów (krzyk totalitaryzmu z Europy S´rodkowej) Autor prezentuje muzyczno-artystyczn∞ grup‰ ze Sûowenii, która wci∞√ jest najpopularniejsz∞ sûoweõsk∞ grup∞ pop kultury znan∞ na caûym åwiecie. Autor próbuje poprowadzi^ czytelnika (a by^ mo√e i sûuchacza muzyki wykonywanej przez zespóû) poprzez histori‰ jej wyst∞pieõ i pracy, krytyczne recenzje na ich temat, a tak√e informacje wyjaåniaj∞ce podstawowe znaczenie tradycyjnych, nowoczesnych i postmodernistycznych elementów artystycznych (a zwûaszcza muzycznych), które byûy wa√n∞ cz‰åci∞ ich eklektycznej twórczoåci znanej jako retrogardism. Pod koniec artykuûu przedstawia on równie√ wûasne pogl∞dy na zagadkow∞ wieloznacznoå^ grupy, z któr∞ ma do czynienia ka√dy, kto zetkn∞û si‰ z ich twórczoåci∞. Udowadnia on, √e totalitaryzm, b‰d∞cy najcz‰åciej wykorzystywan∞ przez nich koncepcj∞, poû∞czony ze sztuk∞ jako lustro spoûeczeõstwa i organizacji politycznych, powinien by^ rozumiany na dwa sposoby wynikaj∞ce z gû‰bokich, etycznych problemów.

189

Ivan VOJTA¥¥ÁK: Proces demokratyzacji w krajach postkomunistycznych a spolÚpeczna doktryna Kos´ciolÚa Katolickiego Kilka lat temu doåwiadczyliåmy rewolucyjnych zmian, które doprowadziûy do eliminacji ideologii komunistycznej. Staûo si‰ tak mi‰dzy innymi dzi‰ki chrzeåcijaõskim dziaûaczom, spoåród których wielu nale√aûo do Koåcioûa Rzymskokatolickiego i kierowaûo si‰ Spoñeczno nauko Koåcioña Katolickiego. Nauka ta oparta jest na dziesi‰ciu filarach zaczynaj∞c od ludzkiej godnoåci i koõcz∞c na idei wspólnego dobra. √yjemy w dynamicznym zglobalizowanym åwiecie. W ukûadzie spoûecznym powstaj∞ nowe relacje i ugrupowania, które wpûywaj∞ na tradycyjne wartoåci, wobec których zmienia si‰ spoûeczna wra√liwoå^. √yjemy w strukturach zmienionych kulturowo i historycznie. W krajach rozwini‰tych wa√niejsze staj∞ si‰ wartoåci tzw. post-materialistyczne, natomiast w wielu krajach postkomunistycznych nast‰puj∞ zmiany w kierunku przetrwania lub åwieckiego racjonalizmu. Czy Spoûeczna nauka Koåcioûa Katolickiego wci∞√ mo√e by^ przewodnikiem dla spoûecznie zaanga√owanych chrzeåcijan w postkomunistycznym d∞√eniu do demokracji?

Andrzej PAWLUCZUK: Znaczenie etyk: chrzes´cijan´skiej i biznesu, dla odpowiedzialnego biznesu Artykuû ukazuje wpûyw etyki chrzeåcijaõskiej i biznesu na koncepcj‰ biznesu odpowiedzialnego. Autor w pierwszej cz‰åci podaje charakterystyk‰ ludzi dobrej woli, wychodz∞c z zaûo√enia, √e drugorz‰dny jest kolor skór, narodowoå^, wiara czûowieka, a bardziej istotne s∞ jego wartoåci etyczne, oparte cz‰sto na dekalogu, który jest podstaw∞ etyki chrzeåcijaõskiej. W drugiej cz‰åci charakteryzuje etyk‰ biznesu, przedstawiaj∞c gûówne zasady, podstawowe podziaûy, znaczenie kodeksu etycznego oraz roli lidera. Ostania cz‰å^ jest poåwi‰cona zagadnieniem odpowiedzialnego biznesu (OB). Autor podaje definicj‰ OB, jego istot‰, a tak√e zamieszcza przykûady dziaûaõ mieszcz∞cych si‰ w koncepcji OB oraz firm prowadz∞cych dziaûalnoå^ na terenie Polski.

