Contro lassoluto (LiberaMente) (Italian Edition)

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Ancient Mediterranean One of the main stream in scholarly production on philanthropy — which is a quite recent and not entirely legitimized academic field of study www. In their long-term historical evolution, as well as in structural configuration, philanthropic institutions are characterized by a differentiated isomorphism: This aspect has been substantially neglected by the recent scholarship whose main goal are financial and economic aspects, connected with the giving activities.

Another key issue that has been 8. They are universal in scope and aims and path-dependent in role and functions; they are deeply rooted in specific cultural and social tradition and they are agent of social change; they operate in preserving the values and the social identity of a specific society and social groups and they constitute a framework of cultural hybridization, which has deep roots in the past. Murat Cizazcka, analyses the similarity between Islamic waqf and English trust and underlines the fact that under both systems, property is reserved and the usufruct is appropriated for the benefit of specific individuals or for a general charitable purpose.

The corpus become inalienable, estates for life in favor of successive beneficiaries can be created at the will of a founder without regard to the law of inheritance or the rights of the heirs and continuity is secured by successive appointment of trustees. Accordingly, philanthropic endowments have roots that are older than Islam. Islamic traditions emerged in a world in which patterns of philanthropic activities already existed.

The lands where Islam spread its teachings had been part of great Hellenized societies the Christian Byzantine and the Zoroastrian Sasanian. The Sasanian Law book documents private endowments and 9. It was compiled during the reign of Khusraw II A. D , but foundation existed in an earlier period. This framework of anlysis has been developed by the team on pre-Islamic philanthropy.

The Law book delineates the Philanthropic trust. By testament in documentary form an individual would set aside or endow part of his private property to support a defined purpose. Control of the foundation was assigned to a trustee. When the Muslim Arabs appeared on the scene philanthropy traditions existed as accessible models, and it seems clear that whereas the ethical impulse to philanthropic works was securely rooted in Quiranic and Prophetic texts, the way in which, at least one of the formal institutions took shape, the philanthropic trust was strongly influenced by these already existing legal structures, especially the Zoroastrian foundation.

The peoples of the ancient Mediterranean made enduring contributions to the definitions and practices of philanthropy. In their law codes from the third millennium B.

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These provisions made justice and clemency hallmarks of nobility. Babylonian epic poetry, exemplified by the Gilgamesh cycle c. Verses retold the misfortunes of misanthropic kings while celebrating generosity and self-sacrifice as vital steps toward civilization. Contemporaneous Egyptian sacred writings such as The Book of the Dead make it clear that anyone's successful passage to the afterlife depended on a lifetime record of benevolent acts toward the suffering.

Egyptian deities expected postulants for immortality to swear that they had never denied food to the starving, drink to the thirsty, and clothing to the ragged. Westerners owe the word philanthropy to the Greeks, who, since the fifth century B. This concept they first embodied in the benevolent god Prometheus, who dared to share divine fire with mortals and suffered Zeus's wrath for his generosity.

Greeks also revered their gods Hermes and Eros as especially philanthropic for the gifts of wisdom and desire they imparted to men. Greek fascination with knowledge as a gift freely communicated to mortals by other wise men registers in Plato's presentation of the philosopher Socrates stating the philanthropic nature of teaching Euthyphro, c. The love of learning and discriminating art patronage employed by the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great induced his Greek biographer Xenophon to praise the monarch's supremely phil-anthropic soul Cyropaedia, c.

Here are the origins of the honorific by which Greek subjects addressed the emperors of Byzantium for centuries: The tax-exempt condition of many modern philanthropies is ancient, and this type of privilege has long contributed to shaping various status hierarchies within Western societies. In Greek cities, many forms of philanthropy combined to strengthen urban culture.

Most important were the civic liturgies rich men assumed either voluntarily or under heavy peer pressure. These duties obligated wealthy citizens to subsidize personally the cost of temples, city walls, armories, granaries, and other municipal amenities promoting inhabitants' common identity and welfare.

Prominent citizens vied with one another in the performance of these indiscriminate gifts Personal vanity was a prime motive for donors, but rich citizens risked ostracism by peers and plebs if they failed to appreciate their wealth as a trust in which the community had a share. Greek philanthropists showed a genius for converting their gifts into potent symbols of communal strength and solidarity. Groups of wealthy men regularly paid for all the equipment necessary to stage the great Greek dramatic festivals.

Such gifts of theaters, scripts commissioned from leading playwrights, costumes, and actors shaped the physical and cultural environments of Greek cities, gave audiences memorable lessons in civility, and enshrined drama as one of the greatest media of collective artistic expression in the West. Philanthropy in the Roman empire As conquerors, heirs, and cautious emulators of the Greeks, the Romans assumed better regulation of what they called philanthropia to be among the greatest obligations of their civilization.

Influential authors like Cicero and Seneca composed manuals on the arts of proper gift giving and receipt. Seneca, tutor to the emperor Nero, emphasized that elite giving must generate gratitude between the vertical ranks of Roman society and argued that philanthropy rightly done formed the "glue" that held the Roman people together On Benefits, composed c. Thus benefactors had to select appreciative beneficiaries carefully and choose presents capable of eliciting maximum acknowledgment from recipients.

Heads must rule hearts in discriminate Roman philanthropy. Roman rulers took this advice with emperors asserting exclusive right to make choice gifts of baths, gymnasia, fountains, and gladiatorial games to the Roman population. The elaboration of Roman law aided less exalted philanthropists by giving legal status to trusts, charitable endowments, and mutual But the propensity of many donors to use such legal instruments for self-glorification, personally advantageous politicking, and the conservation of family wealth did little to help larger numbers of the destitute in growing Roman imperial cities.

To Latins, philanthropy also meant the proper conduct of diplomacy, special respect for foreign ambassadors, fidelity to sworn treaties, and generous terms of alliance offered to defeated enemies. The propagandists of empire cited these philanthropies as justifications of Roman imperialism and the superiority of Roman civilization. Christian Models of Philanthropy The radical, roving holy man Jesus of Nazareth rebelled against all existing regimes of self-serving philanthropy in the ancient world simply by proclaiming: The master commanded early apostles to abandon without recompense all material possessions by almsgiving and to strive for ever deeper humility through personal alms seeking, courting rejection and abuse at every door.

The earliest Christian writings, the letters of Paul—composed c. Paul raised up new communities of donors to be inspired by Jesus's manifest love and empowered spiritually and philanthropically through the church. New Testament evangelists amplified this charitable theme, emphasizing how Jesus immediately cared for the suffering even by doing good works on the Sabbath in contravention of Jewish worship protocols Mark 3: Jesus personified as the Good Samaritan Luke Fundamental tenets of Christianity formed as its exponents did battle with more ancient regimes of philanthropy.

