A. JOOS (SAOTROO1)
1
THE SOBORNOSTIC APPROACH OF
ORTHODOX THEOLOGY: ITS ROOTS
AND ITS OUTCOME OVER AGAINST
THE GLOBAL ILLUSIONS OF
SOCIETIES IN RECENT HISTORY
INTRODUCTION: MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND RECTIFICATIONS ABOUT
SOBORNAL INSIGHTS
This contribution is scheduled in the third part of our
symposium:
Orthodox Theology and the Problems Faced by the
Contemporary World , focusing one of the items of the general
problematics of this gathering in its title, Contemporary Orthodox
Theology: Visions and Perspectives . This section should give an
answer to the widespead idea, in western theological circles, that
Orthodox theology is immobilistic and doesn t offer anything specific
after the Fathers of the Church 2. In the line of what Professor
St nilaoe wrote in his volumes on Dogmatics 3, a specific aspect of
his insights has been chosen here, namely: the sobornostic approach
in Orthodox Theology is not only the best way of expressing
ecumenical catholicity of the Church but also to overcome in a
Christian sense or to give an answer from the prospective of
Christian faith to some major narrownesses in common human experience
today (looking also at the recent past). More precisely: sobornostic
conciliarity and conciliation in togetherness is the best way to
prevent the Church to get imprisoned in a universalizing system
from the outside, which globalization seems to be the most recent
example. Looking at the Roman vulnerability, facing the temptation of
various forms of universalization, a concern could be expressed on
the implicit appeal of a similar kind of world outlook and univocal
system of common parameters for human relationships today.
Furthermore, a Theology of God-manly togetherness is not simply an
aspect of
ecclesiology
and not even an aspect of
communion
ecclesiology . Eastern european Orthodoxy of recent centuries has in
fact- proposed this traditional and at the same time original
I
1
The Sobornostic Approach of Orthodox Theology: its Roots and its Outcome over against the Global Illusions of Societies in Recent History, in AA. VV.,
Acts of the International Theological Conference. Contemporary Orthodox Theology: Visions and Perspectives, 9-12 November 2003 (A Tribute to Fr
Dumitru Staniloae on the Occasion of his Centenary), Bucarest 2003, pp. (archivio, file SAOTROO1).
2
E. Inglessis, Maximos IV: L'orient conteste l'occident, Paris 1969, pp. 17-18; Maximos IV, Voix de l'Eglise en Orient, Bâle, 1962, pp. 21-22; M.
d'Herbigny, La vraie notion d'Orthodoxie, in «Orientalia christiana», 1923 n° 7, pp. 3-4; D. Groh, La Russia e l'autocoscienza d'Europa, Torino 1980,
p. 310; (is there o social doctrine of Orthodoxy?); (eastern esthetism, ritualism) P. Tillich, Theology of Culture, New York 1968, p. 18 / A. von
Harnack, Das Wesen des Christentums, Hamburg 1964, S. 142-143; (nothing new after Cabasilas) L. Sertorius,Teologia ortodossa nel XX° secolo, in
AA. VV., Bilancio della teologia del XX° secolo, vol. II, Roma 1972, p. 192; (immobilism) M. Jugie, Eglise grecque, in A. D'Alès, Dictionnaire
apologétique de la foi catholique, fasc. VIII, Paris 1912, col. 366-367; (only a traditional theology) Y. Spiteris, La teologia ortodossa neo-greca, Roma
1992, pp. 93-95.
3
Cfr D. St nilaoe, Teologia dogmatic ortodox , Bucure ti 1978, vol. 2, pp. 283-291.
1
mean: a wording of the mystery which is not overburdened with
narrowing conceptualizations of the past- creative theological model.
An interesting precision is given by the Moscow Patriarchate in 2001:
The Orthodox Church states the distinction between
«Christian
communion», universalism, mondialism (globalism) from one side and
1
«sobornost » (catholicity) from the other
. This distinction
indicates a specific theological methodology beyond the use of the
term sobornost . Such a way of approaching the sobosnostic insight
was already present in some former key interventions of the Russian
Church (Basel 1989) 2.
Considering the section of the Conference where this
contribution is located, the task is not only to look at what
sobornost could be in itself, but mainly what answer it would give
to the urgencies of our contemporary world . Therefore, some steps
will have to be taken in this study: 1° What are some main features
of God-manly sobornostic togetherness as theological keys for
Orthodoxy towards the future , 2° what answer did conciliar sobornal
intuition give to some major traumatic human experiences in recent
history , 3° can we discern a way in which Orthodox symphonicity in
conciliation offers a doorstep beyond a globalizing structuration
of human life today .
TRANSCENDING SOME NARROWNESSES CONCERNING THE SOBORNOSTIC APPROACH TO
THE MYSTERY OF FAITH
Everybody knows how difficult it is to give a convincing
translation
of
sobornost .
Some
would
propose
the
term
commonality , but is this not too external as wording 3? Sobornost
doesn t corrispond to catholicity according to the more recent
Roman interpretation, i. e. universality . A. St. Chomjakov, the
pioneer of the sobornostic wording 4, indicated how universality is
actually contained in the second note of the Credo : holiness, as
universal holiness without exclusions and universality in holiness 5.
Other universalisms could be only various types of messianisms 6.
Kireevskij considers universality as human totality , while Aksakov
opposes the narrowness of the State and the fullness of the Earth
and Chomjakov focusses on the multiform frame of world religions 7.
Catholicity will appear to be pneumato-christological as fullness
of God s dialogue with humanity, in the sense of revelativity in
history
without
substituting
human
values,
excluding
any
universalistic monopoly owned by the structural Church 8: this
1
EGLISE ORTHODOXE RUSSE, Principes fondamentaux régissant les relations de l Eglise orthodoxe russe avec l hétérodoxie, in «La documentation
catholique», 2001 nº 2246, p. 385, «Annexe».
2
.
/ K. Gundjaev,
/ The ecology of the Spirit , in European ecumenical Assembly Peace with Justice , 15-21 May 1989,
Basel (ciclost., 17
. / 17 pp.).
3
R. Smoley, A Glimpse of Eastern Expanses, in «Internet» 2003, http://www.lumen.org/intros/intro31.html.
4
. .
,
. .
(Opera Omnia in russo),
1900, (8 voll.); cfr. G. Cioffari, A.S. Chomjakov
e l'itinerario filosofico della Sobornost', in Nicolaus , 1978 n 1, pp. 87-129; Cfr. A. Joos, Teologie a confronto, vol. 1, Sponde lontane, (Parte III,
cap. 1: Teologia della conciliarità), Vicenza 1982.
5
A.
/ A. Chomjakov,
/ L'Église est une,
/ Paris 1953; A. St. Khomiakov, The Church Is One, (with an introduction
by Archpriest George Grabbe [Bishop + Gregory Grabbe, reposed October 7, 1995]), in «Internet» 2001, http://celticchristianity .org/church1.html: chapter
IV One, holy, catholic, apostolic .
6
.
, . .
,
1912, (Farnborough 1971),
. 209-211.
7
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, pp. 147, 203-205, 242-243.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 281; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 72-73, 96; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 145-147; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans
2
means that not every value is absorbed by the ecclesiastical
structure and integrated in it (integrally, with integrism) but the
world is opening itself to God s mystery 1. Some Roman approach in
Russia, under cover of ecumenical scopes, would even argue against
sobornostic research as being non religious phylosophy and not
being enough universalistic 2(!). Sobornost is less conciliarity
3
than togetherness in the mystery of faith, less sinodality than
togetherness in God-manly multi-unity , as meaning of the ancient
slavonic word which translates, in the 'Credo', the qualification of
the Church: one, holy, catholic i. e. sebornaja - and apostolic 4,
sometimes expressed as free Orthodoxy 5.
SOME MISUNDERSTANDINGS REGARDING THE SOBORNOSTIC INTUITION
There is also an amount of possible misinterpretations regarding
the sobornostic insights. Sometimes, the whole prospective has been
presented as a conservative utopia of the Russian slavophiles 6.
Ethnographically, sobornost has been seen as a re-edition of the old
tribal idea of mir , and further in the zadruga , artel , or
soviet collective 7. Further interpretations would link it to the
event of the liberation of the slaves in the tsarist system 8. But
also in the theological field, there is often an approximative
approach. Conciliarity could have been seen as referring to
collegiality 9. Sometimes, the term would mean synodal , between
sinedrion and synhodos 10. This formal synodal identity seems to
be somehow the limited reception given to sobornostic approach by
father St nilaoe 11. The same can be said about the strict
ecclesiological interpretation of the sobornal perspective 12. There
13
is the inclination of linking it directly with
authority
.
déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990 (traduzione parziale, Kosmodizee, in AA. VV., Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S.
195-245), (Fadeless light), . 401-402.
1
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 285.
2
THE PARISH OF SYZRAN, Religious aspects of Russia's non-religious philosophy, in «Culture and Religion, Church-Unity Internet Center», in
«Internet» 2003, http://www.catholic-church.org/church-unity/rarp_k_e.htm.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990,
. 78 / p. 55.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 86.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l'Église, in J. Jézéquel, FOI ET CONSTITUTION, Lausanne 1928, Paris 1928, p. 297; .
/ S.
Bulgakov, Social Teaching in Modern Russian Orthodox Thought, Diakonia , 1968 n 2, p. 125; .
,
, in
, 1948 n VI,
. 100; .
, . .
,
1912, (Farnborough 1971),
. 80.
6
Cfr la prospettiva dell'articolo: A. Joos, Antropologia e ascetica in Rosmini e Solov'ëv, in AA. VV. Atti del convegno internazionale su A. Rosmini:
filosofia e ascesi, Rovereto 1988.
7
St. R. Chapman, Collectivism in the Russian World View and Its Implications for Christian Ministry, in «East-West Church & Ministry Report 6», Fall
1998, pp. 12-14, etiam in «Internet» 2003, http://www.samford.edu/groups/global/ewcmreport/articles/ew06408.htm.
8
A. M. Amman, Storia della Chiesa russa, Torino 1948, p. 429.
9
B. Botte, La collegialità nel Nuovo Testamento e nei padri apostolici, in AA. VV., Il Concilio e i concili. Contributo alla storia dalla vita conciliare
della Chiesa, Roma 1961, pp. 19 42; Y. Congar, La fonction prophétique de l'Eglise, in «Irénikon», 1951 nº 4, p. 446; idem, Conclusion, in AA. VV., Le
concile et les conciles. Contribution a l'histoire de la vie conciliaire de l Eg1ise, Chevetogne 1960, p. 301; S. Pié i Ninot, La sinodalitat eclesial, Barcelona
1993, p. 13; G. Chantraine, Synodalité, expression du sacerdoce commun et du sacerdoce ministériel?, in «Nouvelle Revue Théologique», 1991 nº113, pp.
348-349; G. Alberigo, Istituzioni per la comunione tra l'episcopato universale e il vescovo di Roma, in: idem (ed.), L ecclesiologia del Vaticano II Dinamismi e prospettive, Bologna 1981, pp. 233-242; P. Delhaye, Concordance de Vatican II. Concordance, Index, Listes de fréquence. Tables
comparatives, Louvain 1974; E. G. Farrugia, Dizionario enciclopedico dell oriente cristiano, Roma 2000, p. 710; L. Schümmer, La collégialité dans la
pensée de la Réforme, in «Revue Réformée», 2002 n° 3, etiam in «Internet» 2003, http://www.unpoissondansle.net/rr/0206/index.php?i=2&d=p.
10
Cfr G. Stemberger, Stammt das synodale Element der Kirche aus der Synagoge?, in «Annuarium historiae conciliorum», 1976 nº 8, S. 1-14; cfr J.
Massonet, "Sanhédrin", in AA. VV., Dictionnaire de la Bible. Supplément XI, Paris 1991, pp. 1353-1413; cfr S. Shilo, "Majority rule", in AA. VV.,
Enciclopedia Judaica 11, Roma 1971, pp. 804-806; G. Leonardi, È ancora attuale il concilio di Gerusalemme? (At 15,1 - 15), in «Credere oggi», 1993
nº 4, p. 39; J. Baycroft, Challenges of The Gift of Authority for the Churches (Lecture given at the Centro Pro Unione, Thursday, 20 January 2000), in
«Centro pro Unione», 2000 n° 58, pp. 18-19.
11
Cfr D. St nilaoe, Teologia dogmatic ortodox , Bucure ti 1978, vol. 2, pp. 283-291.
12
G. Florovsky, The Sacrament Pentecost (originally appeared in the Journal of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, No. 23 (London, 1954; p. 2935). Reprinted by permission of the author. "Consensus Ecclesiae" appeared in No. 24 of the same), in «Internet» 2003,
http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/sacrament_pentecost_florovsky.htm.
13
Cfr AA. VV., Atti del convegno conciliarità e autorità nella Chiesa ,in Nicolaus , 1991, n 1-2.
3
Conciliarity would also sometimes be drawn from concilium in its
institutional outlook, and sobornost
instead- would imply the
intent of institutionalization of the pentarchia 1. Some consider
the term as a key concept of russian ecclesiology: from Philaret
Drozdov, Porphirij Uspenskij, Innokentij Novgorod, Ternovskij,
Amphiteatrov, Makarij Bulgakov 2. A kind of dependency is put
forwards from the russian authors to the german philosophers as Hegel
3
. Others would see in this prospective the idea of the people of
God eventually taken over from the political russian narod nost
4
. The messianistic self-exaltation of the russian narod nost
is
seen as being expressed in the symphonicity of Church and human
community which the term sobornost
recapitulates, and not the
contrary: precisely the gratefullness of the people to have been
converted together (as a whole) to the Christian faith through the
first steps of peaceful evangelization in symphonic togetherness 5.
A Reformed definition has been given: conciliarity is a 'fraternal
Christocracy' 6. Theocracy, according to the lay theologians of
'sobornost'', is the trasformation of "
" (autocracy) into
"absolutism" 7. Strangely, these hints take simply some very
mondane elements to transfer them on sobornost
(cfr infra).
Still others would underline how some inspirers of the sobornostic
intuition depend from Johann Adam Möhler 8. As anticipator of the
ecumenical movement, the ispirers of the sobornostic theology as
Chomjakov, would be seen as converging with the intuitions of von
Hügel in his vision of plurality in unity 9. Finally, the conciling
conciliarity has been seen as a model for christian unity among
different other ecumenical models 10, next to the one of fellowship
11
12
of Churches
or
unity in reconciled diversity
. The
misunderstanding, here, is to narrow the sobornostic intuition to an
ecclesiological ideology.
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE FULL MEANING OF THE SOBORNOSTIC INSIGHTS
As free Orthodoxy 13 sobornostic insight is intended to be a
rediscovery of the initial source of Russian inculturated faith 14. The
originarian russian Orthodox tradition was expressing a dream which
linked the beginnings with the eschatological outcome, ricapitulated by
1
Cfr J. Ratzinger, Church, Ecumenism & Politics, New York 1988, pp. 92-94.
Cfr G. Cioffari, La sobornost nella teologia russa. La visione della Chiesa negli scrittori ecclesiastici della prima metà del XX° secolo, in «Nicolaus»,
1978 n° 6, pp. 259-320.
3
Cfr G. Cioffari, La sobornost nella teologia russa. La visione della Chiesa negli scrittori ecclesiastici della prima metà del XX° secolo, in «Nicolaus»,
1977 n° 2, pp. 87-125.
4
P. Evdokimov, L Ortodossia, Bologna 1965, p. 227; cfr etiam, D. C. Hauser, Roman Catholic Ecclesiology and the Problem of Historicity: Insights from
Origen Scholarship, in «Internet» 1999, http://www.ewtn.com/ library/THEOLOGY/FR93401.TXT.
5
G. Guariglia, Il messianismo russo, Roma 1956.
6
Cfr il prof. Ricca in occasione del convegno del SEGRETARIATO ATTIVITÀ ECUMENICHE (SAE), a Verona il 30/4/89.
7
N. Zernov, La rinascita religiosa russa del XX secolo, Milano 1978, pp. 23, 56; D. A. Chomjakov, L'oeuvre de A. Khomjakov, in A. Gratieux, Le
mouvement slavophile à la veille de la révolution, Paris 1953, pp. 162-163.
8
Y. Congar, Esquisses du Mystère de l'Eglise, Paris 1953, p. 138; cfr etiam, H. Mühlen, Le Saint-Esprit et l'Eglise, I, Paris 1969, p. 25.
9
J. Coulson, Il magistero dell unica chiesa e le sue relazioni col sensus fidelium , in «Concilium» , 1975 nº 8, p. 147; Von Hügel, The Mystical Element in
Religion, (1923) vol. 1, pp. 66-67 ; A. Chomjakov, Lettre au rédacteur de l'Union Chrétienne, à l'occasion d'un discours du père Gargarine, Jésuite,
(1860), in AA. VV., L Eglise Latine, Lausanne 1872, p. 398.
10
G. Cioffari, Quale modello ecclesiologico e canonico di autorità e di conciliarità presenta la Chiesa cattolica in rapporto alle altre Chiese, con
particolare riferimento all'ecclesiologia russa?, in S. Manna, Koinonia e ordinamento canonico della Chiesa, in «O odigos - la guida», 1995 nº 2, p. 3.
11
GROUPE MIXTE DE TRAVAIL ENTRE L'EGLISE CATHOLIQUE ROMAINE ET LE CONSEIL OECUMENIQUE DES EGLISES, Eglise:
locale et universelle, in Information service 1990 nº 74, p. 85 n 49; GLAUBEN UND KIRCHENVERFASSUNG, Dokumente FO/72:20, Genf
1972, p. 10.
12
M. M. Garija-Guembe, Unidad en una diversidad reconciliada, in «Dialogo ecumenico», 1995 nº 96, pp. 67-68, 77.
13
.
, . .
,
1912, (Farnborough 1971),
. 80.
14
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, Le fonti e il significato del comunismo russo, Milano 1976, p. 45.
2
4
this term "sobornost'" 1, sometimes drawn from sobirat 2. The 'sobor'
is at the same time the gathering of the elderly counselors with the
prince, the central church building (cathedral) in the midst of the
city, the Church s council of the responsible authorities and the
Christian community in a living consensus of community with the
decisions of its leaders 3. The 'sobor' is the capacity to realize the
whole Christian venture all together, which means togetherness or
togetherability . The structures of 'conciliarity' are only a part or
an aspect of this internal availability to include all in the uniting
experience of everything what concerns the Christian life 4.
Beyond ecclesiologies
Sobornost
would be a
third
Christian intent (cfr our
conclusion in convergency with the observations of Pr. Popescu, somehow
different than the discernement which follows): beyond authoritarian
juridical legitimism (roman) and individualistic perpetually beginning
again (reformative) 5, with a mutually individualized garantism: the
man (the Pope for the Romans) 6 and the text (the Bible for the
Reformed) 7. Convergently, the discussion on legitimism from God 8,
from the consensus of society as opposed to God 9, as argumentation for
or against the revolutions, will condition the whole ecclesiological
discussion 10. It is somehow the Church beyond the Church, in a deecclesiologized understanding of the Church in the same way that the
eastern Fathers themselves did not ecclesiologize theoretically or
11
talk about the Church as a something
. Sobornost
would be the
process of becoming one experiencially in mind, heart and soul (in
the eastern patristic meaning of tridimensional anthropology and in
typical eschatological prospective) 12. This opens the plateform of
ecumenicity far beyond the restricted ecclesiological matrix 13.
The Church as conciliability is iconographically evoqued as the
cyborium where all the gifts of the Spirit (the 7 gifts) can be
harmonized together in their diversity 14. The Orthodox reluctance to
separate Church and State has a similar relevance: not to close
everything up in ecclesiology and not to transform the Church in a
central operational appropriation of all the initiatives of the Spirit
15
. Therefore, sobornostic theology would prefer to use a typology of
1
.
/ S. Bulgakov,, One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, in «The Christian East», 1931, V. XII, p. 99: idem, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 96.
Y. Congar,
, Paris 1954, p. 391.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 102, 92, 103.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 78: .
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l' Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et
Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 297.
5
Cfr J. Macquarrie, Twentieth Century Religious Thought, London 1971, p. 205; Y. Congar,
, Paris 1954, p. 391.
6
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, pp. 192-193.
7
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, pp. 190-191.
8
Abbé Jager, Histoire de l'Eglise de France pendant la révolution, Bruxelles 1853, tome I, pp. 18-20.
9
B. Plongeron, L'Eglise et la révolution, in Documents épiscopat , 1988 n 8, p. 5.
10
C. Lefort, Préface, in E. Quinet, La révolution, Alençon 1987, p. 10.
11
A. Schmemann, Church, World, Mission, New York 1979, p. 21.
12
C. de Hueck Doherty, Sobornost. Expreriencing Unity of Mind, Heart and Soul, Combermere (Cn), 2000 (118 pp.); idem, A talk on Sobornost, (video),
Combermere (Cn), 2000.
13
Cfr A. Bellini, Un'apertura ecumenica, in «Oikumenikon», 1971 nº1, pp. 123-146; H. Fries, Die ö kumenische Dimension der Fundamentaltheologie,
in «Ökumenische Rundschau», 1973 Nº 2, S. 224-225.
14
. .
,
.
,
1988,
. 18-29; .
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La
colonna e il fondamento della verità, in idem,
, . IV, (
1917)
1989,
. 376-377 / Milano 1974, p.
440.
15
Cfr a possibile interpretation in this sense: in A. Schmemann, Church, World, Mission, New York 1979, p. 32.
2
5
the Church as 'ob ina' (free brotherly togetherness)
dru ina (tied solidarily militia) 2.
1
instead of
Towards full theological relevance
The capacity of sobornal theology to face the urgencies and the
newness
of theological problematics is often recognized 3. The
christological reference of
conciliar
view seems frequently
prioritarian 4. It could be also indicated as the Church considered
from the double eschatological economy of Christ and the Spirit 5,
already prospected by Vl. Losskij 6. This dyadic dimension animates the
sobornostic insight 7. It is not so much an apokathastasis than
rather a panentheosis 8, equally mystical and historical 9. There
is a convergent element of this beyond with the fact that the
'ecclesiological mark' of unity is defined by the Orthodox Churches as
'akribeia', while the 'oikonomia' seems to stretch over this key, up to
the 'complexive Wisdom' in the Church, not the rigorous and tightened
ecclesial formulation but the flexible and concrete perception of the
urgencies of the people of God 10. In the same way, conciliability
cannot be reduced to the sole moral or juridical laws of the Church
institution 11. It is an answer to the question of history The answer
to the problem of history as given by Eastern Christianity is
contained in the concept of "Sobornost" 12. From creation towards
full transfiguration 13, it is the Spirit who operates the feminine
relationality in acceptance of God s presence (as in Mary) 14. The
eschatological dimension is a guiding priority 15, in the sense of
radical not exclusion and not isolation of any person or of any
christian quality or value 16. The cosmical dimension of catholicity
is fundamentally drawn from its eucharistical source 17. The main scope
of sobornal theology is the reconciliation of faith and culture : It
is necessary for the fullest development of man as a psychologicalspiritual reality to reconcile Christianity and culture, and in
1
A. Gratieux, Le mouvement slavophile à la veille de révolution, Paris 1953, pp. 61-62 ; .
/ Vl. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
, . IV / Der grosse Streit und die christliche Politik, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, vol. II,
1967 / Freiburg in Breisgau 1957,
. 4, 19-21 / pp. 20, 41-42.
2
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
(Chomjakov),
1912,
. 196-197.
3
P. Coda, L altro Dio, Roma 1998, p. 58.
4
Y . de Moncheuil, Aspects de l 'Eglise, Paris 1948, pp . 64- 65; JOINT WORKING GROUP (JOINT THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION) OF THE
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, Catholicity and Apostolicity, in «One in Christ», 1971 n° 3, p. 445;
Y. Congar, Chrétiens désunis, Paris 1957, p. 117.
5
J. Zizioulas, The Orthodox Church and the Third Millennium. (Balamand Monastery - December 4, 1999), in «Internet» 2001, http://www
.balamand.edu.lb/theology/ZizioulasLecture.htm.
6
B. Bobrinskoy, The Church and the Holy Spirit in 20th Century Russia, in «The Ecumenical Review», 2000 July, p. 5, etiam in «Internet» 2003,
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2065/3_52/66279073/p1/article.jhtml?term=.
7
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 311; .
/ S. Bulga kov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris
1944,
. / p. 284.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of God, London 1937, pp. 216, 218.
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, (traduction d'un paragraphe de
,
1945), in «Le Messager Orthodoxe», 1969
n° 46-47, pp. 23-24.
10
INTERORTHODOX COMMISSION IN PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT GREAT AND HOLY COUNCIL OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH,
Towards the great Council, London 1972, pp. 48-52 nº IV.
11
J. D. Zizioulas, La communauté eucharistique et la catholicité de l 'Eglise, in Istina , 1971 n 3, pp. 68, 79; JOINT WORKING GROUP (JOINT
THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION) OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, Catholicity and
Apostolicity, in «One in Christ», 1971 n° 3, p. 456.
12
Ch. B. Ashanin, Eastern Orthodoxy As a Theological Task, in «Internet» 2003, http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1960/v16-4-article5.htm, p. 490.
13
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità, in idem,
,
. IV, (
1917)
1989,
. 326 / Milano 1974, pp. 387-388.
14
O. Clément, Anachroniques, Paris 1990, p. 127.
15
Y. de Moncheuil, Aspects de l 'Eglise, Paris 1948, p. 66; J .N D. Kelly, 'Catholic' and 'Apostolic' in the early centuries, in «One in Christ», 1971 n°
3, pp. 279-280.
16
J. Grillmeyer, The Mystery of the Church, in AA. VV., Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, op. cit., vol. I, p. 168; .
/ N.
Afanas ev,
(La Chiesa cattolica), in
, op. cit.,
. 39.
