sábado, 24 de dezembro de 2011

MENSAGEM DE NATAL PARA DESCRENTES!


Mensagem de boa vontade aos crentes de outras religiões, aos ateus e aos secularistas em geral:

Por favor, ceda à tentação desta vez. Celebre o Natal também (sem solstícios ou outras piadas, por favor). Não imponha a você mesmo essa penitência negacionista de fim-de-ano...

"Celebrar o quê? O Cristianismo só trouxe opressão para o mundo!"

Sim, o cristianismo não é inocente. Não me esqueci das cruzadas, de Servetus, do genocídio indígena pelos colonizadores "cristãos", da perseguição dos hereges, das guerras da religião na Europa, da pedofilia dos padres, do Edir Macedo, dos beliscões e tapas da sua mãe carola, etc... Mas é que esses males já estavam no mundo antes de Jesus aparecer. Até a perseguição dos "hereges", Antíoco Epifânio (pagão) já fazia - tá tudo lá, no livro dos Macabeus. Razões para fazer essas coisas ruins o homem sempre teve. Não é preciso um gênio ou inspiração especial para praticá-las.

Minto: acho que o Edir foi uma inovação brasileira mesmo. :-D

Mas mesmo que você não creia que Jesus é o Logos divino em carne humana e esteja revoltado com o dízimo, o fato é que sem ele não haveria algumas inovações que exigem inspiração, gênio e virtude. Sem Jesus não haveria a antropologia cristã, nem o universalismo cristão, nem o apóstolo Paulo (vide Slavoj Zizek), nem as missões de São Patrício e Columba, nem a síntese filosófico-religiosa da mente semítica com a mente grega para formar a Europa, nem a linearização da história, nem a dessacralização da natureza, nem a ruptura do racionalismo grego, nem Agostinho (e no futuro, a idéia de Self), nem abolição do infanticídio e repressão à escravatura, nem a "caritas" cristã, nem a preservação da herança latina e grega depois da queda do Império Romano...

E daí não haveria Ocidente, nem os primeiros hospitais, nem aristotelismo cristão nem ruptura com o aristotelismo cristão, nem Cambridge e Oxford, nem Dante Alighieri, nem Pico Della Mirandola, nem Renascimento, nem Rafael, nem Reforma, nem Lutero com sua liberdade da consciência, nem escolas públicas para ensinar a ler a Bíblia (e outras coisas), nem Johan Sebastian Bach, nem Rembrandt, nem empirismo, nem Royal Society (vide Hooykas), nem revolução científica, nem Pascal, nem Martin Bucer, nem constituição moderna, nem "Lex Rex" (vide Rutheford), nem huguenotes franceses, nem revolução Francesa, nem revolução Americana (nem Marx também, como queira), nem Harvard, Yale e Princeton com suas igrejas fundadoras, nem a ideia moderna de direitos humanos (vide Wolterstorff), nem William Carey e o fim da queima de viúvas na Índia, nem nem abolição da escravatura (vide Wilberforce), nem Comenius, nem Kierkegaard, nem Dostoyevski, nem negro spirituals (nem Jazz, nem Blues, nem Gospel, nem Rock'n'Roll e talvez até... nem Metal!) nem Cruz Vermelha, nem Maritain, nem a moderna declaração universal dos direitos humanos, nem Martin Luther King (nem "I Have a Dream"), nem o sindicato Solidariedade na Polônia, nem Tarkovski, nem Arvo Part, nem Malick, nem Desmond Tutu e a Comissão para a Verdade e a Reconciliação, na África do Sul, e por aí vai...

Sim, você pode praguejar e amaldiçoar as misérias da religião, mas seja honesto e realize um ato racional de resposta proporcional. Gostando ou não, você tem uma dívida com a fé que inspirou e movimentou mudanças positivas, que você desfruta agora.

Assim, como eu disse, não imponha a você mesmo essa penitência. Esqueça a sua descrença por uns momentos (não é tão difícil. Você não faz isso com a sua vida toda sexta-feira à noite?) e agradeça... ao universo (?) por Jesus Cristo. Se depois de se informar sobre a história cristã (eu disse história, não Dan Brown e assemelhados) um sentimento de gratidão nascer em você, não o reprima - mesmo que você não tenha para onde direcioná-lo. Na ausência de alternativas, agradeça ao vento. Ainda assim, será melhor do que dormir na sarjeta de novo, nesse Natal.

Celebre Jesus Cristo, seja ele quem for!

OBS: Clique aqui para ler A MENSAGEM DE NATAL PARA CRENTES!