Early Christian bishops, locked in vicious power struggles with old pagan elites for control of crumbling Roman imperial cities, could not be so generous. Anxious to portray themselves as potent "lovers of the poor," they continually revised Christian doctrines on alms, riches, and the poor to gain disciplined blocks of loyal followers. Fidelity to Jesus's more selfless teachings was sacrificed as bishops toned down earlier rebukes of the wealthy, courted rich donors with preferred places in new congregations, and increasingly described almsgiving as a means by which the ordinary faithful could atone for their personal sins under reinforced church discipline.

The crucial Christian linkage of philanthropy and penance enticed givers to look upon their alms as a form of spiritual capital accumulation and intensified self-centered motives for giving. Worldly charitable deposits would ultimately enable pious donors to boast in heaven about the purity of their own souls and to secure personal salvation.

If philanthropy is a relevant aspect of religious practices, religious traditions and practices are crucial to understand and conceptualize the role of philanthropy in the past as well as in the present: Diasporas are powerful agents of philanthropic initiatives. The religious norms and their anthropological and cultural patterns are certainly factors of differentiation, which are particularly relevant in the Mediterranean areas where the coexistence of different religious traditions is a traditional feature.

This statement is overwhelmed in the present configuration of European societies where, as an effect of the increasing streams of immigration and the role played in civil societies by minorities, the oxymoron of preservation of identities throughout the hybridization of social contexts is at work. Nowadays one can affirm that philanthropy and its institutional and associative networks entered in a phase of debate and change, which characterizes, with specific connotations, the Mediterranean areas and their strategic role within the global system.

Since the Mediterranean is a cross-continental framework this process concerns European countries, Turkey as well as other continental areas, such as the Middle-East and the Northern part of Africa. It is a matter of fact, that the roots of philanthropy in the Mediterranean areas— are deeply characterised both in terms of historical legacy as well as of religious traditions. It is also a matter of fact that the most diffused religious traditions in the Mediterranean areas Jewish, Islamic and Christian — Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox — in the contemporary period as well in the past- are characterized by increasing interaction and shaped by the effects of the evolution of civil society in the framework of the persistence of long established religious and cultural practices, including social rules and legal norms.

The Islamic as well as the Jewish tradition are characterized by an increasing interaction between religious statements and practice of social justice in which philanthropic activities and their institutional drivers, such as Foundations, NPOs and NGOs — are particularly relevant, because they include innovation as The Jewish tradition made the act of giving a central and imperative duty for each believer. Ancient Judaism went farther, postulating a single God as the epitome of generosity. All of creation belonged to Jehovah, but he gave the Israelites the promised land, sheltering them as refugees "for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me"; Lev.

Israel itself is defined in Jewish sacred writings as a foundling nation, rescued by the Lord. Repeated Mosaic descriptions of the deity as an avenger of the orphaned, the widowed, and the homeless compel Jews, in turn, to help the bereft "Love the stranger therefore, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt"; Deut.

Here, misanthropy equals apostasy, and pious Jews are required to be givers. Charity becomes a mode of divine worship, and rituals of giving organize all Hebrew calendars. Days of celebration and atonement marking the lunar year must be accompanied by shared meals and presents. Seasonal harvests close with free gleanings in the fields accorded to the impoverished.

Tithes to benefit the poor, priests, and slaves run at three-, seven-, and fifty-year cycles, perpetuating acts of charity among the tribes of Israel. Synagogues themselves embodied Judaism's charitable imperatives with spaces designed for the kindly deposit and distribution of alms. Donors left gifts secretly in one room of the temple.

Beneficiaries collected the offerings in a second room unseen by contributors and thus immune to any shame in the transaction. Amos, Isaiah and Micah took an innovating stand in attacking the problem of poverty and its roots. The analysis of evolutionary patterns of Jewish philanthropy reveals that In the long-term perspective these practices are characterized by patterns of adaptation to the evolution of Jewish community and particularly to the Diaspora communities.

During the latter part of the Nineteenth century social and political movements and other ideological groups, espousing new ways of Jewish life, created organizations with new non-religious orientations and goals, backed to a large extent by Jewish philanthropy local and "foreign". Diaspora Jewish philanthropy emerged during this time as a major force for funding those endeavors.

In recent times number of factors among which, quite paradoxically, a decline in donations from Diaspora Jewry, seem to encourage the development of new patterns of philanthropic issues, including venture philanthropy and the active role of emergent social entrepreneurs. The definition and the diffusion of Maimonides teaching represent a crucial turning point in the history of Jewish philanthropy.

Born in Cordova in Maimonides was a physician, a philosopher and a Biblical and Talmudic commentator. Besides his philosophical works and medical text in Hebrew as well as in Arabic Maimonides is known for his teachings on Tzadakah. He defined eight degrees in giving practices and stated that the highest degree of Tzadakah is to assist a poor person not-Jws as well Jews by providing him or her with a gift or loan or by accepting him or her as a partner in business or by helping him or her to find an employment in order to become independent and to act as an active member of his community.

It is interesting to observe that the highest level of the Jewish Tzadakah contains some interesting analogies with the new patterns of modern philanthropy, which underlines the necessity to go beyond the grant-making as monetary donation and include in philanthropic activities, assistance in budgeting, financial planning, consolidation of loans, management capabilities. From this point of view the analysis of the relations between religions and philanthropy reveals that tradition and innovation can interact as the two facets of the same medal.

Concerning the Muslim world, the Islamic law is represented, in the classical theory, as a tree with four roots Koran, Sunna, Igna and Qiyas and two branches Ghadat — acts of worship — and Muamalat — legal relations. Zakaat, being one of the five pillars of Islam, is at the same time an act of worship and a legal alms, which has always been intended as a system of social insurance and security in the Islamic world..

Literaly Zakaat means to purify, to develop and cause to grow, but as Shariah terms it is an act of monetary worship according to which every Muslim who possesses equal to or exceeding a laid down minimum, has to give away a portion of it to the deserving poor and needy people. The payment of Zakaat purifies the remaining wealth. The Koran defines in precise way the receivers of the almsgiving.

Therefore, according to the Koran, the Islamic law identify eight categories of recipients and it is interesting that side by side with the poor and the needy we could In effect, Jihad must not be restricted only to military activities, but to a broader set of efforts Therefore, we can list four different meanings of Jihad: Another consideration is that the fiqh which in a strictly sense represents the Islamic law implies five categories of giving practices obligatory or duty; recommended; indifferent; reprehensible; forbidden.

