Categoria: Ciência

Faith and Politics beyond fundamentalism

Leonardo Boff2 Comentários

We are in an election cycle. Many sectors of the different Churches, the Roman Catholic included, mobilize around projects for the country and candidates for several positions. This is the moment to clarify the relationship between faith and politics.

In the first place, we should distinguish between politics written with a capital P, and another with a small p, or between social politics (P) and party politics (p).

Social politics (P) is related to the common good of society; for example, the organization of health care, the school system, transportation, salaries, etc., are related to social politics. To struggle for a neighborhood health center, uniting to bring a bus line to the top of a mountain, is to engage in social politics.

That form of politics means the common search for the common good. All citizens and all Christians, Catholics or Evangelicals, can and must participate in that level of politics.

Party politics (p) represents the struggle for state power, to control the municipal, state and federal governments. The function of the political parties is to obtain power, to change it (the process of liberation), or to wield it as it is presently constituted (to govern the state as it exists). The party, as the very word implies, is a part, a piece of society, not all of society. Each party represents the interests of groups or classes that undertake projects for the whole society. If they achieve state power (govern) they will try to put into practice public policies according to their program and their party’s vision of the problems.

In terms of party politics, it is important to consider the following: to understand the party’s program; what place the people have in this program, whether it was discussed by the bases, whether it considers the historic demands of the people; whether it provides for popular participation, through its movements and organs, in its conception, implementation and control; who are the candidates that represent the program, what is their biography, whether they are on a blacklist, whether they have always maintained an organic link with the bases, whether they are truly allied with and representative of the causes of justice and necessary social change, or whether they want to keep social relations as they are, with all the contradictions and injustices that implies.

This mode of political power has been historically exercised by our elites for their own benefit, forgetting the subject of all power, that is the people.

How does faith enter into all of this?

Faith has to do directly with God and with God’s design for humanity, but it is within society and is a creator of opinion and decisions. It functions like a bicycle; it has two wheels through which it becomes effective in society: the wheel of religion and the wheel of politics.

The wheel of religion becomes concrete through prayer, celebrations, preaching and the reading of the Scriptures.

Through the wheel of politics, faith is expressed by practicing justice and solidarity, and denouncing corruption. As we can see, politics here is synonymous with ethics. We have to learn to maintain equilibrium over the two wheels to be able to act correctly.

The Bible considers the wheel of politics as ethics more important than the wheel of religion as cult. Without ethics, faith becomes empty and fruitless. Practices and not preaching are what have worth to God. Better than proclaiming, «Lord, Oh Lord» is to do the will of the Father, that is love, mercy and justice, things that are practical, and therefore ethical.

Concretely, faith and politics are together in people’s lives. Faith includes politics, that is, a Christian because of being a Christian, must strive for justice and social well being; s/he must also opt for programs and persons that are as close as possible to that which is understood as the project of Jesus and God in history. Pope Francis emphasized that when he was in Brazil.

But faith reaches beyond politics, because faith also refers to eternal life, to the resurrection of the flesh, to the transformation of the universe, something that no social politics, no political party or state can promise.

The passage from faith to party politics is not direct, that is, from the Bible is not directly deduced the support of a given political party, a person’s the duty to vote; or how much the minimum wage should be. The Bible does not offer solutions, but the inspiration to be able to make a good choice of party, and to create a dignified wage. For a Christian who follows the line on which Pope Francis keeps insisting, politics should be:

–liberating: it is not enough to transform the society that exists; what is important is a different model of society, one that is more inclusive, and through participation, facilitates social justice.

– liberating, starting with the poor and excluded majorities: it must begin from the very bottom, because that way no one is left out; if it started with the salaried worker or the bourgeoisie, it would omit, from the start, almost half of the excluded population.

– a politics that uses liberating methodologies, that is, one that facilitates participation by the people, from the bottom up and from the inside out; a politics that offers more than a representative/delegating democracy, but a participative democracy through which the people with their organizations help to discuss, decide and solve social questions. That was the great demand of the June 2013 demonstrations, which is firmly entrenched now.