Mensaje de Navidad para no creyentes

Mensaje de buena voluntad a los creyentes de otras religiones, ateos, agnósticos y secularistas en general.

(Texto escrito originalmente por Guilherme Carvalho de L'Abri, Brasil)

Por favor, cede a la tentación en esa oportunidad. Celebra la Navidad también (sin el chistecito del solsticio y otras cosas parecidas). No te impongas a ti mismo una penitencia negacionista de fin de año…

“¿Celebrar qué? ¡El cristianismo sólo trajo opresión al mundo!"

Sí. El cristianismo no es inocente. No me he olvidado de la Cruzadas, de Servet, del genocidio indígena por los conquistadores “cristianos”, de la persecución a herejes, de las guerras de religión en Europa, de la pedofilia de los sacerdotes, del Pare de Sufrir, de los pelliscones y bofetadas de tu mamá beata, etc… Pero esos males ya estaban en el mundo antes que apareciese Jesús. Incluso la persecución a “herejes”, Antíoco Epífano (pagano) ya la hacía - y todo está allí en el libro de los Macabeos. Razones para hacer estas cosas malas el hombres siempre las tuvo. No se hace necesario un genio o una inspiración especial para practicarlas.

Miento: creo que Pare de Sufrir fue una innovación brasileña de nuestros tiempos. :-D

Pero aunque tú no creas que Jesús es el Logos divino en carne humana y aunque estés indignado por la cobranza de diezmos, es un hecho que sin él no habría algunas innovaciones que exigen inspiración, genio y virtud. Sin Jesús no existiría la antropología cristiana, ni el universalismo cristiano, ni el apóstol Pablo (vd. Slavoj Zizek), ni las misiones de San Patricio y Columba, ni la síntesis filosófica-religiosa de la mentalidad semítica con la mentalidad griega que formó a Europa, ni la ruptura del racionalismo griego, ni San Agustín (y, en el futuro, la idea de “self”), ni la abolición al infanticidio ni la represión contra la esclavitud, ni la “caritas” cristiana, ni la preservación de la herencia latina después de la caída del Imperio Romano…

Y entonces no habría Occidente, ni los primeros hospitales, ni el aristotelismo cristiano ni la ruptura con el aristotelismo cristiano, ni Cambridge y Oxford, ni Dante Alighieri, ni Pico Della Mirandola, ni Renacimiento, ni Rafael, ni Reforma, ni Lutero con su libertad de conciencia, ni escuelas públicas para enseñar a leer la Biblia (y otras cosas), no Johann Sebastian Bach, ni Rembrandt, ni el empirismo, ni la Royal Society (vd. Hooykas), ni revolución científica, ni Pascal, ni Martin Bucer, ni constitución moderna, ni “Lex Rex” (vd. Rutherford), ni hugonotes franceses, ni revolución francesa, ni revolución Norteamericana (ni Marx tampoco, le guste o no), ni Harvard, Yale y Princeton con las iglesias que las fundaron, ni la idea moderna de derechos humanos (vd. Wolterstorff), ni William Carey y el fin de la quema de viudas en India ni la abolición de la esclavitud con William Wilberforce, ni Comenio, ni Kierkegaard, ni Dostoyevski, ni negro spirituals (ni Jazz, ni Blues, ni Gospel, ni Rock & Roll y tal vez incluso… ¡ni Metal!), ni Cruz Roja, ni Maritain, ni la moderna declaración de Derechos Humanos, ni Martin Luther King (ni “I have a dream”), ni el Sindicato Solidaridad en Polonia, ni Tarkovski, ni Arvo Part, ni Malick, ni Desmond Tutu y la Comisión para la Verdad y la Reconciliación en Sudáfrica y así por delante...

¡Sí! Tú puedes despotricar y maldecir contra las miserias de la religión, pero sé honesto y realiza un acto racional de respuesta proporcional. Te guste o no, tienes una deuda con la fe que inspiró y movió cambios positivos, que disfrutas hoy.

Así, como ya dije, no te impongas a ti mismo esta penitencia. Olvida tu falta de fe por unos momentos (no es tan difícil. ¿No haces eso con tu vida, acaso, todo viernes en la noche?) y agradece… al universo (¿?) por Jesucristo. Si después de informarte bien sobre la historia cristiana (dije “historia”, no Dan Brown ni sus semejantes) un sentimiento de gratitud nace en ti, no lo reprimas – aunque no tengas hacia donde dirigirlo. Ante la ausencia de alternativas, agradécele al viento. Aún así, será mejor que dormir en la cuneta otra vez, esta Navidad.