17
J. D. Zizioulas, La communauté eucharistique et la catholicité de l'Eglise, in Istina , 1971 n 3, pp. 80-81.
6
Eastern Christianity this is achieved by the creation of a spiritual
and religious atmosphere in which the world of the soul experiences
the power and love of the spirit, not as its enemy, but as its
saviour 1. Sobornization has nothing to do with ecclesiocracy It is
an expression of divine hospitality, fully drawn from the mystery of
philoxenia expressed in the iconic approach (cfr infra).
CHAPTER I
THREE MAIN OUTLINES AS THEOLOGICAL ROOTS OF
GOD S M YSTERY A S B EIN G TOGETH ER W ITH
H UM A N ITY TH ROUGH TRA D ITION A L A N TIC IPA TION S
AND THEOLOGICAL MEDITATION
This first part aims to indicate how the sobornostic key is a
constant element in Russian Christian intuition and how the sobornostic
awareness can be theologically developped.
ANTICIPATIONS ALONG THE RUSSIAN TRADITION
According to the inquirers on the sobornostic insights, this
theological approach is deeply rooted in the Orthodox slavic tradition
and came slowly to an explicit view. The main key of the sobornal
approach is drawn from the conviction that each Church tradition has a
specificity to offer to the whole Christian venture: the task of these
researchers is to evidentiate the Russian one, from its roots or
germs 2, starting from the initial ones of Cyrill (Constantine) from
Macedonia (Constantinople) 3. Let us look first at the witnesses
gathered about the sobornal anticipations.
UNDERSTANDING THE ANTICIPATION OF SOBORNOSTIC PRIORITY OF
IN THE SPIRIT BEYOND ANY SYSTEMATIC RATIONAL IMPERATIVE
FREEDOM
The most simplified way of sketching the sobornostic image of the
Church was the reference to the free fraternal togetherness 4, from
the Russian term 'ob ina' (non strongly organized free fraternity)
5
, as different from dru ina (an organized group in solidarity
based on affinity and existing for a common finality) 6. It recalls
the typology of the sobor (not exactly the same as chram ) or the
State as fraternity, with the desired optimal outcome of free (i. e.
not in coaction) unanimity, and where each would renounce to its
individuality for the good of all 7. The Orthodox Russian tradition
confirms a progressive process towards this approach, from the
initial
free
evangelization (not as a consequence of foreign
1
Ch. B. Ashanin, Eastern Orthodoxy As a Theological Task, in «Internet» 2003, http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1960/v16-4-article5.htm, p. 496.
F. Rouleau, Ivan Kiréievski et la naissance du slavophilisme, Namur 1990, p. 195; .
, Vl. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
. .
,
/ La grande controverse de l'orient et de l'occident et la politique
chrétienne,
1966 / Paris 1943,
. 41, 50 / pp. 89, 98; N. A. Berdjaev, Le fonti e il significato del communismo russo, Milano 1976, p. 45;
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, p. 324; G. Steiner, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, London 1980, p. 290 (St. Isaac the Syrian).
3
M. Lacko, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Rome 1963, p. 18.
4
D. A. Chomjakov`, Orthodoxie, autocratie, nationalité, in A. Gratieux, Le mouvement slavophile à la veille de la révolution, Paris 1953, p. 146.
5
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, p. 223; A. Gratieux, Le mouvement slavophile à la veille de la révolution, Paris 1953, pp. 61-62.
6
D. A. Chomjakov, Orthodoxie, autocratie, nationalité, in A. Gratieux, Le mouvement slavophile à la veille de la révolution, Paris 1953, pp. 61-62,
146; A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, p. 223.
7
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, pp. 244, 261, 277.
2
7
dominion) 1 in a direct incultured way 2, where the community is prior
to the individual 3: from the freedom spirituality experienced as
the spirituality of the Russian pilgrim 4, from the re-assessment
of monastic life inspired by S. Sergius as flexible freedom in the
Spirit rather than collective discipline 5, but also with Vasilij
Bla ennij who witnesses freedom over against autocracy and the
jurodivye or fools for Christ 6, or the spirituality of the
7
prayer of the heart
. If we accept that some
theological
contribution is possible from lay literary geniality, the impressive
witness of the Legend of the Great Inquisitor evoques to us the
figure of the simple Pilgrim in Sevilla accused by the mighty
clerical exponent as supreme reproval- to have given His freedom
8
, echoed in the freedom of the spirit beyond any human experience
9
. This is the reason why esthetism cannot be at the bottom of
Christian theology, it would evacuate free discernement 10: beauty
is only
enigmatic
(near to an illusory search for
superior
perfections ) 11, or in other words- it is binding evil in golden
chains 12. But freedom is also iconic (not conceptually rational
and not as artistic esthetism of beauty 13): inner illumination to
become very similar or prepodobny 14 -through the antinomy of
discontinuity by means of the strangeness of figurative features 15beyond the mask of external human skin 16; otherwise freedom would
be a labirinth where one can get lost 17! The inquiry is open to
explore the underground inside of this freedom , as did Dostoevskij
18
. The falsification of the togetherable insight will be that full
symphonicity can be realized by an earthly
empire
even a
Christian one 19; free unity is a prophetic promise which realises
1
D. Obolensky, Il commonwealth bizantino, Roma 1974, p. 26; T. pidlík, Spiritualità russa, Roma 1978, pp. 12-13; D. i evskij, Storia dello spirito
russo, Firenze 1965, p. 31
2
N. Arsen ev, La piété russe, Neuchatel 1963, p. 74; D. i evskij, Storia dello spirito russo, Firenze 1965, pp. 29-30.
3
.
/ I. Kologrivov,
/ Essai sur la sainteté en Russie,
1991 / Bruges 1953,
. 19 /
p. 17.
4
G. Guariglia, Il messianismo russo, Roma 1956, p. 47; Anonyme, Récit d'un pèlerin russe à son père spirituel, Neuchatel 1965, p58; N. Arsen ev, La piété
russe, Neuchatel 1963, p. 19.
5
P. Kovalevskij, Saint Serge et la spiritualité russe, Paris 1958, pp. 30, 59, 136, 151-152; Metr. Serafim, L'Eglise orthodoxe, Paris 1952, p. 182; D.
i evskij, Storia dello spirito russo, Firenze 1965, pp. 136-137; G. Guariglia, Il messianismo russo, Roma 1956, pp. 42-43; D. Obolensky, Il commonwealth
bizantino, Roma 1974, pp. 424-426.
6
D. i evskij, Storia dello spirito russo, Firenze 1965, pp. 136-137; N. Arsen'ev, La piété russe, , Neuchatel 1963, p. 107; P. Kovalevskij, Saint Serge et
la spiritualité russe, Paris 1948, p. 136; Archimandrita Spiridione, Le mie missioni in Siberia, in T. pidlík, La spiritualità russa, Roma 1981, pp. 124-125.
7
Anonyme, Récit d'un pèlerin russe à son père spirituel, Paris 1948, pp. 84-85, 114-115; Epifanio il Saggio, Vita di San Sergio di Radonez, in T. pidlík,
La spiritualità russa, Roma 1981, pp. 44-45.
8
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980,
I / Torino 1981, vol. 1,
. 312-13 ( . I) / pp.
336-337 (V. I).
9
N. Kazantzakis, Ascetica, Reggio Emilia 1982, p. 57.
10
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Il senso della storia,
1923 / Milano 1977,
. 153-154 / pp. 109-110.
11
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ Delitto e castigo,
1970 / Torino 1983,
. 8 / p. 6; .
/ F.
Dostoevskij,
/ L' idiota,
1970,
I / Torino 1984,
. 93-94 / p. 79; .
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ L' idiota,
1970,
I / Torino 1984,
. 97 / pp. 81-82; .
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ L' idiota,
1970,
I / Torino 1984,
. 98 / p.
82; .
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980,
I / Torino 1981, vol. 1,
. 145 / p. 144.
12
Filon d Alexandrie, 8 traité de la 1 ennéade, Paris 1958, p. 130.
13
V. Vs. Ivanov, Introduzione, in P. A. Florenskij, Attualità della parola, Milano 1989, p. 22; cfr .
/ P. Florenskij,
,
1922, pp. 92-93; cfr R. Faccani e M. Marzaduri: Ju. M. Lotman - B. A. Uspenskij, Tipologia della cultura, Milano 1975; E.
Trubeckoj, Contemplazione nel colore, Milano 1977, pp. 18-21.
14
L. Ouspensky, La théologie de l'icone dans l'Eglise orthodoxe, Paris 1960, vol. I, pp. 186-187.
15
P. Evdokimov, L'art de l'icône, théologie de la beauté, Bruxelles 1972, p. 63 ; L. Ouspensky, La théologie de l'icone dans l'Eglise orthodoxe, Paris 1960,
vol. I, pp. 194, 200.
16
P. Evdokimov, L'art de l'icône, théologie de la beauté, Bruxelles 1972, p. 32.
17
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La prospettiva rovesciata, in idem,
, in idem,
, . I / La prospettiva rovesciata ed altri scritti,
1985 / Roma 1983,
. 171 / pp. 122-123.
18
L. estov, La filosofia della tragedia, Napoli 1950, pp. 33-34.
19
Cfr .
/ V. Solov'ëv,
/ I tre dialoghi,
1954 / Torino 1975; .
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II,
8
itself through rivelative regeneration of the Christian promise 1.
New freedoms of the Spirit were born out of the trauma of the years
1917 2. The invitation is to be prophetically attentive to the most
significative signs of the times 3, overcoming all obstacles from
4
inside
and
outside
letting the
deep
history meet the
5
phenomenological one .
UNDERSTANDING THE ANTICIPATION OF SOBORNOSTIC PRIORITY OF PARITY IN
EQUALITY OF ALL, BEYOND ANY INDIVIDUALISM, IN THE DIVINO-HUMAN
FULLNESS
The russian sobornostic meditation on this priority focusses
mainly on the purification of intent about the so-called
superiority of the divine. The initial stress will be given on
renouncing to see holiness as superior heroism 6, and evacuating
any stress on merits 7, which would be only individualistic selfexaltation 8, or for Christ- auto-deification 9. Individuality on
its own is only an end 10. Christ s profile is substantially non
heroical : any hyperbolism is a path towards the Antichrist 11. Even
monastic life is not considered as suche a superior heroic status
12
. Non heroism and kenotic enslavement has been the historical
experience of the tartaric invasion for two centuries 13 (preferable
to teutonic catholic expansionism 14 with the polish talk that
15
russians were
turks
), healing any spiritual trend to
16
17
superiority
and a christian thirst for
victory
,
18
omnipotence is put aside . Heroic discipline could be only pride
(cfr the words of Starets Zossima) 19. Emptying oneself, the Christ of
all perfections shifts over in the figure of the idiot , without any
superiority over the others 20. This divino-human assimetry is also
Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 372 / S. 96 ss; cfr anche idem,
, in idem,
, T. III,
. 169-170 /
Lectures on Godmanhood, London 1948, pp. 197-198.
1
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
/ L'idée russe, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Deutsche
Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 29 / pp. 80-81.
2
T. Gori eva, Nous chrétiens d'Union soviétique, Paris 1989, p. ll.
3
GROUPE DES DOMBES, L'Esprit-Saint, l' Eglise et les sacrements, in La documentation catholique , 1980 n 1785, p. 432, n 82; WORLD
ALLIANCE OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES - ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUE, The Presence of Christ in
Church and World, in Information Service , 1977 n 35, p. 26, n 58; M. Russotto, Profezia. Il coraggio della parola debole, in Ricerca , 1995 n 4,
pp. 6-7; S. Agourides, The social Character of Orthodoxy, in A. J. Philippou, The Orthodox Ethos, Oxford 1964, pp. 212-218.
4
.
/ S. Bulga kov,
,
1943,
. 137, 139-141, 280, 282, 285-286, 316-317.
5
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, De l esclavage et de la liberté de l homme, Paris 1963, p. 291.
6
P. Kovalevskij, Saint Serge et la spiritualité russe, Paris 1958, p. 26; .
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il
fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano 1974,,
. 30-31, 450 / pp. 80-81, 501-502.
7
Vl. Losskij, Théologie mystique de l'Eglise d'Orient, Paris 1946, p. 194; L. A. Zander, Dostoievsky et le problème du bien, Paris 1946, pp. 160-161.
8
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano
1974,,
. 341-342 / pp. 403-404.
9
Archim. Sophrony, La félicité de connaître la voie / (
), Genève 1988, p. 44.
10
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Gli spiriti della rivoluzione russa, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 /
Milano 1971,
. 95-97 / pp. 81-83; D. Mere kovskij, Tolstoj e Dostoevskij: vita, creazione, religione, Bari 1947, p. 138.
11
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des
Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 329-330 / S. 42-43.
12
Metr. Serafim, L'Eglise orthodoxe, Paris 1952, pp. 198-199.
13
R. Grousset, L'épopée des croisades, Paris 1939, pp. 26-27; .
/ A. Schmemann,
,
1954,
. 344; cfr A. Joos, Non violenza e resistenza nella storia del cristianesimo russo, in Hermeneutica , 1985 n 5, pp. 167-229; A. Joos, Pace come
sinergia nell' esperienza cristiana russa ortodossa, in Lateranum , 1987 n 1, pp. 111-190; A. Joos, L' originalità cristiana, ortodossa russa, nel
millenario della evangelizzazione e nelle sue reLazioni con l'esperienza cristiana veneta, in Studia patavina , 1988 n 1, pp. 1-151 (vedere il cap. II dei
vari studi).
14
P. Pascal, Histoire de Russie, Paris 1949, p. 27.
15
D. Groh, La Russia e l'autocoscienza dell'Europa, Torino 1980, pp. 22, 33.
16
G. Guariglia, Il messianismo russo, Roma 1956, pp. 42-43.
17
L. A. Zander, Dostoievsky et le problème du bien, Paris 1946, pp. 160-161, 174.
18
O. Clément, Anachroniques, Paris 1990, pp. 110-111.
19
.
,
/ F. Dostoevskij, I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
. 50-51 (V. I), / p. 38 (V. I).
20
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ L'idiota,
1970,
II / Torino 1984,
. 341 / p. 602.
9
specific of russian Orthodox theology 1. Without inner dispossession
there is only delusion 2. A typology of leadership in
non
superiority is anticipated in the service of the startsy by means
of their cardiognosia 3, healing the person and bringing her back
to its inner totality 4. Between the strictness of severity (and
akribeia) they advise the smooth way of humble love in considering
the sins and weaknesses of people (oikonomia) 5. Their status is not
an official one (superior) 6. Their ministry of reading into the
souls was the compenetration of eremitic life and service to all 7,
or also to realize the convergency in each person of freedom in the
Spirit
and togetherness 8. The most negative expression, which
contradicts the sobornal way of life, is the uedinenie or the
sredostenie of the Tsar, his isolation above Russia as a whole.
The ministry of star estvo realized also in the west its rivelative
spiritual service 9.
UNDERSTANDING THE ANTICIPATION OF THE SOBORNOSTIC PRIORITY OF NON
AGGRESSIVE TOGETHERNESS BEYOND ANY DEFENSIVE FOLDING BACK
If Love is the key relationality of Sobornost , the first
convergent intuition of this priority has been experienced as being
touched by evangelical tenderness and moved to conversion in the
initial evangelization of the russian people through its typical
umilenie 10, anticipated by Maria s quality of acceptance to God 11.
This
is not ecclesiocentrical but a kind of getting in
love with the whole creation 12. This evangelical tenderness through
the emergence of compassion (suffering with the others) 13 is a
throughout dis-agressivization of the human heart in conversion
(dissolving the compact self-confidence of the mind) 14, through
1
G. H. Williams, Georges Vasilievi Florovskij: His American Career / 1948-1965/, in The Greek Orthodox Theological Review , 1965 n 1, pp.
66-69; G. Florovski, As the Truth is in Jesus, in The Christian Century 1951, p. 1458; G. Florovski, On the Tree of the Cross, in St. Vladimir's
Seminary Quarterly , 1953, n° 3/4. p. 17
2
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
,
1956, T. III / Die geistige Grundlagen des
Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 315 / S. 24-25.
3
D. i evskij, Storia dello spirito russo, Firenze 1965, pp. 200, 300; N. A. Berdjaev, Le fonti e il significato del comunismo russo, Milano 1976, p. 27; P.
Kovalevskij, Saint Serge et la spiritualité russe, Paris 1958, p. 148; N. Zernov, Rinascita religiosa russa nel XX° secolo, Milano 1978, p. 280; P.
Evdokimov, La connaissance de Dieu selon la tradition orientale, Lyon 1967, p. 79.
4
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità, in idem,
,
. IV, (
1917)
1989,
. 463 / pp. 501-502.
5
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980,
I / Torino 1981,
. 405 (T. I) / 423 (V.
I).
6
N. Arsen ev, La Sainte Moscou, Paris 1948, pp. 36-37; N. A. Berdjaev, Le fonti ed il significato del comunismo russo, Milano 1976, p. 27; D.
i evskij, Storia dello spirito russo, Firenze 1965, p.300.
7
P. Kovalevskij, Saint Serge et la spiritualité russe, Paris 1958, p. 148.
8
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
. 27 / pp. 50 (V. I).
9
O. Clément, L autre soleil, Paris 1986, pp.155-161; E. Bianchi - O. Clément - I. Zizioulas, Silvano dell Athos, Bose 1999; Archimandrita Sofronio, Starets
Silouane Moine du Mont-Athos 1866-1938. Vie Doctrine Ecrits, Milano 1998 (traduzione italiana a cura della Comunità di Bose: Silvano del Monte
Athos. La vita, la dottrina, gli scritti).
10
Metr. Serafim, L'Eglise orthodoxe, Paris 1952, pp. 198-199.
11
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano
1974,
. 378 / pp. 417-418; N. A. Berdjaev, Le fonti e il significato del comunismo russo, Milano 1976, p. 176.
12
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano
1974,
. 288, 352 / p. 347, 414.
13
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, Dialectique existentielle du divin et de l humain, Paris 1947, p. 89; E. Trubeckoj, I grandi mistici russi, Roma 1977,
p. 351; .
/ I. Kologrivov, I santi russi, Milano 1977, p. 12; A. Jel aninov, Diario, in T. pidlík, Spiritualità russa, Roma 1978, p. 167.
14
N. Arsen ev, La piété russe, Neuchatel 1963, pp. 74-75; L. A. Zander, Dostoievsky et le problème du bien, Paris 1946, p. 29; Archimandrita Spiridione, Le mie
missioni in Siberia, in T. pidlík, Spiritualità russa, Roma 1981, p. 14; .
,
, in idem,
,
. IV, / P. Florenskij, La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1917 / Milano 1974,
. 288 / p. 347; I. Smoltisch, Leben und Lehre der
Starzen. Der Weg zum volkommenen Leben, Freiburg in Breisgau 1988, S. 32; J. Stoffels, Die mystische Theologie Makarius des Ägypters und die
ältesten Ansätze christlicher Mystik, Bonn 1908, S. 147-149; N. Arsen'ev, Ostkirche und Mystik, München 1943, S. 129-133; I. Hausherr, La méthode
d'oraison hésychaste, in «Orientalia christiana periodica», 1927 nº 36, pp. 119 (ss.).
10
hesychìa or inner pacification of the heart 1 by means of the non
method of the prayer of the heart or prayer of Jesus 2. Such a
compassion or suffering with the others (
) is born from
the dolor amoris Dei 3. It is the revelation that God is sympathy
4
. Any anti-pagan campaigns disappears in the conviction that all are
guilty for everything towards all 5. A new path of interpretation is
offered concerning martyrdom as non resistence to evil (sometimes
recognized in the west, and taken over by Tolstoj, where it could
come out in historical suicide) 6, starting from the first saints
Boris and Gleb 7. Truth will be a disarmed truth in non resistence
8
. Overcoming all feelings of aggressive victimism, the mystery of
God s Love is a
disarmed mystery , as in the icon of God s
philoxenia through the fully disarmed and disarming figures of
the three pilgrims 9: the highest Tomos of trinitarian doctrine 10
and transparent mystery of God s togetherness 11, in the antinomy of
God wholly other and wholly near to us 12. Christ Himself is
taking away the arms from our hands, one by one 13. The preferential
criterium to withdraw and run away from confrontation in force will
be a sign of this non resistence (as Rublëv was a kind of
fuggitive ) 14, even through the phenomenon of the russian Raskol
and the inside persecutions in Russia. In this teaching, not even the
aggressive signs of victimistic passion of Christ are part of the
iconic vision 15. But also in public life, the initial kievian (and
novgorodian
suzdalian) period has been a pre-intuition of sobornal
togetherness in assisting the poor, the old 16, in an overall
symphonicity of civil life and ecclesial presence 17, overcoming the
western idea of the relationship between Church and public community
as two forces in confrontation 18 The conflictual choice or Christ
or the world is overstepped in a divine philanthropia towards
humanity 19. Shifting to the moscovian third Rome , sobornostically
1
M. Lot-Borodine, La déification de l'homme, Paris 1971, pp. 70-86; J. Meyendorff, L'Eglise orthodoxe hier et aujourd'hui, Paris 1960, p. 172.
J. Meyendorff, L'Eglise orthodoxe hier et aujourd'hui, Paris 1960, p. 173.
3
Archim. Sophrony, La félicité de connaître la voie / (
), Genève 1988, pp. 152-153.
4
O. Clément, Dio è simpatia. Bussola spirituale in un tempo complicato, Como 2003, p. 21.
5
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
. 354-355 (T. I) / pp. 383-384 (V. I)
6
.
/ I. Kologrivov,
/ Essai sur la sainteté en Russie,
1991 / Bruges 1953,
. 7879 / pp. 75-76; H. Urs von Balthasar, Glaubhaft ist nur Liebe, Einsiedeln 1963, S. 41 (e contra R. Guardini, Religiö se Gestalten in Dostojewky' s Werk,
München 1951, S. 71); D. i evskij, Storia dello spirito russo, Firenze 1965, p. 326; .
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Il senso della
storia,
1923 / Milano 1977,
. 99-101 / p. 85..
7
Cfr L. R. Zander, Dostoievsky et le problème du bien, Paris 1946, pp. 101-102; R. Guardini, Religiö se Gestalten in Dostojewskij' s Werk, München
1951, S. (69), 85; N. Arsen'ev, La piété russe, Neuchatel 1963, pp. 70-71.
8
.
/ B. Pasternak,
/ Doktor ivago,
1957 / Milano 1970,
. 33-34 / pp. 50-51.
9
Daniel Ange, L'étreinte de feu, Paris 1980, pp. 67, 208, 242; T. Spidlik, La spiritualità russa, Roma 1981, p. 29.
10
B. Bobrinskoj, Introduction, in Daniel Ange, L'étreinte de feu, Paris 1980, p. XV; L. Grabar, Preface, in URSS, icônes anciennes de Russie, Paris
1958, p. 5; A. M. Amman, Storia della Chiesa russa, Torino 1948, p. 117; P. Evdokimov, L'Art de l'icone, Bruxelles 1972, p. 206; I. Grabar, Préface,
in URSS, Icônes anciennes de Russie, Paris 1958, p. 5; V. Lasareff, Introduction, in URSS. Icones anciennes de Russie, Paris 1958, pp. 14-15; A. M.
Amman, Storia della Chiesa russa, Torino 1948, p. 117; (per l' evoluzione che culmina con il tipo della Trinità dipinto dal Rublëv si veda la breve
esposizione di S. Alpatov, in «Byzantinische Zeitschrift», 1924 vol. XXIV , S. 490-492; T. T. Rice, A Concise History of Russian Art, London 1963, pp.
34-36; D. Ange, L' étreinte de feu, Paris 1984; P. Evdokimov, L' art de l' icône, Bruxelles 1972, pp. 206-207; 214-215; U. Fabricius, Ikonen,
Jesus-Christus, Recklinghausen 1957, S. 12-13; T. Talbot Rice, A concise History of Russian Art, London 1963, pp. 34-36.
11
P. Evdokimov, L'art de l'icône, Bruxelles 1972, pp. 214-215.
12
N. A. Nissiotis, The Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity for Church Life and Theology, in A. J. Philippou, The Orthodox Ethos, Oxford 1964, p.
34; P. Evdokimov, La connaissance de Dieu selon la tradition orientale, Lyon 1967, pp. (12), 59.
13
X. Tilliette, Introduction, in F. Dostoevskij, Le Légende du Grand Inquisiteur, Paris 1959, pp. 26-27.
14
I. Grabar, Préface, in URSS, Icônes anciennes de Russie, Paris 1958, p. 5.
15
Daniel Ange, L'étreinte de feu, Paris 1980, p. 208.
16
E. Massie, La terra dell'uccello di fuoco, Milano 1983, pp. 18-19, 23; J. Kovalevskij, Saint Serge et la spiritualité russe, Paris 1958, p. 19; A. M. Amman,
Storia della Chiesa russa, Torino 1948, p. 5.
17
A. meman, Istorija pravoslavnoj putji, New York 1973, pp. 346, 343.
18
A. meman, Church, World, Mission, New York 1979, p. 78.
19
B. Schultze, Die Schau der Kirche bei Nikolai Berdiajew, Rom 1938, S. 48; .
,
.
(1907-9 .).
,
. 1907 .
2
11
the idea would be less one of universal messianistic dominion than
rather a call to become, after the christian compenetration with the
roman empire [1° Rome] and further with the eastern empire [2° Rome],
the promise of a compenetration between far east and far west in a
new togetherness 1.
RICAPITULATING
Sobornostic theology discerns the role of the slavic eastern
Churches parallel to the middle area between Romanic Europe and
Mitteleuropa (from the fluvial roads Dnieper-Neva and Pò-RhôneRhein), somehow a conciling the in between of the West and the
extreme East 2.