The Zakaat is part of the first, it is a duty for the good Muslim, but the Islamic law distinguishes also between a personal and a communal duty. Personal duty means that a certain action is obligatory to individuals, the communal duty instead needs a compulsory system.

The fact that the Zakaat is intended as a communal duty implicates the need of a state, or an organization, which collects the legal alms. Nowadays, we find only few Islamic countries that organize the collection of Zakaat, instead we find a lot of movements and foundations which are devoted to this task. In the Middle East for example the Muslim Brotherhood has Zakaat committees and in Western countries with Muslim minorities there are several Islamic foundations which collect this sort of religious tax. A relevant question, based on the fact that Zakaat was fixed in the Islamic tradition in the framework of a specific historical, economic and social configuration, concerns the adaptation of the concept and related practices to meet contemporary forms of income and wealth.

It should be noted that in the Modern Muslim world law only in some countries like South Arabia, Libya, Pakistan and Sudan enforces the payment of zadaak. Developing the issue about the relations between past and present in specific countries and particularly in Turkey and Cyprus see the contribution to this book by Suraiya Faroqhi and Netice Yildiz one should consider another relevant shift that occurred in the last century.

It is related to the decline of the role of the traditional waqf, as a basic complement to Muslim patterns of charity. A waqf is a pious endowment, which exists from the early records of Islamic history. According to the Encyclopaedia of Religions Waqf refers to the act of dedication property to a Muslim foundation and by extension means also the endowment thus created.

The original meaning of the Arabic word is to stop that is to stop to be considered and treated as ordinary property. The property, which is usually a real estate, remains the possession of the founder and of his heirs but they cannot claim on it the usual rights of property. The historical development of waqf and their institutional configuration is quite complex. Building anything from mosques and schools, to roads and bridges, to neighborhood water fountains. Waqf have a very long and articulated history that testifies the legal ambivalence of these institutions, which are represented as private as well as public bodies.

Actually a relevant feature of the Islamic trust is the absence of a substantive distinction between private and charitable trusts in the It is not until the modern period that a clearer distinction was set up between public and private trust, but this was less the result of an evolution in legal principles than the effect of an historic evolution in which the public aspects were emphasized against the private ones. The case of the evolutionary patterns of foundation in Turkey is particularly emblematic, in this perspective. During the Ottoman Empire charitable endowments grew up and represented for a long time an autonomous sphere.

In the middle of the 19th century the Ottoman government promulgated a new land law that created a separate administration for waqf. Becoming secularized or confiscated by the State this was the case, among others, of the Dervish Nowadays, however, a crucial change is underway and can possibly generate a relevant change in the framework of the highly secularized Turkish society, as an effect of increasing Islamization of Turkish institutions, concerning education, public justice and financial system.

Moreover after September 11, the role of Islamic Foundations as potential driver of support to terroristic groups is increasingly under scrutiny and philanthropic activties reveal their multiple facets in a complex framework in which the hybrid nature of many terrorist organizations, with their ambivalence between terrorist activities and philanthropic and humanitarian actions, emerge as a dramatic feature of the present. The need for financial transparency and accountability both for religeous NGOs as well as for other type of grantmaking organizations becomes crucial to avoid the danger of misuse of foundations in financing terrorist mouvements.

What should be underlined is that the ambivalence it not the product neither of the reliegous norms, nor of the charible practices but is related to the behaviour of instituitional and individual actors. In itself the Zakaat as a charity tax presents differences but also similarities with other practices of tithing. While the Islamic radition distinguishes between the obligatory As observed by Thomas H. Jeavons the practice of thithing has its roots in the Old Testament. Beyond the impact of specific teachings, those who participate in religious congregations also generally see giving model on a regular basis as a public act, and learn giving as a social behavior.

Generally speaking one can affirm that religious people are more generous overall than non-believers but it is also a matter of fact that the most generous are not necessarily religious and, moreover, that in religious giving there is the risk that a significant proportion is utilized for the reproduction and the maintenance of the religious institutions themselves, as it can happen for any other type of non profit organizations. As an effect of combining these two contradictory sentences one can affirm that religious giving does not necessarily reflect the spirit of generosity.

In extreme cases religion can also act to limit and contain the social benefit of civic entrepreneurship. After all, as Robert Wuthnow has recalled it, giving is essentially a social — and to many extent political — transaction. The spirit of generosity depends on the contexts which means that it is shaped by other factors than religion as such and involves aspects of social life that are embedded in social institutions and in their evolutionary process.

In this perspective it is not surprising that the poor and the people in situation of insecurity give more than the rich and the persons who live in situation of political, social and economic security. Giving within poor communities is crucial to their survival. Without mutual help survival will be more difficult.

Starvation, maltunitrion, dissemination of diseases will be more severe. In monotheistic religions and particularly in the Jewish tradition, during the medieval and modern period. On the basis of archive documents and iconography sources Gioia Perugia describes the role of a quasi institutional space animated by the principles of mutual aid and solidarity between each individual, the family and the community as a whole and particularly analyses the role of benevolent voluntary societies created in the ghetto era who cared for the physical and spiritual needs of the disadvantaged.

In this increasingly consolidated social space obligation and volunteering are strictly interconnected as moral imperatives. Patterns of obligations, within the more limited system of nuclear family, are at work also at present in the most developed countries, where differences in the style of giving are related to contexts and generated a pattern that I will define tentatively as differentiated isomorphism.

The development of the research activities will demonstrate if this heuristic tool is an appropriate and strategic conceptual framework or not. Reflections on the present through the laboratory of the past: In the US every income group gives more to religious causes than to non-religious.

In giving to religious organization increased by 5. In the Mediterranean and particularly in Southern Europe if one considers congregations and religious associations the impact of religion on giving is much lower as compared to the United States. The picture changes dramatically, however, if one considers the role of the Catholic Church as an institution of charitable activities as well as the main driver of volunteering organizations. It changes also if the inquiry concerns Sooth Eastern Europe, where according to a detailed report by Seal, a research network of the European Foundation Center at present the Third Sector includes a diversity of religious and faith-based associations, sometimes established by citizens and sometimes by religious institutions.

Regardless of the fact that in the old system religious communities were marginalized, their influence on citizens remained very present. This became very obvious during the tragic war of As they did during the war, religious communities in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina are aiming to become influential forces in the republic's political and social life. This is especially obvious when we look at mono-ethnic and religious activities, aid provision and support to nationalist political parties. Many religious-oriented NGOs are involved in overcoming inherent divisions and other barriers to reconciliation.