– a socio-ecological democracy that respects the rights of Mother Earth, of the eco-systems, the animals and all beings of creation with which we maintain interdependent relations.

This kind of politics is one of the highest forms of social love.

A política entre a utopia e a realidade

Leonardo Boff13 Comentários

Antes de abordarmos, suscintamente, a questão complexa da política faz-se mister distinguir, como já fizemos em artigo anterior, a política com P maiúsculo que é a busca comum do bem comum. Dela todos os cidadãos participam. Existe ainda a política com p minúsculo que consiste na política partidária, que como a palavra sugere, é parte e não o todo. São os agrupamentos políticos com ideologia e projeto (é o que mais nos falta no Brasil) que buscam o poder de estado para a partir dele e de seus aparelhos governar o município,os estados e a federação.

Importa ainda conscientizar o fato de que a política mais que qualquer outra realidade, participa da ambiguidade inerente à condição humana que nos faz simultaneamente dementes e sapientes, sim-bólicos e dia-bólicos, numa palavra, nos revela intrincadas de contradições. Por isso, por um lado, dizem os Papas a política é a mais alta forma do amor e, por outro, contém deformações lamentáveis como o patrimonialismo e a corrupção. Rubem Alves deixou escrito: “a política como missão é atividade das mais nobres; como profissão é a mais vil”. Dai viver a política em permanente crise. A nossa é de baixa intensidade, pois o povo não se sente representados pelos parlamentares, muitos deles vivendo de negociatas e de aproveitamento dos bens públicos. Mas ela pode sempre melhorar e transformar-se, segundo o ideario dos mestres Norberto Bobbio e Boaventura de Souza Santos, num valor universal a ser vivido em todas as instâncias, da família, dos sindicatos até no centro do poder do estado. O ideal é que cheguemos a uma democracia sem fim, um projeto sempre inacabado porque sempre perfectível.

Não secundamos um pragmatismo preguiçoso, sem sonhos e destituído de vontade de aperfeiçoamento. Infelizmente, esta é a tendência dominante, particularmente, no quadro da pós-modernidade para a qual qualquer coisa vale (anything goes) ou só vale o que está na moda. E está contaminando os jovens que se sentem desiudidos com a política.

Entretanto, uma pessoa ou uma sociedade que já não sonha e que não se orienta por utopias, escolheu o caminhou de sua decadência e de seu desaparecimento. Sem utopia não se alimenta a esperança. Sem esperança não há mais razões para viver e o desfecho fatal é a auto-diluição. A utopia desempenha função insubstituível, pois ela relativiza as realizações históricas concretas e mantém o processo sempre aberto a novas incorporações. Numa palavra, a utopia nos fazer andar. Jamais alcançaremos as estrelas. Mas que seriam nossas noites sem elas? São elas que espantam os fantasmas da escuridão e nos enchem de reverência face à majestade de um céu estrelado. Porque temos estrelas, não tememos a escuridão.

Precisamos, portanto, de uma utopia para a política, para que desempenhe a função pela qual existe: organizar a sociedade, montar um Estado, distribuir os poderes e realizar a busca comum do bem comum para todos, sem privilégios e discriminações. Isso vale tanto para a Política em P maiúsculo quanto a políitica em p minúsculo. Ambas precisam incorporar a ética do bem comum, da responsabilidade coletiva, da transparência e da retidão em todos os negócios onde estão envolvidos os poderes públicos sempre contra a corrupção.

Quando confrontamos a política realmente existente e a utopia da política notamos imensas contradições. Há um constrangimento poderoso que pesa sobre a política: o fato de a política hoje estar submetida à economia e ao mercado que se regem por uma feroz competição deixando totalmente à margem a cooperação e os valores da cooperação, fundamentais para uma convivência civilizada. Isso faz com que os valores não materiais, ligados à justiça social, à gratuidade, ao cuidado, à solidariedade, ao trato humano com as pessoas, à liberdade de expressão ocupam um lugar irrelevante quando não são feitos também mercadorias, colocadas na banca do mercado e exploradas por conhecidos populistas ou por todo um mercado de literatura de auto-ajuda que mais ilude que ilumina.