SOBORNOSTIC THEOLOGY
The sobornostic approach is not a certain type of ecclesiology,
not even a trend among the various theologies of the contemporary
age. It is, more fundamentally a
methodology
in theology, and
precisely the methodology of the
with
or the
inbetween . Not
starting from God and neither starting from the human being (from up
and from down ), sobornal theology would start from with : God with
mankind and mankind with God 3, which is something more than the
linear and 4. The source of all possible linking is the Eucharist
(deep consonance of this approach with the intuition of the eucharistic
ecclesiology) 5. This methodology could be also called a relational
insight. Even history is the capacity of discerning links more than
dividing and isolating into classified
facts : history is sobornic
history 6, hence history is overturned as memory of what will
7
happen
. As relational methodology, sobornal theology can be
considered as basis for an ecumenical approach beyond the strict
ecclesiological focus 8. As the Fathers of the Church teach, the
sobornostic approach is based on the threefold view concerning the
inner links in the human being: spirit, action and anima
moving
9
meeting point of spirit and action .
1
.
, Vl. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
. .
,
/ La
grande controverse de l'orient et de l'occident et la politique chrétienne,
1966 / Paris 1943,
. 3 / p. 35.
2
D. Obolensky, Il commonwealth bizantino, Roma 1974, pp. 398-399; D. Groh, La Russia e l'autocoscienza d'Europa, Torino 1980, pp. 32-33; A. Amman, Storia
della Chiesa russa, Torino 1948, p. 3; R. Grousset, Bilan de l'histoire, Paris 1946, p. 35; L. Génicot, Les lignes de faîte du Moyen-Age, Louvain 1965, p. 138; cfr
etiam J. Moltmann, Dostoevskij e la teologia della speranza , in S. Graciotti (ed.), Dostoevskij nella coscienza d oggi, Firenze 1981, pp. 129-130.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet, in idem,
,
I,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 83-84, 247-248 /
pp. 126-127, 206-207; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 8; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
.
285; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 26.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, in Internationale kirchliche Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 183; .
/
S. Bulgakov, Social Teaching in Modern Russian Orthodox Thought, Diakonia , 1968 n 2, p. 122; .
/ S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of Cod,
London 1937, p. 113; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 61-63, 86, 153-154; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le
Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 263-264, 275-276 / pp. 364-366, 379-380; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Cott und
Mensch, op. cit., S. 11; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, pp. 24, 26; .
/ S.
Bulgakov, One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, in The Christian East , 1931 n Xll, p. 90; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Il
Paraclito,
1936 / Bologna 1972,
. 289-290 / pp. 309-310; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Kosmodiz.ee, München 1925, S. 234.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, pp. 32, 37 / .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 308, 313; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l'Église, in J. Jézéquel, FOI ET CONSTITUTION, Lausanne 1928,
Paris 1928, p. 299.
6
. .
/ V. N. Murav'ëv,
, in AA. VV.,
/ Il ruggito del popolo,
1967 / Milano 1971,
. 232 / p. 206.
7
S. Grégory of Nyssa. P.G. 44, 835, in P. Evdokimov, L'art de l'icône, théologie de la beauté, Bruxelles 1972, pp. 60-61.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 22-24; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die christliche Anthropologie, op. cit., S. 248-250; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Zur Frage nach der Weisheit Gottes, in Kyrios , 1936 n 2, S. 97; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
(La scala
di Giacobbe),
1929,
. 1-36; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Il Paraclito,
1936 / Bologna 1972,
. 280-395 / pp.
306-401.
9
Cfr P. Evdokimov, La nouveauté de l esprit, Études de spiritualité, (Collection Spiritualité orientale et vie monastique ), Abbaye de Bellefontaine
Béggrolles-en-Mauges 1987 (La novità dello Spirito, Milano 1997, p. 33).
12
TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE SOBORNOSTIC INTENT OF FAITH AS FREEDOM IN THE
SPIRIT
Did not Christ give liberty to men and teaching by word of
mouth, before the Apostles by their writings bore witness to the work
1
of redemption and the law of liberty?
. This means a
free
community: This Christ-bearing community is a free union of men,
brought about by the reception of the Holy Spirit 2. Taking into
account the eastern theological methodology, the key expressions of
faith are not drawn from human experience and then magnified in order
to be applied to the mystery of God (as in western rationalizing
scholasticism). The experience of living unity in togetherness is
given from God himself:
sobornost
has its roots in God s
trinitarian life as fullness of unexplainable divine Love 3. The term
itself expresses rather mysterious conciliation than conciliarity ,
emerging from the full prospective on re-conciliation between God
and creation 4, far beyond restricted ecclesiological parameters 5.
Our microcosms are assumed in the macro-anthropos from within the
Holy Trinity 6, we become a multi-unity beyond the individual
categories which isolate us 7. It is God s Love itself which is
soborna or
ov in its fullness 8, without sectorializations or
9
individualizations
,
towards
an
ultimate
unanimity
and
10
symphonicity
. Sobornost
is antinomical (somehow paradoxical)
as not corrisponding to any definition and clear classification
of its elements 11, as conciliability of apparently opposed
extremes : eternity and time, visibility and invisibility, heaven
and earth, divine e created, where the logical division in two
'worlds' has been overcome without prevalence of one over the other
(divine o human) 12. The mystery of heaven meets the mystery of
earth 13. Togetherness moves beyond outside and inside , without
1
A.
/ A. Chomjakov,
/ L'Église est une,
/ Paris 1953; A. St. Khomiakov, The Church Is One, (with an introduction
by Archpriest George Grabbe [Bishop + Gregory Grabbe, reposed October 7, 1995]), in «Internet» 2001, http://celticchristianity .org/church1.html: chapter
IV One, holy, catholic, apostolic .
2
Ch. B. Ashanin, Eastern Orthodoxy As a Theological Task, in «Internet» 2003, http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1960/v16-4-article5.htm, p. 490.
3
C. de Hueck Doherty, Sobornost. Expreriencing Unity of Mind, Heart and Soul, Combermere (Cn), 2000, cfr chapter I, A strange New World, etiam in
«Internet» 2003, http://www.stmichaelruscath.org/sobornost1.htm; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch. Ein Beitrag zum
christlichen Offenbarungsbegriff, Marburg an der Lahn 1961, S. 9.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p. 99; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 96.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 96; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Social Teaching in Modern Russian orthodox Theology, in
Diakonia , 1968 n 2, p. 122.
6
Maxim the Confessor, Mystagogy (cap. II-IV), in P. G., V. 91, col. 668-672; M. Savich, Catholicity of the Church: "Sobornost" (From 1986 Calendar of
the Serbian Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada), Orthodox Research Institute, in «Internet» 2003, http://www.orthodox
researchinstitute.org/articles/dogmatics/savich_catholicity.htm; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917
(Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990,
. 401 / p. 411.
7
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 254-255 / pp. 305-306.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990,
. 69 / p. 55.
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 78; S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of God, London 1937, p. 93; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
Social Teaching in Modern Russian orthodox Theology, in Diakonia , 1968 n 2, p. 122; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 252, 257 / pp. 301, 306.
10
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 84.
11
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont Hümmerich [Oslo]), in Internazionaler
kirchliche Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 170; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) /
Lausanne 1990 (traduzione parziale, Kosmodizee, in AA. VV. Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S. 195-245), (Fadeless light),
. 55 / p. 39; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 137, 139-141, 282; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Christliche Anthropologie, in AA.
VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch, Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und Dokumente, zweiter Band, Genf 1937, S. 211.
12
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 23; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 294; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 158-159.
13
D. Mere kovskij, Tolstòj e Dostoevskij, Bari 1947, pp. 158-159.
13
rising one aspect to a superior status 1. Its expression will never
exhaust or be in linear continuity with the mystery 2. The
contradiction is not between God and humankind, but between human
instruments imposed as exhaustive knowledge of God s difference 3:
not a no but an alpha privativum 4. God dispossesses Himself in
human language and human language empties itself of its own humanly
autonomous rules of conceptualization 5, beyond human completeness
6
. Antinomy of Love implies a tragical aspect of self-surrender 7:
realized as self-emptying and self-negation of the Spirit in God s
mystery 8, He who is in between and actualizes the full divine
relationality 9. Kenosis of self-negation is the divine expression of
Love, involving Christ in his divinity 10, not a human humiliation
imposed on God 11, but a new way of understanding the Christian
specificity 12. God as Father dispossesses himself in creation 13,
as Son He dispossesses Himself as expressed Word 14, as Holy Spirit He
dispossesses Himself being the given Gift 15 renouncing to His own
shape or face 16. The revealed togetherness of God with humankind
follows the same path 17. Dispossessing is the way to relate to the
divine as different 18. For God, it prevents divinization to be
distructive in its Glory 19. Creating relationships from the inside,
notwithstanding contradictions 20, conciliability is a process of
1
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 96, 78 ; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe ,
1969 n 46-47, p. 25; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont Hümmerich
[Oslo]), in Internazionaler kirchliche Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 170; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 295-296; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H. Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936,
Athènes 1939, p. 128.
2
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch. Ein Beitrag zum christlichen Offenbarungsbegriff, Marburg an der Lahn 1961, S. 10.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 396 / p. 435; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990,
. 34 / p. 2; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Christliche Anthropologie, in
AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch, Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und Dokumente, zweiter Band, Genf 1937, S. 210.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990,
. 20-21; .
/
S. Bulgakov, Die Christliche Anthropologie, in AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch, Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und Dokumente, zweiter
Band, Genf 1937, S. 210; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch. Ein Beitrag zum christlichen Offenbarungsbegriff, Marburg an
der Lahn 1961, S. 9.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch. Ein Beitrag zum christlichen Offenbarungsbegriff, Marburg an der Lahn 1961, S. 9
6
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch. Ein Beitrag zum christlichen Offenbarungsbegriff, Marburg an der Lahn 1961, S. 25.
7
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 123 / p. 74.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 375 / p. 334.
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 224 / p. 175.
10
Vl. Losskij, Théologie mystique de l'Eglise d'Orient, Paris 1946, p. 144.
11
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarn ,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 260 / p. 158.
12
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 245 / pp. 144-145.
13
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano
1974,,
. 324 / pp. 386-387; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 245, 252 / p. 141, 150;
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Christliche Anthropologie, in AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch, Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und
Dokumente, zweiter Band, Genf 1937, S. 213-223; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 270-273; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990 (traduzione parziale, Kosmodizee, in AA. VV.
Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S. 195-245), (Fadeless light),
. 176-276 / pp. 195-245; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le
Paraclet, (La Théanthropie, partie II),
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 173 / p. 212; .
/ S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of God, London 1938,
pp. 95, 97.
14
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet, (La Théanthropie, partie II),
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 132 / p. 173; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 246 / pp. 145-146, 166; .
/ S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of
God, London 1938, p. 54; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Christliche Anthropologie, in AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch, Russisch-orthodoxe
Studien, Studien und Dokumente, zweiter Band, Genf 1937, S. 215.
15
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 136-158, 168-169, 254; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet, (La
Théanthropie, partie II),
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 173 / p. 212.
16
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet, (La Théanthropie, partie II),
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 286 / p. 327; .
/ S.
Bulgakov, The Wisdom of God, London 1938, pp. 63-86.
17
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 246-247 / pp. 145-146.
18
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 249 / p. 147.
19
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
.. 195 / p. 98; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet, (La Théanthropie, partie II),
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 294 / p. 335.
20
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 280-283.
14
divinization without Church appropriation 1, at the same discernible
but inexhaustible, empirically decipherable but indefinable in its
fullness 2, without linearity from intent to manifestation 3.
Sobornost doesn t close itself up in a two storied outlook of
natural and supernatural levels, starting from the Church itself
4
, and opposing visible and invisible life 5. Sobornostic theology
explores God s compenetration through history with the human world 6
(the Church seen as history 7). In this sense, conciliation has no
limits 8. Instead of aggregating the individuals in herself,
conciliation is opening up the person beyond his own configuration 9.
In the abnormal situation of humanity fallen down and closed up into
itself- conciliation becomes re-conciliation 10. Not centered on
herself, the Church will be rather a symbolical recapitulation than a
structured force 11, emptying herself from structural prerogatives
12
. Ecclesifying the world does nt mean to integrate the world into
the ecclesiastical structure 13, but to open it beyond all static
limits 14. The Church is a free suggestion, an inner invitation, or a
'symbol' 15. This is the source of pan-sacramentality 16 realized
1
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l' Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 297; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 89; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 36, 145 ss, 163.
2
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 7, 89, 93; ; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Social Teaching in Modern Russian orthodox
Theology, in Diakonia , 1968 n 2, p. 125; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l'Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et Constitution, Paris 1928, p.
296; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 295, 297-298; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Una Sancta, (Osnovanie
ekumenizma), in «Put'», 1938-1939 n 58, (Una Sancta, il fondamento dell'ecumenismo),
. 4-5.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 29; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 296, 298-299; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 86, 92.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Das Selbstbewusstsein der Kirche, (überstezt von Benjamin Unruh) in «Orient und Occident», 1930 n 3, S. 5; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H. Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936,
Athène 1939, p. 130.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 281-283 / pp. 330-332; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Social
Teaching in Modern Russian orthodox Theology, in Diakonia , 1968 n 2, p. 128.
6
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 295; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le Messager
Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 23; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont
Hümmerich [Oslo]), in Internazionaler kirchliche Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 168-170.
7
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 86.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 285; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le Messager
Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 26; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont
Hümmerich [Oslo]), in Internazionaler kirchliche Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 96; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965,
(Orthodoxy),
. 33-34..
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov, The Church Universal, in «The Journal of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius», 1934 n 25, p. 10; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont Hümmerich [Oslo]), in Internazionaler kirchliche
Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 183; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 297; .
/ S. Bulgakov, One Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p. 9; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917
(Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990 (traduzione parziale, Kosmodizee, in AA. VV., Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S. 195-245), (Fadeless
light), . 5; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 8.
10
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg an der Lahn 1961, S. 11; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 201-208; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 153-154; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La
lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990 (traduzione parziale, Kosmodizee, in AA. VV. Östliches Christentum, München
1925, S. 195-245), (Fadeless light), . 336 / p. 321; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
.
454-4663, 481-482 / pp. 364-366, 379-380.
11
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990 (traduzione parziale,
Kosmodizee, in AA. VV. Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S. 195-245, S. 234; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
, op. cit.,
. 137,
139-141, 280, 282, 285-286, 316-317; cfr p. 282; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 86; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 260-261 / pp. 309-310.
12
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 25.
13
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 285; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H. Alivisatos,
Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936, Athènes 1939, pp. 128-129.
14
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fidanzata dell'Agnello (in russo), Parigi 1945, p. 285; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H.
Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux du premier Congrès de Théologie Orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936, Athènes 1936, p. 128; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die
Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont Hümmerich [Oslo]), in Internazionaler kirchliche Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3,
S. 170; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 24.
15
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 26; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 31-32.
16
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 26; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le
Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 281-283 / pp. 330-332; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Social Teaching in Modern Russian orthodox Theology,
in Diakonia , 1968 n 2, p. 128; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont
15
through the eucharistical sharing of one divino-human experience 1.
Sacramentality is precisely the incidence of God s presence in full
gratuity 2. The Eucharist expresses the antinomical character of the
Church, beyond any rational or operative efficiency 3. For this
reason, only the Eucharist can be said to be the first or to have
the unique
primacy
in the Church 4, in its antinomical
non
resistence towards ministries and powers , creating togetherness 5.
But the Eucharist is also the fullness beyond any frontier 6.
Ecumenism will be
sobornostically- the delicate passage from
frontier to non frontier 7, symptom of trasfiguration in the
Spirit 8. Only through sobornostic togetherness full communion can be
considered without either the maximalism of guarantee through
legitimism in materially historical
successions
(Roman) or
9
maximalism in finality of personal faith (Reform) , with the risk of
impossible common sharing 10. Centralizing maximalism becomes easily
11
falsification
of
the
ecclesial
intent
,
suffocating
its
12
eschatological outcome
. Truth is togetherness growing towards
fullness through all the dimensions of human experience 13, not a
rational system or a heavenly oracle 14 but the living tradition
15
16
. Tradition is antinomical as
not ours
, referring to the
Hümmerich [Oslo]), in Internazionaler kirchliche Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 170; .
/ S. Bulgakov, One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p. 90..
1
John Chrysostom, Homily on John (XLVI), in P. G., V. 59, Col. 260; .
/ N. Afanas'ev,
(La Chiesa dello
Spirito santo),
1971,
. 222, 207-208; .
/ N. Afanas'ev,
(La mensa del Signore),
1952,
. 22, 47-48, 71-73; O. Clément, Corps de mort et de gloire, Paris 1995 (Teologia e poesia del corpo, Casale Monferrato 1997, tr. it. di S. A. Comuzzi
Scaccabarozzi p. 35); O. Clément, Le sens de la terre. Notes de cosmologie orthodoxe, in «Contacts» 1967, n° 59-60 (XIX) , pp. 252-323.
2
.
/ S. Bulgakov, The Church Universal, in «The Journal of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius», 1934 n 25, p. 10; .
/
S. Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont Hümmerich [Oslo]), in Internazionaler kirchliche
Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 160-168; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 295-297; .
/ S. Bulgakov, One Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p. 9.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 26; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 280-281; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch. Ein Beitrag zum christlichen Offenbarungsbegriff,
Marburg an der Lahn 1961, S. 10, 26; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 72-73; .
/ S. Bulgakov, One Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p. 103.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Vers la réunion des Eglises, in «Istina», 1969 n 2, p. 244.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 308; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
, in
,
1931, I, n 26, II, n 27, I,
. 38 (traduzione: Judas Iskarioth der Verräter-Apostel, in «Orient und Occident», 1936 n 11, pp. 8-24); 5 .
/
S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 25.
6
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 290, 297, 298-299.
7
.
/ S. Bulga kov, Outlines of the Teaching about the Church, in The American Church Monthly , 1931 n 6, pp. 419-420.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 317.
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H. Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936,
Athènes 1939, pp. 156-162; opposizione dialettica profetismo-creatività e vita spirituale-umiltà, individualismo protestante e rispetto della tradizione
degli anglicani, .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 89; trascendentismo protestante che nega il valore divino del creato, .
/ S. Bulgakov, Christliche Anthropologie, in Kirche Staat nnd Mensch, II, Genf 1937, S. 248-250; .
/ S. Bulga kov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 360-401 / pp. 301-342; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Outlines of the Teaching about the Church, in «The
American Church Monthly», 1931 n° 6, pp. 420-422.
10
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 40; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris
1932, pp. 113-114.
11
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Le Dogme du Vatican, in «Le Messager orthodoxe», 1959 n 8, IV, p. 22-24, 26.
12
.
/ S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of God, London 1938, pp. 6-7.
13
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l'Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 296; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 295, 297-298; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 89, 93.
14
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 44-45; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 153-155.
15
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 26; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris
1932, pp. 46-47; .
/ S. Bulgakov, One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p.103.
16
Cfr A. Joos, L'homme et son mystère. Éléments d'anthropologie dans l'oeuvre du père Serge Boulgakov, in «Irénikon», 1972 nº 3, p. 5; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Christliche Anthropologie, in Kirche Staat nnd Mensch, II, Genf 1937, S. 238-239, 250-251; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 207 / pp. 110-111; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris
1946,
. 293 / p. 334
16
beyond , with a quality of negation concerning what is typically
from us but in a language which is never ultimate 1.
TRYING TO GET INVOLVED IN THE SOBORNOSTIC DYNAMICS OF LIFE
All are united together in one Church, in one and the same grace
of God 2. From God s self-revelation without contraining pressure on
humankind, a new methodology of salvation is shaped: re-conciliation in
philanthropy towards human beings (in their autonomy of freedom) 3.
The first dimension of this togetherness will be to give full value to
diversity as unity through the infinite number of relationships in
parity 4. Sobornost is concretely present there where God s insights
are freely taken into consideration, shaping a human attitude 5.
Eucharistically, togetherness actualizes all Christian experience as
relationship in sharing 6 and in parity of God s People and ministers
7
, this is why ministry is particularly linked to eucharistic gratuity
in its symbolical impact 8, preventing with this sacramental root- the
ministry of becoming a system of authority 9. Togetherness between
God and mankind was not founded or set up 10, similarly Truth is
not founded as an instituted system 11 as God-humanly conciliation
in assuming its shape 12. The sobornostic approach is fundamentally a
rediscovery of the historical parameters towards discernement and
purification of intent 13: specifically in a mechanical way of
articulating progressiveness in the historical uncertainty 14, from
the 1° moment to the succession of all moments 15. Instead, it is a
relationship which is divinely existing and reaches its fullness as
revelation in dialogue 16, opening the person from within 1. The
1
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 10, 17-19, 21-22; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog
zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 10, 21-22; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris
1943,
. 189 / 170; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 51-52, 53, 165.
2
A.
/ A. Chomjakov,
/ L'Église est une,
/ Paris 1953; A. St. Khomiakov, The Church Is One, (with an introduction
by Archpriest George Grabbe [Bishop + Gregory Grabbe, reposed October 7, 1995]), in «Internet» 2001, http://celticchristianity .org/church1.html: chapter
IV One, holy, catholic, apostolic .
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Social Teaching in Modern Russian orthodox Theology, in Diakonia , 1968 n 2, p. 121; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 3-4 / pp. 24-31; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet, (La
Théanthropie, partie II),
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 251, 259 / pp. 290, 298; cfr Dionysios Aeropaghita, On the divine Names (II, 3), in P. G., V.
3, col. 640.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 24; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 294-295.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of God, London 1937, pp. 216, 2l8.
6
.
/ S. Bulga kov, Vers la réunion des Eglises, in «Istina», 1969 n 2, p. 245.
7
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 114-115.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l'Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 299.
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 41-42.
10
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 8, 89.
11
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 27, 33, 83-84, 91, 150, 152, 193-194; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 3-4.
12
.
/ S. Bulgakov, One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p. 99.
13
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 42; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie,
Paris 1932, pp. 46-47; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 311-313; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris
1932, pp. 105-106; .
/ S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of God, London 1938, pp. 90-92
14
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, pp. 37, 42; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 309-312; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 245
15
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
, in
, 1931, I, n 26, II, n 27, I,
. 14-15; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 53; lLa chiave apostolica maggiore è il legame personalizzato di chiamata e di risposta, che gli congiunge individualmente
con Gesù, .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 51; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
,
1926,
. 3; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 93-94, 97-98, 103; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 55.
16
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 23; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 287; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 89; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Christliche
Anthropologie, in AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch , Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und Dokumente, zweiter Band, Genf 1937, S. 219; idem,
From Marxism to Sophiology, in «The Review of Religion», 1937 n 4, p. 365; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 94; .
17
convergency between divine and human is realized as
organical
compenetration (the Mystical Body) 2, less as structural construction 3
than becoming organically one in shaping itself 4, source for any
service and ministeriality 5. Ministry belongs to sobornostic
conciliability, not conciliarity is under the power of ministry 6.
Ministry is conciling ministry from the togetherness of God s People
7
, for a relational regulation of organical togetherness 8. The process
of creating a people is inversed from the Old Testament, with Moses
creating a hierarchy and the new people of God created from Pentecost
9
. Conciliar conscience will be
sharing
together and putting
together 10, as togetherable truth 11. In this sense, catholicity is
relationality looking for concordial convergency 12. Conciliability
actualizes its intent through a dubbel process, according to the
twofold expression of human experience: the 'masculine' e the
'femminine' dynamics of life 13, as self-affirmation and inner
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990 (traduzione parziale, Kosmodizee,
in AA. VV., Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S. 195-245), (Fadeless light), . 30 / p. 18.
1
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 86.
2
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 51; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969
n 46-47, p. 23.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 295-296; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H. Alivisatos,
Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936, Athène 1939, p. 128.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, The Church Universal, in «The Journal of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius», 1934 n 25, p. 10; .
/
S. Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont Hümmerich [Oslo]), in Internazionaler kirchliche
Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 183; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 297; .
/ S. Bulgakov, One Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p. 9; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917
(Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990 (traduzione parziale, Kosmodizee, in AA. VV., Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S. 195-245), (Fadeless
light), . 5; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H. Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à
Athènes en 1936, Athènes 1939, p. 131; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 117, 120..
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l' Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 297; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 89; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 36, 145 ss, 116; .
/ S.
Bulgakov, Le ministère de l'Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 297; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 285, 304; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 65-68, 84-89; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H.
Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936, Athènes 1939, p. 130.
6
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, pp. 34-35; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 303; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 35; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 299, 305; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 60-66; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
,
,
1926,
. 25, 39; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H.
Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936, Athènes 1939, pp. 130-132; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La
Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 35; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 308
7
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 32; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de
l'Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 299.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 292, 298, 307; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
.
286; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 29; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über
die Kirche, in H. Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936, Athènes 1939, p. 131; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 117, 120; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l' Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et
Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 229.
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l' Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 296; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 42, 106-107; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 52; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p. 92; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965,
(Orthodoxy),
. 109.
10
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 84; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (L'Ortodossia),
. 25; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 29.
11
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 102.
12
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 92, 101-103; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Freedom of Thought in the Orthodox Church,
in «Sobornost», 1936 n 6, pp. 6-7; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 46-47, 94, 97, 100, 113-115; .
/ S.
Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 9, 26, 39; .
/ S. Bulgakov, One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
Church, in The Christian East , 1931, XII, p. 103; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 39;
Idem, Na put/h Dogmy, in AEPut'AF, op. cit., (sulle vie del dogma), str. 3-21; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 167-168, 180-181.
13
.
/ S. Bulga kov,
/Il Paraclito,
1936 / Bologna 1971,
. / p. 294; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
(La Fidanzata dell'Agnello),
1945 ,
. 280; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet, (La Théanthropie, partie II),
1936
/ Paris 1946,
. 276, 271 / pp. 315, 310; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) /
Lausanne 1990,
. 210-276; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 7-135, 209-273; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die
Christliche Anthropologie, in AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch, Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und Dokumente, zweiter Band, Genf 1937, S.
