Page 434 - Stati inu obstati, revija za vprašanja protestantizma, letnik X (2014), številka 19-20, ISSN 1408-8363
P. 434
SYNOPSES, ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN
church organisation, drove the most devout believers into exile or brought them
back into the Catholic Church. However, it most assuredly failed to destroy its
linguistic and literary tradition, including the translation of the Bible. It also
failed to suppress its rebellious spirit, the self-confidence of Slovenian believers,
which has survived to this very day as a role model of rebellion.
The second part of the article analyses Grmič’s calm theology, his “contex-
tual theology”, a constituent part of which is certainly its unique concreteness
– enriched by its constant dialogue, “refined by its humanism” –, with which he
was able to lend his ear to the most topical happenings and situations. In other
words, for Grmič, faith is freedom. And this is where the mutual exclusiveness
of faith and non-faith loses its ground, because, according to Grmič, it is life
itself in each and every one of us which enables the “touch point between time
and timelessness, transience and absoluteness, and the point where the stream
of life flows into the sea of hope.” And within this context, even the most prin-
cipled atheist is obliged to say with ease that the coexistence of different world-
views first and foremost calls for humanism. And it is precisely humanism which
receives a special place in Grmič’s peaceful anthropology of theology, which is a
responsible nurturing of the sense for historicity, and at the same time it stems
from the autonomy of the earthly reality, always finding its bearing in ethical
ref lection.
Key words: Reformation, Slovenian Protestantism, anthropology of theology,
contextual theology, Vekoslav Grmič.
UDC 17:323(497.4)
Peter Kovačič Peršin
Ethical transformation as the condition for reconciliation
We as a nation are today again fatally split. We are incapable of even that
basic cooperation between adherents of different political and philosophical
viewpoints which is necessary for the state to function smoothly. But if as a
national community we want to fit successfully into international life, we must
establish a firm and creative personal coexistence, i.e. something more than just
a bearable life alongside each other. Co-existence demands unconditional accep-
tance of the other person in his otherness. But co-existence cannot be established
in a nation divided by historical conflicts and resentments until reconciliation
is achieved between people. The first to issue a call to reconciliation was Edvard
Kocbek in his interview for the Trieste periodical Zaliv (Bay) in 1975, when he
broke the decades-long public conspiracy of silence about the post-war massacres.
This call to reconciliation was born out of a wounded consciousness of our na-
432
church organisation, drove the most devout believers into exile or brought them
back into the Catholic Church. However, it most assuredly failed to destroy its
linguistic and literary tradition, including the translation of the Bible. It also
failed to suppress its rebellious spirit, the self-confidence of Slovenian believers,
which has survived to this very day as a role model of rebellion.
The second part of the article analyses Grmič’s calm theology, his “contex-
tual theology”, a constituent part of which is certainly its unique concreteness
– enriched by its constant dialogue, “refined by its humanism” –, with which he
was able to lend his ear to the most topical happenings and situations. In other
words, for Grmič, faith is freedom. And this is where the mutual exclusiveness
of faith and non-faith loses its ground, because, according to Grmič, it is life
itself in each and every one of us which enables the “touch point between time
and timelessness, transience and absoluteness, and the point where the stream
of life flows into the sea of hope.” And within this context, even the most prin-
cipled atheist is obliged to say with ease that the coexistence of different world-
views first and foremost calls for humanism. And it is precisely humanism which
receives a special place in Grmič’s peaceful anthropology of theology, which is a
responsible nurturing of the sense for historicity, and at the same time it stems
from the autonomy of the earthly reality, always finding its bearing in ethical
ref lection.
Key words: Reformation, Slovenian Protestantism, anthropology of theology,
contextual theology, Vekoslav Grmič.
UDC 17:323(497.4)
Peter Kovačič Peršin
Ethical transformation as the condition for reconciliation
We as a nation are today again fatally split. We are incapable of even that
basic cooperation between adherents of different political and philosophical
viewpoints which is necessary for the state to function smoothly. But if as a
national community we want to fit successfully into international life, we must
establish a firm and creative personal coexistence, i.e. something more than just
a bearable life alongside each other. Co-existence demands unconditional accep-
tance of the other person in his otherness. But co-existence cannot be established
in a nation divided by historical conflicts and resentments until reconciliation
is achieved between people. The first to issue a call to reconciliation was Edvard
Kocbek in his interview for the Trieste periodical Zaliv (Bay) in 1975, when he
broke the decades-long public conspiracy of silence about the post-war massacres.
This call to reconciliation was born out of a wounded consciousness of our na-
432