¡Celebra a Jesucristo, sea quién él sea!

Christmas Message to Unbelievers!

{Renato Fontes (thank you!) did this nice English translation of my Portuguese Christmas Message to Unbelievers, so that I'm also spreading it!}

Message of good will to those who believe in other religions, to

atheists and secularists of all kinds:


Please - just for this time - yield to the temptation. Celebrate

Christmas too (without solstices or other jokes, please). Don't impose

that new year's negationist penance upon yourself ...


"Celebrate what? Christianity has brought only oppression to the world!"


Yes, Christianity is not innocent. I didn't forget about the Crusades,

Servetus, the indigenous genocide by the "Christian" settlers, not to

mention the persecution to heretics, the religious wars in Europe, the

priests' pedophilia, Edir Macedo (translator's note: Brazilian

equivalent of Crefto Dollar

or Benny Hinn), the spankings from your overpious

mother, and so on... But, anyway, those evils were already in the

world before Jesus appeared. Even the persecution of "heretics" was

something that Antiochus Epiphanius (pagan) already did - that's what

the book of the Maccabees says. Humans have always had reasons to do

such evil things. It doesn't take a special inspiration or ingenuity

to do them.


On a second thought: maybe Edir Macedo has been a genuine Brazilian

innovation. :-D


But, even if you don't believe that Jesus is the divine Logos in human

flesh and are mad at the tithe, you have to admit that, without Jesus,

there wouldn't be some innovations that demand inspiration, ingenuity

and virtue. Without Jesus there wouldn't be Christian anthropology, or

Christian universalism, or the Apostle Paul (see Slavoj Zizek), or

St.Patrick's and St. Columba's missions, or the

philosophical-religious synthesis of the semitic mind with the Greek

mind to form Europe, or the linear view of History, or the

desacralization of nature, or the rupture from Greek rationalism, or

Augustine (and, in the future, the concept of Self), or the abolition

of the infanticide and repression to slavery, or Christian "caritas",

or the preservation of the Latin and Greek heritage after the fall of

the Roman Empire...


And then there would be no West, as well as the first hospitals, or

Christian aristotelianism (or the rupture from Christian aristotelianism),

or Cambridge and Oxford, or Dante Alighieri, or Pico Della Mirandola,

or the Renaissance, or Rafael, or the Reformation, Luther with his

freedom of belief, or public schools to teach how to read the Bible

(and other things as well), or Johann Sebastian Bach, or Rembrandt, or

empirism, or the Royal Society (see Hooykas), or the scientific

revolution, Pascal, Martin Bucer, the modern constitutions, or even

"Lex Rex" (see Rutheford), French huguenots, or the French Revolution

(or the American Revolution, for that matter, or even Marx, if you

will), not even Harvard, Yale and Princeton with their respective

founding churches, or the modern idea of human rights (see

Wolterstorff), or William Carey and the end of the burning of the

widows in India, or the abolition of slavery (see

Wilberforce), or Comenius, Kierkegaard, Dostoyevski, not to mention

negro spirituals (or Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Rock'n'Roll and maybe

even... Heavy Metal!), and the list goes on: the Red Cross, Maritain,

the modern universal declaration of human rights, Martin Luther King

("I Have a Dream"), Solidarnosc in Poland, Tarkovski, Arvo Part,

Malick, or Desmond Tutu and the Commission for Truth and

Reconciliation, in South Africa, and so forth...

Yes, you can curse the misery of religion, but be honest and take a

rational action of proportional response. Like it or not, you are

debtor to the faith that inspired and moved positive changes that you

now enjoy.


So, as I said, don't impose such penance upon yourself. Forget your

unbelief just for a few moments (it isn't that hard. Don't you do this

with your life every Friday night?) and thank... the universe (?) for

Jesus Christ. If, after getting some information about Christian

History (I said History, not Dan Brown and the likes) a feeling of

gratitude arises in you, don't repress it - even if you don't know

where to direct it. In the absence of alternatives, thank the wind.

Even then, it will be better than sleeping on the street again this

Christmas night.


Celebrate Jesus Christ, whoever he is!

terça-feira, 17 de maio de 2011

sexta-feira, 22 de abril de 2011

"Venha o Teu Reino...": Sobre esperança, Igreja Esperança, amor e comunida...