216-219, S. 219; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Ein Beitrag zum christlichen Offenbarungsbegriff, Marburg an der
Lahn 1961, S. 16.
18
fructification in their mutual simbolical and organical relevance,
and not as a 'system'. All gift is also self-giving. There is a
dynamical dimension in creativity and another one of de-possessing
surrender 1, expressed in the mystery of the dyadic relation between
Christ and the Spirit 2, in mutual balance of parity 3, religiously
expressed as tension between priesthood and prophecy 4 in their
antinomical conjunction as for the Chacedonian definition 5. This
tension is proficuous for the life of the Body 6. As unibility ,
togetherness will be obviously prioritarily a prophetic vision of the
present and the future world 7. History becomes revelative history 8.
As guarantee in continuity, a stable ministerial service will be
dispossessing for the involved individual, not appropriation by
ecclesiastical power 9, emerging unanimity between God and humankind
and not submission to a supreme power in ministry 10. Its practical
criterium is don t overgovern and overdogmatize 11: maximalism always
paralyses life 12. Sobornostic insight will be a more profound
theologico-anthropological understanding of being the first in history:
not above but in reference to the beyond of a series 13. Claiming to
be the first one: the human being and his primacy in creation (but
appearing as last one) 14, Christ as 1° in divinization through the
Spirit 15, the Church being 1° among human communities 16, the 1° one in
ministry, cannot be solved in ecclesiological way: the premices are
anthropological, theological and christologico-pneumatological 17. But
first has also to be linked with the 1° historical moment , often
vulnerably modest in appearance 18, so differently evaluated between
Roman and Reformed approach 19. The I and the 1° is a vital
1
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 280, 285-286; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 374 / p. 423.
2
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 280, 285-286; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Il Paraclito, (La
Teantropia, parte II),
1936 / Bologna 1972,
. 246 / p. 295.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 285-286.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Christliche Anthropologie, in AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch , Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und
Dokumente, zweiter Band, Genf 1937, S. 251; .
/ S. Bulgakov, The Spirit of Prophecy, in «Sobornost», 1939 n 19, p. 6; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
(La Fidanzata dell'Agnello),
1945 ,
. 280; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Il Paraclito,
1936 /
Bologna 1972,
. 373 / p. 413.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Il Paraclito,
1936 / Bologna 1972,
. 247-248 / pp. 420-423; .
/ S.
Bulgakov, Die Christliche Anthropologie, in AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch , Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und Dokumente, zweiter Band,
Genf 1937, S. 251; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 316-317; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
,
1926,
. 8-9, 13-14, 19, 20, 23, 26-27, 52-57, 60-61, 64-71, 74-81, 83-84, 86-87, 88-90.
6
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 233-234 / pp. 273-274; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
,
1926,
. 9, 13, 19, 80; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Il Paraclito,
1936 / Bologna
1972,
. 381-383 / pp. 420-422.
7
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Christliche Anthropologie, in Kirche Staat nnd Mensch, II, Genf 1937, S. 252; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 317
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg an der Lahn 1961, S. 45-46.
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 27; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie,
Paris 1932, pp. 61-62.
10
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 32; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de
l'Eglise, in J. Jézéquel, Foi et Constitution, Paris 1928, p. 299; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H. Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux
du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936, Athènes 1939, p. 130.
11
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 26.
12
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Ways to Church Reunion, in Sobornost , 1935 n 9, pp. 7, 13-14.
13
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 38 / p. 79.
14
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. / p. 113; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Christliche
Anthropologie, in Kirche Staat nnd Mensch, II, Genf 1937, S. 219.
15
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 275-276 / pp. 326-327.
16
.
/ S. Bulga kov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 38 / pp. 78-79; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 279; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 40.
17
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 29; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Social
Teaching in Modern Russian orthodox Theology, in Diakonia , 1968 n 2, pp. 120-121
18
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 238 / p. 279.
19
.
/ S. Bulga kov,
/Il Paraclito,
1936 / Bologna 1971,
. / p. 30; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 293; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 103-104; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée
de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 22; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe ,
19
reference to the we 1. Individualization (trace of the old fall) 2
and singularization 3 are the main misunderstandings for the ecclesial
action 4, with the incoherence of presenting the 1° as the first
ring of the chain and being superior as sacred power 5. The head is
not superior or on the contrary only a uniform part to the whole 6.
TRYING TO EXPERIENCE THE SOBORNOSTIC AWARENESS FROM GOD S COMPASSION
Walking towards God means walking together : We know that when
any one of us falls he falls alone; but no one is saved alone. He who
is saved is saved in the Church, as a member of her, and in unity
7
with all her other members
. The sobornostic insight doesn t
articulate a system on Supreme Good , Supreme Truth and Supreme
Beauty , but on fullness of Love in its profound experiencial density
8
beyond rationality and efficient operativity 9, united from the
inside 10. Love is total gift , doesn t even possess itself 11,
sobornosticity emerges from all the possible hints of love towards
total absence of self-possession 12. Love has no limits as inside and
outside 13, which is impossible to express from the akribeia of
ecclesiology only. Therefore, the Church reduces itself to nothing
instead of integrating people in herself through their humiliation 14.
In its gratuity, Love doesn t even claim to be recognized as giving
and as gift , confering full autonomy to humanity 15, beyond the risk
of an initial misunderstanding and fall 16. Only as Love God s
mystery can express its antinomy: to be
totally different
and
intimately togetherable 17, as formulated in the Chalcedonian dogma 1.
1969 n 46-47, p. 22; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 293; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 295, 315-317; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 122-129; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in
H. Alivisatos, Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936, Athènes 1939, pp. 128, 133
1
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Christliche Anthropologie, in Kirche Staat nnd Mensch, II, Genf 1937, S. 224.
2
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet, (La Théanthropie, partie II),
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 284 / p. 325.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg am Lahn 1961, S. 43; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris
1932, pp. 114-115; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Le Dogme du Vatican, in «Le Messager orthodoxe», 1959 n 8, III, pp. 18-19; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 140-141, 176-177, 185-186.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Christliche Anthropologie, in Kirche Staat nnd Mensch, II, Genf 1937, S. 224.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, pp. 30, 34-35; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 303.
6
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 96; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l' Agneau, in Le
Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 30.
7
A.
/ A. Chomjakov,
/ L'Église est une,
/ Paris 1953; A. St. Khomiakov, The Church Is One, (with an introduction
by Archpriest George Grabbe [Bishop + Gregory Grabbe, reposed October 7, 1995]), in «Internet» 2001, http://celticchristianity .org/church1.html: chapter
IV One, holy, catholic, apostolic .
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Christliche Anthropologie, in AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch , Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und
Dokumente, zweiter Band, Genf 1937, S. 222-223; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch, Marburg an der Lahn 1961, S.
10-14; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 435; .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 147, 194-202.
9
.
(S. Bulgakov),
(Apokalipsis Ioanna / L'apocalisse di Giovanni),
1948,
. 161-164; .
/ S.
Bulgakov, Die Lehre von der Kirche in orthodoxer Sicht, (Übersetzung von Vater Therapont Hümmerich [Oslo]), in Internazionaler kirchliche
Zeitschrift , 1957 n 3, S. 180; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 252-253 / pp. 305-306.
10
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Social Teaching in Modern Russian orthodox Theology, in Diakonia , 1968 n 2, p. 122; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
The Wisdom of God, London 1938, p. 113.
11
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 84.
12
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 258-277 / pp. 306-327.
13
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1946,
. 346-347 / pp. 305-306; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 183-184 / p. 96
14
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Dialog zwischen Gott und Mensch. Ein Beitrag zum christlichen Offenbarungsbegriff, Marburg an der Lahn 1961, S. 4647; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990 (traduzione parziale,
Kosmodizee, in AA. VV. Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S. 195-245), (Fadeless light), . 405-406; Idem, O Carstve Box'em, in Put' , 1928
n 11, str. 8-21-22; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 331-338, 345-349.
15
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 183-184, 251-252 / pp. 84-85, 149.
16
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 187 / p. 88.
17
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 130-141; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 /
Paris 1944,
. 230 / p. 281; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990
(traduzione parziale, Kosmodizee, in AA. VV. Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S. 195-245), (Fadeless light), . 20-28, 96-102, 192-193,
20
1
. Conciliative experiencial insight is penetrated by the kenotic
antinomy of divine self-giving in Love 2. The refusal or incapacity of
kenotic self-emptying will be the sign of falsification from the
Antichrist 3. Christ himself would appear in the antinomy of the
idiot 4: God madly willing to become human 5, Christ flying the
typologies of the hero , refusing the mirage of being victim , or the
victorious chief , and the ultimate vendicator 6. The Godmanly
fraternity is expressed eucharistically through the we : organical
relation but not a systematical structure 7. The Church is born from
the being together of the Apostels for the same thing (epi to auto)
8
. As Church leadership, sobornostic awareness is felt through
brotherhood in responsibility, from the initial mutual participation in
apostolic witness: Peter (in his continuity serving coordination), Paul
(in his structural transgression beyond established structures), John
(in his prophetic eastern insights towards mystical vision of the
ultimate) and the paradoxical primatial role of Judas Iskarioth (as
warning for misunderstanding from hyperbolism in messianistic views) 9.
These primacies are expression of mutual participation 10. The
Antichrist is in this prospective- the radical monism of being the
first
one, as for the
Universal Emperor
in the solov ëvian
dialogues 11, substituting Christ Himself 12, centralizing in himself
all qualities of good 13 and truth 14. Kingship 15, victory and
centrality has to be considered as part of the crucifixion 16.
Conciliation is a effective feeling for overcoming dividing barriers
or separate all in good and bad ones, good and evil, supreme
refusal of God s compassion 17 (and negation of God s otherness
cfr
supra, antinomy 18).
211-212; .
/ S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of God, London 1937, pp. 194-195; .
/ S. Bulgakov, La Fiancée de l'Agneau, in Le
Messager Orthodoxe , 1969 n 46-47, p. 23.
1
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 6, 8; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 294; .
/
S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. / pp. 110-111.
2
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Il Paraclito, (La Teantropia, parte II),
1936 / Bologna 1972, ,
. 26-27 / pp. 78-79; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 223 / p. 125; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Kosmodizee, in
AA. VV. Östliches Christentum, München 1925, S., S. 313; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945,
. 137, 139-141, 280, 282,
285-286, 316-317; cfr p. 282; cfr S. Séraphim de Sarof, Entretien avec Motovilof .
3
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
/ I tre dialoghi,
1954 / Torino 1975,
. 203 / p. 193.
4
Cfr .
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ L'Idiota,
1960, Milano 1984; cfr A. Joos, Il Cristo di Dostoevskij, in «Rassegna di teologia»,
1988 n° 6, pp. 539-557.
5
P. Evdokimov, La connaissance de Dieu selon La tradition orientale, Lyon 1967, p. 28.
6
A. Joos, Cristologia russa oggi, come valorizzarne l'originalità, in «Nicolaus», 1996 nº 1-2, pp. 5-71.
7
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 115.
8
.
/ N. Afanas'ev,
(Due idee sulla Chiesa universale), in
, 1934 n° 45,
. 188-200, 207-208; .
/ N. Afanas'ev,
(La mensa del Signore),
1952,
. 22, 71, 73; idem, L'Eglise qui préside dans l'amour, in
AA. VV., La primauté de Pierre, Neuchatel 1960, p. 30.
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 51; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1965, (Orthodoxy),
. 97; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. / p. 276; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
, in
, 1931, I, n° 26, II, n° 27, I,
. 3-42; .
(S. Bulgakov),
(Apokalipsis Ioanna /
L'apocalisse di Giovanni),
1948,
. 13, ss.; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
,
1926,
.
60-61, 64-71, 83-84, 86-87..
10
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 47; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
(San Pietro
e San Giovanni, I due Primi Apostoli),,
1926,
. 24-25, 90.: .
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, p. 47; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
,
(San Pietro e San Giovanni, I due Primi Apostoli),
1926,
. 24-25, 90.
11
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
/ I tre dialoghi,
1954 / Torino 1975,
. 200 / p. 190.
12
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
/ I tre dialoghi,
1954 / Torino 1975,
. 201 / p. 191.
13
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
/ I tre dialoghi,
1954 / Torino 1975,
. 201 / p. 191.
14
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ Delitto e castigo,
1970 / Milano 1983,
. 581 / pp. 650.
15
Vl. Losskij, Théologie mystique de l'Eglise d'Orient, Paris 1946, pp. 145-146.
16
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Il senso della storia,
1923 / Milano 1977,
. 58-63 / pp. 50-55.
17
.
/ S. Bulgakov, L'Orthodoxie, Paris 1932, pp. 164-265; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Thesen über die Kirche, in H. Alivisatos,
Procès-verbaux du premier congrès de théologie orthodoxe à Athènes en 1936, Athènes 1939, p. 133
18
L. Malcolm, Theological Freedom and the Therapy of Faith: Thinking with and beyond Karl Barth and Karl Rahner, in Internet 1997,
http://apu.edu/~CTRF/papers/1996_papers/malcolm.html,
21
CHAPTER II
THE CONCILIAR SOBORNAL INSIGHTS OVER AGAINST
SOME MAJOR TRAUMATIC HUMAN EXPERIENCES IN
RECENT HISTORY
This second chapter should clarify how the sobornal insights
actually answered some priorities in the recent (or less recent) past
as confirmation of its capacity to cope with further open problems of
the future. Our intent would be to show how the theological
methodology of conciling togetherness focussed some key issues and
how to face them. A Roman theologian, unfortunately not understood by
the authorities of his time, expressed the reasons of the main
traumatic experiences of the XVIII-XIX° century: "Who is not aware
looking around- considering such new, such important items of public
and private concern which are calling the attention of the
universal?.... " 1, in front of which: "the poets, the speakers, the
teachers of the so-called liberal arts , concentrate their genius to
find the most elegant forms of expression, indifferent to the ideas
they express..." 2; "where these urgencies, aware of this state of
disattention and indifference..., and is conscious of the supreme
necessity that these urgencies receive a practical solution, and
pushing them, search for this solution, and in such a serious case
appeal to it, among anguishes and hopes, these urgencies acquire new
energy and life... " 3, in an explosion where "thousands ideas
colliding the ones with the others, mixing up, were put together; a
chaos came out of this..." 4. All this is very near to the judgment
on the "forces of historical inertia" of conservatism 5. Or as
Berdjaev says: "it happens too often that at the heart of society the
creative energies don t find any space It becomes then inevitabile
that a judgment condemning
the sign of revolution inevitabily
appears then in heaven" 6. The thesis of this contribution is to show
that many restauration theologies were following this path, on the
contrary sobornostic theology tried to answer these urgencies of
recent times instead of ignoring or negating them. Hence, it could be
said that this theological
attention
to the urgencies of the
modern period, is a kind of warning to the Churches in their
indifference to them ( vomiting these Churches as in the Book of
Apocalypse ) 7, denouncing the christian message to have denaturized
Christ in a nice esthetical, irrelevant profile 8. We could
recapitulate the contribution of sobornal methodology looking for
instance- at the two main traumatic experiences of humanity in recent
past history: the revolution of 1789 and the one of 1917. For each of
these steps in the human venture, the challenges have been summarized
in a kind of symbolical synthesis, a dubbel triloghion as expression
1
A. Rosmini, Il comunismo ed il socialismo, in idem, Opuscoli politici, vol. 37, Opere di Antonio Rosmini, Roma 1978, p. 83.
A. Rosmini, Il comunismo ed il socialismo, in idem, Opuscoli politici, vol. 37, Opere di Antonio Rosmini, Roma 1978, p. 83.
3
A. Rosmini, Il comunismo ed il socialismo, in idem, Opuscoli politici, vol. 37, Opere di Antonio Rosmini, Roma 1978, p. 84.
4
A. Rosmini, Filosofia del diritto, vol. II, Milano 1841-1843 / Padova 1969, p. 1401.
5
.
/ S. Frank,
/ De profundis, in AA.VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 / Milano 1971,
. 325 / p. 300.
6
N. A. Berdjaev, Le fonti e il significato del comunismo russo, op. cit., p. 169.
7
.
/ V. Rozanov,
, in idem,
/ L'apocalisse del nostro tempo, München / Milano 1970 / 1979,
. 454 / pp. 59-60.
8
.
/ V. Rozanov,
, in idem,
/ L'apocalisse del nostro tempo, München / Milano 1970 / 1979,
. 457 / p. 65 (we would not follow on this aspect the interpretation of .
/ G. Florovskij,
/ Vie della
teologia russa,
1988 / Genova 1987,
. 460-461 / pp. 363-364).
2
22
of the expectations of humanity. The two revolutions were a passage
from ecclesiastical-civil management to a civil-intellectual
management of societies (in its human emancipation) 1. Each of the
revolutions had in its terror experience- mechanisms which became
uncontrollable 2. Particularly expressive is the capacity of a
slavophile author
Dostoevskij- to enter into the
dionysiac
dimension of these human experiences, over against the dramma of an
epopean view of historical events, opening up the underground areas
of revolution 3. As for some other voices (not many, but very
qualified ones) 4, it is noteworthy to understand how the sobornostic
authors took over the problematics of these traumas: not refusing
them but entering positively in the questions they were urgently
insisting on. The revolutions were not the work of the Devil 5, but,
according to a convergent discernement of more voices: it has been
the result of the incapacity from the side of the authorities to see
and understand the new claims of humanity 6, creating a spontaneous
movement of masses 7 which includes a kind of judgment of God on past
history 8 and on the role christians assumed in it 9, expressed in
apocalyptical style 10. If the french revolution has been radically
demonized by the western restauration doctrine and the russian
tsarist Holy Alliance , sobornostic thought was moving differently
either in Church view as in world evaluation. To summarize this
second step, it would be worthwhile to remember how a typical
slavophile writer proposes the scope and challenge included in the
sobornal intuition: Dostoevskij in the Brothers Karamazov when
Starets Zossima sends the novice Alë a out of the monatery to face
11
new experiences
From the sobornostic insight, the Christian
conscience will be able to togetherize the Christical "unicum" of
eastern cultures 12 with another 'unicum', the antropocentrism 13 of
western cultural sensibility 14. We could limit this part to two main
sectors: Church and world.
1
N. Zernov, La rinascita religiosa russa del XX secolo, Milano 1978, pp. 302.
.
/ B. Pasternak,
/ Doktor ivago,
1957 / Milano 1970,
. 287, 364 / pp. 306, 385.
3
Cfr the typologies of Homer <-> Sophocles-Socrates, Apollo <-> Dionysios: G. Steiner, Tolstoy or Dostoevskij, London 1980; cfr etiam B. Schultze,
Russische Denker, Wien 1950, pp. 427-429; N. A. Berdjaev, La concezione di Dostoevskij, Milano 1977; R. Guardini, Religiöse Gestalten in Dostoiewskijs
Werk, München 1951; L. estov, La filosofia della tragedia, Napoli 1950; D. Merej kovskij, Tolstoj e Dostoevskij, Bari 1947; H. Troyat, Dostoievsky, Paris
1940; L. A. Zander, Dostoievsky et le problème du bien, Paris 1946; Vl. Solov'ëv, Dostoevskij, Milano 1981.
4
A. Rosmini, Il comunismo ed il socialismo, in idem, Opuscoli politici, vol. 37, Opere di Antonio Rosmini, Roma 1978, pp. 83-87 (somehow differently in
G. Campanini: cfr idem, Antonio Rosmini e le ideologie del 89, in AA. VV., Rosmini, pensatore europeo, Milano 1989, p. 125); A. Rosmini, Filosofia del
diritto, vol. II, Milano 1841-1843 / Padova 1969, p. 740.
5
Cfr. G. Campanini, Antonio Rosmini e le ideologie dell'89, (nota (2)); etiam F. Traniello, Politica e religione nel pensiero di Rosmini, in «Il mulino», 1977
stt-ott., pp. 694-712), in AA. VV. Rosmini, pensatore europeo, Milano 1989, p. 117.
6
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Gli spiriti della rivoluzione russa, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 /
Milano 1971,
. 94 / p. 79; .
,
,
6,
1962,
. 154-155; .
,
.
, in
, 1922 n 1,
. 13; S. Graham, Undiscovered Russia, London 1912, p. 287; N. Zernov, La rinascita religiosa russa del XX secolo, Milano
1978, pp. 99-100; P. Gaxotte, La révolution française, Paris 1965, pp. 52-53; E. Balducci, Il terzo millennio (saggio sulla situazione apocalittica), Milano
1981, p. 23; Abbé Jager, Histoire de l'Eglise de France pendant la révolution, Bruxelles 1853, vol. I, introduction, p. VI; A. Rosmini, Delle cinque piaghe
della Santa Chiesa, in A. Rosmini, Opere di Antonio Rosmini, vol. 56, Roma 1981, p. 84; A. Blok, Sobranie socinenij, Cast' 6, Moskva 1962, str. 154-155;
A. Belij, Vosponimanija o A. Bloke, in «Epopeja», 1922 n° 1, str. 131; S. Graham, Undiscovered Russia, London 1912, p. 287; N. Zernov, La rinascita
religiosa russa del XX° secolo, Milano 1978, pp. 99-100; .
/ S. Frank, De profundis, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 /
Milano 1971,
. 311-314 / pp. 298-300; N. A. Berdjaev, Le fonti e il significato del comunismo russo, op. cit., p. 169.
7
.
/ S. Bulgakov, A banchetto con i dei. Pro e contra, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 / Milano 1971,
. 125 /
p. 111.
8
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, The New Delhi World Assembly, Report, London 1962, p. 85 (n 26).
9
.
/ V. Rozanov,
, in idem,
/ L'apocalisse del nostro tempo, München / Milano 1970 / 1979,
.
455 / pp. 61-62.
10
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Gli spiriti della rivoluzione russa, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 /
Milano 1971,
. 80-81 / pp. 66-67.
11
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
. 372-373 / pp. 471-472 (vol. I).
12
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Il senso della storia,
1923 / Milano 1977,
.43-44 / p. 36.
13
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Il senso della storia,
1923 / Milano 1977,
.140-142 / pp. 100-101.
14
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Il senso della storia,
1923 / Milano 1977,
.143-145 / pp. 102-103.
2
23
CHURCH AND CHURCHES
Sobornostic theology has been recognized as equally relevant for
the new urgencies of theology as were the western theologies of Barth
or Tillich or Teilhard de Chardin 1. It is precisely at the heart of
what is considered the mainstream contribution of the 20° century to
Church life, the Ecumenical Movement, that this key
under an
approximative wording of conciliarity - gave its best contribution.
Already around 1950, immediately after the formal beginning of the
World Council of Churches, in Toronto, preparing the basic formula
for memebership in trinitarian prospective, conciliarity emerges as
one of the possible plateforms for the ecumenical process 2. It is
also well documented how the conciliar consciousness rose in the
World Council of Churches since 1960 (but yet present in Toronto,
1950 3) together with the full acceptance of the trinitarian Basis
for its membership 4, notwithstanding the difficult discernement of
1968 about its trinitarian and pneumatological implications 5. At the
meeting in New Delhi, the times seemed mature to engage in a common
study of the Churches on conciliarity and its implications 6. In
1968, the term is adopted as usual reference 7, pointing out the
constant renewal of the universal communion through the local
Churches joining in the convocation of the Holy Spirit, by means of
prayer and consent, towards the fullness of love and truth 8. And
indeed, the exchanges of opinion between the pioneers of the
ecumenical movement, as between Palmer and Chomjakov on the
pneumatic nature of the Church include already the sobornostic
convergency 9. The reconciling consensus concerns above all the new
questions and the new demands that history meets, but neither the
past and the present are forgotten 10. Conciliarity gives full and
1
J. Meyendorff, La Théologie orthodoxe aujourd'hui, in Contacts , 1969, n 68, pp. 309-310.
V. Vinay, Rendere ragione della speranza che è in noi, in Protestantesimo , 1974 n 3, p. 229.
3
V. Vinay, Rendere ragione della speranza che è in noi, in Protestantesimo , 1974 n 3, p. 229.
4
D. Gill, Gathered for Life, Official Report, VIº Assembly WCC, Vancouver, Canada, 24 July - 10 August 1983, Geneva 1983, p. 388; WORLD COUNCIL
OF CHURCHES, The New Delhi Report, The third Assembly of the WCC 1961, London 1962, p. 11; G. Wainwright, Conciliarity and Eucharist, in «One in
Christ», 1978 nº 1, pp. 30-31; WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, New Delhi speaks, WCC 1961, London 1962, p. 56; U. Ducrow, Conflict over the
Ecumenical Movement, Confessing Christ Today in the Universal Church, Geneva 1981, pp. 328-329; S.Hubner, Konziliare Gemeinschaft - Weg und
Ziel ? christlicher Einheit?, in AA. VV., Teologisches Handbuch, Hamburg 1980, S. 426 - 450; W. Beinert, Konziliarität der Kirche. Ein Beitrag zur
ökumenischen Epistemologie, in «Catholica», 1979 Nº 33, S. 81-108; J.D. Weisenbek, Conciliar Fellowship and the unity of the Church, Geneva 1980,
pp.159 161; FAITH AND ORDER, The importance of the Conciliar Process in the Ancient Church for the Ecumenical Movement, Geneva 1968, p. 10 e
p. 18; FAITH AND ORDER , Unity of the Church - Unity of Mankind, Geneva 1974, p.119; FAITH AND ORDER, Conciliarity and the Future of the
Ecumenical Movement, Geneva 1971, p. 226; FAITH AND ORDER, What unity requires, in D.M.PATON, (ed.) The Official report of Fifth Assembly of
the World Council of Churches, Nairobi, 23 November - 10 december, 1975, London 1975, p.60; FAITH AND ORDER, The Unity of the Church - Next
Steps, in AA. VV., What Kind of Unity, Geneva 1974, p.122; FAITH AND OREDER, The Unity of the Church: the Goal and the way, in AA. VV., Uniting
in Hope, Reports and Document for the meeting of Faith and Order Commission, Accra 1974, Geneva 1975, p. 117; H. Meyer , I modelli di unità che
attualmente troviamo nella chiesa, in «Oikumenikon», 1977 nº 12, pp. 860 - 862; anche P. Neuner , Breve manuale dell ecumene, Brescia 1988, pp. 215
217; Y.Congar, Diversità e comunione, Assisi 1983, p. 219; G. Zervos, Il contributo del patriarcato ecumenico per l'unità dei cristiani, Roma 1974, pp.