Ora, destes valores altamente positivos vive fundamenalmente a política que se entende como prática da ética social. Não é suficiente a denúncia das diferentes corrupções, deixando-as impunes.Importa  apresentar formas alternativas e legais de realizar os projetos políticos. Facilmente caímos no moralismo como se somente com a moral se resolvem todos os problemas

A Igreja Católica ajuda a criar uma ética pessoal, de retidão e integridade. Há políticos que incorporam esta ética (ética na política). Mas ela não elaborou suficientemente uma ética social e política que trabalha as instituições, os braços longos do poder que devem ser transparentes e um serviço público (ética da política). É nesse campo que ocorrem as perversões da política.

Especialmente grave é o financiamento privado das eleições que se traduz por troca de favores e implica alta corrupção.

No Brasil com tradição patrimonialista, quer dizer, o político facilmente considera seu o bem público e se apropia dele sem maiores escrúpulos. É roubo do pão que falta na mesa do pobre, é livro que o estudante não tem, é remédio inacessível ao enfermo necessitado.

A desejada reforma política que deve ser feita sem tardança reintroduziria a ética na política pois para Aristóteles, o fundador do discurso político,  política e ética eram ainda sinônimos.

Charisma and charismatic: what kind of energy is it?

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

Charisma, carma, Crishna, Cristo, crisma and caritas posses the same Sanskrit root, kri or kir. It refers to the cosmic energy that refines and vitalizes, penetrates and rejuvenates all. It is a force that attracts and fascinates the spirit. A person does not posses charisma: the person is possessed by charisma. It is as if the person, regardless of personal merit, is possessed by a force that irradiates to others, astonishing them: if they are talking, they become silent; if they are focused on something, their attention turns to the charismatic person. Charisma is something surprising. It is in humans, but it does not come from them. It comes from something higher and superior. Nietzsche says that when he was hiking in the Alps he would be possessed by a force that would make him write. It was something other that used him. Nietzsche would take his notebook and write down his best intuitions.

Anthropologists introduced the word mana, taken from the Melanesian culture. The mana-personality irradiates an extraordinary and irresistible power that, without violence, imposes itself on others. It attracts, enthuses, fascinates, commands. In our Western tradition, it is the equivalent of charisma.

Who are the charismatic? In fact, everyone is. No one is denied that cosmic force of presence and attraction. We all carry within something of the stars whence we come. The life of every person is called to shine, according to what a singer says, to be charismatic in one way or another. Jose Marti, the Cuban thinker, one of the best of Latin America, put it well: there are human beings who are like stars, they generate their own light, while others reflect the brightness they receive from them. Some are suns, others, moons. No one is outside the light, be it their own, or reflected. In the end, all of us are in the light to shine.

But there are charismatics and charismatics. In some, this force of irradiation implodes and explodes. They are like a light shining in the night. They attract the gaze of everyone. All the bishops and cardinals could have paraded before the gathered faithful; there could have been impressive figures from the intelligentsia, of administrative capacity and apostolic zeal, but when he was still with us, all eyes would have been fixed on Dom Helder Camara, an eminent carrier of charisma. His figure was insignificant. He looked like a suffering servant without beauty or adornment. But from him emanated a force of tenderness that, together with the vigor of his words, was softly imposed on all.

Many can speak, and there are good speakers who attract attention. But let the emeritus bishop of Sao Felix do Araguaia talk. His voice is hoarse and sometimes it almost disappears. But in that voice there is such strength and persuasion that people are left agape. It is charisma that makes a fragile and weak bishop appear to be a giant. Today almost unable to speak, due to advanced Parkinson’s disease, his writings and poetry have the strength of fire. He is a magnificent poet.

