Abstracts
ABSTRACTS
Darabos, Ádám: Niebuhr for Hungarian Conservatives?
The influential American theologian, social ethicist, and political thinker Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) is considered a conservative figure by several Hungarian public intellectuals and academicians. Among others, his Christian background, anthropological pessimism, anti-utopianism, and anti-communism are features that easily capture the attention and acknowledgement of – even contemporary – conservatives. This conservative “labelling” of Niebuhr results in fading the fact that even though he moved away from radical socialism and “Christian Marxism” which he fiercely represented in the first half of the 1930s, and began to appreciate specific conservative values (e.g., gradual change) and thinkers (e.g., Edmund Burke), Niebuhr always remained a socialist thinker. This presentation has a twofold aim. First, by clarifying his ideological stance, it wishes to defend Niebuhr from simplistic categorisation as a conservative. Second, it investigates whether conservatives, especially contemporary Hungarian conservatives, can utilise Niebuhr’s thoughts in their intellectual battles without unfairly domesticating him.
Denno, Linda L.: Christianity, Equality, and Constitutional Government
One of the paradoxes of our time is that the ever-increasing demand for equality has been accompanied by an ever-increasing destruction of genuine equality, i.e., equality under the law. Elites amass ever more power, influence, and wealth while simultaneously denouncing society for its inequities; indeed often by exploiting those inequities. This paradox has led many thoughtful persons—persons who are committed to just, well-governed societies—to deprecate the principle of human equality and the natural law foundation upon which it rests. The alternatives proposed include refocusing on religiosity as the basis for civic virtue.
Perhaps an understanding of the Christian foundations of the modern understanding of human equality and natural rights, which led ultimately to the social contract and to constitutional government, provides a cure for the nihilism that masquerades as the quest for equality. Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well is a watershed moment in human history, signaling that God’s grace is available to all human beings without regard to the extraneous or irrelevant characteristics that previously determined one’s worth within a political community and within the sight of God. It took several millennia for this concept of equality to become politically significant; to say nothing of the persecution and intolerance that characterized the Christian world during this period.
The separation of church and state helped to diminish religious persecution and intolerance but also diminished religious devotion and practice, with profound consequences for civic and private virtue. Social contract theory is based upon both reason and revelation, without requiring either to be the arbiter of the other. A deepened understanding of human equality that is supported and limited by both reason and revelation can restore constitutional government, beginning with fulfilling our nature as beings created in the image of God, rather than beings who create themselves.
Gierycz, Michal: About the liberal and conservative "temptations" of the Catholic Church
Contemporary anthropology argues that politics is such a central concept and instrument in the organization of today's societies that "it is impossible to ignore it or escape its influence". It seems interesting to what extent this claim can be related to the Church and
its mission. Ultimately, the Church functioning "in the world" is also subject to political education. As Chantal Delsol notes, a special feature of our time is the will to “destroy or get rid of the form in which humanity has always existed. It is about the will to reject and completely transform the human world”. In my contribution, therefore, I would like to consider what challenges the dominant ideas in contemporary politics pose to the identity and mission of the Catholic Church. I undertake here a research process that, at first glance, goes in the opposite direction to most research conducted in the field of political science of religion. I am interested not so much in the role of religion in shaping politics, but in the role of political ideas in shaping the religious message and the Church's understanding of its place in public life. Needless to say, however, this process ultimately has far-reaching implications for the political impact of religion. Therefore, my direct interest will be the question of the dimensions of the impact on the contemporary identity of the Church, its teaching and public involvement of two competing and key ideological currents in contemporary politics: liberalism and conservatism.
Hayward, Steven F.: Rethinking the Liberal Solution to Sectarian Politics
This paper proposes two propositions about how to understand the theoretical and practical shape of today’s political order in the West, and proposes a two-part remedy. The first proposition is that the liberal solution to religious conflict, most formally expressed in the American constitutional “separation of church and state,” is misconceived. At first glance this seems mistaken, especially in the case of the United States, where religious faith has remained stronger than most European nations. But the long success of the American started to unravel several decades ago.