100-120.
5
E. Carson Blake, Uppsala e dopo, in H. E. Fey, Storia del movimento ecumenico, Milano 1979, vol. IV, pp. 850-851; R. Bertalot, Per dialogare con la
Riforma, Vicenza 1989, p. 105; P. W. Fuerth, The concept of Catholicity in the Documents of the World Council of Churches 1948-1968. A Historical Study
with Systematic - Theological Reflections, in «Studia Anselmiana», 1973 n° 60, pp. 173-180; N. Goodal, The Uppsala Report 1968. Official Report of the
Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches. Uppsala july 4-20, Geneva 1968, pp. 11-19; Ch. Hegge, Tradizione e ricezione alla luce di una
ecclesioprassi trinitaria, in P. Coda P. - A. Tapken (ed.), La Trinità e il pensare. Figure, percorsi, prospettive, Roma 1997, pp. 373-398.
6
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, World Assembly: New Delhi 1961, "Report", London 1962, p. 131.
7
GRUPPO DI STUDIO VII, Conciliarità come comunione responsabile, in AA. VV., Regno come comunione, Roma 1980, p. 244.
8
JOINT WORKING GROUP (JOINT THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION) OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND THE ROMAN
CATHOLIC CHURCH, Catholicity and Apostolicity, in «One in Christ», 1971 n° 3, pp. 473-474; FOI ET CONSTITUTION, Louvain 1971, in Istina ,
1971 n 3, p. 413.
9
Cfr A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, p. 190.
10
FEDE E COSTITUZIONE, Paper 1972, n 20, ciclost. Geneva 1972, p. 19; JOINT WORKING GROUP (JOINT THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION)
OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, Catholicity and Apostolicity, in «One in Christ», 1971 n°
3, p. 415; FOI ET CONSTITUTION, Louvain 1971, in Istina , 1971 n 3, pp. 413-414.
2
24
reciprocal responsability both to the persons and to the local
Churches beyond their inside poverty and weakness or their situation
under external dominion: it is a universal epiclesis, universal
inspiration of the Spirit who transfigurates towards a conciliarity
of total openness 1. In conciliarity, catholicity emerges from
apostolicity as continuity of Christian and evangelical identity and
means to take into account the deviations of history, looking for
progressive and gradual inclusion of everything and all through
concrete projects to be realized in harmony by all Christians 2.
Through the creation of conciliar organisms as local and regional
bodies 3, the Ecumenical Movement would look upon the possibility of
a council that can really assemble all the Christians 4, with the
scope of re-inventing universality 5 in front of the new urgencies of
the years 2000 6. Aiming to overcome a superficial view on
catholicity 7, the main effort would be to refute the idea of
ecumenism as pure operation of compromises including the scope of
setting up a Superchurch 8. From the meeting of Basel in 1989, a
proposal was formulated for a 'conciliar process for justice, peace
and the safeguard of the whole creation' 9. All this opens to the
broad theological and anthropological horizont which the sobornostic
approach implies.
WORLD
Sobornostic awareness is not an abstract systematical speculation
but is rooted in a specifical historical passage of recent human
experience: the in-between of two main revolutions, 1789 and 1917.
The threefold approach on ecclesial experience as mystery of 'free
fullness in God', as
parity in equality , and as 'brotherly
togetherness sharing Church life' for all assignments and
appointments, according to the summary of A. St. Chomjakov 10. It
offers an alternative to the 'symbolical imperial triple ideal' of
the epoch: 'pravoslavie', 'samoder avie', 'narod'nost'' (
,
,
), according to the synthesis of Count Uvarov:
1
FAITH AND ORDER, Paper 1972, n . 20, ciclost. Geneva 1972, p. 19; GRUPPO DI STUDIO VLL, Conciliarità come comunione responsabile, in
AA. VV., Il Regno di Dio che viene, Roma 1980, p. 244; AA. VV., Documento: La presidenza nell'Eucaristia, in AA. VV., Il Regno di Dio che viene,
Roma 1980, pp. 361-362.
2
JOINT WORKING GROUP (JOINT THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION) OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND THE ROMAN
CATHOLIC CHURCH, Catholicity and Apostolicity, in «One in Christ», 1971 n° 3, pp. 474-475; FAITH AND ORDER, Paper 1972, n 20, ciclost.,
op. cit., pp. 14-15; R. Frieling, Konziliare Gemeinschaft, in R. Groscurth , Wandernde Horizonte, Frankfurt am Main 1974, S. 149-150; GRUPPO DI
STUDIO VLL, Conciliarità come comunione responsabile, in AA. VV., Il Regno di Dio che viene, Roma 1980,p. 251.
3
FOI ET CONSTITUTION, Louvain 1971, , in Istina , 1971 n 3,pp. 414-415.
4
FOI ET CONSTITUTION, Au-delà de l'intercommunion, Genève 1970, p. 25.
5
COLLOQUE INTERCONFESSIONNEL DE LIEBFRAUENBERG, L 'avenir de l 'oecuménisme, in Unité chrétienne , 1971 n 21, p. 73.
6
L. Vischer, Rapport du Pasteur Lukas Vischer sur l'union des Eglises, in La documentation catholique , 1971 n 1580, p. 172; H. Mühlen, Morgen
wird Einheit sein, das kommende Konzil aller Christen: Ziel der getrennten Kirchen, op. cit., S. 21.
7
JOINT WORKING GROUP (JOINT THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION) OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND THE ROMAN
CATHOLIC CHURCH, Catholicity and Apostolicity, in «One in Christ», 1971 n° 3, p. 474; J.N. D. Kelly, ' Catholic' and ' Apostolic' in the early
centuries, in «One in Christ», 1971 n° 3, p.275; .
/ N. Afanassiev,
(La Chiesa cattolica), in
, op. cit.,
. 2; J.D. Zizioulas, La communauté eucharistique et la catholicité de l' Eglise, in Istina , 1971 n 3, p. 67; J.N. D. Kelly,
'Catholic' and 'Apostolic' in the early centunes, in «One in Christ», 1971 n° 3, pp. 276-279: vedere tale sfumatura nella riflessione attuale, per esempio
in: Editoriale, Per una Civiltà veramente "cattoiica" o "universale", in La Civiltà cattolica , 1982 n 3165, pp. 209-217..
8
J. Frisque, Ecclesiologia del XX secolo, in R. Vander Gucht - H. Vorgrimmler, Bilancio della teologia del XX° secolo, III, Roma 1972, pp. 221-222;
O. Cullmann, Paul Vl et l' oecuménisme, in Istituto Paolo Vl , notiziario n 4, 1982, pp. 51 -52; W. Beinert, Um das dritte Kirchenattribut (die
Katholizität der Kirche im Verständnis der evangelisch-lutherischen und rö misch-katholischen Theologie der Gegenwart), Essen 1964, S. 170; P.W.
Fuerth, The Concept of Catholicity in the Documents of the World Council of Churches 1948-1968, Roma 1973, pp. 25-26.
9
C. Ordnung, Zum konziliaren Prozess in den Kirchen der DDR und der BDR, in «Evangelische Monatschrift», 1989 n° 4, S. 14.
10
A.
/ A. Chomjakov,
/ L'Église est une,
/ Paris 1953,
. 33-34, 47-48, 51 / pp. 218-219, 231-232, 235-236;
vedere l interpretazione del tutto unilaterale e basata solo su Endre von Ivánka, con il presupposto che la teologia russa sia un prodotto della teologia
protestante tedesca in J. Ratzinger, Church, Ecumenism & Politics, New York 1988, pp. 23-27.
25
orthodoxy, autocracy and national identity 1, based on the UKAZ
(decision-decree of a single individual imposed to everybody, always
modifiable from the autocrat) in his messianism up to teocratism 2.
Absolutism is a pre-christian form of domination 3 -where burocracy
had already destroyed the unity of Tsar and people 4- strangely
advocated by restauration ideologists for the identity of the Popeking (Joseph de Maistre) 5. In its absolutism, Petersburg got
6
convergently
baroquised
. But also the
russian national
consciousness of narod nost
with its messianistic flavour and that
the uvarovian system wanted to incult in the mind of young people 7was unexpectedly copied from some polish ideology 8. The specific
'prophetical' dimension of the sobornostic intuition in the ample
intuition of radical overturn has been evidentiated by the Russian
literature of the XIX° century 9. National consciousness out of
parity between nations and cultures gives its shape to messianism 10,
autocracy without conciling fraternity opens the way to theocratism
11
, where the Church becomes a subordinated part of a national or
universal power that falsifies its intent 12. As during the Ancien
Régime , as the Church of England, as prussian Lutheranism or the
austro-hungarical imperial Catholicism, Russian Orthodoxy is invited
to become the pillar of a legitimacy of national social life which
the Church must sustain and guarantee 13: full integration up to the
suppression of the Patriarchate 14. If the sobornarian writers
answered somehow to the uvarovian triloghion, and beyond this one to
the threefold symbolics of the french revolution , how can we find a
parallel to this in the bol evic revolution? A western author has
summarized
from the times of the
Utopists - a corresponding
threefold scheme from one revolution to the other: from fraternity to
public happiness, from parity to the concentration of all power, from
freedom to sacrificality of individual autonomy and the centrality of
an active proletarian nucleus 15. The implication would be to pass
over from the new order of the previous revolution to the world
subversion of the second one. How could this succeed? An answer is:
as for the scope of happiness , it is known that western moralistic
theory shifted over from ethics to eudemonology (science of
happiness
eternal or not) 16. We know how Dostoevskij unmasked the
promise of the Great Inquisitor to give heavenly happiness to all
1
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, pp. 42-43, 101.
.
, . .
,
1912, (Farnborough 1971),
. 212-213, 101.
3
D. A. Chomjakov, L'oeuvre de A. Khomjakov, in A. Gratieux, Le mouvement slavophile à la veille de la révolution, op. cit., p. 163.
4
D. A. Chomjakov`, Orthodoxie, Autocratie, nationalité, in A. Gratieux, Le mouvement slavophile à la veille de la révolution, op. cit., p. 165.
5
D. Groh, La Russia e l'autocoscienza d'Europa, Torino 1980, p. 124.
6
T. Talbot Rice, A Concise History of Russian Art, London 1963, pp. 170-171.
7
G. Guariglia, Il messianismo russo, Roma 1956, pp. 16, 108.
8
Y. Congar, Avant-propos, in A. Gratieux, Le mouvement slavophile à la veille de la révolution, op. cit., p. 12.
9
N. A. Berdjaev, Le fonti e il significato del comunismo russo, Milano 1976, p. 103.
10
.
, . .
,
1912, (Farnborough 1971),
. 212-213.
11
.
, . .
,
1912, (Farnborough 1971),
. 101.
12
Cfr la prospettiva dell'articolo: A. Joos, Antropologia e ascetica in Rosmini e Solov'ëv, in AA. VV. Atti del convegno internazionale su A. Rosmini:
filosofia e ascesi, Rovereto 1988.
13
D. Groh, La Russia e l'autocoscienza d'Europa, Torino 1980, p. 193.
14
N. Zernov, La rinascita religiosa russa del XX secolo, Milano 1978, pp. 23, 56
15
A. Joos, Da una rivoluzione all'altra: le convergenti meditazioni di Rosmini e di alcuni pensatori russi, in G. Campanini e F. Traniello (ed.), Filosofia e
politica: Rosmini e la cultura della Restaurazione (Atti del convegno internazionale di Rovereto, "Filosofia e politica in Rosmini"), Brescia 1993, pp. 289336; A. Rosmini, Il comunismo ed il socialismo, in idem, Opuscoli politici, Opere di Antonio Rosmini, vol 37, Roma 1978, pp. 81-121.
16
A. Rosmini, Principi della scienza morale, in idem, Filosofia della morale, vol. I, in idem, Opere di Antonio Rosmini, vol. 23, Roma 1990, p. 38-39, 217
(nota 9).
2
26
in submission to him 1 or Solov ëv in his story of the Antichrist
as World Benefactor 2, over against Tolstoj who exalted the happy
life principle 3. Secondly, sacrificality of all to leave full power
to few: it is known how this principle goes back to the pre-christian
4
idea of superiority of
heroes
in their
sacrificality
, a
dramatical slipping down of the idea of holiness transferred at the
restricted human level ending up in the materialistic deadlock 5.
Finally, the concentration of all power: it is the classical
substitution of freedom with order 6, also the Great Inquisitor
announces to the poor pilgrim of Sevilla that order has been reestablished and His freedom forgotten 7. It is known how sobornost
has been appropriated by a world view that emphasizes commonality as
well as the culmination of world history in the dictatorship of the
proletariat 8. The outcome of all this: not any more a new order
but the universal subversion or to extend power without any
limitation, to be a world empire or not to exist at all 9, including
what Gogol calls the hypnotism of violence and revenge 10.
AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF HUMAN FREEDOM OVER AGAINST PUBLIC
HAPPINESS OR OFFICIAL STATE-ORTHODOXY
Not a religion of freedom 11 but a rediscovery of freedom
itself, even if freedom is fundamentally transgression 12: Chomjakov
tries an initial interreligious dialogue 13 in his discernement
between ku itic religions (with a determinative impact of nature)
and iranic ones (emerging from a first hint on free religious
awareness, maturing further in the ebraic faith) 14. But the key
intent of Christ himself is expressed as giving to people His
freedom 15. Autocracy is only an anarchical ideology in the absence
of a strong common political interest 16, leaving ascetically the
exercize of power in the hands of few determined people substituting
1
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
. 311-312 (V. I) / pp. 336-337 (V. I);
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Gli spiriti della rivoluzione russa, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 /
Milano 1971,
. 82-83 / pp. 68-69.
2
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
/ I tre dialoghi,
1954 / Torino 1975,
. 200-202 / pp. 190-192.
3
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Gli spiriti della rivoluzione russa, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 /
Milano 1971,
. 83 / p. 69.
4
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914
1989) / Milano 1974,
. 290-291, 341-342, 450 / pp. 350-351, 403-404, 501-504.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov, A banchetto con i dei. Pro e contra, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 / Milano 1971,
. 125 /
p. 111; .
/ S. Frank, De profundis, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 / Milano 1971,
. 305, 310 / pp. 293, 297; .
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Gli spiriti della rivoluzione russa, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 / Milano
1971,
. 82, 91 / pp. 68, 77.
6
F. R. de Chateaubriand, Etudes ou discours historique (suivi d'une analyse raisonnée de l'histoire de France), , Tome IV, Bruxelles 1831, p. 450; B.
Voyenne, Il diritto all'informazione, Roma 1971, p. 81.
7
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
. 310 (T. 1) / p. 335 (V. I).
8
R. Smoley, A Glimpse of Eastern Expanses, in «Internet» 2003, http://www.lumen.org/intros/intro31.html.
9
.
/ S. Bulgakov, A banchetto con i dei. Pro e contra, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 / Milano 1971,
. 109,
113 / p. 94, 99.
10
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Gli spiriti della rivoluzione russa, in AA. VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 /
Milano 1971,
. 73-74 / pp. 59-60.
11
Vedere l' impostazione dello slittamento, dal punto di vista della emancipazione laicistica di fronte alla integrazione cristiana globale: cfr e.g. B.
Vincent, Thomas Paine ou la religion de la liberté, Paris 1987.
12
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La prospettiva rovesciata, in idem,
, in idem,
, . I / La prospettiva rovesciata ed altri scritti,
1985 / Roma 1983,
. 123 / p. 79.
13
O. Clément, Anachroniques, Paris 1990, p. 331.
14
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, pp. 204-205; .
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Il senso della storia,
1923 / Milano 1977,
. 114-115 / 83-84.
15
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
. 327-328 / pp. 428-429 (vol. I).
16
.
, . .
,
1912, (Farnborough 1971),
.186.
27
them 1. But, for the Church, the other risk would be to become a
world dru ina or a nearly military organized entreprise conquerring
humanity, not compenetration of divine and human ventures but
society of Orthodox dominium 2. Free unity is unity as anima for
all ecclesial involvement and insight, and a style more than a
structure to overcome the challenges of human pilgrimage 3: a style
of linking rather than isolating, gathering together the whole
creation 4 Free unity is also unity towards ahead, immaginative, not
reduced to reality as it stands, in a simultaneization as dream
of what is to come 5 and the contrary of an illusory faithfullness
to reality as witnessed by tridimensional painting 6. Three types of
freedom could be discerned: freedom from (risk of anarchy), freedom
for
(risk
of
fanatism),
freedom
with
(possibility
of
togetherness). Freedom
with
the other is condition of free
compenetration, as for the divine and the human world in divinization
7
through inner transparency 8. Freedom, finally, is the thirst to
transcend all limitations 9, search for totality of experience 10,
towards a final inconditional 11, renouncing to the partial
approximations 12. Freedom can be re-invented as Freedom in Love 13.
AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF PARITY
CONCENTRATION OF POWER OR AUTOCRACY
IN
EQUALITY
OVER
AGAINST
The sobornostic approach faces, here, the full question of
laicistic secularization reprospecting it without negating its
relevance. The question of the western trend to autodestruction 14,
towards secular autonomy sceptical about itself 15, about equality
among persons coming out in the figure of the Superman 16, is always
present in the commentaries of the inspirers of sobornal theological
view 17. The answer will be one of kenotic emtying of oneself. God
Himself extinguishes His omnipotence 18. The apophatic key reveals
itself through the kenotic approach 19. There is a quality of parity
1
.
, . .
,
1912, (Farnborough 1971),
. 190-191.
Cfr A. Schmemann, Church, World, Mission, New York 1979, p. 32.
3
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ Il rito ortodosso come sintesi dell'arte, in idem,
, . I / La prospettiva rovesciata ed altri scritti,
1984 / Milano 1974,
. 46-47 / pp. 60-61; .
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano 1974,
. 268-269, 264 / pp. 327,
323. .
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano
1974,
. 268-269, 264 / pp. 327, 323..
4
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano
1974,,
. 290-291 / pp. 350-351.
5
Liddell-Scott, Greek-English Lexikon, Oxford 1961.
6
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La prospettiva rovesciata, in idem,
, in idem,
, . I / La prospettiva rovesciata ed altri scritti,
1985 / Roma 1983,
. 177 / pp. 126-127.
7
Metr. Serafim, L'Eglise orthodoxe, Paris 1952, pp. 38-39.
8
P. Evdokimov, La connaissance de Dieu selon La tradition orientale, Lyon 1967, p. 20.
9
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in, idem,
, . III / Lectures on Godmanhood,
1956 /
London 1968,
. 19-20 / p. 79.
10
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des
Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 412 / p. 148.
11
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in, idem,
, . III / Lectures on Godmanhood,
1956 /
London 1968,
. 20-21 / p. 79.
12
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in, idem,
, . III / Lectures on Godmanhood,
1956 /
London 1968,
. 38-39 / p. 95.
13
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 123 / pp. 24-27.
14
H. Beckmann, Abschied vom Abendland?, in AA. VV. Abschied vom Christentum?, Hamburg 1967, S. 47-49.
15
P. Tillich, Protestantismus als Kritik und Gestaltung, München 1966, p. 76.
16
Vedere, per esmpio la figura dell'imperatore universale nei Tre dialoghi di Vl. Solov'ëv", Milano 1976; Tri rasgovora, Nio Jork 1954.
17
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, p. 324.
18
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 253 / p. 151.
19
E. Lampert, Theological Communication and the Certainties of Belief, in A. J. Philippou, The Orthodox Ethos, Oxford 1964, p. 226.
2
28
revealed in the Tomos on the mystery of God, the icon of philoxenia
1
, redimensioning the former exaltation of the Pantocrator (another
dominion or
cratia ) 2. Concentration of all power towards a
totalitarian ultimate and universal
victory
in christianly
3
unthinkable . Pentecost itself respects the parity of historical
moments, even being the 1° one 4. In order to respect equality to
all, a real kenosis is needed, which is born from the dynamics of
divine Love 5. The idea of a final apocalyptic
victory
is
transfigurated 6.
AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF FRATERNAL TOGETHERNESS OVER AGAINST
INDIVIDUAL SACRIFICALITY OR BEING ABSORBED IN NATIONAL IDENTITY
The main togetherness is togetherness in Love and consequentlyin holiness, drawn from the witness of fraternity of the saints in
their spiritual teachings: the philokalia or the dobrotolubie
(love for all what is the best) "
" 7. This togetherness of
the saints is part of God s philanthropy expressed in Christ s
8
economy
. In Christ, feeling together in fraternity is the
contrary to running away from the world 9, but is instead cooperating
with the Earth 10. Sobornostocity is always linked with the priority
of a reconciliation with creation itself 11, eventually through
12
suffering
as the
eternal covenant with the Earth
.
Disaggressiveness is already present as Sekkinah (Old Testament) and
will be present later as Sakina (Islam) 13. The last stage of
umilenie could be the break-down of the Spirit of Evil, converting
from its hardness into tenderness as reception of the divine
compassion 14. This reconciliation is a growth towards fullness in
truth: truth-ìstina rather than truth-pravda, truth in the sense of
ìstina is sobornal truth 15, it is not the truth of the vereor 16:
it is also a sobornaja ìstina 17. A bad use of truth against itself is
always possible even afferming irreprochably the formal truth 18.
1
U. Fabricius, Ikonen, Jesus-Christus, Recklinghausen 1957, S. 12-13; Daniel Ange, L'étreinte de feu, Paris 1980, p. 6.
M. Lot-Borodine, La déification de l'homme, Paris 1970, p. 89.
3
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, De l esclavage et de la liberté de l homme, Paris 1963, p. 288.
4
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Il Paraclito,
1936 / Bologna 1972,
. 331-332 / pp. 417-418.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov, Le ministère de l'Église, in J. Jézéquel, FOI ET CONSTITUTION, Lausanne 1928, Paris 1928, p. 296; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 267 / p. 166 ;
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Il Paraclito,
1936 / Bologna 1972,
. 254 / pp. 334-335.
6
L. A. Zander, Dostoievsky et le problème du bien, Paris 1946, pp. 160-161.
7
Cfr the translation of D. St niloae, Filocalia sfintelor nevoin e ale des vîr irii, introducere, traducere i comentarii de D. St niloae, tipografia
arhidiecezan , Sibiu, vol. I, (1946), vol. II (1947), vol. III (1948), vol. IV (1948).
8
John of Damascus, Against the Jacobites, in P. G., V. 94, col. 1464; Dyonisios Aeropaghita, On the Divine Names (II, 3), in P. G., V. 3, col. 640.
9
.
/ V. Solov' ëv,
/ Das Judentum und die christliche Frage, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 150-152 / S.
582.
10
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ Delitto e castigo,
1970 / Milano 1983,
. 580-581 / pp. 649-650.
11
L. A. Zander, Dostoïevsky et le problème du bien, Paris 1946. p. 29; Archimandrita Spiridione, Le mie missioni in Siberia, in T. pidlik, Spiritualità
russa, Roma 1981, p. 141.
12
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
.143-144 (T. I) / p. 142 (V. I).
13
GENESIS OF EDEN DIVERSITY ENCICLOPEDIA, SAKINA. A Wisdom Earth Democracy Fertility Initiative, in «Internet» 2002,
http://www.dhushara.com/book/dovcer/dov.htm.
14
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990,
. 412-413 / p. 377-378.
15
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des
Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 383-386 / S. 111-112.
16
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano
1974,
. 16-17 / pp. 54-55.
17
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des
Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 383-386 / S. 111-112.
18
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des
Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 329-330 / S. 42-43.
2
29
Overcoming evil, history has to accomplish any truth 1. Only in
Love, truth can reach the level of tenderness 2. The prospective is
one of the reconciliation of the opposed extremes 3: fraternity
beyond any frontier.
CHAPTER III
ORTHODOX SYMPHONICITY IN GOD-HUMANLY
CONCILIATION AS DOORSTEP BEYOND THE
GL OB A L IZ IN G STRUC TURA TION OF H UMAN LIFE
TODAY
How can Orthodoxy effectively face the so-called challenges of
the contemporary world ? Looking at the end of the two previous
revolutions, there could be a question about: what next?
In the
line of our inquiry, a certain prophecy was given by the same
western author (cfr supra, very near to some eastern insights) on the
future, after the two revolutions: "the world... might thus resign
itself, if it wants to do so, resign itself to abandon all its public
and private interests fully in the hands of these private leagues, of
which it would ignore, precisely because they are utmost secret, each
fact and each reason" 4! There is something anticipative in this
prevision to abandon all public and private interest in the hands of
private leagues!! Is it not the kind of situation which we know
today, after the era of the blocks (east and west)? The new order
5
should have been already a kind a new era And the Renaissance
itself was initially based on bancarian world networks 6. And even,
Hegel after Descartes thought that the national and continental role
of Europe was at its end when America had been discovered (in a kind
of new transnationality) 7, inspired by his absolutism of history 8. A
summary on the new way of understanding world management today could
be found in the term globalization . We know also how 20° century
theology warned about the trend of globalizing faith and christian
life 9.