There are politicians who are capable and great administrators. The majority masterfully handle the spoken word. But let Lula rise to the lectern facing the multitudes. He begins to speak softly, assumes a narrative tone, and searches for the best way to communicate. Slowly he gains strength, surprising connections emerge, the line of argument acquires the correct framework, the volume of his voice rises, his eyes become incandescent, his movements modulate his speech, and at a given moment his whole body is in communication, argumentation, and communion with the multitude, that goes from boisterous to silent and from silent to petrified, then, in the culminating moment, erupts in shouts of applause and enthusiasm. It is emanating charisma. It matters little the opinion we may have of his eight years of governance. In Lula the presence of charisma cannot be denied.

Not for nothing Max Weber, scholar of the charismatic power, calls it «the nascent state». Each time it emerges, the charisma seems to call forth the creation of the world within the charismatic person or mana-personality. The function of the charismatics is to be midwife to the latent charisma within others. Their mission is not to dominate them with their splendor, nor seduce them so that the people follow them blindly, but to awaken them from their every day lethargy. And, when they awaken, that they discover that every day life has within it secrets, novelties, and hidden energies that can always be awakened and can give new meaning of brilliance to life, to our short passage through this universe.

Let everyone discover the star that left its light and its imprint within. And if they are faithful to the light, they will shine, and others will perceive it enthusiastically.

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Wir sind Träger des Gedächtnisses des Universums

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

Soweit uns bekannt, ist der Mensch das letzte bedeutende Wesen, das in den evolutionären Prozess eingetreten ist. So wie es Materie und Energie gibt, existiert auch die Information, die im Gedächtnis aller Wesen gespeichert ist wie auch in uns durch alle Phasen des Entstehungsprozesses des Kosmos hindurch.

In unserem Gedächtnis liegen die letzten Spuren des Urknalls, der unseren Kosmos hervorbrachte. Die Archive unseres Gedächtnisses beinhalten die Vibrationen der Energie der unvorstellbaren Explosionen der großen roten Sterne, von denen die Supernovae und Konglomerate von Galaxien stammen, die alle aus Milliarden von Sternen, Planeten und Asteroiden bestehen. Da ist auch die Resonanz der Hitze, die entstand, als die Galaxien sich gegenseitig verschlangen, vom ursprünglichen Feuer der Sterne und der sie umkreisenden Planeten, von der Glut der Erde, vom Kochen der Flüssigkeiten, die vor 200 Millionen von Jahren auf die Erde fielen, bis sie abkühlten (im Hadaikum), vom Überschwang der Urwälder, die uns an die Gefräßigkeit der Dinosaurier erinnern, welche vor 135 Millionen Jahren die Erde beherrschten, von der Aggressivität unserer Vorfahren in ihrem Überlebenstrieb, von deren Enthusiasmus für das erhellende und dem Kochen dienende Feuer, von der Freude, die das erste Symbol und das erste gesprochene Wort hervorbrachten, Erinnerungen an die Sanftheit der leichten Brisen, des durchscheinenden Morgenlichts, den Abgrund der schneebedeckten Berge und schließlich von den Erinnerungen der Interdependenz, die alle Wesen miteinander verbindet und die Gemeinschaft der Lebenden schafft, von den Zusammentreffen mit den anderen, der Fähigkeit zur Zärtlichkeit, Hingabe und Liebe und zuletzt von der Ekstase der Entdeckung des Mysteriums der Welt, das mit tausend unterschiedlichen Namen bezeichnet wird, und das wir Gott nennen. All dies ist in den Winkeln unserer Psyche und im genetischen Code jeder unserer Körperzellen verankert, denn wir sind so alt wie das Universum.

Wir leben im Universum oder auf der Erde nicht als herumirrende Wesen. Wir stammen vom gemeinsamen Uterus ab, von dem alle Dinge abstammen, von der Hintergrund-Energie oder dem Nährenden Abgrund aller Wesen, vom Ursprungs-Hadron, vom Top-Quark, eines der älteren kleinen Bausteine des kosmischen Gebäudes, bis hin zu den modernen Computern. Und wir sind Söhne und Töchter der Erde. Mehr noch, wir sind der Teil der Erde, der läuft und tanzt, der vor Emotionen erbebt, der denkt, mag und liebt, der in Ekstase gerät und das Mysterium verehrt. All diese Dinge waren im Universum, konzentriert in unserem Sonnensystem, und erst danach erschienen sie in ihrer konkreten Gestalt auf unserer Erde. Da alles dort virtuell existierte, kann es nun hier in unserem Leben existieren.