"Venha o Teu Reino...": Sobre esperança, Igreja Esperança, amor e comunida...: "Olá pessoal que nos acompanha nesse blog!! Gostaria de retomar um assunto que comecei alguns posts atrás. Eu comentei meio por cima que nós..."
Novo post falando sobre nossa nova igreja. Estamos muito felizes com essa nova fase da nossa vida!! Obrigada Igreja Esperança !

quarta-feira, 6 de abril de 2011

Bíblia, Ciência, e Contradições Aparentes [Vern Poythress]

"Assim, quando encontramos discrepâncias entre a Bíblia e a ciência, precisamos descobrir aonde perdemos o fio da meada. Alguém, em algum lugar, interpretou mal as coisas - seja interpretando mal a Escritura, seja interpretando mal o mundo dos estudos científicos, seja interpretando mal os dois! A tarefa de lidar com discrepâncias pode não ser fácil, porque não sabemos antecipadamente onde os enganos entraram. Será que o engano aconteceu simplesmente por ignorarmos a contra-evidência, ou por ignorarmos leituras alternativas da evidência, ou simplesmente por uma deriva progressiva dentro de uma atmosfera naturalista na qual suposições materialistas excluiram a priori algumas alternativas?

Em alguma medida os mesmos problemas nos confrontam mesmo dentro de uma única área mais estreita de pesquisa. Na Bíblia, os ensinos de um versículo às vezes parecem contradizer os ensinos de outro. Esses casos merecem tratamento paciente e individual, porque nós não sabemos de cara o que deu errado em nossa compreensão. Da mesma forma, às vezes as teorias em ciência não se harmonizam completamente umas com as outras. Einstein percebeu que as equações de Maxwell para o eletromagnetismo não se harmonizavam com a mecânica Newtoniana. Seu exame dessa discrepância levou a uma revisão da teoria de Newton. Exatamente agora (2006) a teoria quântica de campos não se harmoniza com a relatividade geral, porque a teoria quântica de campos requer uma estrutura fixa de tempo e espaço, ao passo que a relatividade geral requer mudanças contínuas na estrutura do espaço e do tempo conforme são influenciados pela matéria e pela energia. Ninguém sabe exatamente como resolver a discrepância de um modo totalmente satisfatório. Mas os físicos não desistem de crer que as leis da física são auto-consistentes e harmoniosas em princípio."

Vern Poythress, Redeeming Science: a God-Centered Approach. Crossway, 2006, p.43.

segunda-feira, 4 de abril de 2011

Conferência de Filosofia Reformacional - Amsterdam 2011

Atenção teólogos, filósofos & minded Christians!


75th anniversary conference of the Association for Reformational Philosophy – August 16th-19th, 2011

The 75th anniversary conference of the Association for Reformational Philosophy is scheduled for August 16-19, 2011 at VU University in Amsterdam. The theme of the conference is “The Future of Creation Order.” Confirmed speakers include Henk Geertsema, C. Stephen Evans, René van Woudenberg, Roy Clouser, Eleonore Stump, Lambert Zuidervaart, William Desmond and Gerrit Glas.

Those interested in presenting papers should submit abstracts by March 31st, 2011.

For complete details, visit http://www.cpc2011.org

quarta-feira, 30 de março de 2011

Festa de Páscoa na Igreja Esperança!


Vamos Redescobrir a Páscoa!

No ano 2011 de nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, a Igreja Esperança se reunirá para um momento inédito e histórico para essa comunidade. Havendo redescoberto suas raízes na fé ecumênica da Igreja, no Deus Trino e na Divindade e Humanidade de Jesus Cristo, o Revelador de Deus; havendo recuperado suas raízes reformadas, com o anúncio claro da salvação pela Graça mediante a fé; havendo compreendido a verdadeira natureza do Culto Cristão, que é uma resposta à presença de Deus, e não um fruto da boa-vontade humana...

Enfim, havendo redescoberto a essência da fé Cristã, a Igreja Esperança se reunirá para celebrar o EVENTO CENTRAL da história humana, no qual Deus se revelou, o mundo foi julgado, o povo de Deus foi salvo e o destino do mundo selado. Este evento é a Morte e a Ressurreição de Jesus Cristo.

Mas o que mostrou o sentido desse evento foi uma festa mais antiga, celebrada pelo povo hebreu desde a sua libertação do Egito: a Páscoa. Jesus Cristo, o nosso cordeiro pascal, é o cumprimento de tudo aquilo que fora antecipado na Páscoa, transformando então o significado dessa festa. A Cruz e a Ressurreição tornam a Páscoa a principal comemoração religiosa dos cristãos, a grande FESTA da Salvação, que conecta o passado, o presente e o futuro.