Some of these organizations are explicitly religious, i. Others may be termed "faith-based". Faith-based NGOs engage in a range of activities, including promoting inter faith dialogue, providing immediate humanitarian aid, and fostering long Therefore one should take into consideration the difference of context between a situation of quasi — monopoly and a situation of increasing pluralism where there is a proliferation of different churches.

Wright or wrong this theory, it is a matter of fact that religious pluralism seems to facilitate the scholarly engagement in this field of research. In comparison with Europe where the study of religious organizations and their relations with giving practices is still the main field of research of few and isolated scholars, since the seminal book by Robert Wuthnow and Virginia Hodgkinson, North American scholars have produced a consistent number of studies.

One of the aims of the research project is to contribute to fill the gap between two world the Anglo — Saxon tradition in which philanthropy is full legitimized both in theory and in practice and the Mediterranean world where the oldest roots of philanthropy are located but in which both the practice and their institutional framework as well as the academic work and institutions are still in a pioneering phase.

In the US important research centers such as the Hauser Center at Harvard University and the Center on Philanthropy at the Indiana University have focused religions and philanthropy from different disciplinary perspectives. The increasing amount of publications about faith and secularization has certainly contributed to stimulate the debate. Among other scholars, Peter Dobkin Hall, a well-known specialist in history of philanthropy, has largely contributed to stimulate the research on the relations between religions Dobkin Hall states that the major studies of religion, giving and volunteering treat religion generically.

The Collapse and Revival of American Community. The Jewish Diaspora is traditionally a vehicle of protection of the community particularly for the Haredi community, an ultra orthodox Jewish community, analyzed by Benjamin Gidron, as well as of social interaction and integration within and across different contexts. Changes in Meaning over Space and Time, c. Regarding the lifestyle of the Warburg brothers the range covered the strictly religious orientation of Fritz Warburg to the fully secularized lifestyle of Max Warburg who did not even make an effort to familiarize his children with the Jewish belief.

Regarding the question of motivation the author infers that there did not exist a specific Jewish reason for the patronage, but rather a civil implicitness of the family that did not differ from the patronage of non-Jewish wealthy citizens of Hamburg. The question of motivation and intention of Jewish benefactors is the focus of the second paper. The Jewish foundation activity began in Frankfurt in the late s and s. The author argues that a central motive of the sponsors was to shape the social and cultural features of their In doing so the foundations goal was twofold: Both papers tend to argue that besides the diversity of individual motivations — certain religious and cultural imprints were noticeable but their influence and patterns should be related to the contexts and their historical variations.

Gioia Perugia Sztulman demonstrate in one of the chapters of this book, through the support of empirical sources and visual evidences, the crucial role over years of the ghetto and its paradoxes: This approach finds a building block in the argument developed by Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris in their book Sacred and Secular Religion and Politics Worldwide about the cultural tradition axiom.

It states that worldviews that were originally linked with religious traditions have shaped the culture of each nation or social group and have been transmitted to the citizens despite their religious orientation, not directly by the church or religious organizations but by the educational system, the mass media, the social networks.

Even in highly secular societies, the historical legacy of traditional religious practices and values continue to define cultural differences. This concerns also organizational models associations and congregations versus centralized institutions and the attitude to other groups including philanthropic activities which enter this complex landscape by contributing to its shaping, being at the same time shaped by its evolutionary configuration.

To many extent — not in all cases — philanthropy acts as a bridge between traditional sacred and secularized societies, being a social practice which frequently embeds religious traditions The theoretical framework: The first consideration is that the complexity of the relation between religions and philanthropy are related to a fundamental paradox: Since the modern age as an example the relation between religion and philanthropy has been shaped by the triangulation with the role of the Church in the consolidation of national states and related civil societies as well as to their The term "philanthropy" has been used in France since modern times, but discredited by the French Revolution.

In Germany for a long time it was almost exclusively used in the field of art and culture. These differences can be ascribed to the different religious mentalities, values and traditions of the respective countries shaped by Catholicism, Calvinism, Lutheranism and Protestantism. In a recent paper based on quantitative data on the development of the welfare state Klaus Weber states that the inner — Protestant differences are stronger than differences between a Lutheran and Catholic tradition.

The research conducted by a group of scholars, in the framework of the research activity of the Philanthropy and Social Innovation Research center, shows that this statement should be contextualized and reconsidered. Also in Catholicism as I mentioned there are different characterizations and orientations.

At the origin of Christianity, as an example, there is a relevant shift in the behavior towards the poor. Actually this behavior is the basic framework to understand the shifting in the Roman Empire from the lover of the city to the lover of the poor. The establishment of the Christian Church in the Roman Empire in the late antique period between the years and of the Common Era implied that the love of the poor became a public virtue. The City was the focus, not the poor. Lover of the poor did not grow naturally out of the ideals of public beneficence in Greek and Roman times.

Significantly it emerged — as stated by Peter Brown in his classical study Poverty and Leadership on the Later Roman Empire — when the ancient civic sense of the community was weakened. From this perspective Christian and Jewish charitable behavior were not simply a new pattern of generosity but a new departure which considered society as a whole. The relation with the poor became part of the life of the rich, also as a consequence of the increasing intertwining between the city and the countryside and of the growing visibility of the poor within the walls of the city, as an effect of the demographic revolution during the 4th and 5th century.

In the Mediterranean areas this shift create a geographical differentiation between the Greco-Roman world and the Ancient Near East, whose essentially nonclassical cultural framework had a focus on the care of the poor. The same orientation prevailed until the modern times also in the Orthodox context where the accumulation of wealth was condemned as illicit. The Orthodox religious rules implied that wealth should be essentially used for the common good as a service to God as well as to those who need help.

In Russia, Orthodox religious had a great influence on the development of philanthropy. Significantly both in the Jewish and in the Orthodox religious traditions which are widespread in the Mediterranean basin, the highest level of charity is spontaneous donation, giving through the heart, that is with an act of generosity, empathy and love.

In the Jewish tradition the most relevant aspect, as we have seen, is the Maimonides prescription along a scale of eight levels, from the lowest level of giving reluctantly to the highest In the Orthodox tradition the practice of philanthropy is also historically based on the XVIth century Domostroji. It indicates the prescriptions of religious behavior, which does not implies only eleemosynary practice but attentive cares towards the needy people. This was also the case in the framework of Islamic tradition where philanthropy was and still is formally related, through the Zakah prescriptions, to the care of poor.

The specificity of the Catholic tradition, as demonstrated by Peter Brown, is that the establishment of the Church was not outside the picture, on the contrary the bishops and their helpers were themselves agents of change. Brown affirms that the Christian bishops invented the poor. They acted and claim for power in the name of the needs of the poor. The care of poor was a social construction in which also new patterns of power were shaped. The Christian Church gave a new meaning to the old demos.

