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?• 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

Title to be announced. Citizens in an European Spirit

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 community of Spirit– religious education as in-ducation into an European Spirit– Collective reflection

• Conclusion

Part 1. Zeus and Europe

1. INCARNATION (reduction)Jove laid aside his glorious dignity,for he assumed the semblance of a bulland 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, appearedthe artifice of man; fashioned as fairand 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. SEDUCTIONWhen she beheld his beauty and mild eyes,the daughter of Agenor was amazed;but, daring not to touch him, stood apartuntil her virgin fears were quieted;then, near him, fragrant flowers in her handshe offered,--tempting, to his gentle mouth:and then the loving god in his great joykissed 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 grewhe 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 downupon the bull's broad back.

3. ABDUCTION

The royal maid, unwitting what she did, at length sat down upon the bull's

broad back. Then by degrees the 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 hornwith her right hand, and, steadied by

the left,held on his ample back--and in the

breezeher 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.

Part 2. Lacking a political European state

Co-existence of communities (M Walzer, J-M Ferry)

Legal communityGeographicalEconomicJuridical

Political CommunityCitizenshipParticipationLegitimacy

Moral communityHistoryCultureEducation

Euroscepticism

and

neo-nationalism

An old debate

(read: communitarism)

Citizens through Spirit

European Community of Spirit

Legal communityLiberalism

Procedural Justice -> Legal normsNegative freedom Vertical exclusion (Private / public)

Cosmopolitan Republicanisme

Kant

Political community…?

Moral communityCommunitarism

Values -> Legal normsPositive freedomHorizontal exclusion

National Republicanism

Rousseau

• Collective reflection: what (if any) is the problem with this picture? Give an interpretation.

„Your cameras are German!”

3. Towards a community of Spirit

Your camera’s are German!

A shared European reflex (?)

1. Refusal of stigmatization (Manicheism)

2. Identification with and responsability for the position of the other

3. Searching for an outlet by confrontation with an new element

4. Awareness of what has passed.

When are you aware of your European ‘spiritual identity’?

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)

Dynamics of Self-transcendance1. Myth 2. European Spirit Non-European

Spirit3. Contribution of rel. educ.

Incarnation Ambiguity (lving with paradoxes)

Manicheism / Monism Perspectives with totalising tendency

Seduction Reflexive identification (I am the Other)

Individuality-stress / Model-reproduction

Religious flexibility (functionalistic secular approach)

Abduction Dialectics of the incommensurable

Calculation Religious creativity

Domestication Auto-critique (Durcharbeitung)

Social constructionism / Tabula Rasa

1. Hermeneutics

2. Cultural memory 3. Forgiveness

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

Europe europos … Easily inclining?