Sitting on the Lakeshore: Guardini's Letters from Lake Como Retold (original) (raw)
Related papers
Laudato Si and the Unmaking of Capitalism
2018
In this essay, I will first provide a brief summary of Laudato Si in the context of Pope Francis’s previous writings. I will point out where Pope Francis places the origins of the environmental crisis, what he thinks is the culprit, and I will argue that Pope Francis thinks the consequences were intended. In doing this, I will in turn to connect Pope Francis with philosopher André Gorz, Catholic intellectual Ivan Illich, and novelist Amitav Ghosh to show how Laudato Si is a part of a broader critique of the dominant culture in the West. Finally, I will discuss whether Laudato Si offers a vision of hope for the future.
Fiorani L., Conte A., Doronila A. - Ecological transition. Economic, environmental and social challenges, 2022
The encyclical such as Laudato Si', with its call to a renewed vision of man and the care of the "common home”, appears as a “North Star” in the dark general disorientation. Among the intellectual references of Pope Francis, Romano Guardini (1885-1968) – cited several times in the magisterial text – seems to indicate the way towards a point of perspective, to be sought in the interior of man, from which to be able to see the new image of the world that is emerging and from which to shed light on an anthropology that is up to global challenges.
Caribbean EmaNation(s): The Question of History in Alejo Carpentier's El Siglo de las luces i
Central to the Latin American novel is the question of history as both a thematic concern and a structural principle. At the heart of this fictional interest is the question of the cultural and historical identity of Latin America and its place in world history. The Discovery of America, or rather its appearance on the world stage, was both a revelation and a revolution, for, as O'Gorman's The Invention of America demonstrates, not only did it reveal the real picture of a/the world up to then conceived of as a relatively small " dwelling " place but, in so doing, also created a challenge to the dominant orthodoxies and ideologies. In other words, having made its appearance within a Western intellectual environment dominated by a Christian world view, America had to be represented and its existence accounted for in terms of the Biblical master narrative of the Creation and Redemption. Thus, because of the challenge they represented to such established truths as Adam's ancestry and the universal diffusion of Christ's teachings 1 , the Amerindians not only had, but were from the start called upon, to conform to a prescribed 2 type. The ideological stance which marks this first confrontation was crucial and determining in later " encounters " between Europe and what has come to be called the New World. Undertaken within a colonial enterprise, these encounters were essentially " monologic " (Hulme, 9) and, as such, they not only suppressed the native voice but also produced−or, to use O'Gorman's term, " invented " −an America commensurate with the expansionist needs of the growing European capitalist states. Hence the succession of conquests was accompanied and reinforced by an arsenal of historical pretexts and justifications legitimizing supposedly " Civilizing Missions. " These pretexts testify to the " competition among warring versions of 1 O'Gorman offers a detailed discussion of the relationship between the circumstances of the " Discovery, " the intellectual background of the period, and the evolution of the geographical conceptions of the world (esp. Chapter 2 " The Cultural Horizon " : 49-69). The main thrust of the discussion here is that Columbus' project was undertaken within and governed by an essentially Biblical conception which limited the world to the Orbis Terrarum (the Island of the Earth) precluding thus the possibility of any orbis alterius (antipodal lands) and, by extension, of the existence of other species of human beings, a view which represented a challenge to the Christian belief in the unique ancestry of Adam and Eve and in the extension of the Gospel " to the very ends of the earth. " This exclusion of the possibility of " new worlds " goes hand in hand with the idea of the world as both a dwelling place and a jail; as a " New World, " America held the possibility (until then denied by Christian dogma) of liberation and of conquest and mastery of the universe. In sofaras all scientific or religious institutions centered around, and were were invested in the church (of Rome), the latter constituted the main authority to which all accounts−of Columbus, the Spanish Monarchy, and the scholars supporting or challenging his claims−had to be made. 2 Because the Amerindians " lacked " alphabetic writing, not only were they written out of history (because they supposedly lacked " written " records) but, by the same token, their role was already written for them as pre-historical, implying a sort of pre-Beginning (Beginning being obviously synonymous with Western or/and Christian historiography). For a discussion of this and related issues, see Jara & Spadaccini's introduction to Amerindian Images, Peter Hulme's chapter on " Caribs and Arawaks, " Brotherston's " Towards a Grammatology of America, " and Mignolo's cited articles. A similar comment is made by Edward Glissant on the Hegelian hierarchy (ahistory, prehistory, History) whereby " literature attains a metaexistence, the all-powerfulness of a sacred sign, which will allow people with writing to think it justifiable to dominate and rule people with an oral civilization " (76).