A remarquable feature of today s
new theories
on human
experience is that a convergent terna or threefold problematics can
be found as for the previous main steps in recent traumas of human
emancipation (cfr supra). Next to freedom, parity and fraternity, and
next to public happiness, concentration of all responsability, and
individual sacrificality, a new era has been inaugurated. A first
1
.
.
/ S. A. Askol'dov,
, / Il significato religioso della rivoluzione russa, in AA.VV.,
/ Dal profondo,
1967 / Milano 1971,
. 65 / p. 52.
2
M. Lot-Borodine, La déification de l'homme, Paris 1970, p. 243.
3
Cfr .
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) /
Milano 1974,
. 43 / pp. 78-79.
4
A. Rosmini, Il comunismo ed il socialismo, in idem, Opuscoli politici, Opere di Antonio Rosmini, vol 37, Roma 1978, p. 105.
5
R. Miquel, La grande révolution, Paris 1988, p. 8-9; P. Gaxotte, La révolution française, Paris 1965, pp. 290-291; vedere poi: Hegel, Baader, Schlegel, de
Maistre...; Cl. Lefort, Préface, in E. Quinet, La révolution, Paris 1987, pp. 7-8; A. de Lamartine, Histoire de la révolution de 1848, Bruxelles 1849, pp. 6-9;
A. Grousset, Bilan de l'histoire, Paris 1946, pp. 58-60; E. Quinet, La révolution, Paris 1987, p. 117.
6
R. Grousset, Bilan de l'histoire, Paris 1946, pp. 43-44; A. Gramsci, Interprétation di Gramsci sur la Renaissance, in AA. VV., Encyclopédie du monde actuel: les
idées du XX° siècle, Paris 1978, pp. 48-49.
7
R. Groh, La Russia e l'autocoscienza dell'Europa, Torino 1980, pp. 189-191.
8
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, De l esclavage et de la liberté de l homme, Paris 1963, p. 287.
9
Vedere la chiave di "de-globalizzazione" della teologia della speranza, come intento escatologico prioritario sia nei confronti della storia sia della Chiesa:
in A. Joos Teologie a confronto, vol. I, Sponde lontane, Vicenza 1982, pp. 512-513 / 542; J. Moltmann, Theologie der Hoffnung, München 1965, S. 20; Cfr
J. Sobrino, Christology at the Crossroads, New York 1978 p. 31.
30
element of this new era is given to specify the phenomenon: global
human management realized through 'transnational corporations on the
world market of ideas along the highways of information' 1. A second
key of globality is 'the global management through deregulation and
the ability to run multimedially -at a distance- all the human
activities through competition' 2. A third element would be the
'general strategy to arouse answers to the solicitations operating
from dreaming promotionality' 3. These three aspects recall somehow
the tripartite dimension of human experience: information as mental
knowledge, operativity as action, emotive involvement to move mind
and action. Our first sobornostic dimension gave us the insight of
illimitable conciliation of the person beyond itself in freedom of
the spirit. Transnational entreprises invert this moving beyond
frontiers in the sense of abolishing national or cultural priorities
in order to activate
free
competition worldwide among strong
structures.
THE PROMISES OF GLOBALIZATION
Let us just have a look at the elements which globalization
includes, according to the spokesmen of this new trend in human
emancipation and to avoid in this sense- to speak only superficially
or generically. To characterize today's communicative impact in
managing the total human experience, the term in use is
1
R. A. Gershon, The Transnational Media Corporation: Global Messages and Free Market Competition. Mahwah, NJ 1997; E. S. Herman, The Global
Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism, New York 1997; W. H. Read and J. L. Youtie, Telecommunications Strategy for Economic
Development, CT/London 1996, J. Sinclair - E. Jacka - St. Cunningham (eds.), New Patterns in Global Television: Peripheral Vision, Oxford 1996.
2
G. L. Rosston - D. Waterman (eds.), Interconnection and the Internet: Selected Papers from the 1996 Telecommunications Policy Research Conference,
Mahwah NJ, 1997; G. Sussman - J. A. Lent (eds.), Transnational Communications: Wiring the Third World. (Communication and Human Values series),
CA/London/New Delhi 1991; R. Mansell. The New Telecommunications: A Political Economy of Network Evolution. London/Thousand Oaks, CA/New
Delhi 1993; N. Adam - B. Awerbuch - J. Slonim - P. Wegner - Y. Yesha, Globalizing Business, Education, Culture Through the Internet (The Next 50
Years: Our Hopes, Our Visions, Our Plans), in «Communications of the ACM [Association for Computing Machinery]», Vol. 40, 1997 nº 2, pp. 115-121;
T. Congdon - A. Graham - D. Green - B. Robinson, The Cross Media Revolution: Ownership and Control, London/Paris/Rome 1995; A. M. Noll, Highway
of Dreams: A Critical View Along the Information Superhighway, Mahwah NJ 1997; J. Katz - Ph. Aspden, Motivations for and Barriers to Internet Usage:
Results of a National Public Opinion Survey, in G. L. Rosston - D. Waterman, Interconnection and the Internet: Selected Papers from the 1996
Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, Mahwah NJ, 1997.
3
A. Tempest, Tendencias actuales de la publicidad en Europa, Madrid 1991, pp. 32-33; A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicità tra servizio e violenza,
(EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 45; B. Brochand - J. Lendrevie, Le regole del gioco. Le Publicitor, Milano 1986, p. 18; ISTITUTO
DELL'AUTODISCIPLINA PUBBLICITARIA, Codice di autodisciplina pubblicitaria (edizione in vigore dal 20 aprile 1994 / La 1º edizione del Codice
risale al 12 maggio 1966), Milano 1994, p. 33; J. Kilbourne, Killing Us Softly: Gender Roles in advertising, in «Adolescent Medecine», 1993 nº 3, p. 635;
Paul VI, Message pour la XIº Journée mondiale des communications sociales, in «La documentation catholique», 1977 nº 1721, p. 501; ADVERTISING
BOARD OF THE PHILIPPINES, Standards of Trade Practices and Conduct in the Advertising Industry, (revised edition, October 1992 - pro manuscripto),
p. 8; A. Gibson - D. Jay - H. Richardson - R. Roach, Report of the Symposium "Truth in Advertising", Toronto 1971, p. V; DECOS/CELAM, Vocabulario
de la comunicación social, Bogotá 1988, p. 150; I. L. Preston, The Tangled Web They Weave. Truth, Falsity, and Advertisers, (pro manuscripto), Madison
(WI), p. 124; R. Kreisi, Kirche und Werbung: Das gestörte Verhältnis, in H.Tremel, Öffentlichkeitsarbeit der Kirche. CEP Beiträge Kirche und
Kommunikation, Frankfurt 1984, S. 38; P. Kotler, Marketing management, Torino 1991, p. 5; R. P. Hill, An Exploration of Voter Responses to Political
Advertisements, in «Journal of Advertising», 1989 nº 4, p. 15; G. Gadotti, Pubblicità sociale, Milano 1993, pp. 19-29; K. Myers, Understanding
Advertisers, in H. Davis - P. Walton, Language, Image, Media, Oxford 1983, p. 217; J. Aren, in S. Sassi, Approches sémiologiques de l'affiche publicitaire,
in AA. VV., La rue et l'image, Paris 1990, p. 72; G. Fabris, La pubblicità. Teorie e prassi, Milano 1992, p. 349; H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5
Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, p. 129; J. Baudrillard, Media et information / stratégie d'objet
et ironie objective, in D. De Kerckhove - A. Ianucci, McLuhan e la metamorfosi dell'uomo, Roma 1984, pp. 145-146; G. M. Fara, Etica e pubblicità,
(EURISPES, ISTITUTO DI STUDI P0LITICI ECONOMICI E SOCIALI - pro manuscripto: rapporto all'Assemblea Plenaria del Pontificio Consiglio delle
Comunicazioni Sociali), Città del Vaticano 1994, p. 1: in «Bulletin du Conseil pontifical des communications sociales», 1994; D. Kellner, Advertising and
Consumer Culture, in J. Downing - A. Mohammadi - A. Sreberny-Mohammadi, Questioning the Media. A Critical Introduction, London 1990, p. 254; M.
C. Miller, Advertising. End of Story, in M. C. Miller, Seeing through Movies, New York 1990, pp. 186-187; COMMISSION INTERNATIONALE
D'ETUDE DES PROBLEMES DE LA COMMUNICATION (UNESCO), Rapport intérimaire sur les problèmes de la communication dans la société
moderne, Paris 1978, p. 39; P. Lazarsfeld - R. K. Merton, Studi sulla propaganda radiofonica e cinematografica, in R. K. Merton, Teoria e struttura
sociale, Bologna 1971, pp. 905-935; ; III CONFERENZA GENERAL DEL EPISCOPADO LATINOAMERICANO, Comunicación social y
Evangelización en el presente y el futuro de America latina (Puebla 1979), in B. Spoletini, Comunicación e Iglesia Latinoamericana, Buenos Aires 1978, p.
173; J. Folliet, L'information moderne et le droit à l'information, Paris 1969, p. 147; Ph. Boegner, Cette presse malade d'elle-même, Paris 1973, p. 101; V.
Burgin, Seeing Sense, in H. Davis - P. Walton, Language, Image, Media, Oxford 1983, p. 234; R. P. Hill, Criminal Receiving: The "Fence" as Marketer, in
«Journal of Public Policy & Marketing», 1992 nº2, p. 133.
31
'globalization' (in french mondialisation', also global village) 1.
Sometimes a distinction is made between globalization and 'globalism'
(in negative sense) 2. The meanings of these concepts are still
fluctuant. Globalization is intended to be the progressive
integration of the markets throughout the world 3, realized by the so
called 'new economy' 4. But some people would also hypothesize the
perspective of a 'world government' to be positively agreed upon by
the human community 5. Another expression corrects the wording on
such a world concentration of power, talking about
glocalism
(global and local): or the 'inside' of the cultural market of a given
geographical area, in front of the 'outside' or international
transcultural globality 6. The so-called 'neo-conservatives' will
rather indicate this communicative plateform as fostering the
potentialities and the ulterior progress of 'modernization' 7. The
economic and political incidence of globalization is by now a proven
fact, with heavy conditioning for national States, which includes an
amount of advantages pretended by the managers of the globalization
process and their ability to bring a State to collapse in one single
night (cfr the Transnational Corporation) 8. It has been pointed out
that the electric contraction of society in planetary village
caused this transnational condensation 9. But it is at the economic
level that the impact will be most relevant 10, thanks to information
which is not any more restricted to the private and reserved sphere
11
. Rather, with the new channels of exchange, finance 'multiplies'
its effectiveness and surpasses in rapidity the development of
industry and commerce 12, creating the so-called 'new economy'.
Transnationality appears to be first of all a rapidly expanding and
not easily controllable fact 13. The main question in evaluating and
guiding thoughts is the priority of the human person and common
good 14.
1° FULL ECONOMIC SUCCESS THROUGH UNIQUE
FREE
TRANSNATIONAL MARKET
Speaking of 'communications market': obviously, the meaning of
the word market has been substantially modified since the 'market
1
A. Eli, Global Information: The New Battleground, in AA. VV., Political Communication and Persuasion, Vol. 1, New York 1982, pp. 347-357; A. Nabil
- B. Awerbuch - J. Slonim - P. Wegner - Y. Yesha, Globalizing Business, Education, Culture Through the Internet (Tbe Next 50 Years: Our Hopes, Our
Visions, Our Plans), in «Communications of the ACM» [Association for Computing Till Machinery], Vol. 40, 1997 nº 2 (February), pp. 115-121.
2
G. Y. Boscán, Dialogo tra le identità culturali nei processi di globalizzazione, in UNESCO CENTRE DE RECHERCHE JACQUES MARITAIN ,
Comunicazione e politiche interculturali per il dialogo e la pace, Roma 2000, p. 13.
3
R. A. Spence, Economic Globalization, in idem, Guide to policies of the federal Canadian government and the provincial Ontario government concerning
economic globalization and sustainable Development, in «Internet» 2000, http://www.yorku.ca/faculty/academic/raspence/eglob.htm.
4
K. Stiroh, Is there a New Economy?, in «Magazine: Challenge», July-August 1999, in «Internet» 2000, http://www.britannica.com/bcom
/magazine/article/0,5744,231885,00.html.
5
G. Marc, Les douze travaux du prochain siècle, in «Documents épiscopat», 2000 nº 12, p. 7.
6
F. Colombo, La carovana e il suo confine (L industria culturale: promozione od ostacolo al dialogo tra culture?), in UNESCO CENTRE DE
RECHERCHE JACQUES MARITAIN , Comunicazione e politiche interculturali per il dialogo e la pace, Roma 2000, pp. 16b-17a.
7
G. Sussman - J. A. Lent, Introduction. Critical Perspectives on Communication and Third World Development, in G. Sussman - J. A. Lent (eds.),
Transnational Communications: Wiring the Third World. (Communication and Human Values series), CA/London/New Delhi 1991, p. p. 15.
8
D. Ranso, Globalization - an alternative view. You don't have to see the world through the eyes of the market, in «NI», November 1997, nº 296,
GLOBALIZATION - Peeling back the layers, etiam in «Internet» 2000, http://www.oneworld.org/ni/issue296/keynote.html.
9
M.-Cl. Vettraino-Soulard, Les moyens électroniques de communication et la transformation de la culture, in D. De Kerckhove A. Iannucci, McLuhan e
la metamorfosi dell uomo, Roma 1984, p..
10
F. George, Les défis de la mondialisation pour la mission de l Eglise, in «Documentation OMI», 2000 nº 234, pp. 6-7.
11
W. H. Melody, The Information Society: the Transnational Economic Context and its Implications, in in G. Sussman - J. A. Lent, Transnational
Communications. Wiring the Third World, London 1991, p. 28.
12
A. Caiola, Questioni mondiali emergenti all inizio del terzo millennio, in «30 giorni», 2001 nº 9, p. 54.
13
S. MacBride, Many Voices, one World, London 1980, p. 212.
14
PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS, Ethics in Internet, in «Internet» 2002, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/ pontifical_
councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20020228_ethics-internet_en.html.
32
of goods' 1. Information becomes the general resource of the new
market (not the 'goods' or the 'wares') 2. In keeping the word
'market', the intention is to give priority to the criterion of
freedom in the exchanges, with the same conditions of remuneration
implied in exchanging 3. On the other hand, knowledge (information
market) and power have always been related 4, or knowledge has been
seen as an 'extension' of power 5. In globalization, informationpower and information-profit will tend to converge 6. It is also easy
to understand that the power of markets could eventually imply a high
degree of conflictuality 7. A confrontation between possible
optimization and risks is emerging. Three keys for optimization are
proposed in this picture: de-centralization, de-centralization,
interactvity. Three risks can be also pointed out: imperialism,
homogeneization, concentration. Some would see decentralization as a
chance; it starts with the 'decompartimentation' of knowledge 8. The
critical view on the status quo of old national States is taken
into consideration by Christian thinkers, but this doesn't eliminate
the ambivalences born from the creation of a Super-State and to the
dominion of the global market 9. Imperialism is a risk, it represents
the capacity of general domination in the hands of the strongest,
more powerful ones, wider structures, etc Here again, technology has
allowed to construct communications as superiority of a few in their
different monopolies 10. Communication could become the incarnation of
authority and, under form of 'unlimited freedom', would favors only
the the most powerful enterprises 11. The
dictatorship of the
economic priorities hardens this type of dominion 12. The known
'cultural invasion' is based on this commercial imposition from the
decision centers of production and communications distribution 13.
Dependence another risk- is often caused by seduction arousing from
advanced information technologies in the context of less developped
countries 14. Particularly in Africa, the severe weight of the
transnationality has been heavily felt 15. A model of dependence
toward the United States and the first world has been practised for
1
O. B. Roegele, Freiheit und Bedingung in der gesellschaftlichen Kommunikation, in A. Paus (Her.), Freiheit des Menschen, S. 188.
UNESC0, Projet de plan à moyen terme 1984-1989, 4XC4, Paris 1982, pp. 83-84, nº 3003.
3
O. B. Roegele, Freiheit und Bedingung in der gesellschaftlichen Kommunikation, in A. Paus (Her.), Freiheit des Menschen, S. 190-191.
4
UNESC0, Projet de plan à moyen terme 1984-1989, 4XC4, Paris 1982, p. 83, nº 3003.
5
G. Marchessault, Les mass media, une force réactionnaire?, in «Inter», 1980 nº 3, p. 8.
6
A. Zanacchi, La sfida dei mass media, Alba 1977, pp. 100-101.
7
G. Y. Boscán, Dialogo tra le identità culturali nei processi di globalizzazione, in UNESCO CENTRE DE RECHERCHE JACQUES MARITAIN ,
Comunicazione e politiche interculturali per il dialogo e la pace, Roma 2000, p. 19; cfr. S. Huntington, El Choque de las civilizaciones, Barcellona, 1997.
8
S. Bessis, From social exclusion to social cohesion: towards a policy agenda (The Roskilde Symposium 2-4 March 1995. University of Roskilde,
Denmark, Management of Social Transformations (MOST)- UNESCO Policy Paper - No. 2), in «Internet» 2000, http://www.unesco.org
/most/besseng.htm#social.
9
P. Vicentini, Panikkar e la crisi del mondo moderno, in «Internet» 2001, http://estovest.hypermart.net/prospettive/panikkar.html.
10
A. Musgrave Horner, Movement, Voice and Speech, London 1970, p. 10.
11
A. Pasquali, Faut-il comprendre les médias ou la Communication?, in «Cultures», 1979 nº 3, p. 23.
12
S. Bessis, From social exclusion to social cohesion: towards a policy agenda (The Roskilde Symposium 2-4 March 1995. University of Roskilde,
Denmark, Management of Social Transformations (MOST)- UNESCO Policy Paper - No. 2), in «Internet» 2000, http://www.unesco.org/
most/besseng.htm#social; INSTITUT UNIVERSITAIRE D'ETUDES DU DÉVELOPPEMENT, Pour un développement social différent, recherche d'une
méthode d'approche, (Report of a working group in view of the social sommit of Copenhagen), Geneva: IUED, 1995; See R. van der Hoeven, Structural
Adjustment, Poverty and Macro-Economic Policy, in «New Approaches to Poverty Analysis and Policy», vol. 3 (Geneva: International Institute of Labour
Studies, 1995); etiam: W. H. Melody, The Information Society: The Transnational Economic Context and Its Implications, in G. Sussman - J. A. Lent,
Transnational Communications. Wiring the Third World, London 1991, p. 28.
13
S. MacBride, Many Voices, one World, London 1980, pp. 163-164; P. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York 1995, p. 159.
14
J. A. Lent, The North American Wave: Communication Technology in the Caribbean, in G. Sussman - J. A. Lent, Transnational Communications. Wiring
the Third World, London 1991, pp. 100.
15
S. T. Kwame Boafo, Communication Technology and Dependent Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, in G. Sussman - J. A. Lent, Transnational
Communications. Wiring the Third World, London 1991, pp. 117-118.
2
33
many years in the Philippines 1. Diversification has been claimed
primarily in confrontation with the conditioning of information by
power or with the collusion between informative intent and power, as
2
alternative
information
and
counter-information
.
Can
homogeneization or uniformization become a risk, and how? The global
market tries in this sense- to find the easiest way to cover the
manifold requests and needs 3. Homogeneization is sometimes expected
to extend from the market towards harmonization of the law, as
'globalization of juridical procedures' 4. A 'standart-consumer' or
mass-consumer can be created from the process of globalization itself
5
. The possible needs of people are adapted to the desires already
anticipated by the advertising and marketing system (cfr infra),
corresponding to the wide productive planning of the entreprises,
aiming to integrate everybody 6. Any possible positive appreciation
for
'differences' would be insidiously and silently demonized 7.
Interactivity points out -as optimization- not to a limited 'quality'
but to the whole of the communicative dynamics, not altered, but
fostered by technological potentialities (the optic fibers and
computer science) in order to promote a two-way communication 8. It
could be said that the intentional use itself of the media (not
technology , or not content as such) is the pivot of the type of
transformation that is being introduced in society from the way they
are concretely used 9, correspondingly or not to communication seen
as effective 'exchange' in which fuller relationality is a
relationship of 'exchange in equality' 10 or exchange in two
directions 11, or also considered as 'contract' or 'mutual covenant'
12
. The distinction will be traced between interactive communication
and unilateral or also circular communication 13. The widest
information has shown to arouse more human involvement 14, but is
conditionned by a wide range of numerical (physical) or economic
potentialities able to make sure that they be taken into account 15.
Concentration of power, which came up from the control of the main
circulation roads, then from the control of the seas, is based today
on the international electronic networks 16. In this process, not the
entreprises are multiplied but the most powerful of them expand,
multiply from the of inside the plurality of productive offers and
1
G. Sussman, Telecommunications for Transnational Integration, in G. Sussman - J. A. Lent, Transnational Communications. Wiring the Third World,
London 1991, p. 47.
2
A. Zanacchi, La sfida dei mass media, Alba 1977, pp. 104-105.
3
M.-Cl. Vettraino-Soulard, Les moyens électroniques de communication et la transformation de la culture, in D. De Kerckhove A. Iannucci, McLuhan e
la metamorfosi dell uomo, Roma 1984, pp. 90-91.
4
G. Marc, Les douze travaux du prochain siècle, in «Documents épiscopat», 2000 nº 12, p. 6.
5
M.-Cl. Vettraino-Soulard, Les moyens électroniques de communication et la transformation de la culture, in D. De Kerckhove A. Iannucci, McLuhan e
la metamorfosi dell uomo, Roma 1984, p. 91; P. Fougeyrollas - G. Cohen-Seat, L'Action sur l'homme: cinéma et télévision ?, Paris 1961; P- Bourdieu et J.CL. Passeron, Sociologie des mythologies et mythologies des sociologies, «Les Temps Modernes», CCXI, 1963.
6
M.-Cl. Vettraino-Soulard, Les moyens électroniques de communication et la transformation de la culture, in D. De Kerckhove A. Iannucci, McLuhan e
la metamorfosi dell uomo, Roma 1984, pp. 91-92; J. Baudrillard, La société de consommation, Paris 1974.
7
G. Y. Boscán, Dialogo tra le identità culturali nei processi di globalizzazione, in UNESCO CENTRE DE RECHERCHE JACQUES MARITAIN ,
Comunicazione e politiche interculturali per il dialogo e la pace, Roma 2000, p. 16a.
8
A. Stefanizzi, Le nuove tecnologie di comunicazione, Roma 1983, p. 36.
9
L. Thayer, On the Mass Media and Mass Communication: Notes Toward a Theory, in G. Gumpert R. Cathcart, Inter / Media, Oxford 1982, p. 137.
10
S. MacBride, Many Voices, one World, London 1980, p. 149; etiam, PONTIFICIA COMMISSIONE PER LE COMUNICAZIONI SOCIALI, Istruzione
pastorale Communio et progressio , Città del Vaticano 1971, nº 8 (vedere la comunicazione come prefigurata nella vita trinitaria di Dio).
11
S. H. Chaffee, Mass Media and Interpersonal Channels: Competitive, Convergent, or Compementary, in G. Gumpert R. Cathcart, Inter / Media, Oxford
1982, p. 69.
12
A. Delzant, La communication de Dieu, Paris 1978, p. 29.
13
J. W. Bachman, Media Evangelism, in «LWF Documentation», 1984 nº 17, pp. 12-13.
14
S. MacBride, Many Voices, one World, London 1980, p. 179.
15
R. Escarpit, Théorie de l information et pratique politique, Paris 1981, p. 92.
16
F. Williams, The Communication Revolution, New York 1983, P. 70.
34
assistance or other varied initiatives on the market 1, due to the
fact that a same technology operational in the different
communicative sectors allow to concentrate both ownership and
activities 2, justified on the base of the elevated costs of
multimedial managment 3. The information press is confronted today
with the imperative of concentration 4, being also an 'informative
entreprise', which is not entirely negative, but implies the risk of
becoming as concentration- a monopoly or quasi-monopoly 5, in the
hands of private ownership 6 which could concentrate every power
inside the firm, in a kind of 'almighty dictatorship' 7. There is,
finally, to take into account the concentration of the sources of
information 8, the concentration of the news circulation in few
headings able to sustain the costs of taxes on paper as means of
European control on the press 9, and moreover as editorial
concentration with a 'columnist' for varied headings 10. Does the
global information market through the Net open the door to main
modifications in mental potentialities of mankind? Strangely enough,
globality
would be taken by certain thinkers to indicate the
capacities of the mind which the computation intelligence is not able
to manage 11. Globality, in this sense, would be specific in aiming at
beliefs (explanation about the world ) 12. Again, we find reference to
ultimate questions The question of authentic freedom as a way of
understanding human specificity- is appearing again, over against
total submission to a system.
2° FULL OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY THROUGH THE STRUCTURAL DEREGULATION BY
MEANS OF COMPETITION
This would be the second main feature of globalization.
'Deregulation' starts with the shift from monopoly business to
competition business, in the production and distribution of sources
of energy, initially electricity 13. It tends to an increasing
integration in the intent of globalization (harmonization of
procedures) 14. Its criterion is: less statalism 15, but not without
the fear for a return to the hardest capitalism 16, and for a
progressively disaapearing State-nation in the transnational
1
M.-Cl. Vettraino-Soulard, Les moyens électroniques de communication et la transformation de la culture, in D. De Kerckhove A. Iannucci, McLuhan e
la metamorfosi dell uomo, Roma 1984, p. 90.
2
S. MacBride, Many Voices, one World, London 1980, p. 106.
3
CONSEIL PONTIFICAL POUR LES COMMUNICATIONS SOCIALES, Instruction pastorale "Aetatis novae", Rome 1992, nº 5.
4
B. Voyenne, Il diritto all informazione, Roma 1971, p. 65; cfr etiam Ph. Boegner, Cette presse malade d elle-même, Paris 1973, p. 125; S. MacBride,
Many Voices, one World, London 1980, p. 106.