The two-century success of the American liberal scheme arose from the paradox that it depended on the moral capital of Christian civilization. With the dissipation of the moral capital of Christianity in recent times, the prospects for the liberal project began to dissipate in America as much as Europe. (The American founders understood this point profoundly, but their perspective has been forgotten or suppressed.) Morality cannot be a private matter, nor built upon a nihilist assertion of unbounded self-definition. This leads to the second proposition: the Enlightenment promise that reason alone can guide human affairs has arrived at the point where reason has come to be rejected along with revelation.
The remedy for this impasse requires an end to monocultural secularism, starting with the restoration of the theoretical harmony between reason and revelation, and a practical political program best exemplified by the state of Israel, where the religious purposes and character of the nation have a privileged position while allowing secular liberalism to flourish within bounds of clearly understood national identity.
Jancsó, András: "A kind of altar to political theology" - reflections by Joseph Ratzinger on a concept
In the eleven monographs of the extensive Ratzinger corpus of texts, we find various uses and definitions of the concept of political theology. The origins of the term are traced, sometimes back to the Roman cults, sometimes to 20th-century historiography, and elsewhere to various theologians of the 20th century in Ratzinger's works. In examining the political thought of Joseph Ratzinger, it is essential to have a precise definition of the terms used to distinguish the author's idea from terms that make it difficult or impossible to interpret correctly. This is especially important since some of Ratzinger's commentators also define Ratzinger's thinking on politics as political theology. At the same time, Vincent Twomey says, „Ratzinger has a critical distance from the 'political theology' that seeks its place in eschatology." The lecture will therefore seek to examine the content of Ratzinger's concept of political theology and to situate it within the conceptual history of political theology. To this end, the concepts of the political theology of Carl Schmitt, Erik Peterson, and Johann Baptist Metz will be briefly explored. Finally, the paper will attempt to situate the Ratzingerian concept based on Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde's classification.
Máté-Tóth, András: Sin, mercy, convivence: socio-theological inspirations from Central and Eastern Europe
In the last ten years, a number of works have been published on the mutual interaction of emotions and politics. The works of Martha C. Nussbaum, Dominique Moïsi and Eva Illous are worth reflecting on from a specific point of view, that of Central and Eastern Europe, a region I call the region of wounded collective identity. According to my research, the main emotions in this region are guilt, resentment and anger. These emotions are an obstacle to productive coexistence within and between societies. From a Christian doctrinal perspective, these emotions are understood not as emotions but as moral behavior and ethical values. In my presentation, I try to combine the main arguments of the theories of political emotions with ethical visions rooted in Christian doctrine. In my grounded vision, bringing the Christian perspective into the secular political discourse can give new life to the political life and also help the Christian churches to find their original mission of upholding the common good and a better convivience.
Papp, Róbert: Defying the Prince – the American Declaration of Independence in light of the Fourth Commandment
This paper examines the underlying moral reasoning of the Declaration of Independence as given by the representatives of the Thirteen Colonies and then contrasts it to one of the normative ordinances found within the Decalogue, the Fourth Commandment. The Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother”, has been understood ever since Saint Thomas Aquinas as not only applying to the biological father, but also to the leaders of the Church, benefactors, and most importantly rulers and kings. This novel interpretation of Scripture means that one owes obedience not only to one’s parents but also towards the possessors of political authority. Subsequent Christian tradition (both Catholic and Protestant) carried this interpretation forward, perhaps with an even more profound conviction. The duty to obey the king rested upon a Biblical foundation and meant a natural obligation. The members of the Continental Congress in 1776, however, claimed that by virtue of their (universal) natural rights they have both legal and moral grounds to break off from Great Britain and thus absolve themselves from their duties towards the British Crown. Ever since then, the Declaration served as a model for other would-be countries to declare their independence. The stakes are high. Should the Declaration prevail against such “charges” it will once again reinforce its moral appropriateness. If it fails, however, the Declaration and all other documents that are based on it are proven to be not only against natural law, but also against divine revelation.