Scrittori, critici e industria culturale dagli anni '60 ad oggi
Quaderni D Italianistica, 1992
Nel quarto capitolo Striuli analizza le ultime opere di Berto nelle quali l'alienazione è vissuta soprattutto come "alienation from others" (65) e i protagonisti "are unable to establish happy social relationships because of low self esteem and hypersensitivity" (ibid.). A questo gruppo appartengono, tra le altre Oh, Serafino, in cui, secondo Striuli, Berto presenta l'alienazione come forza positiva che vivifica l'anticonformismo del protagonista Augusto Secondo, permettendogli di lottare contro l'ipocrisia della società attuale e di riuscire vincitore. E soprattutto La gloria, i cui personaggi principali sono Gesù e Giuda. Giuda viene osservato senza pregiudizi, colto nella sua dolente umanità, con i dubbi e le incertezze dell'uomo finito che deve confrontarsi con la natura infinita di Cristo. La ricerca di Giuda si identifica allora con la non mai appagata ricerca religiosa dello scrittore. Nella conclusione il critico ricapitola le caratteristiche tematiche della narrativa bertiana e si sofferma sulla dimensione europea della figura dello scrittore, avvicinandolo agli scrittori come Kierkegaard, Sartre e Camus, che hanno maggiormente approfondito il tema dell'alienazione. Berto sarebbe solo, tuttavia, nel porre le radici della sua alienazione nel "male universale". In più è operante in lui un umorismo di carattere filosofico, che serve all'uomo "to gain the control over the threatening forces of the world" (89). Infine, Berto, dopo le prime opere di carattere neorealistico, non si è lasciato ridurre dall'impegno esclusivamente politico, ed è stato capace di tentare la resa degli stati d'animo psicologici e soprattutto soggettivi propri dell'uomo che vive nella cultura occidentale.
Matteo Ricci and the Metaphor of the Bridge Between Civilizations. Some Critical Remarks
Storia, antropologia e scienze del linguaggio, 2019
In 1982, at the Macerata Conference commemorating the 400th anniversary of the arrival in China of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) described the Italian missionary as “a veritable bridge between the two civilizations: European and Chinese.” Because of these eminent words, in the years that followed a considerable academic literature flourished, which tended to celebrate Ricci’s efforts to bring Western knowledge to the Middle Kingdom. To use modern epistemological categories, the Italian Jesuit’s labours can actually become a metaphor for a (cultural) bridge. However, anthropological theory, for example, would maintain that Christian missions were occasionally trying to undermine beliefs and practices with which they were coming into contact, supplanting them with the message they were bringing. There appears to be no doubt that Ricci established a connection between West and East. But was this actually the Jesuit Father’s real intention? This paper – through some critical remarks – attempts to pose (or to pose again) some questions, providing elements for constructive debate.
XI Congrés d'Història de Barcelona, 2009
El gótico tenía en la luz una de las claves de su lenguaje. Consecuentemente, el vitral, transformador de aquélla, se convirtió en uno de los elementos esenciales del nuevo estilo. La introducción de los nuevos sistemas constructivos, y con ellos la del vitral, sólo fue posible gracias a los presupuestos institucionales. Estos hechos son bastantes conocidos referidos al entorno religioso. Pero el vitral gótico tuvo también una vertiente civil bastante importante, ligada a los gustos de la Corona y a la aparición y desarrollo de las nuevas instituciones públicas. En Cataluña, las sedes institucionales ornamentaron los interiores según los gustos del momento. De esta manera, los vitrales también hicieron su aparición en palacios públicos, primero, y privados, después. Estos vitrales eran hechos con los mismos materiales y a menudo por los mismos artífices que trabajaban para la Iglesia, y diferían de éstos –y sólo en parte– en la temática. Durante los siglos siguientes, el mantenimiento de las sedes institucionales supuso la conservación de estas construcciones, con unos usos continuados y muchas adaptaciones que supusieron la colocación de nuevas vidrieras o la sustitución de las antiguas por otras nuevas, adaptadas a los nuevos gustos: con menos color y más vidrio blanco, con más pintura y menos mosaico de vidrio a medida que avanzamos en la cronología. Los vitrales se adaptaban a la nueva estética y seguían de nuevo las modas europeas del momento. Después, sin embargo, la falta de inversiones en la conservación de los edificios y el deseo de borrar los restos de unas instituciones consideradas rebeldes por el nuevo estado centralista, supusieron un descalabro. Y no fue hasta a finales del siglo XIX que el vitral resurgió. La introducción del Modernismo requirió, de nuevo, de grandes inversiones, y éstas vinieron dadas también por las instituciones, que volvieron a utilizar el vitral para embellecer sus edificios. Junto a ellas, el poder económico de la época, la burguesía enriquecida, hizo suyo este arte y lo adoptó, como había hecho la oligarquía urbana en tiempo góticos, no sólo para las sedes institucionales, sino también en las viviendas particulares,como símbolo de su poder y riqueza.