5
M. Roy G. Tremblay J. Francoeur J. Sisto P. De Bellefeuille, La concentration des entreprises de presse, in «Inter», 1977 nº 14, p. 3.
6
B. Voyenne, Il diritto all informazione, Roma 1971, p. 65.
7
Ph. Boegner, Cette presse malade d elle-même, Paris 1973, p. 126.
8
M. Roy G. Tremblay J. Francoeur J. Sisto P. De Bellefeuille, La concentration des entreprises de presse, in «Inter», 1977 nº 14, p. 6.
9
Cfr B. H. Bagdikian, Some Peculiarities of American News, in D. J. Leroy Ch. H. Sterling, Mass News, New Jersey (US) 1973, p. 24.
10
M. Roy G. Tremblay J. Francoeur J. Sisto P. De Bellefeuille, La concentration des entreprises de presse, in «Inter», 1977 nº 14, p. 5.
11
E. Dietrich, Book review, Jerry Fodor, The Mind Doesn't Work That Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology, (Winter, 2001),
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000, 126 pp., in «Internet» 2002, http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2483/4_22/82129234/p1/article.jhtml?
term=internet+and+human+mind.
12
E. Dietrich, Book review, Jerry Fodor, The Mind Doesn't Work That Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology, (Winter, 2001),
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000, 126 pp., in «Internet» 2002, http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2483/4_22/82129234/p1/article.jhtml?
term=internet+and+human+mind.
13
Carroll, Hatch & Associates, Deregulation, in «Internet» 2000, http://www.spiritone.com/~cha/deregulation.htm.
14
R. A. Spence, Economic Globalization, in idem, Guide to policies of the federal Canadian government and the provincial Ontario government
concerning economic globalization and sustainable Development, in «Internet» 2000, http://www.yorku.ca/faculty/academic/raspence/eglob.htm.
15
C. J. Hamelink, The trend towards deregulation, in idem, Trends in World Communication, in «Internet» 2000, http://www.ehu.es/zer/
1arthame.htm#anchor805427.
16
G. Sussman J. A. Lent, Introduction: Critical Perspectives on Communication and Third World Development, in idem (ed.), Transnational
Communications. Wiring the Third World, London 1991, p. 21.
35
landscape 1. Three keys for optimization are proposed in this
picture: post-authoritarianism, interdependence, productivity (in
more anthropological sense: pluralism, complementariety, dialogics).
Three risks can be also pointed out: uncontrollable capitalism,
selectivity, exclusion. The governmental regulation norms, showing
themselves to be ineffective, could be overcome by deregulation 2.
The word-trap of 'deregulation' which suggests that all can be
accomplished without rules is however an insidious illusion 3.
Incontrollability can be verified in the institution of offshore
units from where the economic initiatives of the first world are
conducted 4. Incontrollability is observed also in the expansion of
5
globalized
criminality
.
Interdependence
is
linked
with
globalization
and
began
as
planetarian
competition
in
6
telecommunications , as an unavoidable way to harmonize the jungle
of multiple offers 7. A 'global social system' is eventually
mentioned, looking at interdependence between the different levels
and dimensions of human experience in terms of globalization 8.
Instead, the risk of selectivity seems to start with the choice of
the best possible job according to the higher professional abilities
9
, but can be hardened in the educational systems toward a tactic of
exclusion 10, aiming at elitism where the
lower
levels of
management in public life are abandonned to deterioration. A leading
thesis is that deregulation implements productivity, starting from
multimedial deregulation, favoring the new economy 11. In certain
cases, however, as in the certain parts of the world the so-called
'modernization' of telecommunications is accompanied by a slowing
down of the productive development 12, questioning 'what productivity'
is to be promoted! This doesn t deny that consumption would be
impossible without product but above all without well orchestrated
offer, suggesting serious doubts on the authentic democratic freedom
of the consumers 13. The concept of 'exclusion' is born in Europe in
the context of the redistribution of the socio-political landscape in
the years '90 14, stating that globalization will create more
1
Vedere l intervento dell arcivescovo di Chicago al 1º Congresso missionnario americano, F. George, Les défis de la mondialisation pour la mission de
l Eglise, in «Documentation OMI», 2000 nº 234, p. 8.
2
KOREA FAIR TRADE COMMISSION, Korean Experience in Deregulation Efforts and Course of Apec Discussion of Deregulation, (August 1996), in
«Internet» 2000, http://www.apeccp.org.tw/doc/Workshop/w1996/doc12.htm.
3
S. George, Globalization: a Challenge for Peace Solidarity or Exclusion? (Instituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain, Milano, 29-31 October 1999), in
«Internet» 2000, http://www.tni.org/george/talks/maritain.htm.
4
G. Sussman, Telecommunications for Transnational Integration, in G. Sussman - J. A. Lent, Transnational Communications. Wiring the Third World,
London 1991, pp. 43-44.
5
A. Caiola, Questioni mondiali emergenti all inizio del terzo millennio, in «30 giorni», 2001 nº 9, p. 58.
6
D. Farber, IP: Deregulation, Opening of Networks, and the Break-up of NTT, in «Internet» 2000, http://www.farber.net/archive/2555.html.
7
TASK AC513, Management in a Multi-provider Environment Related Area: 5 Background, in «Internet» 2000,
http://www.iopsys.ru/rice/wise/english/rd/prog/acts/tasks/t87.html.
8
G. Gutierrez, Teología de la liberación, Salamanca l975, p. 48.
9
R. Heselbarth, Our Annual Look at the 100 Largest Contractors, (1996 Giants CONTRACTOR'S 1997 BOOK OF GIANTS), in «Internet» 2000,
http://www.contractormag.com/97giant/97giant1.htm.
10
E. Keiner, The German Case - a Draft. 1. The Historical Context, http://www.khi.is/ed/egsie/time5/germancase1.html.
11
K. Stiroh, Is there a New Economy?, in «Magazine: Challenge», July-August 1999, in «Internet» 2000, http://www.britannica.com/
bcom/magazine/article/0,5744,231885,00.html.
12
J. A. Lent, The North American Wave: Communication Technology in the Caribbean, in G. Sussman - J. A. Lent, Transnational Communications. Wiring
the Third World, London 1991, pp. 78-79.
13
F. Colombo, La carovana e il suo confine (L industria culturale: promozione od ostacolo al dialogo tra culture?), in UNESCO CENTRE DE
RECHERCHE JACQUES MARITAIN , Comunicazione e politiche interculturali per il dialogo e la pace, Roma 2000, p. 15a-b del testo distribuito.
(1) V. Packard, The Hidden Persuaders, Penguin, Harmondsworth 1981; tr. it., I persuasori occulti, Torino, Einaudi 1989.
14
S. Bessis, From social exclusion to social cohesion: towards a policy agenda (The Roskilde Symposium 2-4 March 1995. University of Roskilde,
Denmark, Management of Social Transformations (MOST)- UNESCO Policy Paper - No. 2), in «Internet» 2000, http://www.unesco.org/
most/besseng.htm#social.
36
'loosers' than 'winners' 1. There are different dimensions in
exclusion: economic, social, political 2. Two terms illustrate the
dimensions of the exclusion: marginalization and segregation out of
ample sectors of human community life 3, fostering cultural
fundamentalism (with all the implications that this includes) 4 which
flows toward integralism and general integrism. The exploitation of
people at the lowest salary is the other key of this deviation in
globalization, particularly for the reduction of the need that the
rich have for jobs of the poor 5. Here again, from parity as a way
of considering relationships- we are brought to consider its maximal
breakdown in multiform exclusion.
3° FULL PROMOTIONAL AGGRESSIVE STRATEGY TO MOVE EMOTIVELY AND INVOLVE
EVERYBODY
The third element of the panel seems to corrispond to the
emotive response (next to the levels of understanding intellect- and
operativity action-). A general strategy to planify answers to the
solicitations from the advertising (marketing) dream , is sometimes
seen looking at promotionality of the cultural industry- as a prearranged ideological picture animated by the dialectical dynamics 6.
The keys of its optimization are: persuasion, motivation,
interpretation 7 (anthropologically: offer of totality, proximity,
imagination).
The
risks
are:
manipulation,
competition,
standardization 8. There is no agreed definition of advertisement 9,
it corrisponds hardly to the existing sociological categories 10, even
if the advertising system of 'marketing' has given its form to
communication as multi-market 11. Marketing has two 'poles': business
and consumers 12 -the first one is referred to the sale strategy
(exchanges on financial base) 13, the other more 'informative' 14 or
rather centered on the 'products and services' 15 as commercial
planning of the firms, financial source of communication itself,
becoming 'method of comunication' or ability to get the messages
1
S. George, Globalization: a Challenge for Peace Solidarity or Exclusion? (Instituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain, Milano, 29-31 October 1999), in
«Internet» 2000, http://www.tni.org/george/talks/maritain.htm.
2
S. Bessis, From social exclusion to social cohesion: towards a policy agenda (The Roskilde Symposium 2-4 March 1995. University of Roskilde,
Denmark, Management of Social Transformations (MOST)- UNESCO Policy Paper - No. 2), in «Internet» 2000, http://www.unesco.org/most
/besseng.htm#social.
3
W. Leimgruber, Globalisation - Deregulation
Marginalization, in «Internet» 2000, http://www.unifr.ch/iguf/RESEARCH/HUMAN/
BOUNDARY/global.html.
4
G. Y. Boscán, Dialogo tra le identità culturali nei processi di globalizzazione, in UNESCO CENTRE DE RECHERCHE JACQUES MARITAIN ,
Comunicazione e politiche interculturali per il dialogo e la pace, Roma 2000, p. 16.
5
S. Bessis, From social exclusion to social cohesion: towards a policy agenda (The Roskilde Symposium 2-4 March 1995. University of Roskilde,
Denmark, Management of Social Transformations (MOST)- UNESCO Policy Paper - No. 2), in «Internet» 2000, http://www.unesco.
org/most/besseng.htm#social.
6
F. Colombo, La carovana e il suo confine (L industria culturale: promozione od ostacolo al dialogo tra culture?), in UNESCO CENTRE DE
RECHERCHE JACQUES MARITAIN , Comunicazione e politiche interculturali per il dialogo e la pace, Roma 2000, p. 4b del testo distribuito.
7
COMMISSION INTERNATIONALE D'ETUDE DES PROBLEMES DE LA COMMUNICATION (UNESCO), Rapport intérimaire sur les problèmes de
la communication dans la société moderne, Paris 1978, p. 39.
8
A. Cauquelin, La publicité: un contenant sans contenu, in D. de Kerckhove - A. A. Iannucci, McLuhan e la metamorfosi dell'uomo, Roma 1984, p. 106.
9
A. Tempest, Tendencias actuales de la publicidad en Europa, Madrid 1991, pp. 32-33.
10
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicité tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 45.
1
B. Brochand - J. Lendrevie, Le regole del gioco. Le Publicitor, Lupetti & Co., Milano 1986, p. 18.
11
S. MacBride, Many Voices, one World, London 1980, p. 152.
1
J. Baudrillard, Pourune critique de l économie politique du signe, Paris 1972.
12
M. Wolff - W. E. Biernatzki, The Social and Cultural Effects of Advertising, in «Communication Research Trends», 1994 nº 1-2, p. 5.
13
ISTITUTO DELL'AUTODISCIPLINA PUBBLICITARIA, Codice di autodisciplina pubblicitaria (edizione in vigore dal 20 aprile 1994 / La 1º edizione
del Codice risale al 12 maggio 1966), Milano 1994, p. 33.
14
A. Tempest, Tendencias actuales de la publicidad en Europa, Madrid 1991, p. 34.
DECOS/CELAM, Vocabulario de la comunicación social, Bogotá 1988, p. 150.
15
INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, International Code of Advertising Practice, Paris 1987, p. 6.
37
passed through 1. There are inadequacies in legislative dispositions
where these reduce primarily the advertising phenomenon to his
commercial dimension 2. Among different meanings, the nuances move
from making public, to attracting the attention of the public
satirically (russian, 'lubki' (
) 3), or in German as
'Werbung' i. e. decidingly search for a certain option, the Latin
nuntius laudativus or dolus bonus (comforting or amusing fraud)
4
. In the American context, marketing in general or direct marketing
explores the prioritarian needs to which the enterprises want to
respond 5: 'marketing' (better than 'advertising') considers the
whole advertising like an economic structure in direct contact with a
certain public as consumers of the media, integrated in a market
whose strategy is reassumed in commercialism or a certain
'advertising philosophy' 6. Other types of advertising would be the
instituzional one, in which the political publicity becomes a sector
and not any more the publicity as a sector of economy, also the
comparative publicity, and subsequently 'social' and finally
'religious' advertising 7. Persuasion aims to get people to acquire,
preventing a wrong choice (so often by means of the superficial
opposition between 'good' [=to acquire] and 'bad [=to avoid] 8). The
first requisite will be 'to attract the attention' of the public
through definite modalities and criterions among which repetition,
associations, compositions 9, or the so-called 'advertising massage'
10
. As ability to convince people to accept an offer, or the art to
'sell' the advertised product 11 -called 'advertising campaign' 12would include the price, product, positioning, promotion, in a due
'economico-sociological' terminology 13. Techniques can be specific
ones as that of the pitch , with its dynamics: attention, trust,
necessity, urgency, acquisition 14. But the dynamics of persuasion
will rather invoke the gift of creativity even beyond rational
parameters 15. The emotional tactiques of persuasion in advertising is
clearly perceivable (like anciently in the distinction between logic
1
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicité tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 23; G.L. Falabrino, Pubblicità serva padrona, Ed. Il Sole-24
Ore, Milano 1989, p. 187;G. Parenti, La pubblicità per lo sviluppo economico e sociaie degli anni Settanta, in Atti ufficiali del Convegno nazionale della
pubblicità, Confederazione generale italiana della pubblicità, Milano 1972, p. 51.
J. Kilbourne, Killing Us Softly: Gender Roles in advertising, in «Adolescent Medecine», 1993 nº 3, p. 635.
Paul VI, Message pour la XIº Journée mondiale des communications sociales, in «La documentation catholique», 1977 nº 1721, p. 501.
I. L. Preston, The Tangled Web They Weave. Truth, Falsity, and Advertisers, (pro manuscripto), Madison (WI), p. 124.
2
I. L. Preston, The Tangled Web They Weave. Truth, Falsity, and Advertisers, (pro manuscripto), Madison (WI), p. 73.
3
S. Massie, La terra dell'uccello di fuoco, Milano 1983, pp. 181-182.
4
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicità tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, pp. 39-40; M. Medici, La parola pubblicitaria. Due secoli di
storie fra slogan, ritmi e wellerismi, Marsilio, Venezia 1986, p.16; S. Massie, La terra dell'uccello di fuoco, Milano 1983, pp. 181-182.
R. Kreisi, Kirche und Werbung: Das gestörte Verhältnis, in H.Tremel, Öffentlichkeitsarbeit der Kirche. CEP Beiträge Kirche und Kommunikation,
Frankfurt 1984, S. 38.
COMMISSION PONTIFICALE POUR LES COMMUNICATIONS SOCIALES, Instruction pastorale "Communio et progressio", Cité du Vatican 1971,
p. 64 / 34.
5
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicità tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 50; P. Kotler, Marketing management, Torino 1991, p. 5.
6
A. Tempest, Tendencias actuales de la publicidad en Europa, Madrid 1991, pp. 238-239 ; Cfr M. F. Jacobson, Commercialism in America, pro
manuscripto, Seattle, Washington, 1992, (7 pp.).
7
A. Tempest, Tendencias actuales de la publicidad en Europa, Madrid 1991, p. 39; R. P. Hill, An Exploration of Voter Responses to Political
Advertisements, in «Journal of Advertising», 1989 nº4, p. 15.
8
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, pp. 9-11.
9
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, p. 18.
10
L. Gedda, Perché i cattolici italiani si occupano di pubblicità, (pro manuscripto) Roma 1977, p. 3.
11
G. M. Fara, Etica e pubblicità, (EURISPES, ISTITUTO DI STUDI P0LITICI ECONOMICI E SOCIALI - pro manuscripto: rapporto all'Assemblea
Plenaria del Pontificio Consiglio delle Comunicazioni Sociali), Città del Vaticano 1994, p. 1; A. Tempest, Tendencias actuales de la publicidad en Europa,
Madrid 1991, p. 27 ; S. MacBride, Many Voices, one World, London 1980, p. 154.
12
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicità tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 165.
13
A. Tempest, Tendencias actuales de la publicidad en Europa, Madrid 1991, pp. 28-29, 49.
14
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, p. 23.
15
O. Toscani, Interview: The Terrorist of Advertising, in «Newsweek», june 13, 1994, p. 48; cfr etiam: J. Reichertz, Religiöse (Vor-)Bilder in der Werbung.
Zu Anzeigen von Benetton, Kern und Diesel, in «Medien praktisch», 1994 nº 2, S. 18-24.
38
and rhetoric) 1 not without fearing an illogical or irrational
prevalence in advertising process itself 2, even in the case of full
professionalism 3. As for the rhetorical language, from the ancient
cultures 4, advertising can be educational 5. Rhetorics and propaganda
will acquire new relevance as advertising 6, either as short term
propaganda or a long term propaganda (for immediate answers or for
long term ones) 7. Drawn from rhetorics, advertising becomes the
'form' or way to present in view of persuasion, or also a show 8,
questioning if too much importance has been given to appearance 9.
In politics, the show is handled by comparative or negative
advertising 10, or in sporting, taken in charge by advertising 11.
Persuasion works through 'formulated promises': promises which,
thanks to imaginary capacity that anticipates what will become a
'real reality', open the discussion on reliability of the
'advertising dream', implying the confrontation between 'truth' and
'imaginary sphere', with a fear that the imaginary could darken the
'real world' 12. Persuasion needs fictive impact about the urgency of
the offer to the attention of the public, either in 'hard' or in
'soft' way 13, but permanently adapting to fashion or echoing the
Zeitgeist
in replacing everything that is evolving 14. On the
contrary, criticism on manipulation generally indicates exacerbated
commercialism 15, including disloyalty 16, family or national and
cultural alienation 17, generic falsification 18 through 'branding
advertising' 19, including pressures (not so wide than some would
affirm, or so secret) conditioning the same management of the
communicative enterprises 20. Competition doesn't lean any more on the
quality of what is realized, but on the capacity to get business
privileges from the governments 21. Manipulations 'use' eventually
racial typologies in deviant ways 22, with special attention to the
African figure 23. Secret and advertising silence (omission), or
diversion 24, can do more damage than a sensational advertising 1.
1
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicità tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 81; R. N. Bostrom. La persuasione, Torino 1990, p. 8. G.
Cronkhite, La persuasione, Comunicazione e mutamento del comportamento, Milano 1975 e J.N. Kapierer, Le vie della persuasione. L'influenza dei media
e della pubblicità sul comportamento, Torino 1982; B. Nevitt, The Communication Ecology, Toronto 1982, p. 28.
2
R. W. Pollay, The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising, in Journal of Marketing, 1986 nº 50, p. 24.
3
Cardinal Feltin, Allocution à des journalistes catholiques, 5/5/1954, in «La documentation catholique», 1954 nº 1176, col. 773-776.
4
B. Nevitt, The Communication Ecology, Toronto 1982, p. 23.
5
Pie XI, Discours aux membres d'un Congrès international catholique sur la publicité, 31/10/1936, Actes Pie XI, t. XIV, p. 167 ; Mgr Guérard, évêque de
Coutances, Lettre pastorale, 8/3/1923, in «La documentation catholique», 1923 nº 180, col. 10.
6
B. Nevitt, The Communication Ecology, Toronto 1982, p. 26.
B. Nevitt, The Communication Ecology, Toronto 1982, pp. 26-27.
7
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, p. 108.
8
A. Cauquelin, La publicité: un contenant sans contenu, in D. de Kerckhove - A. A. Iannucci, McLuhan e la metamorfosi dell'uomo, Roma 1984, p. 102.
9
A. Cauquelin, La publicité: un contenant sans contenu, in D. de Kerckhove - A. A. Iannucci, McLuhan e la metamorfosi dell'uomo, Roma 1984, p. 104.
10
R. P. Hill, An Exploration of Voter Responses to Political Advertisements, in «Journal of Advertising», 1989 nº4, p. 15.
11
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, p. 30.
12
A. Gibson - D. Jay - H. Richardson - R. Roach, Report of the Symposium "Truth in Advertising", Toronto 1971, pp. 20-24.
13
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, pp. 107-110.
14
F. Colombo, La carovana e il suo confine (L industria culturale: promozione od ostacolo al dialogo tra culture?), in UNESCO CENTRE DE
RECHERCHE JACQUES MARITAIN , Comunicazione e politiche interculturali per il dialogo e la pace, Roma 2000, p. 15a-b del testo distribuito.
15
S. MacBride, Many Voices, one World, London 1980, p. 154
16
A. Tempest, Tendencias actuales de la publicidad en Europa, Madrid 1991, pp. 85-86.
17
III CONFERENZA GENERAL DEL EPISCOPADO LATINOAMERICANO, Comunicación social y Evangelización en el presente y el futuro de
America latina (Puebla 1979), in B. Spoletini, Comunicación e Iglesia Latinoamericana, Buenos Aires 1978, p. 173.
18
COMMISSION PONTIFICALE POUR LES COMMUNICATIONS SOCIALES, Instruction pastorale "Communio et progressio", Cité du Vatican 1971,
p. 64 / 34.
19
I. L. Preston, The Tangled Web They Weave. Truth, Falsity, and Advertisers, (pro manuscripto), Madison (WI), p. 31.
20
Ph. Boegner, Cette presse malade d'elle-même, Paris 1973, p. 101.
21
Ph. Boegner, Cette presse malade d'elle-même, Paris 1973, p. 101.
22
K. Yamgnane, Prefazione, in R. Bochollet - J.-B Debost - A.-C Lelieur - M.-Ch. Peyrière, Négripub. L'immagine dei Neri nella pubblicità, Torino 1994,
p. 6.
23
R. Bochollet - J.-B Debost - A.-C Lelieur - M.-Ch. Peyrière, Négripub. L'immagine dei Neri nella pubblicità, Torino 1994, p. 7.
24
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, p. 19.
39
Seduction (more or less hidden) is another manipulation 2, with
doubtful techniques soliciting the less controllable zones of human
conscience 3. Manipulation will eventually replace by unreal needs
(fanciful, deceptive) the real ones 4, sometimes in the hands of
propagandists, from the heavy ideological pressures in the epochs of
the geopolitical blocs 5. The optimization of motivation is to be
founded in 'loyalty' 6, with operational criteria to inspire trust 7,
and among those: the creation of a interpersonal proximity
relationship of intimacy 8 and the necessity of norms to guarantee
public trust 9. Not every competition is harmful 10, except the
disloyal one 11. However, competition doesn't replace regulation and
public management, becoming a tool guided by the tactics of
transnazional economics 12, where promotionality is subjected to an
inverted deviation, in which multimediality uses advertising for its
own megalomania 13, on the base of individualistic ambitions 14. The
recipient or the target becomes a victim of the operation of
marketing 15. The exacerbated competition could cause a diffused
aggressiveness at different levels in management of credit and debt
16
. The primary cut of interpretation is information 17 of which is
fed and which gives her institutional legitimity 18, as a guarantee
against various abuses 19. Some fear that this 'informative content'
21
disappears 20. This information is
potenzialized
, where the
emotional factor enters into consideration (as high and low states
'of positive or negative feelings') 22. One of the salient aspects of
standardization is its 'creation of needs' imposed to the public 23,
predetermined from commercialism of the media 24 and the sense of
conformism of the public 25. The innovations promoted by the media
1
R. P. Hill, Criminal Receiving: The "Fence" as Marketer, in «Journal of Public Policy & Marketing», 1992 nº2, p. 133.
COMMISSION PONTIFICALE DES COMMUNICATIONS SOCIALES, Instruction pastorale "Communion et progrès", Rome 1971, nº 60 ;
DECOS/CELAM, Evangelización y comunicación social en America latina, in B. Spoletini, Comunicación e Iglesia Latinoamericana, Buenos Aires 1978,
p. 173, nº 18; Y. de Premorel - J.-M. Brunot, Document n º 3. L'ETHIQUE DE LA PUBLICITE, Document d'archive du CPCS nº 581/95, Paris 1994, pp. 45; cfr etiam: W. Pollay, Seduction, submission, and cynicism, in idem, Quality of Life in the Padded Sell: Common Criticisms of Advertising's Cultural
Character and International Public Policies, in A. Arbor (ed), Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Michigan 1986, pp. 182-183, 191-192.
3
M. C. Miller, Advertising. End of Story, in M. C. Miller, Seeing through Movies, New York 1990, p. 205.
4
A. Gibson - D. Jay - H. Richardson - R. Roach, Report of the Symposium "Truth in Advertising", Toronto 1971, pp. 21, 22.
5
J. W. Mole, The Communication Decree of the Second Vatican Council, in «Social Justice Review», 1966 nº 8, p. 310.
6
L. Light, Brand marketing fables lead to loyalty declines, in «Advertising Age», Jan. 10 1994.
7
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, p. 52.
8
J. Fiske, Television Culture, New York 1990, p. 116.
9
CANADIAN ADVERTISING FOUNDATION, The Code of Advertising Standards, in idem, Manual of General Guidelines for Advertising, Document of
the Archives of the PCSC nº 5/94, Toronto 1994, pp. 8.
10
I. L. Preston, The Tangled Web They Weave. Truth, Falsity, and Advertisers, (pro manuscripto), Madison (WI), pp. 93-94.
11
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicità tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 51.
12
W. H. Melody, The Information Society: The Transnational Economic Context and Its Implications, in G. Sussman - J. A. Lent, Transnational
Communications. Wiring the Third World, London 1991, p. 38.