Das kosmogonische Prinzip, d. h. die richtungsweisenden Energien, die alle Evolutionsprozesse einem bestimmten Zweck zuführen, gehorchen der folgenden Logik, die von Edgar Morin so treffend dargelegt wird: Ordnung, Unordnung, Interaktion, neue Ordnung, neue Unordnung, neue Interaktion, und immer so fort. Mit dieser Logik werden immer neue komplexe und unterschiedliche Gebilde geschaffen; und im gleichen Maße werden Innerlichkeit und Subjektivität geschaffen bis hin zu ihrem klaren und bewussten Ausdruck, d. h. dem menschlichen Geist. Und gleichzeitig und in gleichem Maße wird die Fähigkeit zur Reziprozität von allem mit allem, zu jeder Zeit und in jeder Situation, geschaffen.
Differenzierung/Innerlichkeit/Vereinigung: die kosmische Dreifaltigkeit, die dem Organismus, d. h. dem Universum, vorsteht.

Alles geschieht durch Prozesse und durch Evolution und ist einem dynamischen Un-Gleichgewicht (Chaos) unterworfen, das stets bestrebt ist, ein neues Gleichgewicht zu erlangen durch Anpassungen und gegenseitige Abhängigkeiten.

Die menschliche Existenz steht nicht außerhalb dieser Dynamik. Sie besitzt in ihrem Inneren diese kosmischen Konstanten von Chaos und Kosmos, vom Un-Gleichgewicht auf der Suche nach einem neuen Gleichgewicht. Während unseres Lebens sind wir stets in diesem Zustand verstrickt. Je näher wir dem völligen Gleichgewicht kommen, umso näher kommen wir dem Tod. Der Tod ist die Fixierung des Gleichgewichts und des kosmogonischen Prozesses. Oder aber er ist der Übergang auf einen Level, der eine andere Art von Zugang und Wissen erfordert.

Wie manifestiert sich diese Struktur konkret in uns? Zuerst einmal im täglichen Leben. Jede und jeder von uns führt ein Leben, das mit der persönlichen Morgentoilette beginnt, wie wir leben, was wir essen, unsere Arbeit, Familie, Beziehungen, Freunde und Liebschaften. Das tägliche Leben ist prosaisch und oft auch voller Ernüchterung. Die meisten Menschen sind in ihrem Leben der täglichen Routine unterworfen mit der ihr anhaftenden Anonymität. Es ist ein Teil der universellen Ordnung, die im Leben der Menschen erscheint.

Doch wir Menschen sind auch mit Vorstellungskraft ausgestattet. Die Vorstellungskraft beseitigt die Barrieren des täglichen Lebens und sucht nach Neuem. Vorstellungskraft ist vor allem fruchtbar; sie ist das Reich der Poesie, der Wahrscheinlichkeiten, die in sich selbst unendlich sind (und Quantennatur besitzen). Vorstellungskraft produziert die existentiellen Krisen und das Chaos in der Ordnung des täglichen Lebens.

Jede und jeder besitzt die Weisheit, das alltägliche Leben mithilfe der Vorstellungskraft zu verbessern. Sich selbst nur dem Imaginären hinzugeben würde bedeuten, sich auf eine Reise zu begeben, durch die Wolken zu fliegen, die Erde zu vergessen – und möglicherweise in einer psychiatrischen Klinik zu landen. Man könnte ebenso die verführerische Kraft des Imaginären leugnen, sich nur dem alltäglichen Leben widmen und sich selbst lebendig darin begraben und somit träge, nicht sonderlich interessiert und frustriert wirken. Dies unterbricht die Logik der universalen Bewegung.

Wenn jedoch jemand seinen Alltag annimmt und ihn mit Kreativität würzt, dann strahlt eine seltene Energie aus, die von allen, die mit dieser Person in Kontakt stehen, wahrgenommen wird.

übersetzt von Bettina Gold-Hartnack