It designated the marginal groups that had always pressed in upon the city as the poor. It should be noted, however, that in the IVth and Vth century in the Jewish and Catholic tradition and in the framework of a society which was not marked by clear-cut cleavages, the poor were people vulnerable to impoverishment rather than individual leaving in deep desperate poverty.

In the Jewish tradition it is expressed in the concept of Zedaka. What early Christians took for granted as part of an inherited conglomerate of notions shared with Judaism, was that they were responsible for the care of the poor of their communities. The Islamic tradition incorporated this vision and practices by implementing it with the principle of supporting the community with material goods delivered and administrated by the Waqf — fountains, schools, orphelinats, but also markets, as S.

Faroqhi shows in her contribution to this book — with their benefits to be shared by the community. The triangulation among religion philanthropy and the economic aspects of social life of communities is a relevant subject that needs to be developed by scholarly research. It is an important chapter in this field of study since at present we need to understand the genealogy —that is the historical and theoretical framework — of an emerging approach in philanthropy which combines giving and business practices in the practical and theoretical framework of venture philanthropy and social return on investment.

At the end of the III Century — as an example — a silent revolution starts to emerge in the framework In some circles — as Peter Brown observes — even private almsgiving was discouraged: This was also the framework in which the claim for tax exemptions emerged in the name of the care of poor. The institutionalization of religion is — to many extents- a relevant factor if the institutionalization of philanthropy in which the role of tax exemption is still a crucial factor but not necessary an engine of giving.

Looking to more recent time one should consider the increasing divide between the dimension of giving in the framework of religious institutions and its role as a voluntary phenomenon related to faith-based associations and organizations. As I have previously mentioned in Europe, where Catholicism is largely diffused, giving to religion is lower if compared with the US.

In recent times however it appears to be a growing phenomenon. In Italy the main attractor and engine of giving is, not surprisingly, volunteering. The practice of giving is less related to donations than to the creation of services, to support of communities. The evolution of Catholicism, however, observed from the long- term perspective reveals that there are several traditions in which charity and philanthropy are not opposed and Catholicism is a vehicle of civic impact.

One of these traditions is social Catholicism that Dobkin recognizes as a vehicle to produce charitable organizations intended to serve society as a whole. Blending boundaries between profit and non-profit. Case studies in historical perspective. Going back to the medieval tradition I have mentioned Franciscanism, as has been a powerful driver of reshaping charity. Two Italian scholars, Ceccarelli and Muzzarelli, have written interesting case studies about this movement.

The pawnshops were directed, according to the original statutes, to people who were neither very rich nor absolutely poor. The pawnshops functioned like a bank but under particularly favorable conditions for a well-defined type of client, moderately poor and virtuous citizen. The system of micro-credit is one of the modern approaches used to recognize and alleviate financial necessity; the foundation of the pawnshops confronted the same issue at the end of Middle Ages. The goal was to offer credit with special conditions; applying rates lower than fair market value instead of charity.

The condition was to be confident in the possibility of escaping poverty and the establishment of a solid framework of trusts an trustable actors. The client would have the possibility to overcome the general condition of inability through the empowerment of his individual condition and the trust offered by the bank.

These pacts stabilized the conditions of loans and of cohabitation between the Christian majority and the Jewish minority. These conventions indicated a new and important phase in the history of loan, and not only of small loan. These conventions represent a phase of consciousness of a widespread need for loans.

At the same time, the rules also represent a phase of trust in these brokers that, although they were not Christian, were still trustworthy. The relationship with Jewish broker lasted many centuries. The pawnshops derived from the particular culture and sensibility of the Franciscan order, but also from Jewish experience.

The idea of intervening With the pawnshops, the Christian world directly addressed the problem of small credit, separating the idea of charity. The later remained necessary to help the really weak, people who were not able to overcome independently poverty because of age, illness, and inability to work.

The pawnshops, instead, were destined to help those who only needed economic help in order to overcome a temporary condition of necessity. Pawnshops were effective economic venture not only for the clients, but also for the city. The city was alleviated from the obligation to assist men and women who risked to become really poor. For the city, the risk of potentially dangerous behaviors inspired by poverty diminished. The clients of pawnshops, the poor less poor, if appropriately sustained would have been able to access the goods and start small activities, consequently producing wealth.

As noticed by Muzzarelli the more innovative aspects of this initiative, created in Franciscan framework, met also challenges. The request of reimbursement of expenses, was in fact considered usury and the assimilation of Pawnshop to business activities was condemned by the dominant ideology of the Catholic Church.

The relations between business and charitable behaviour is also at the core of Suraya Faroqhi who has extensively analyzed the practice of giving in Turkey, in the framework of Islamic tradition within the Ottoman Empire, with a specific focus on the practice of intertwining social investment and charity and the consequent blurring of their boundaries as a relevant aspect of the historical evolution of the waqf.

From these case study related to different historical and religious traditions a lesson to be learned: Therefore it is important to analyze this complex system of practices, doctrines and visions from a prismatic perspective, that is from geographical and cultural areas in which cross-fertilization effects are visible and relevant.

The Mediterranean areas are certainly a prismatic field of inquiry with their different social anthropological and institutional configurations. Hybridization are well documented in the work of Mark R. Therefore in monotheistic religions patterns of crossfertilization have been at work since the oldest times. The religious norms and their anthropological and cultural patterns are certainly factors of differentiation which are particularly relevant in the Mediterranean areas where the coexistence of different religious traditions is a traditional feature. This statement is overwhelmed in the One can affirm that philanthropy and its institutional and associative networks entered in a phase of debate and change which characterizes, with specific connotations, the Mediterranean areas and their strategic role within the global system.

Since the Mediterranean is a crosscontinental framework this process concerns European countries including Eastern and Central Europe, Turkey as well as other continental areas, such as the MiddleEast and the Northern part of Africa. It is also a matter of fact that the most diffused religious traditions in the Mediterranean areas Jewish, Islamic and Christian — Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox — in the contemporary period as well in the past- are characterised by increasing interaction and shaped by the effects of the evolution of civil society in the framework of the persistence of long established religious and cultural practices, including social rules and legal norms.

The Islamic as well as the Jewish tradition are characterised by an increasing interaction between religious statements and practice of social justice in which philanthropic activities and their institutional drivers, such as Foundations, NPOs and NGOs — are particularly relevant because they include innovation issues as well as traditional patterns.