Eduard MAR£EK: SpolÚeczna odpowiedzialnos´c´ i s´rodowiskowe zaangazowanie przedsiebiorstw Artykuû prezentuje kierownicz∞ koncepcj‰ tzw. odpowiedzialnego biznesu i dotyczy sytuacji w Europie ƒrodkowej. Odpowiedzialny biznes (OB) to wû∞czenie spoûecznych i årodowiskowych aspektów do operacji przeprowadzanych przez przedsi‰biorstwa, przy jednoczesnym braniu pod uwag‰ udziaûowców i ich zysków.

Opisanych jest kilka wymiarów OB, jego pozytywne i negatywne strony. Autor skupia si‰ tak√e na tym, jak wa√ne jest spoûeczne zaanga√owanie przedsi‰biorstw.

Programy spoûecznego zaanga√owania tworz∞ wst‰pne warunki dla wspóûpracy z organizacjami nienastawionymi na zyski oraz wsparcie dla ich finansowania.

Przedstawione s∞ tak√e samofinansuj∞ce si‰ i spoûeczne przedsi‰wzi‰cia jako

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Summary wyzwania dla organizacji non profit i ich przyszûej równowagi.

BORBÉLY Emese: Odpowiedzialny biznes:

biznes przyszlÚos´ci czy przyszlÚos´c´ biznesu? ƒwiatowi przywódcy √yj∞ pod wzrastaj∞c∞ publiczn‰ presj∞, aby zmniejszy^ powszechny gûód i bied‰ na wsi na caûym åwiecie. Wiara w kapitalizm i wielonarodowe przedsi‰biorstwa si‰ga ju√ dna. Korporacje musz∞ zareagowa^.

Przedsi‰biorstwa nie pytaj∞ ju√ „dlaczego”, pytaj∞ „jak”. Zaûo√enia Odpowiedzialnego biznesu (OB) daj∞ odpowiedz´ na to pytanie. Jednak√e nie jest ûatwo wprowadzi^ do dzisiejszego biznesu koncepcj‰ OB, poniewa√ wi∞√e si‰ to z koniecznoåci∞ zmian organizacyjnych. Nie istnieje jeszcze przedsi‰biorstwo, które odniosûo w tym sukces i mogûoby przedstawi^ zasady dziaûania. Poniewa√ ka√da firma jest jedyna w swoim rodzaju, dlatego te√ ka√da musi znalez´^ swój wûasny sposób. Dziaûanie OB b‰dzie widoczne tylko wtedy, je√eli b‰dzie w peûni zintegrowane z priorytetami przedsi‰biorstwa, a proces b‰dzie podlegaû ci∞gûemu monitoringowi. Spoûeczne korzyåci zasad OB pozostan∞ ograniczone, je√eli OB nie zostanie wû∞czony do szerszych strategii. Polityka spoûeczna ma tutaj do odegrania du√∞ rol‰. Celem jest ustalenie dla biznesu nowych zasad, które respektowaûyby personel, akcjonariuszy, spoûeczeõstwo i årodowisko.

191

Folyókönyv. Önazonosság, kultúra, felelôsség

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Dana £ERMAKOVÁ: Miért indít meg bennünket annyira az önazonosság?

Három különféle szempontból szükséges az „önazonosság” kifejezést szemügyre venni: önazonosság mint az öntudatunk, önazonosság mint hitelesség, és végül önazonosság mint azonosulás egy eszmével vagy csoporttal. A kultúraközi kapcsolatok szempontjából a legfontosabb a harmadik szempont. A világot valamennyien befogadó vagy kizáró csoportokra osztva képzeljük el. Hovatartozásunk keresése és civilizációnk azon alapul, hogy az embereket mint „a mieink”-et és „azokat, ott”, megkülönböztetjük egymástól. E különbségtétel nélkül lehetetlen lenne megtalálni saját hovatartozásunkat. Ugyanennek köszönhetôen elkerülhetjük a veszélyes, idegengyûlölô fekete-fehér látásmódot. Mi több, az önazonosságot egy csoporthoz tartozásként értelmezve tágabb értelemben kulturális hovatartozásnak is fölfoghatjuk.