13
Ph. Boegner, Cette presse malade d'elle-même, Paris 1973, p. 102.
14
V. Burgin, Seeing Sense, in H. Davis - P. Walton, Language, Image, Media, Oxford 1983, p. 234.
15
K. Yamgnane, Prefazione, R. Bochollet - J.-B Debost - A.-C Lelieur - M.-Ch. Peyrière, Négripub. L'immagine dei Neri nella pubblicità, Torino 1994, p.
6.
16
R. P. Hill, Bill Collectors and Consumers: a Troublesome Exchange Relationship, (pro manuscripto / Villanova University), Devon 1993, pp. 1, 6-7.
17
C. J. Hamelink, Cultural Autonomy in Global Communications, London 1988, p. 12.
E. M. Tucker, Applying Ethics to Advertising: Developing an Ethical Assessment Inventory for Advertising Managers, (pro manuscripto), Michigan 1993,
pp. 21-22.
18
D. Kellner, Advertising and Consumer Culture, in J. Downing - A. Mohammadi - A. Sreberny-Mohammadi, Questioning the Media. A Critical
Introduction, London 1990, p. 244.
19
S. MacBride, Many Voices, one World, London 1980, p. 154.
20
A. Cauquelin, La publicité: un contenant sans contenu, in D. de Kerckhove - A. A. Iannucci, McLuhan e la metamorfosi dell'uomo, Roma 1984, p. 108.
21
L. Gedda, Perché i cattolici italiani si occupano di pubblicità, (pro manuscripto) Roma 1977, p. 1.
22
M. P. Gardner - R. P. Hill, Consumers' Mood States and the Decision Making Process, in «Marketing Letters», 1989 nº 1:3, p. 235.
23
COMMISSION PONTIFICALE DES COMMUNICATIONS SOCIALES, Instruction pastorale "Communion et progrès", Rome 1971, nº 62.
24
ÉPISCOPAT ALLEMAND, Déclaration du 1/1/1960, in «La documentation catholique», 1960 nº 1323, col. 313-31.
25
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicità tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 108.
2
40
will be an astute way to impose new standardized products 1, feeding
the market and addressing the possible buyers. Not everybody thinks
that this is the greatest accusation against advertising 2. Doubts
remain on the ways to exploit the human instincts 3, with calculated
excitement 4 and sometimes exploiting less appreciable inclinations 5,
implying -perhaps - a cultural uniformization 6. The interpretations
on advertising are often negative 7. To overcome this restrictive
view, it is necessary to consider advertising in its full dimension
of communications strategy, including the 'good' (suitable) one next
to the
bad
one, without opposing the economic aspect to the
cultural and rethinking the instrumental approaches -for example- on
the 'consumption' 8, transcending different categorizations as e. g.
the AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) and that of the
'common sense', or still of the 4 i and c (impact, interest,
information, identification -comprehension, credibility, coherence,
conviction)
or finally the one of the 'reason why' 9. Close to this
promotionality there is the aspect of entertainment, with a special
space to the 'promotional games' 10, appearing as a dream machine
(the dream or suggestion of happiness, whereas the media are often
transmitters of unhappy events) 11, part of the big multimedial show,
not a simple image but an 'image without history' 12. Advertising was
changingly centered on products or on the public or on the audience
13
. There has been enthusiasm and criticisms 14, tied up with the
operational uncertainty of information dynamics 15, beyond negative
perception from the researchers 16; it remains omnipresent 17, one of
the great forces of the contemporary world 18, of notable complexity
19
, considered as 'invasion' and eventually demonized 20 up to the
accusation of 'industrial and social parasitism' 21, even if others
would shade such positions looking at the historical approach itself
1
F. Colombo, La carovana e il suo confine (L industria culturale: promozione od ostacolo al dialogo tra culture?), in UNESCO CENTRE DE
RECHERCHE JACQUES MARITAIN , Comunicazione e politiche interculturali per il dialogo e la pace, Roma 2000, p. 6b del testo distribuito.
2
Ph. Boegner, Cette presse malade d'elle-même, Paris 1973, p. 108.
3
Jean Paul II, Lettre à tous les jeunes du monde, in «La documentation catholique», 1985 nº 1894, p. 428.
4
ÉPISCOPAT ALLEMAND, Lettre de l'Épiscopat allemand, 21/8/1951, in «La documentation catholique» 1952 nº 1114, col. 140-143.
5
M. C. Miller, Advertising. End of Story, in M. C. Miller, Seeing through Movies, New York 1990, p. 205.
6
F. George, Les défis de la mondialisation pour la mission de l Eglise, in «Documentation OMI», 2000 nº 234, p. 9.
7
Y. de Premorel - J.-M. Brunot, Document n º 3. L'ETHIQUE DE LA PUBLICITE, Document d'archive du CPCS nº 581/95, Paris 1994, pp. 1-2; cfr etiam:
R. W. Pollay - B. Mittal, Here's the Beef: Factors, Determinants, and Segments in Consumer Criticism of Advertising, in «Journal of Marketing», 1993 n
57, pp. 99-114.
8
K. Myers, Understanding Advertisers, in H. Diavis - P. Walton, Language, Image, Media, Oxford 1983, pp. 217-222.
9
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicità tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 122; cfr G. Fabris, La pubblicità. Teorie e prassi, Milano
1992, p. 349; cfr R. Reeves, La realtà pubblicitaria, Milano 1961; J. Aren, in S. Sassi, Approches sémiologiques de l'affiche publicitaire, in AA. VV., La
rue et l'image, Paris 1990, p. 72.
10
J. C. Ward - R. P. Hill, Designing Effective Promotional Games: Opportunities and Problems, in «Journal of Advertising», 1991 nº 3 (september), p. 69.
J. C. Ward - R. P. Hill, Designing Effective Promotional Games: Opportunities and Problems, in «Journal of Advertising», 1991 nº 3 (september), p. 72.
11
Y. de Premorel - J.-M. Brunot, Document n º 3. L'ETHIQUE DE LA PUBLICITE, Document d'archive du CPCS nº 581/95, Paris 1994, pp. 4-5.
12
M. C. Miller, Advertising. End of Story, in M. C. Miller, Seeing through Movies, New York 1990, p. 234.
13
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, pp. 53-58.
14
H. Rank, The Pitch. A simple 1-2-3-4-5 Way to understand the basic Pattern of persuasion in Advertising, Park Forest - Illinois 1991, p. 129.
15
J. Baudrillard, Media et information / stratégie d'objet et ironie objective, in D. De Kerckhove - A. Ianucci, McLuhan e la metamorfosi dell'uomo, Roma
1984, pp. 145-146.
16
W. Pollay, Discussion of Indictment, in idem, Quality of Life in the Padded Sell: Common Criticisms of Advertising's Cultural Character and
International Public Policies, in A. Arbor (ed), Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Michigan 1986, p. 202.
17
Paul VI, Paroles à l'"Association européenne des agences de publicité", in Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, Città del Vaticano 1976, p. 295.
18
COMMISSION INTERNATIONALE D'ETUDE DES PROBLEMES DE LA COMMUNICATION (UNESCO), Rapport intérimaire sur les problèmes
de la communication dans la société moderne, Paris 1978, p. 39.
19
A. Zanacchi, Dolus Bonus. La pubblicità tra servizio e violenza, (EURISPES) Roma 1994, p. 91; P. Lazarsfeld - R.K. Merton, Studi sulla propaganda
radiofonica e cinematografica, in R.K. Merton, Teoria e strurrura sociale, Bologna 1971, pp. 905-935.
20
G. M. Fara, Etica e pubblicità, (EURISPES, ISTITUTO DI STUDI P0LITICI ECONOMICI E SOCIALI - pro manuscripto: rapporto all'Assemblea
Plenaria del Pontificio Consiglio delle Comunicazioni Sociali), Città del Vaticano 1994, p. 1.
21
D. Kellner, Advertising and Consumer Culture, in J. Downing - A. Mohammadi - A. Sreberny-Mohammadi, Questioning the Media. A Critical
Introduction, London 1990, p. 254.
41
1
. And so, we finally reach the recapitulative key of aggressive
instrumentalization of emotivity.
A SOBORNOSTIC ANSWER
It is quite striking to consider the three steps of symbolical
recapitulation concerning the urgencies of human expectations after
centuries of sufferings under exceeding power exercise: from freedom
over to public happiness and further to economic success
from
equality over to concentration of any responsibility and further to
operative efficiency
from fraternity over to individual
sacrificality and further to pre-constructed affinities. After the
French, then the Russian and finally the American project, a kind of
slipping down can be observed in the re-elaboration of the urgent
expectations of humanity. Does this mean that these three triloghia
have a certain continuity, but with a progressive exhaustion of the
initial human
dream ? Does it
further- mean that we have to
consider the end of a certain world in which the triloghia came
to exhaustion after various re-elaborations? Or is a therapy still
possible from the inside of this type of human experience? Orthodox
theology will inevitably have to consider these extremely difficult
enigmas of the times to come. What can a sobornal theological outset
propose in this line? As we struggle to think of how the global
community can be seen as a family, we might revisit the centuries old
Russian idea of sobornost. This was a philosophy of communalism
developed in isolated villages that were under constant threat by
marauding animals, or outlaws, brutal weather and the threat of
drought, or other natural disasters. Sobornost meant we are all in
this community together; we have to pull together and protect
ourselves together. Applied to the international community sobornost
means that even if it is hard to like each other, our continuity, and
survival depends on caring for each other. If we can adopt caring as
a norm, then the discussion of tools, policies and practices ensuring
safety and security takes on a new quality, one of human warmth 2.
1° AN ANSWER IN FREEDOM BY OVERTURNING OR INVERTING PUBLIC HAPPINESS
AND GLOBALIZED SUCCESS
Relational sobornal theology goes back to consider the
fundamental question of freedom 3. Universal history is the
expression of the contradictory confrontation of freedom and nature,
heritage of hellenic approach, which includes the end 4: as tragedy
5
through the dubbel trend to create or to safeguard (conserving) 6,
1
M. C. Miller, Advertising. End of Story, in M. C. Miller, Seeing through Movies, New York 1990, pp. 186-187.
J. Montville, Closing Remarks: Sobornost and the Global Community as a Family, in AA. VV., The Future of Conflict Prevention in the Post September
11
World,
The
Second
e-Symposium
on
Conflict
Prevention,
Session
II:
Comments,
Mediator's Closing Remarks, Global Community? (United States of America Director, Preventive Diplomacy Program, Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS), contributed at 19:58 Feb/07/2002), in «Internet» 2003, http://www.dwcw.org/e-symposium/cgi/wwwbbs.
cgi?Symposium_2&62.
3
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, Esprit et liberté, Paris 1933; idem, De la destination de l homme, Paris 1935; idem, Essai de métaphysique
eschatologique, Paris 1946; idem, Dialectique existentielle du divin et de l humain, Paris 1947; idem, De l esclavage et de la liberté de l homme, Paris1946,
tr. It. Schiavitù e libertà dell uomo, Milano 1952.
4
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Il senso della storia,
1923 / Milano 1977,
. 133-148 / pp. 96-104.
5
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990,
. 352 / p. 320; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/Le Paraclet,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 247-248 / pp. 206-207.
6
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev,
/ Il senso della storia,
1923 / Milano 1977,
. 68-69 / pp. 39-40; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 346-347.
2
42
beyond the illusory misunderstandings of the memory of the past 1.
Sobornal history is
instead- the
melting pot of immaginery
inventivity 2, in which the process along the times togetherizes
the events in an entelechia 3, along the rhythms of newness as
dialectics of freedom 4 as faithfullness to the future 5. Sobornal
iconifying human experience is immaginative defiguration in the
strangeness and otherness which indicates the discontinuity from God
to creation, in which light from the inside is the only relational
continuity 6, so convergent with the numeric destructuration and refiguration of the multimedial virtual dynamics 7, beginning to look
differently at reality (a new type of relationality) 8 where the
image is not global description but a condensed fullness 9.
Happiness is essentially anthropocentric, avoiding any suffering 10,
falsification of Christ s promises (imprisoning Christ in His formal
words 11) into the secure offer of the Great Inquisitor 12 in the
gift of useful happiness (even by means of a miracle 13) through the
superiority recognized to the powerful clerical exponent 14. Instead,
the sobornal proposal is to focus on the promise of beatitude from
the mèkèr of getting out from the passionalities of the heart , a
disheartfication
or kenosis of the individualized heart 15,
liberating the heart from the intermediary to focus the ultimate 16.
The way is open towards the paradeisos through the paradosis of
overturned memory 17.
2º AN ANSWER IN PARITY BY OVERTURNING CENTRALIZED POWER OF AUTOCRACY,
PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP OR DEREGULATING CONCENTRATION
Sobornal togetherness is the creation of a common house (not
at all a global city ) 18: eschatological message to the Angels of
the Churches (anghelos, message-bearer) 19. The common house (in
organical parity of all) has still to be edified 20 in creative
1
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, De l esclavage et de la liberté de l homme, Paris 1963, p. 291.
A. Walicki, Una utopia conservatrice, Torino 1973, pp. 324.
3
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 153 / p. 52.
4
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, Essai de métaphysique eschatologique, Paris 1946, pp. 192.
5
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, Essai de métaphysique eschatologique, Paris 1946, pp. 194-195.
6
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ Segni celesti, in idem,
, . I / La prospettiva rovesciata ed altri
scritti, Torino 1981,
. 60-61 / p. 68.
7
Ph. Quéau, Per un etica del viso, in Virtual , 1994 n 7, p. 72.
8
H. Rheingold, La realtà virtuale. I mondi artificiali generati dal computer e il loro potere di trasformare la società, Bologna 1993, p. 336.
9
J. Bianchi - H. Bourgeois, LES MÉDIAS CÔTÉ PUBLIC. Le jeu de la réception, Paris 1992, pp. 83-84; D. Goffredo, Comunicazione e linguaggio, in
AA. VV., Comunicazione e evangelizzazione, Roma 1974, p. 67.
10
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990,
. 405-406 / pp. 369370.
11
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980,
I / Torino 1981, vol. 1,
. 310 (V. I) / p. 335
(V. I).
12
.
,
/ N. A. Berdjaev, Gli spiriti della rivoluzione russa, in AA. VV.
,
1967,
. 86 / Dal
profondo, Milano 1971, p. 72.
13
Cfr .
,
/ F. Dostoevskij, I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
. 309-310 \4(V. I) / pp. 333 (V.
I).
14
.
,
/ F. Dostoevskij, I fratelli Karamazov,
1980 / Torino 1981,
. 312 (T. I) / p. 336 (V. I).
15
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità, in idem,
, . IV, (
1917)
1989,
. 189-218 / pp. 236-272.
16
.
/ V. Solov' ëv,
/ Das Judentum und die christliche Frage, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 150-152 / S.
582.
17
M. Lot-Borodine, La déification de l'homme, Paris 1970, pp. 260-266.
18
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità,
1914 (
1989) / Milano
1974,
. 326, 346-347,.372-378, 382 / pp. 388, 412-413, 435-442, 444-445..
19
P. Stefani, Alle sette Chiese, in AA. VV., Urgenze della storia e profezia ecumenica, Roma 1996, pp. 200-201.
20
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità, in idem,
, . IV,
(
1917)
1989 / Milano 1974, ,
. 358-359 / p. 421.
2
43
synergy between divine and human intent 1: believing in God and in
humanity (the slavic Orthodox way) 2. This begins with the common
language of the Word (Logos as dialogical meeting-point) into human
language as open equal message 3: disabsolutizing the absolute 4.
The definitive word -before the times to be- is the one of the
solov ëvian Universal Emperor or the Antichrist 5 (or the silence
of the poor pilgrim in front of the Great Inquisitor, changing the
condemnation to dead at the last moment: disappear and don t never
come back 6). Messagifying is precisely the way of edifying a
relational theology 7: fullness in rivelative relationality 8, or
sobornal knowledge and operativity 9.
3° AN ANSWER IN FRATERNITY BY OVERTURNING UNIVERSAL SACRIFICALITY AND
PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES MOVING ALL FEELINGS
Creativity is less the multiplication of strategies by means of
images to consume ever more, but a passage through the nothing of
visuality (as vehicle of emotive intensity), creating the perception
of the image 10. Through the iconic etimasia 11, a symbolical path
is evoqued as recreation of (sobornal) totality in fullness in
human experience: dynamics of inner virginizations (many ways)
towards tselomudrie (wisdom of fullness) through semplicity or
transparency of the whole as unity, overturning the confusion as
amount of uncountable things
becoming
purity
(intricate
multiplicity as impracticable labyrinth causing aggressivity which
has to be cured by hesychia , cfr supra) 12. The last aggressivity to
overcome is the one against evil in an ultimate divine distructive
revenge 13 (where justice is seen as justice of creation eventually
corrected by God s Love 14), the
smiling God
being His
1
E. Munzer, Solovyev, Prophet of Russian-Western Unity, London 1956, p. 5.
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in, idem,
, . III / Lectures on Godmanhood,
1956 /
London 1968,
. 42 / p. 85.
3
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
,
III / Lectures on Godmanhood, op. cit.,
. 114116 / p. 154-155.
4
.
/ V. Solov'ëv,
, in idem,
, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des Lebens, in idem, Deutsche
Gesammtausgabe, B. II, op. cit.,
. 355, 368-369 / S. 74-75, 91 Idem,
, in idem,
,
III / Lectures
on Godmanhood, op. cit.,
. 114-116, 180-181, 326 / pp. 154-155, 206-207, 388; cfr B. Schultze, Russische Denker, Wien 1950, S. 261, 285.
5
Cfr .
/ V. Solov'ëv,
/ I tre dialoghi,
1954 / Torino 1975.
6
.
/ F. Dostoevskij,
/ I fratelli Karamazov,
1980,
I / Torino 1981, vol. 1,
. 309-13 ( . I) / pp.
333-337 (V. I).
7
Cfr A. Joos, Messaggio cristiano e comunicazione oggi (antropologia della comunicazione ed inserimento cristiano, in 5 parti: linguaggi, segni,
metodologia comunicativa, informazione, simbolica), I vol., Capire la sfida comunicativa, [125 pp.]; II vol., Alle sorgenti del linguaggio, dalla
comunicazione alla fede, [255 pp.]; III vol., Avviare la comunicazione: dai segni comuni alla proposta evangelizzativa; IV vol., Comunicazione,
strategia umana / comunione, arrendevolezza divina?, V vol., Informazione-informatica e il domani dell'avventura ecclesiale, [310 pp.], Verona (Il
Segno) 1988-1992; in via di pubblicazione, volume VI sui simboli e la simbolica.
8
.
/ S. Bulgakov,
,
1945 ,
. 89-90; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le Paraclet, in idem,
,
II,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 77 , 216, 213-220, 247-248, 451 / pp. 27, 174-179, 206-207, 340; .
/ S.
Bulgakov,
/ Le Verbe incarné,
1933 / Paris 1943,
. 126-128, 137, 149, 225-229 / pp. 23-27, 34, 46-47, 124-126; .
/ S. Bulgakov, Die Christliche Anthropologie, in AA. VV., Kirche, Staat und Mensch, Russisch-orthodoxe Studien, Studien und Dokumente, zweiter
Band, Genf 1937, S. 214; .
/ S. Bulgakov, The Wisdom of God, London 1938, p. 63.
9
F. Rouleau, Ivan Kiréievski et la naissance du slavophilisme, Namur 1990, p. 184.
10
.
/ N. A. Berdjaev, Essai de métaphysique eschatologique, Paris 1946, pp. 183, 201; .
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La prospettiva rovesciata, in idem,
, in idem,
, . I / La prospettiva rovesciata ed altri
scritti,
1985 / Roma 1983,
. 186 / p. 132
11
.
/ V. Solov' ëv,
/ Das Judentum und die christliche Frage, in idem,
,
1956, . III / Die geistige Grundlagen des Lebens, in idem, Deutsche Gesammtausgabe, B. II, Freiburg in Breisgau 1972,
. 150-152
/ S. 582.
12
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità, in idem,
, .
IV, (
1917)
1989,
. 181, 352, 357, 386 / Milano 1974, pp. 232, 264, 449-450.
13
.
/ P. Florenskij, Lettres de prison et du camp (23.2.37), in Le Messager orthodoxe , 1988 n 3, p. 61.
14
P. Nellas, Le vivant divinisé. Anthropologie des Pères de l Eglise, Paris 1989, p. 49.
2
44
eschatological appearance 1, while the Spirit
2
.
extinguishes
all sins
CONCLUSION:
Is there a conclusion to all this? To try an answer, I would go
back to the question and proposal layed down by professor Popescu at
the end of the recent ecumenical meeting in Bari: where the western
theological approach starts from the acceptance of the dubbel
autonomy of Church and emancipated secular society to look at their
possible cooperation and the eastern one starts from the ultimate
divine promises and looks at the possible transfiguration of creation
through them 3, the two methodologies are complementary and the
question is: should we not find a way of working out this
complementary prospective? 4. Prf. Popescu is quite optimistic about
the Roman specificity, where the sobornostic insight
insteaddiscerned
some
rather
proper
characteristic
of
juridical
authoritarian legitimism and garantism (cfr supra). To my mind, an
uncertainty remains between an effective respect of human autonomy
(emancipation) and the instinct to dominate society on the basis of a
ecclesiastical legitimacy and garantism. If the Roman Church signed
some kind of peace with human emancipation at the second Vatican
Council, taking over the same structural articulation of its inquiry
5
on
freedom, equality, fraternity
, and if the actual Pope
recognized the acceptability of that same
triloghion
when he
visited France 6, a deeper consensus doesn t appear to be so clearly
established. A certain shift could be discerned today towards three
other preferential formulas in Roman language:
truth, justice,
solidarity 7. The fear is still partially present that the relation
between culture and Christianity is regulated by means of scholastic
logic and organized ecclesiasticism which subordinates culture to
Christianity 8. Anyway, it seems that precisely the sobornostic
relational
methodology
which has still to be explored and
developped in its wholeness 9- is an anticipation of such a
complementary theological togetherability, and specifically at this
methodological level. We could find a corrisponding hint of this in
the observation made by Prf. St nilaoe on relationality: Verchovskij
distinguishes between the knowledge which an individual has about
himself and the deeper knowledge he can draw in relation to another
1
Cfr O. Clément, I visionari, Milano 1998, p. 200
.
/ N. Berdjaev, Essai de métaphysique eschatologique, Paris 1946, pp. 234-235; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ La
lumière sans déclin,
1917 (Glasgow 1971) / Lausanne 1990,
. 413-417 / pp. 378-381; .
/ S. Bulgakov,
/ Le
Paraclet, in idem,
,
II,
1936 / Paris 1944,
. 216, 248, 279-280315-317 / pp. 177, 207, 232, 266-267; J.
Méchérian, Préface, in Grégoire de Narek, Le Livre de Prières, Paris 1961, pp. 8-9.
3
D. St nilaoë, Eshatologia sau via a viitoare, in idem, Teologia dogmatic ortodox , Bucure ti 1978, vol. 3, pp. 390-392.
4
Cfr D. Popescu, in D. Mongillo, La passione per l intelligenza della Verità che salva: stile di diakonia all ecumenismo della santità (Atti XIII
COLLOQUIO CATTOLICO-ORTODOSSO La santità vocazione universale cattolici-ortodossi distanza zero ), in «Nicolaus», 2002 nº 2, p. 15.
5
V. A. Yzermans, American Participation in the Second Vatican Council, New York 1967, p. 185; J. Grootaers, De Vatican II à Jean Paul II, Paris 1981, p.
44; G. G. Higgins, Commentary on the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the modern World, in V. A. Yzermans, American Participation in the Second
Vatican Council, New York 1967, pp. 263-264; H. Bruston, L'Eglise et la vocation humaine, in AA. VV., Vatican II: points de vue de théologiens
protestants, Paris 1967, p. 174; G. Dal Ferro, Religione e cambiamento sociale, Roma 1981, pp. 13-14; CONCILIO ECUMENICO VATICANO II,
Costituzione pastorale «Gaudium et spes», Civitas Vaticana 1965 / Roma 1965, n° 4.
6
Jean Paul II, Homélie à la messe du Bourget, in idem, Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, vol. III, a, Roma (Vaticano) 1980, p. 1589.
7
A more recent example of this re-elaboration can be found in the problematics of the encyclical on the Eucharist: John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia
de Eucharistia , Vatican City 2003, n° 10 (truth), n° 20 (justice, solidarity).
8
Ch. B. Ashanin, Eastern Orthodoxy As a Theological Task, in «Internet» 2003, http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1960/v16-4-article5.htm, p. 496.
9
.
/ P. Florenskij,
/ La colonna e il fondamento della verità, in idem,
, . IV,
(
1917)
1989,
. 326 / pp. 387-388.
2
45
person. But is there a real knowledge of the individual in itself
without a relationship to another? So, the Father He also- has the
knowledge of Himself and Wisdom, but He cannot have it outside of His
relation to another Person, whom, in God, is not elsewhere, but is
image of the Father, an hypostatical objectivation of what the Father
knows about Himself 1. Sobornal theological research did not ignore
the acute questions of emancipated secular society in modern times,
but took them up and riprospected them in the light of the ultimate
promises towards their transfiguration. Let me finish with an
observation Professor Clément expressed about Romanian theology, some
years ago: The theologians, will they be able, not to repeat the
Fathers of the Church, but to dig out the evangelical fundaments of
faith beyond modernity but through it? 2!!! He has been very near
to the intuitions and hopes of the same Dumitru St niloae.
1
D. St nilaoe, Le Saint Esprit dans la théologie byzantine et dans la réflexion orthodoxe contemporaine, in AA. VV., Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, Cité
du Vatican 1982, vol. 1, p.678.
2
O. Clément, Anachroniques, Paris 1990, p. 351.
46