The rules of the present: In this overview of an emerging and promising research field there is an element missed: As stated by Suraya Faroqhi. This latter condition explains why real estate was so often preferred when it came to instituting a vakif. Men and women who established pious foundations were furthermore The exploration of the changing patterns of philanthropy and its relations with religious practices and cultures in the Mediterranean areas both from the historical point of view in the long period and in the present is no more a complementary aspect of research issues concerning the past and present of multicultural societies but it represents a core element in the study of the process of social inclusion and social exclusion as it is testified by some of the contributions to this book.

As well as by research seminars focused on this subject. The case of Turkey, Israel and Cyprus are particularly emblematic and can be considered as a strategic focus to extend and improve research projects aiming to develop comparative issues in the relation between past and present as well as among different areas within the Mediterranean as well as in a global perspective.

The relations between religion and philanthropy should be analyzed as a global prismatic system in which as previously noticed there are different patterns of reaction and interaction in the framework of historical change: In Salonika, for example, conquered from the Venetians the churches were transformed into mosques. Then there is to consider the case of differentiation of practices within the same religious framework. As stated by Faroqhi in her Analogically these considerations recall the debate of the Franciscan movement in distinguish the usura which was forbidden by Catholic doctrine form lending out money to the benefit of community.

The need to analyse the historical evolution of the waqf or more precisely vakif in Turkish, their role in the medieval period, their retrieval under the increasing domination of state authorities, is a crucial both for the scholars and the practitioners. Differentiated isomorphism can be used as an analytical tool to study the historical evolution of philanthropic institutions in the same context as well as to compare different institutional context in the same historical period.

In Italy and Turkey despite different social and political configurations, the State has controlled for long time charitable associations, such as the opere pie in Italy and the old foundations in Turkey. In both countries at When these creative patterns become a practice, grant-making activities can yield the transformative outcomes that encompass and embody social justice as a strategic goal of philanthropic activities. It is a crucial goal both in the Italian society, facing an increasing immigration of religious and cultural minorities as well as in the Turkish society characterised a twofold dynamism, between the increasing role of faith and the consolidated secularisation of institutions and social policies and between the emerging role of Islamic movement and its social and anthropological aspects and the attractiveness of European political and legal and social configuration, Multiculturalism and its effects in shaping the role of religious congregations are a crucial factor in structuring the relation between religions and philanthropy in the global context.

This is the reason why we have decided to include in this volume the case of South Africa, as an interesting framework of social and cultural change in philanthropic culture and practices in a society in rapid transition as well a study of ethical roots of philanthropy in the North American continent, as a crucial background for the discussion of both the evolution of Protestant tradition faced to the development of a multi-cultural society see Soma Hewa contribution to this volume.

Inter-cultural exchanges are a growing phenomenon and are generating new institutional configurations such as the micro-credit and the welcome banks that adapt financial tools to cultural and religious traditions. The elaboration of case studies The study on religious aspect The Mediterranean is considered — according to the historian F.

The representations of philanthropy as a dynamic space of social change through the practice of giving, concretely testifies that the Mediterranean is the most vivid and interactive laboratory of creativity as well as a scholarly framework to develop comparative studies of practices, cultures and symbols of philanthropy in its evolutionary patterns.

Many stereotypes that Western mental behaviour has generated towards Mediterranean cultures and religions — with a specific reference to the Muslim tradition — appear as inconsistent and wrong. Si tratta di un fenomeno universale, su cui abbiamo moltissimi esempi, soprattutto nei contesti urbani, anche non mediterranei. Wikkan,Sustainable Development in the Mega -City. Can the Concept Be Made Applicable? Wikkan ricordo, Managing Turbulent Hearts: Christinat, Des parrains pour la vie. Ora essi si presenterebbero virtuosamente complementari e interagenti.

La riflessione in corso, tuttavia, e proprio sui temi del classico capolavoro di Hungtinton6, segue un altro percorso. Simmel, Filosofia del denaro a cura di A. Ma penso anche alla creazione di nuove cerchie sociali e di reti di riferimento politico, con leaders intermedi delle organizzazioni partitiche che garantivano la redistribuzione di risorse dal centro. Sant Cassia with C. Esso ha consentito a immense masse di resistere ai disagi della crescita in un ambiente arretrato, minizzando i costi sociali e sviluppando strategie di autodifesa individuali e collettive che hanno reso meno penoso il cammino vero la completa intersezione nel circuito del meccanismo di mercato.

Pardo, Managing Existence in Naples. Tai Landa, Trust, Ethnicity and Identity. Eppure ci ostiniamo a non applicare i suoi modelli analitici. Chayanov, The Theory of Peasant Economy, ed. Ethnic Communities in Business. Alternative al degrado, al declino, alla marginalizzazione Sapelli, Southern Europe, cit. Si guardi ai destini tanto diversi di Barcellona e di Instanbul. Certo,si deve sempre affermare che: Klapsich-Zuber, Tuscans and their Familie: E le eccezioni sono le eccezioni dello Hinterlandindustriale piuttosto che rurale- e caratterizzano le esperienze di Barcellona, di Genova, di Trieste, di Smirne Izmir.

Essa ha subitamente abbandonato quella configurazione sociale industriale per assumere quella della neo- industria e del declino, quindi, della popolazione industriale rispetto a quella del settore terziario. Conflitti, sviluppo e dissociazione dagli anni cinquanta a oggi,Marsilio, Venezia, Si pensi alla siderurgia napoletana, per esempio. Petros, Greek Rentier Capital: Dynamic Growth and Industrial Underdervelopment e A.

Fondazione Enrico Mattei, Milano Leontidou, The Mediterranean City in Transition. Social Change and Urban Development,cit. Anfossi, Prefazione, ad A. Oommen, a cura , Azioni politiche fuori dai partiti. La politica di grandi costruzioni ad uso In una pagina fondamentale dell'Etica a Nicomaco Aristotele aveva 1 collocato la ricchezza elargitrice al centro della citt e del sistema sociale. Bekker, Berlin, II, pp. Ricchezza e povert nel cristianesimo primitivo, a cura di M. Mara, Roma, III ed. Dark — Anthea L. Harris, The Orphanage of Byzantine 3 Constantinople: Miller, The Orphanotropheion of Constantinople, in E.

Albu Hanawall and C. Orselli, I Beni culturali nella committenza e nella cura dei vescovi. Donciu, L'empereur Maxence, Bari , pp. Brodskij, Fuga da Bisanzio, tr. Forti, Adelphi edizioni 6 Milano , p. Brodskij esiliato dalla Russia nel ha avuto il Premio Nobel per la Letteratura nel Malgrado le sue professioni di antibizantinismo si fatto seppellire a San Michele di Murano, nella Venetia alterum Byzantium.