A kultúrát itt egy olyan elmélet részeként értelmezzük, mely az ember körüli kultúrát elrendezi, és olyan szerkezetként, melyben egy ilyen ember él. A kultúra emez olvasatban a viselkedésünket igazoló rendszer. Ekkor a más csoportok tagjainak értékelése, megítélése és magyarázata alapján fejezzük ki a kulturális különbségeket. Éppen a megítélés és a jogalap szintjén szükséges egy ilyen témával foglalkozni. A kultúra megértése vezet bennünket arra, hogy szelídebben ítéljük meg, mi az idegen; és ez megkönnyíti az egyszerûbb értekezést.

Kate WILSON: Közép-Európában van-e Berlin?

A cikk Közép-Európa határait szándékozik próba alá venni, méghozzá úgy, hogy fölteszi a kérdést: része-e Berlin Közép-Európának. A város történetének kritikai olvasata és néhány ott élt író történeteinek fölidézése segít megállapítani, nevezheti-e magát Berlin egy közép-európai fôvárosnak. A válasz attól függ, hogyan határozzuk meg a „közep”-et; itt Közép-Európának ama helyet tekintjük, ahol a határok egymást metszik, az azonosságtudatok pedig egybeolvadnak. Érvényes volt ez valaha is Berlinre? Mennyiben érvényes a mai régió egyéb területeire?

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Summary

NAGYPÁL Szabolcs: A lappangó angyalok megelevenítése: a WSCF és a magyar keresztény diákmozgalom (1895–1930) A Keresztény Diákok Világszövetsége (WSCF) genfi levéltárában végzett kutatáson alapuló cikk a magyar keresztény diákmozgalom korai történetére összpontosít, és három meglepô eredménnyel szolgál. Elôször is: a magyar ökumenikus diákmozgalom egyike a WSCF elsô mozgalmainak. 1904 óta az elsô tíz olyan keresztény diákmozgalom közt van, amely a WSCF-fel kapcsolatban áll, és része ama húsz keresztény diákmozgalomnak, amelyet elsôként vettek föl a WSCF-be (1924-ben).

Másodszor: tény, hogy a közép-európai országok együttmûködésének régi hagyományai vannak, egészen 1921-tôl. A politikai különbségek ellenére erôs hagyományt teremtettek a WSCF éves délkelet-európai konferenciái (WSCF–SEE).

Megépítették és fönntartották a barátságot, párbeszédet és megbecsülést ama népek közt, akiknek a világ e részén egymás mellett élni rendeltetett. Harmadsorban: Közép-Európának mindig is úttörô szerepe volt a római katolikusok WSCF-be vonásában. A húszas években Franciaországon kívül csak Ausztriában, Csehszlovákiában és Magyarországon vettek föl római katolikus tagokat a diákmozgalmakba. Ily módon a magyar keresztény diákmozgalom a WSCF-ben az elsô két olyan fölvett mozgalom közt volt (ha nem épp a legelsô), ahol nemcsak az elfogulatlan, hanem a szándékoltan teljes körû ökumenizmus volt gyakorlatban.

Elly RIJNIERSE: A kisebbségek és népek hatékony együttmûködése. Példák Közép-Európától Kelet-Európáig.

A „kormányzat”-tól a „kormányzás”-ig és a „nemzeti társadalmi egyezmény”-tôl a „globális társadalmi egyezmény”-ig A közép- és kelet-európai kisebbségek és népek helyzetének és lehetséges stratégiáinak sokszínûsége közepett váltásra van szükség. Váltásra „kormányzat”-ról (melynek jelentése a nemzeti kormányra szûkül) „kormányzás”-ra (amely a helyitôl a globális szintig magában foglalja a közigazgatás minden szintjét csakúgy, mint a nem-kormányzati szerveket). A szerzô e valóság összetettségét a kozmológiai háromszög segítségével taglalja, amellyel számos, a jelen globális politikai helyzetben versengô politikai-intézményi forgatókönyvet azonosít. A társadalmi szerzôdéseknek három fajtáját különbözteti meg, a nemzetit, a globálist, valamint az etnikait avagy vallásit. Ezek három különbözô „világnézet” alapját alkotják. A cikk második felében A kisebbségek szerepe a közép- és kelet-európai nemzetközi és határon túli kapcsolatokban címû tanmûhely beszámolóját vitatja meg, amelyet a Minority Rights Group International és a Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights szervezett 1998-ban. A kérdéseket a kozmológiai háromszög segítségével elemzi.

