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Identity on the move The idea of an european Spirit. The contribution of RE to active citizenship - developing an european perspective. Paradoxes and questions Religious Education: about, from within, into, out of? Active Citizenship: right or merit?
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The contribution of RE to active citizenship- developing an european perspective • Paradoxes and questions • Religious Education: about, from within, into, out of? • Active Citizenship: right or merit? • Religion and Citizenship: in secular democracies • European perspective: idea, territory, culture, shared history • Citizen of Europe = Citizen of a non-existing state
My question • How to become post-national citizens? • The only analogy I know is a religious one: • Children of the Kingdom are Citizens of the civitas dei (Augustine) • Children because they share a common Holy Spirit My (beginning of) an answer • Citizens of Europe = Children of a shared European Spirit • I.e. analogical contribution of Religion to the Public Political Sphre
Citizens in an European Spirit Title to be announced.
Presentation • Introduction • 1. Heuristic part: Zeus and Europe • analogical interpretation of a founding myth • Collective reflection • 2. Analytical part: Lacking a political Euroepan state • European State permanently under construction • Collective reflection • 3. Synthetic part: Towards a communityof Spirit • religious education as in-ducation into an European Spirit • Collective reflection • Conclusion
1. INCARNATION (reduction) Jove laid aside his glorious dignity, for he assumed the semblance of a bull and mingled with the bullocks in the groves, his colour white as virgin snow, untrod, unmelted by the watery Southern Wind. His neck was thick with muscles, dewlaps hung between his shoulders; and his polished horns, so small and beautifully set, appeared the artifice of man; fashioned as fair and more transparent than a lucent gem. His forehead was not lowered for attack, nor was there fury in his open eyes; the love of peace was in his countenance. Ovidius, metamorphosis, II book, Vv. 834-75
2. SEDUCTION When she beheld his beauty and mild eyes, the daughter of Agenor was amazed; but, daring not to touch him, stood apart until her virgin fears were quieted; then, near him, fragrant flowers in her hand she offered,--tempting, to his gentle mouth: and then the loving god in his great joy kissed her sweet hands, and could not wait her will. Jove then began to frisk upon the grass, or laid his snow-white side on the smooth sand, yellow and golden. As her courage grew he gave his breast one moment for caress, or bent his head for garlands newly made, wreathed for his polished horns. The royal maid, unwitting what she did, at length sat down upon the bull's broad back.
3. ABDUCTION The royal maid,unwitting what she did, at length sat downupon the bull's broad back. Then by degreesthe god moved from the land and from the shore, and placed his feet, that seemed but shining hoofs, in shallow water by the sandy merge; and not a moment resting bore her thence, across the surface of the Middle Sea, while she affrighted gazed upon the shore-- so fast receding. And she held his horn with her right hand, and, steadied by the left, held on his ample back--and in the breeze her waving garments fluttered as they went.
4. Domestication When Minos reached Cretan soil he paid his dues to Jove, with the sacrifice of a hundred bulls, and hung up his war trophies to adorn the palace. The scandal concerning his family grew, and the queen’s unnatural adultery was evident from the birth of a strange hybrid monster. Minos resolved to remove this shame, the Minotaur, from his house, and hide it away in a labyrinth with blind passageways. Daedalus, celebrated for his skill in architecture, laid out the design, and confused the clues to direction, and led the eye into a tortuous maze, by the windings of alternating paths. …
Moment of collective reflection • Choose in the next painting your symbol inder to explain how you feel / think about or believe in the Idea of Europe.
Co-existence of communities (M Walzer, J-M Ferry) Euroscepticism and neo-nationalism
An old debate (read: communitarism)
Collective reflection: what (if any) is the problem with this picture? Give an interpretation.
3. Towards a community of Spirit „Your cameras are German!”
Your camera’s are German! A shared European reflex (?) • Refusal of stigmatization (Manicheism) • Identification with and responsability for the position of the other • Searching for an outlet by confrontation with an new element • Awareness of what has passed.
Spirit = drive for self-transcendence L’homme est fait par ces rêves. … Nous sommes une espèce zoologique qui tend d’elle-même à faire varier son domaine d’existence. (Paul Valery)
Collective reflection • What kind of functional reductions of religiosity do think your students are sensible to? (Psychological, sociological, existential, economic, philosophique etc.)
Conclusion Contribution of Religious Education to European Citizenship: • Idea of Spiritual Citizenship (to prepare a political citizenship) • Children through the Spirit • Experience with singular-universals: • Forgiveness • Trust and belief (instead of ‘tolerance’ and ‘contract’) • Living with paradoxes • Absolute perspectivism • Hermeneutics of history and culture
