22/05/2024 08:30 - 13:15

HALL: FATESI - CAMPO

Proponent: Drest - Curriculum Law And Religion .

Speaker: Arkhipov F., Barbetta I., Cavuoto M.L., Kakavas G., Lonati S., Mendiola K.M., Micciché R., Tarabiono G.F., Uxhi P.

Chair: Arkhipov F., Kakavas G.

It seems as if one cannot exist without the other. The aspiration, obviously, is to live in a world without wars, where religious affiliation is not a reason for hatred. Unfortunately, however, this is not the reality and wars "in the name of God" - or, more simply, conflicts in which the religious factor becomes a causal ordriving element - are still present and concern the entire planet. Secularization, which led - at least in Western societies -- towards a gradual reduction of religious power and to a privatization of belief systems, had meant for religions to play a merely spiritual role in the public sphere. Yet, it is enough to look at current geopolitical events to understand that this omen, however, has been abundantly refuted and that a world without battles still seems very far from emerging today. Historically, the Treaties of Westphalia has been the paradigm in the managing of religious conflicts, by confirming the principle of cuius regio, eius religio, established in the Peace of Augsburg. The subsequent conflicts essentially concerned political reasons, but the religious reasons underlying them re-emerged with
frequency and vigor. The current examples are illuminating: it is enough to focus on the considerations of the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill, who expressed his support for all those who defend the Russian homeland, asking the faithful to pray so that the army could have the necessary spiritual strength to be able to continue to carryout its task during military operations in Ukraine, to think of religion as a propulsive and/or legitimizing tool. Still, the terrorist attack by Hamas and Israel's brutal response it's a perfect example of the religious factor as a causal element of the conflict. On the one hand, therefore, a terrorist group which according to many authors is nothing other than the collateral effect of phenomena of secularization and/or evangelization, forcibly imported into Islamic communities; on the other hand, a State that, also making use of religion motivations - sometimes basing them on certain precepts contained in the Torah - is acting with the further purpose to take possession of the so-called "promised land". The religious factor, however, does not only has a relevant function in war. On the contrary, we could think about the requests for peace expressed by Pope Francis and the pastoral commitment of a large part of the Catholic world in favor of Nonviolence, if we want to consider the religious factor as a useful tool for building peace. A commitment, the latter, which demonstrated a strong adherence to the axiological content of the encyclical Pacem in terris by Pope John XXIII, issued in April 1963, that is not just a mere "cryfor peace", but a real invitation to build it by making use of interreligious dialogue. From this point of view,the "peace studies" represent an interesting example for understanding so. In short, religious has a role both in the sad world of war and in the desirable hope of peace and, it is precisely from this bilateral value that the themes of this research work have developed.