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Daniel PASTIR£ÁK: A mûvészi teremtésfolyamat lelkisége A szerzô közelrôl vesz szemügyre olyan többértelmû eseteket, melyekben a mûvészi teremtôkészség és a lelkiség egymást fedni látszik. A mûvészi tevékenység folyamatát a beavatástól az ihlet állapotán át a megvalósítás munkájáig követve kutatja az összefüggés nyomait a „lelki” és a „teremtô” között. A beavatás a teremtés, az Írás és a kultúra Igéjétôl van. Az ihlet az összpontosítás, elmélkedés és imádság lelki tudományainak kimunkálására hív el. A megvalósítás során a mûvész jelképpel és mítosszal dolgozik, valamint a képzelet, dramatizálás és dicsôség minôségeivel. A lelkiség és teremtôkészség mindezen területeken szükségszerûen és gyümölcsözôen egyesül.

Iva BERANEK: Mûvészet: képzelet avagy világnézet?

A mûvészet életünk része. Tudjuk, hogy az élet nem semleges, és nem viszonyulhatunk hozzá közömbösen. Ha, ehhez hasonlóan, a mûvészet sem semleges, akkor a mûvészetet erkölcsi szempontból is vizsgálhatjuk. Nem váratlan és meglepô, mindazonáltal, a mûvészet erkölcsiségérôl szólni egy olyan világban, ahol az erkölcsöt gyakran mellôzik, elhanyagolják? Amikor keresztény mûvészetrôl beszélünk, a tágabb értelemben vett keresztény mûvészetet megkülönböztetjük a szûkebb értelmûtôl, amely a szent vagy liturgikus mûvészet. Némelyek a keresztény mûvészetet tágabb értelemben „vallásos”-ként határoznák meg, mely igaz is, ha az isteni valóság bensô megértésére alkalmazzuk. A keresztény mûvészet az imádság gyümölcse kell hogy legyen. Effajta termékeket nevez a domonkos Rajmund KUPAREO a „misztikus sugalmazás termékei”-nek. Nem csak az a keresztény mûvészet, amely bibliai vagy más keresztény témákhoz nyúl. Nem a téma, hanem a mûalkotás lelkülete teszi valakinek az alkotását kereszténnyé vagy nem-kereszténnyé. A mûvészet gazdagsága azt mutatja, hogy sok köze van az élethez. A mûvészet, csakúgy, mint az élet, kiterjedhet a találkozásig az Úrral. Bizonyos mértékig — az emberektôl függôen — már terjed is.

Peter ¥AJDA: Ökumenikus regényírók: a Συµπαρανεκρωµενοιreménysége?

(Tanulmány Andersen és Kierkegaard vitájáról az életszemlélet fontosságáról a regényben) A cikk írója az ANDERSEN és KIERKEGAARD közti, a regényírás elméletét illetô szembenállásra hívja föl az olvasó figyelmét. KIERKEGAARD szerint ANDERSEN regényeibôl hiányzik az életszemlélet, melyet ô minden regény szükséges föltételének tart.

KIERKEGAARD bevezeti a Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι névtelen olvasóközönségét, amely a regényben a mélységet, elfogulatlanságot és az élet-halál összefüggést keresi. A továbbiakban a szerzô az elfogulatlanság, és a halódó filozófus eszméjét vizsgálja. A Συµπαρανεκρωµενοι ihletének termékeny forrásaként az ökumenikus regényírás lappangó lehetôségét ajánlja.

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Summary

Zuzana ¥ICKOVÁ-ME¥KOVÁ: Szöveg és kép különbözô helyzetei

A szerzô a kultúrában különféleképpen elhelyezkedô képekrôl és szövegekrôl ír, amelyek az embereknek segítenek önmaguk, a világ és Isten fölismerésében.

