A Theological Perspective of Europe

Teološki pogled pretpostavlja Isusa Krista kao bitno mjerilo kojim mjerimo povijest Europe. U Isusu Kristu imamo nov pojam jedinstva koje afirmira razliku i obratno. Kršćanstvo je već u IV. stoljeću postalo državna religija, državna stvar, a to je prestalo biti s Američkom revolucijom 1776. godine i Francuskom revolucijom 1789. godine. Nakon Francuske revolucije religija prestaje biti državna stvar, a postaje stvar društva, pa se politika temelji na individuumu, odnosno na ljudskom umu i dostojanstvu. Europa izrasta iz četverostruke baštine: iz Atene (grčka kultura), iz Rima (rimska kultura), iz Jeruzalema (iz kršćanstva i iz drugih dviju abrahamskih religija) i iz germansko-slavenskih naroda. Bitne snage zaslužne za oblikovanje Europe su: sloboda, odnosno težnja za slobodom, radikalno mišljenje i znanost, trgovina i rani kapitalizam (koji je danas postao globalan), pojava individuuma, svijest historijske promjene i traumatski strahovi izazvani katastrofama. U Europi je vladalo konfrontacijsko mišljenje koje drugoga nastoji potisnuti i ukloniti. Osim konfrontacijskoga bilo je prisutno, osobito nakon Drugoga vatikanskog koncila i Drugoga svjetskog rata, i relacijsko mišljenje u kojem je odnos prema drugome bitan (konstitutivan). Relacijsko mišljenje istodobno afirmira jedinstvo i razliku. Život Crkve jest complexio oppositorum (Čari Schmitt), što se doima kao proturječno jedinstvo jer je kršćanin istodobno vjeran ovome svijetu i eshatonu, a to uključuje kritičku distancu prema ovome svijetu. Želimo li novu Europu i novu Crkvu i sami moramo postati novi ljudi. Moramo se, dakle, obratiti.Theological perspective presupposes Jesus Christ as the essential criterion according to which the future of Europe is measured. In Jesus Christ we have a new concept of unity affirming difference and vice versa. Already in the 4th century, Christianity had become a state religion, a state affair, and it ceased to be that after the American Revolution in 1776 and the French Revolution in 1789. In the wake of the French Revolution, religion ceased to be a state affair, and became a matter of society and, consequently, politics was based on the individual (on human reason and dignity). Europe emerged from a fourfold heritage: from Athens (Greek culture), from Rome (Roman culture), from Jerusalem (from Christianity and the other two Abrahamic religions), and from Germanic and Slavic nations. The essential forces contributing to the shaping of Europe were as follows: freedom (aspiration towards freedom), radical thinking and science, trade and early capitalism, which today have become global, the emergence of the individual, the awareness of historical change and the traumatic fears caused by catastrophes. Europe was dominated by confrontational thinking that attempts to suppress and remove the other. Apart from confrontational thinking, especially after the Second Vatican Council and World War II, relational thinking also emerged in which the relationship towards the other is essential (constitutive). Relational thinking affirms both unity and difference. The life of the Church is complexio oppositorum (Carl Schmitt), which looks like a contradictory unity, because the Christian is at the same time loyal to this world and the Eschaton, which implies the critical distance towards this world. If we want a new Europe and a new Church, then we ourselves have to become new people. Thus, we have to convert