VIA Num. 18 / May'12
Summary
- The Certain Glory of Joan Sales
- Spirituality in Post-Modern Times
- What is Governance?
- The Power of the Economy and the Economy of Power
- Emerging Donors and How They Fit with the Architecture of Aid: Squaring the Circle?
- Why Christianity, Again?
- Between History and Interrogation: “Why We Can’t Not Call Ourselves Christian”
- Giuseppe De Luca and “Perché non possiamo non dirci cristiani”
- Why We Must Still Call Ourselves Christian
- The Christian Roots of Modernity
- From Not So Long Ago to Tomorrow
- Only Christian Values?
- The Aftertaste of Inverted Commas
- And also: books, CEJP's activities and abstracts
With the support of:
The Certain Glory of Joan Sales
Xavier Pla
This year sees the commemoration of Joan Sales’ birth, and it seems that both his person and the power of his work will continue to occupy the key place in 20th century Catalan culture that they have been denied until now. This institutional recognition should be accompanied by a thorough treatment on behalf of literary history, as proposed by Professor Xavier Pla in these pages. Reviewing his life and career, Pla places the writer within the European literature of the post-war era and provides the keys for an evaluation of Incerta glòria [Uncertain Glory]: our great Civil War novel. As Pla discovers, a number of great authors, such as Rodoreda, Fuster, Villalonga, placed it at the centre of post-war Catalan culture.
Download article (PDF, 259 KB).
Spirituality in Post-Modern Times
Josep Oton
The secularising process of the last few decades suggested that, in the West, the religious spirit would, sooner or later, end up disappearing. Yet post-modern society is characterised by individuals that have shown a renewed interest in the spiritual dimension and new ways of living and feeling their religion, divorced from dogmatism and the univocal discourse of ecclesiastical authorities. Globalisation and the new socio-economic framework must surely have been decisive in this religious emancipation, in which the individual constructs his or her own spiritual conscience. While the survival of what is sacred seems an undeniable fact, the author echoes the opinion of those who interpret this new religiousness as a sign of its decline, as well as warning of the risks of falling into a superficial and rootless spirituality, unrelated to the fate of others or commercialised. In conclusion, the author outlines different scenarios through which post-modern spiritualities might flow.
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What is Governance?
Daniel Innerarity
In an increasingly complex society full of interdependent relations, dizzying social and technological changes and many different levels of government, in which no participant (not even the government or administration) has enough knowledge or information to tackle today’s challenges, we should ask ourselves how the best decisions can be taken. Within this context, Innerarity reclaims the paradigm of governance, a new way of regulating collective problems and of providing public goods based on shared leadership and institutional frameworks that, far from promoting a hierarchical, unilateral way of doing politics, is capable of creating horizontal, more cooperative relations and of ensuring pluralism and coordination between the different political and social agents.
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The Power of the Economy and the Economy of Power
Salvador Giner
In this essay, Professor Giner argues that power does not only come from the economy but also from many other sources such as religion, art industry, science or even politics itself. Moreover, Giner avoids the current debate, which he sees as irritating and with shades of Marxism, about whether the economy determines politics or vice versa. From an internal perspective, the author claims that Catalonia’s power base should increasingly be the firm, decisive desire of its citizens to possess such power. Otherwise, there is the risk that the sources of power will not come from Catalonia but from outside.
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Emerging Donors and How They Fit with the Architecture of Aid: Squaring the Circle?
Marc Navarro
The international aid system is currently undergoing a far-reaching transformation. In addition to the traditional donors (represented on the OECD Development Assistance Committee), emerging countries are becoming increasingly important in the area of development aid. The aim of this article is to examine how the presence of these new donors (principally Arab countries, India and China), with different aims and approaches, are straining the international aid system to the point that a serious reform is required of the representation and decision-making structures in operation to date.
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Why Christianity, Again?
Daniel Gamper
This first translation into Catalan of “Why we can’t not call ourselves Christian” gives us the chance to reflect not only on the importance of Benedetto Croce’s work and on the place that this text occupies within it, but also on the current state of religion, the identity of Europe and the political recognition of religions. Following this last line, Croce’s text could be read as a criticism of the rise in Italy and Europe of Fascism. However, this interpretation needs to be reconciled with Croce’s liberalism which led the philosopher to oppose the Lateran Treaties in 1929 and, in 1947, to the drafting of article 5 of the Italian Constitution.
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Between History and Interrogation: “Why We Can’t Not Call Ourselves Christian”
Emma Giammattei
Croce wrote “Why we can’t not call ourselves Christian” during the years of the Nazi/Fascist assault on Europe. To understand how the text came about, we need to pay attention to the rest of Croce’s work during these years. In this period, Croce combined criticism of the Church’s illiberal policy with a call for the liberating, subversive force of Christ. While looking at his philosophical works, the article reveals the importance of this text for his work as a whole with regard to both content and literary form.
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Giuseppe De Luca and “Perché non possiamo non dirci cristiani”
Gianluca Genovese
Giuseppe de Luca, Italian publisher and intellectual, maintained a long epistolary relationship with Benedetto Croce. He also often wrote about Croce’s work, albeit in ambivalent terms: while on the one hand he severely attacked some of his works, using a pseudonym, on the other, in private correspondence, he declared his acknowledgement, affection and admiration. His two reviews, of opposing views, for “Why we can’t not call ourselves Christian” illustrate not only his own particular intellectual attitude but also the ambiguity with which the text was received within the Italian and European context of the 1940s.
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Why We Must Still Call Ourselves Christian
Josep M. Carbonell
We must stress the great effort made by the Church through the Second Vatican Council to understand the signs of the times, the inherited humanism and enlightenment of modernity, although this does not mean that we should underestimate the core values of the Christian tradition. We have three reasons to still call ourselves Christian: because we believe that civilisation is better based on love than on violence, materialism and authoritarianism; because this civilisation provides us with the fundamental keys to our identity; and because we want to pass on this legacy to future generations.
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The Christian Roots of Modernity
Carmelo Dotolo
A reflection on the Christian roots of Europe comes up against the precise difficulties of a modernity, characterised by a pluralism of interpretations, which has not been able to take advantage of the normative baggage provided by Christianity. We should avoid thinking of secularisation as opposed to religiousness and recognise the ways in which Christianity has contributed towards human liberation. Secularity must permit a public dialogue so that believers of different faiths can share their views of reality.
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From Not So Long Ago to Tomorrow
Jean-Luc Nancy
Croce’s text encourages us once again to rummage through history and our present in search of a European identity, although perhaps it is time to accept that this can no longer be defined. However, “Why we can’t not call ourselves Christian” does not refer to what we are but what we should call ourselves. So we should not talk of identities insofar as these are static. Croce speaks from the perspective of a Christian humanism that is alien to us but the vitality of his thought still calls to us in our times of nihilistic desolation.
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Only Christian Values?
Victòria Camps
Croce’s text states that Christianity awakens the moral conscience, something that was inexistent before the appearance of the Christian God. In this way we are reminded of the supreme value of a person’s autonomy as a characteristic of western ethical thought. However, through its history Christianity has been associated with phenomena that, in the eyes of some Europeans, have led to its devaluation. If what we want is a common identity that allows us to belong to a universal morality, then we must attempt to translate Christianity into a secular language.
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The Aftertaste of Inverted Commas
Mercè Rius
This article is a textual analysis of the tract by Croce, placing it between Hegel and Vico but without ignoring the evangelical references. On the other hand, it relates it to the philosophy of its time and also to the welcome that it received not so long ago. There are many different focuses and, towards the end, a rather unusual about-turn.
Download article (PDF, 191 KB).