Maltezou, Venezia , pp. Di Branco, con una nota di B. Hemmerdinger, testo greco a fronte, postfazione di G. Pertusi, Il pensiero politico bizantino, Edizione a cura di A. Volpe Cacciatore, Napoli con sunto alle pp. Traduzione in tedesco in W. Su questa proposta di Tomaso Magistros cfr. Culte des saints et monarchie byzantine et post-byzantine, Bucarest, , pp. Si veda la bibliografia relativa al voivoda in A. Carile, Teologia politica bizantina, Spoleto , pp.

PG 86, ristampa della notizia del Galland , cc.

Riedinger, Athenai , e di varie traduzioni cfr. Rocca, Un trattatista di et giustinianea: Bell, Glasgow , pp. Per la tradizione letteraria e politica di Agapeto rimane fondamentale cfr. Sevcenko, Agapetus East and West: Byron, The Byzantine Achievement. Carile, Materiali di storia bizantina, Bologna Haldon, Wiley-Blackwell, , pp.

Diario (Søren Kierkegaard)

Pertusi, Il pensiero politico bizantino, a cura di A. Carile, Bologna, , p. Thessalonike, con aggiunta di due articoli e prosqnkev di Aikaterine Christophilopoulou , ed. Laiou Editor in Chief, Washington, , pp. Ospedali, ospizi per viaggiatori, lebbrosari, nella capitale e lungo le vie di comunicazione, vennero eretti. Speciale cura si ebbe dei profughi e degli orfani, cui si provvedeva anche ad una forma di educazione, oltre che di mantenimento Carile, Materiali di storia bizantina, Bologna , rist.

Mentre la filosofia precedente aveva un punto di partenza positivo, per Aristotele la filosofia cominciava con la "meraviglia"; per quella dei tempi di Kierkegaard, si comincia invece da un pensiero negativo: In uno dei suoi viaggi a Berlino in Germania , dove si era recato per seguire alcune lezioni sulla filosofia di Schelling , Kierkegaard scrive una lettera a suo fratello Pietro [56].

La lettera, ironica e sarcastica, critica la filosofia di Schelling: Critica il principio di Cartesio definendo il suo "Ego cogito, ergo sum, sive existo" uno scontato gioco di parole, dove quell'"io sono" altro non significa che "io penso". Mentre rimprovera la loro scarsa coerenza tra parola e azione, ammira Cristo , Socrate e Pascal per la coerenza del loro pensiero che ha permesso di condizionare positivamente le loro vite. Analizzando parte dell'opera principale di Spinoza , Ethica , fa rilevare che il filosofo olandese rigetti la concezione teleologica dell'esistenza, quindi critica il retaggio millenario creatosi su temi come "vita" ed "esistenza": Quindi affronta, polemicamente, un tema dominante nelle sue critiche ai filosofi del tempo: Ad avviso di Kierkegaard quindi: Ogni pensatore che non duplica e che quindi predica nei suoi scritti in un modo, ed agisce poi in un altro, illude!

Sa che le persone del suo tempo difficilmente lo comprenderanno: Critica il modo di ragionare di Lessing, comune a molti nel proprio tempo: Kierkegaard allude al Prof. Martensen e alla sua ultima opera Dogmatica Cristiana. Il pensatore essenziale percepisce il professore solo in modo comico. Polemizza intorno al tema principale del proprio dissenso con Hegel lodando invece la coerenza, l'ignoranza e il timore di Dio di Socrate: La filosofia di Hegel ha fatto degli uomini un genere animale dotato di ragione secondo una classificazione che considera il "genere" superiore al "singolo".

Citando Gn 1,27 Kierkegaard fa invece notare che il genere umano ha una caratteristica unica: Kierkegaard rileva che Hegel crea confusione sul cristianesimo. Trova bello e regale il suo pensiero quando dice: Secondo Pascal si devono armonizzare tre comportamenti: E Pascal vuol dire che l'uomo per conoscere il divino deve prima essere trasformato e divenire un altro uomo, un "nuovo uomo", cosa che, lamenta Kierkegaard, oggi si dimentica di fare.

Pascal era un asceta, ma chi ne parla? Ma ci sono due particolari obiezioni nei confronti della sua etica. Contro questa filosofia Kierkegaard obietta: In ambedue i casi non potrebbe proprio la simpatia impedire, trattenerlo dall'andare tant'oltre: Nonostante tutto, Schopenhauer l'ha interessato molto, come anche gli avvenimenti che lo hanno coinvolto in Germania. Protesta invece verso la proposizione di S. Ma anche come S. I danesi hanno come termine un "difetto" corrispondente a quello del termine tedesco, ovvero: Ma mentre in Germania, S. In questi giorni mi son ricordato di Lessing e dei suoi Frammenti.

No, a tali cose nessuno ci crede - e poi si vuole capire di occuparsi di Cristo! Un attacco larvato e sottomano viene portato, in questi tempi, contro il Cristianesimo. Nel libro del Prof. Ecco qui un esempio di sotterfugio. Mettendosi contro il concetto di fanatismo, cosa che agli uomini sembra magnifico, si rende davvero giustizia al cristianesimo? Che cosa viene espresso dall'essenza di fanatismo? Quei difensori, se avessero imitato il carattere di Tertulliano , avrebbero dato a Lessing ben altra risposta: Solo Socrate fu, allora, un vero riformatore.

Come si fa a decidere se seguirne le idee, se esse fluttuano e si piegano sempre alla maggioranza? E questo si impiccia se vado a passeggiare, come porto la barba, insomma se sono come gli altri. La ragione ha tolto agli uomini l'ideale, il vero essere cristiani. Bisogna arrivare fino in fondo, fino al Singolo davanti a Dio.

Noi uomini invece diciamo: Anche gli insegnanti quindi sono esistenze sprecate e ingannano. Ma Dio desiderava un uomo solo.

Questa sezione dell'antologia dal Diario comincia con la minuta di una lettera del al paleontologo Peter Wilhelm Lund fratello della cognata di Kierkegaard , la cui descrizione del Brasile e della sua natura aveva entusiasmato il filosofo. A che scopo allora tutta questa conoscenza? Ma l'anima continua ad essere. In un altro appunto Kierkegaard paragona l'idea di peccato di S.

Le due opere che si dividono i due tronconi tematici sono La malattia mortale del , aut-aut: Una polemica con obiettivi precisi: Un Cristianesimo che ha subito, ad avviso del filosofo danese, una radicale metamorfosi che cede il posto del "soffrire" al "godere", fino a raffinare tale "godimento" e convincersi che quello sia vero Cristianesimo. Cornelio Fabro conclude questa terza e ultima premessa al Diario con queste parole: Si insegna che non abbiamo nessun dovere verso Dio, tanto saremo salvati egualmente. Sarebbe come se volessimo tentare Dio e addossargli la colpa della causa delle nostre sofferenze!

