The polar star

“The basic problem of European culture, a problem that is even greater than the ongoing attacks against Christianity, is indifference and secularization, a widespread set of grey norms marked by indifference, and by rare glimpses or irony and sarcasm at the most, wanting of 19th century notional and noble contraposition”. Thus spoke Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture in an interview to SIR in the framework of his lecture on “The Word of the Bible in the words of European Culture”.A stonewall. In the 19th century, Msgr. Ravasi recalled, “Marxism was an alternative vision of Christianity, that however, was worthy of respect. Conversely, today we face a stonewall marked by a-morality and indifference, whereby ethical questions are addressed as the result of immediate needs, providing easy solutions without questioning oneself ever”. For Msgr. Ravasi this approach leads to “a general decadence, to shallow political discourse, to a superficial culture characterized by superficial or childish behaviors. In this consists the loss of European identity. By returning to the Biblical Word we are returning to ultimate themes, love, pain, evil, death, transcendence, we return to therapies which might even be somehow violent and not content ourselves with the least”. The secular world. For the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, “Western culture has two founding pillars: the Bible and Greek-Roman culture, classical culture. Now the question is to recover, with a secular approach, the discourse on the Christian roots, which has been largely addressed apologetically, to safeguard Christian values. The Bible is critical to the understanding of European identity, whose roots aren’t only cultural and literary but also existential and anthropologic”. Let it suffice to consider what the Decalogue represents for Western etos , regardless of whether or not it is respected. It’s the polar star of European culture. Recovering the Biblical word, with its richness of symbols, themes and characters, represents a fundamental contribution to the dispersive, generic and hollow contemporary culture. Recovering the questions on major themes, on major symbols which are Christian like death, the afterlife, resurrection, evil, pain, is still possible, as shown in the recent encounter of Benedict XVI with artists of past November 21st 2009. The Biblical Word was crucial in European language. Various European cultures have incessantly drawn from that major code and in different ways. And we mustn’t be surprised when the Biblical text is deformed, since even this is an acknowledgement of the fact that it cannot be done without and that the sacred text remains a major point of reference”. An evidence of this is the fact that “in the European documents, and not only those of the Lisbon Treaty, we find values rooted in Christianity such as freedom, the dignity of the human person, the celebration of life and equality. These values are often formalized in different ways but they are born with the primary Christian contribution and then with that of others. It is therefore necessary to acknowledge that the presence of Christian roots hasn’t been completely expunged from the European construction”. Returning to the Bible. “The major problem of European culture is indifference and secularization – concluded Msgr. Ravasi quoting from the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor – if God were to appear on out streets today, at the most we’d ask Him for documents, just like we do with foreigners, but He wouldn’t attract much interest, nor would we be particularly impressed. This leads to decadence and to the loss of European identity. By returning to the Biblical Word we recover the ultimate themes such as love, pain, evil, death, transcendence, and we do not content ourselves with the least”.