Kulturális szempontból deríti föl és veti össze funkciójukat, nagy értéket tulajdonítva a Bibliának mint „nagy szöveg”-nek. Isten Igéjét képpé alakítani gondot okozhat, mint ahogy fôként a díszes középkori kéziratokon látjuk. A jelképek oldhatják meg e gondokat azáltal, hogy a szövegösszefüggést képpé alakítják. A jelképek eszmék rögzítése által alakítják egy szöveg közlendôjét képes üzenetté. A kép és képzet szabadsága mint az alkotó egyéni fölfogása élte túl a kommunista elnyomást. A mai mûvészetben a szövegnek és képnek önálló léte van, jelentésük többelvûségét is hangsúlyozva. E folyamat az új mûvészeti stílusok széles ívében is megmutatkozik.

Diana RAUCHOVÁ: Vázlat az 1980-as és 1990-es évek szlovák zenei irányzatairól és fejlôdési tényezôirôl Az évezred végi mûvészetet a kifejezésmódok szokatlan sokszínûsége jellemzi.

Korunk elemei megtalálhatóak a múlt és jelenkori európai, Európán kívüli népzene, jazz, rock, pop és a komolyzene keveredésében, összeolvadásában. Az újabb fejlemények (csoportos részvétel az alkotófolyamatban, a számítógépes programok termékei) következtében fölmerülô jelenség a mûtermék szerzôségének hiánya. A zeneszerzésben általánosan alkalmazott módszerek a visszatérések, idézetek, kollázsok és utalások. Másik jellegzetesség a mûvészeti ágak keveredése, ami multimédiás zenéhez és mûvészethez vezet. E sokrétegû folyamattal szemben ellenállás ébred, amelyet a zeneszerzôk legifjabb nemzedéke képvisel. ôk ragaszkodnak a zenei termék mûvészi fölényének komolyságához és magához a szerzôséghez. E fejlôdés belsô anyagcserének, bizonyos törvényeknek és elveknek van kitéve, mindenekelôtt a kiegészítés elvének és az ellentét elvének. A szlovák mûvészet legutóbbi két évtizedének egyik legfontosabb jellemzôje az, hogy a zeneszerzôk nem csupán csatlakoznak a kortárs világ tágabb zenei és mûvészi fejlôdésének progresszív irányzataihoz, hanem együtt is munkálkodnak rajtuk.

Aljo¥a GADøIJEV: Laibach: az erô és a titkok együttese (a közép-európai önkényuralom üvöltése) A szerzô a szlovén zenei-mûvészeti csoportot, a Laibachot mutatja be, mely (még mindig) a világszerte leghíresebb szlovén csapat a „könnyûzenében”. A szerzô megpróbálja végigvezetni az olvasót (és az együttes zenéjének lehetséges hallgatóját) a csapat megjelenésének, munkájának történetén és a róluk szóló kritikai írásokon.

Megkísérli megértetni a hagyományos, modern és posztmodern mûvészeti (fôként zenei) jellemvonásokat, amelyek fontos részei a csapat eklektikus, retrogárd alkotómunkájának. Cikke végén a szerzô kifejti néhány saját nézetét az együttes rejtélyes kétértelmûségérôl, melyet bárki fölismerhet, aki mûvüket, megjelenésüket tanulmányozza. Megmutatja, hogy az önkény (amely a legtöbbet használt eszméjük) a mûvészettel összefüggésben (mely a társadalom tükre) és politikai szervezetével összefüggésben (mely az állam) kétféle módon értelmezhetô, a súlyos erkölcsi helyzetbôl kifelé kászálódva.

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Ivan VOJTA¥¥ÁK: A posztkommunista országok demokratizálódási folyamata és a római katolikus társadalmi tanítás Néhány évvel ezelôtt forradalmi változásokat tapasztalhattunk, amelyek a kommunista ideológia visszaszorításához vezettek. Ennek megtörténtéhez keresztény aktivisták is hozzájárultak. Köztük sok római katolikus volt, akiket a saját egyházuk társadalmi tanítása vezetett. E tanítás tíz pilléren nyugszik, kezdve az emberi méltóságon, egészen a közös jó eszméjéig. Dinamikus, globalizált világban élünk, társadalmi berendezkedésünkben új viszonyok, új csoportozatok jönnek létre, és befolyásolják a hagyományos értékeket. Az emberi társadalmak érzékenysége az értékekre érezhetôen változik. Változó kulturális és történelmi berendezkedésben élünk. A fejlett országokban az értékek a posztmaterialista értékek irányába tolódnak, míg a posztkommunista országokban ezen értékek a túlélés, illetve a világi-racionális pólus felé mozdulnak el. Lehet-e még a római katolikus társadalmi tanítás a társadalmilag elkötelezett keresztények útmutatója a posztkommunizmusból a demokráciába vezetô úton?