Non dobbiamo seguire un modello, ma abbandonarci a quello che ci accade nel corso della vita. So bene come dovrei comportarmi per essere accettato e riverito: Ma la vera negazione del Cristianesimo consiste proprio in questo: Cristo non ha voluto dei docenti, ma degli "imitatori" che divenissero "suoi seguaci". La lettura costante del Nuovo Testamento mi ha fatto venire in mente la seguente considerazione: L'Apostolo Paolo nella Lettera ai Filippesi 4,4 esorta: Ma ecco inventarsi una scienza che pone dubbi e si domanda se quel versetto si trova effettivamente nel Nuovo Testamento?

Il Cristianesimo ha subito una trasformazione: Anche Lutero con le sue 95 tesi aveva suscitato una discussione di dottrina. Oggi si potrebbe parlare invece di un'unica tesi che, pubblicata sugli annunci di un giornale, dove si invitano a intervenire professori e pastori, reciterebbe: Il Cristianesimo nel concetto divino e quello nel concetto umano. Non una novella tipo: Oggi esiste un Cristianesimo senza cristiani: Fra i pastori protestanti, oggi, non esiste nessuno che possa essere identificato come "modello", al contrario del Cattolicesimo che ne ha sempre qualcuno da additare come "cristiano in carattere".

Esistono oche selvatiche che volano e oche domestiche che vivono a terra. La natura ci insegna che mentre quelle selvatiche possono diventare domestiche, quelle domestiche non diventeranno mai selvatiche. All'inizio le oche domestiche erano interessate, "il gioco" le attraeva, ma ben presto si stufarono e bollarono la selvatica come inesperta, scriteriata e stupida. Attenzione quindi a stare all'erta e a non permettere che abitudini non cristiane influenzino coloro che invece vivono cristianamente.

Per sostenere nel paese il Cristianesimo, dovremmo tornare al chiosco da dove Lutero evase. La Provvidenza usa il tempo: E in cosa consiste poi questo isolamento, se non nell'essere scherniti, derisi e maltrattati dagli altri e proprio dal gregge con cui si stava in precedenza? Una prova sono le parole di Cristo stesso. Ed eccoci al punto: Il Protestantesimo in Danimarca ha abolito gli ideali concernenti tale condizione. Due sono le cose: Ma quando l'Assoluto per gli uomini non esiste, a che serve voler chiamare Dio qualcosa? Lo stesso dicasi i suoi imitatori che sopportano le sofferenze su questa terra: Dio ha un proposito ben preciso per la salvezza indipendente dal tempo, visto che molti dimenticano che le Scritture asseriscono che per Lui, anni sono come un giorno Sal 89,4 [].

Essa prevede una serie di azioni che identifichino quel Singolo come cristiano: Il Cristianesimo poggia sull'idea che per trarre consolazione e appoggio non bisogna confidare negli uomini e nel "numero". Anche a distanza, come dice lui stesso: Le ragioni non possono portare a convinzioni, queste nascono altrove. La fede non si basa su ragioni, ma sulla testimonianza: Non sono le ragioni a fondare le convinzioni, ma le convinzioni che fondano le ragioni.

Altrimenti non ci sarebbe alcun riposo nella convinzione. La ragione non penetra mai nell'assoluto. Anche se onora la scienza, non accetta l'idea di complicare la fede con la scienza teologica, che si muove su categorie false. Lo stesso vale per il rapporto tra fede ed esistenza: Un predicatore non deve "spiegare", a meno di non tradirlo, l'incondizionato.

Ecco il punto in cui ci troviamo: Invece di obbedienza incondizionata, obbedienza per forza di ragionamento. Invece di fede, sapere per ragioni. Invece di fiducia, garanzie. Invece di azione, semplici accadimenti. Invece del Singolo, una combriccola. L'ultimo brano della sezione ha a che fare con gli "atti" come principio della fede. Per i suoi contemporanei il paradosso consisteva nel riconoscere che fosse il figlio di Dio, nonostante nulla nell'apparenza esteriore lo distinguesse dagli altri uomini. Ma questo modo di agire poteva essere di esempio per i suoi contemporanei?

L'uomo non deve forse lavorare per sostenersi? Un altro paradosso, assoluto, sarebbe stato che il Figlio di Dio fosse venuto e vissuto sulla terra passando del tutto inosservato come un qualsiasi uomo comune, con un mestiere ed una famiglia. La "ragione umana" pretendeva invece, un Cristo uomo di successo ed ammirato dai suoi contemporanei, trascinatore di masse e di folli entusiaste, che pazzia!

A trentacinque anni, Kierkegaard parlando della remissione dei peccati, fa notare che per pensare che Dio dimentichi effettivamente tutti i nostri peccati, bisogna avere una mente evoluta oltre che molto coraggio. Che specie di Cristianesimo poteva essere quello che avesse posto la dottrina le parole al di sopra del Maestro Cristo? Chi specula sulla Fede, di fatto, si allontana da quella "cosa semplice".

Diverso era, e non c'era nessun paradosso, quando si credeva invece che la beatitudine si poteva acquistare: Un compito diverso da quello degli Apostoli che era diffondere il Cristianesimo e convertire. Non solo, Kierkegaard pensa anche che la sua opera al servizio del Cristianesimo sia esclusiva, e argomenta: Anche qui il positivo si riconosce dal negativo: Essere "contemporaneo" di Cristo, vivere accanto alla Sua Croce costituisce il criterio di misura, sotto l'aspetto poetico, storico ed etico anche rispetto a Cristo come persona storica.

Dopo anni non siamo troppo inclini a tradurre tutto in termini di compassione umana. Gli stessi Apostoli vennero meno e dovettero essere forniti di forze straordinarie per essere a Lui contemporanei. Coloro che parlano di esserGli contemporanei non sanno quel che dicono e hanno la civetteria di prendere il facile e tralasciare il difficile. In fondo tutto si riduce a una sola cosa: Non esiste altro modo. Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera. Diario Titolo originale Papirer. I volumi sono divisi in 3 sezioni: Si riferisce a Mt 21, Kierkegaard scrive questa nota il 10 marzo dello stesso anno.

A Biography , Princeton University Press, , pp. I, Buch IV, paragr. I, Fragmente zur Geschichte der Philosophie , paragr. Estratto da " https: Menu di navigazione Strumenti personali Accesso non effettuato discussioni contributi registrati entra. Visite Leggi Modifica Modifica wikitesto Cronologia.

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