Seitschek, Hans Otto: Is political transcendence possible? Jacob L. Talmon’s concept of “Political Messianism”
“Messianism” or “messianic movements” appear predominantly within the Abrahamic religions. The expectation of an apocalyptic coming of a Messiah prompts the rise of mass movements that are mainly marked by intoxicated enthusiasm. Often, the charismatic leader of a messianic movement himself is identified as a Messiah and honored in a cult that surrounds his person; this phenomenon can be regarded as an apotheosis. The order that religious messianism pretends to support is a firmly established order with its reference point in the Messianic arrival of God. Political Messianism is different according to the historian Jacob L. Talmon: “The point of reference of modern Messianism, […], is man’s reason and will, and its aim happiness on earth, achieved by a social transformation. The point of reference is temporal, but the claims are absolute.” Political, secular Messianism develops an almost Schopenhauerian unrestricted “will” to transform its own doctrines into reality and thereby to transform the world. As the idea of the perfection of human life in the future still predominates religious messianism, so does “secular Messianic Monism” seek the fulfillment of all plans and projects already in this world.
In analogy to religious messianism, these two kinds of messianism also issue from some kind of “leader”, who paves the way to the goal – whether it lies in this world or in a world to come. At this position, it is possible to ask, if political transcendence is possible, or if the religious approach is the only appropriate way to transcendence.
Smrcz, Ádám: Taming the reason of state – early anti-Machiavellian discourse, and the (lack of the) dividing line between confessions
It is often taken for granted that there existed a pro- and counter-reformation „style” of reason of state thinking throughout the 16-17th centuries (Mortimer 2021). According to this hypothesis, reformed political thinkers were more prone than their Catholic counterparts to accept the Machiavellian doctrine that morals (with Christianity in particular) were the impediment to political success. However, a close reading of early anti-Machiavellian texts betrays no such confessional dividing line: the first ever treatise, for instance, to deal extensively with the dangers of Machavellianism (Discours sur les moyens de bien gouverner (1576), often referred to simply as Anti-Machivel) was presumably written by a Huguenot, Innocent Gentillet (1535-1588), and presumably gave inspiration to such Catholic Anti-Machiavellians, like Jean Bodin (1530-1596), or Giovanni Botero (1544 – 1617).
Neither of the aforementioned authors rejected the idea of reason of state altogether, but all of them – regardless of their differing religious affiliations – intended to discover how, and to what extent Christian morals could and should find their place in political decision making. However, the idea that there existed a pro- and counter-reformation „style” of reason of state thinking is not altogether false either, since we have ample evidence that beginning at least form the 1580s, harsh attacks were beginning to take place against Protestants on the grounds of their presumed „Machiavellianism”. Besides giving further evidence for the „common ground” of early anti-Machiavellian tinkers, another aim of my proposed talk is to uncover, where the confessional dividing line could come from.
Tóth, Kálmán: Christianity as a Political Utopia in Lajos Kossuth’s The Future of Nations
After the defeat of the Hungarian War of Independence in 1849, Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the Hungarian revolution went into exile, where he tried to gain support for the cause of Hungarian independence from the Habsburg Empire. During his visit to the United States of America in 1852, Kossuth held a public speech at the Broadway Tabernacle in New York, in which he expressed a unique vision of the future of world politics.
According to Kossuth, who tried to reassess his political thought after experiencing the reality of defeat, neither the key classical liberal concept of liberty, nor democracy or republican values, not even intellectual and material prosperity can secure the existence of a political community or nation, only „the unperverted religion of Christ.”
However, it is important to stress, that Kossuth did not mean a political instrumentalization of Christian religion when he spoke about Christianity as the only way that „can secure a happy future to nations.” He surprisingly uttered the following claim: „there is yet no Christian people on earth ‒ not a single one among all. I have spoken the world. It is harsh but true.”
Based on this view that no nation or country had ever been truly Christian, he envisioned a utopian view of a future era of Christianity, as for him only that could secure the future of nations. In my proposed lecture I would discuss the key elements of Kossuth’s utopian concept of a future „Christian world” ruled by „the law of Christ” that puts its emphasis on the pre-political moral duties of Christianity as a common ground for political action on both a national and an international level.