Andrzej PAWLUCZUK: A keresztény erkölcstan és az üzleti erkölcstan jelentôsége a közösség társadalmi felelôsségére A cikk a keresztény és az üzleti erkölcstan befolyásával foglalkozik a közösségi társadalmi felelôsségre. Elsô részében a szerzô a jóhiszemû embereket jellemzi. A bôrszín, nemzetiség, hit sokkal kevésbé fontos, mint a személy erkölcse. Utóbbi, a személyi erkölcstan gyakran a tízparancsolaton nyugszik, amely a keresztény erkölcstannak is a talpköve. A cikk második része taglalja az erkölcstan meghatározásait, fôbb elveit és osztályzását, valamint a vezetô szerepét és a vezetés törvényeit. A harmadik rész a közösségi társadalmi felelôsség eszméjérôl szól. A szerzô a meglátásait néhány, Lengyelországban mûködô vállalat példáján keresztül mutatja be.

Eduard MAR£EK: Vállalatok társadalmi felelôssége és részvétele a közösségi életben A cikk a közösségi társadalmi felelôsségnek egyfajta vezetôi elképzelését mutatja be, melynek kapcsán kitér a közép-európai helyzetre is. A közösségi társadalmi felelôsség célja az, hogy egy vállalat üzleti mûveleteibe társadalmi és környezeti szempontokat is bevonjon, miközben a részvényeseket és azok érdekeiket is szem elôtt tartja. A szerzô leírja a közösségi társadalmi felelôsség néhány dimenzióját, elônyét és hátrányát, s végül a hangsúlyt a vállalatok közösségi részvételének fontosságára és különféle módjaira helyezi. A közösségi részvételi programok a non-profit szervezetekkel együttmûködés és költségviselésük támogatásának elôföltételeit is megteremtik. A szerzô elénk tárja egy önfinanszírozó és társadalmi vállalkozás lehetôségét, mely a non-profit szervezeteknek és fönntarthatóságuknak kihívást jelent.

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Summary

BORBÉLY Emese: Közösségi társadalmi felelôsség: az üzlet jövôje vagy a jövô üzlete?

A vezetô beosztású emberekre világszerte egyre növekvô társadalmi nyomás nehezedik amiatt, hogy az éhínség és a szegénység nem csökken a fejlôdô országokban. Ez ingatta meg az embereknek a kapitalizmusba és a multinacionális cégekbe vetett bizalmát. A gazdasági társaságoknak valahogyan reagálniuk kell erre a jelenségre. Az üzleti életben ugyanis már nem az a fô kérdés, hogy „miért”, hanem hogy „hogyan”. Egy lehetséges megoldás az volna, ha a vállalatok komolyan vennék társadalmi felelôsségüket. Ez azonban a gyakorlatban nehezen megvalósítható, mert a gazdasági társaságok komoly szervezeti átalakulását követelné meg. Mivel még egyetlen cég sem járta be teljesen ezen utat, a társaságok számára nincs még követhetô példa. A cégek önállósága és különbözôsége miatt nem is lehet egy általános érvényû modellt javasolni, minden vállalatnak magának kell megtalálnia a helyeset.

Látható eredmény azonban csak akkor érhetô el, ha az erôfeszítés meggyôzôdésbôl fakad és a megoldásra irányuló tevékenységeket folyamatosan ellenôrzik és szükség szerint módosítják. A gazdasági társaságok társadalmi felelôsségébôl fakadó elônyök mindaddig korlátozottak, míg nem épülnek be az országok gazdasági és politikai stratégiájába. A cél az, hogy létrejöjjön egy olyan átfogó üzleti terv, amely figyelembe veszi a munkavállalók, a részvényesek, a társadalom és a környezet érdekeit.

Békés Gellért Ecumenical Insitute (Pannonhalma, Hungary) Established in 2001 by Archabbot V ÁRSZEGI 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 AGYPÁL Szabolcs bgoi@chello.hu

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