Você está convidado a participar dessa festa com uma nova mentalidade. Que de agora em diante a "Semana Santa" não seja mais um tempo de feriado, de lazer, de campings ou de cinema com pipoca. Vamos transformar o significado desse tempo em nossos calendários, reconectando-o com o centro da história. Que essa páscoa seja uma janela para o passado, quando Jesus se entregou como cordeiro pascal, e uma janela para o futuro glorioso que esse sacrifício comprou para nós!

A Festa

Durante os dias 22, 23 e 24 de Abril, a Páscoa será celebrada de um modo muito especial. Vamos começar na sexta-feira da paixão, com a celebração da Ceia de Páscoa (a Pesach) com todos os seus símbolos históricos, o Cordeiro e as ervas amargas. Em seguida, vamos vivenciar juntos as doze estações da paixão de Jesus, com leituras bíblicas e cânticos, meditando na profundidade do seu sacrifício. Tudo isso será feito na sede do L'Abri, no bairro Santo André.

No dia seguinte teremos uma conferência durante todo o dia com o tema "A Cruz de Cristo", no salão da Comunidade Sarom, no bairro São Bento. O significado da obra da cruz será abordado sob vários ângulos, com estudos, cânticos e orações.

No domingo, vamos nos reunir antes do nascer do sol, na sede do L'Abri, para orar e ler os textos Bíblicos que narram a ressurreição. E, quando o sol nascer, vamos dar graças a Deus e cantar juntos pela vitória de Jesus sobre a morte. Em seguida, desfrutaremos de um gostoso café colonial, até às 8hs da manhã. E à noite, vamos realizar o encerramento da nossa festa, com um culto de louvor e gratidão pela Obra de Cristo!

PROGRAMAÇÃO DA 1ª FESTA DE PÁSCOA DA IGREJA ESPERANÇA

SEXTA FEIRA: NOITE DE PÁSCOA NO L'ABRI

18h - Recepção e Introdução ao evento

19h - Jantar de Páscoa (Haggadah)

20h - Lava-pés e Cerimônia das Horas (as 12 Estações da Paixão de Cristo)

21h - Encerramento

SÁBADO: CONFERÊNCIA SOBRE A CRUZ DE CRISTO NA IGREJA SAROM

8h - Café da manhã

8h45 - Momento de oração

9h - Palestra: A Cruz de Cristo e o Pecado Humano

10h - intervalo para o Chá

10h15 - Momento de oração

10h30 - Palestra: A Cruz de Cristo e a Reconciliação de Todas as Coisas

11h30 - Intervalo para o Almoço

13h30 - Momento de Oração

13h45 - Palestra: A Revelação de Deus na Cruz de Cristo (Igor Miguel?)

14h45 - Intervalo para o Chá

15h - Momento de Oração

15h15 - A Cruz de Cristo e o Custo do Discipulado (Joyce Adriani?)

16h15 - Momento de Oração

16h30 - Avisos e Encerramento

DOMINGO: FESTA DA RESSURREIÇÃO NO L'ABRI E NA ESPERANÇA

5h30 - Culto da Ressurreição com salmos, profecias bíblicas e hinos, até o nascer do Sol, com a leitura do relato da ressurreição (NO L’ABRI)

7h - Café Colonial, celebrando a Ressurreição de Jesus

8h30 - Encerramento da manhã

18h - Culto de Louvor NA IGREJA ESPERANÇA pela Ressurreição de Cristo. Mensagem sobre o significado da Ressurreição de Cristo

20h - Encerramento e Lanche de Confraternização

*******************************************************


VALOR: R$ 60,00 por pessoa, incluindo alimentação e programa.

INFORMAÇÕES E INSCRIÇÕES:

Joyce Adriani - joyadry@gmail.com, 31 84136229
Claudia Jardim - claudiamjgerar@hotmail.com 31 84634929

1º SEMINÁRIO DE NEOCALVINISMO DA AKET: a visão neocalvinista de sociedade

seminario neocalvinismo aket6.jpgOs últimos anos revelaram graves problemas estruturais na compreensão evangélica da missão e da espiritualidade cristã. Ao mesmo tempo, pouco tem sido feito para ampliar e aprofundar a presença evangélica no campo do pensamento teórico, colocando em sério risco o futuro do próprio movimento evangélico.

Profundamente conscientes dessa realidade, a AKET – Associação Kuyper para Estudos Transdisciplinares - tem assumido o seu lugar, ao lado de outras iniciativas, no sentido de promover a inteligência crítica sobre a fé e a presença cultural evangélica em nosso país, a partir do referencial filosófico-teológico e também missiológico de Abraham Kuyper, o fundador da tradição neocalvinista.

Para divulgar e aprofundar essa proposta em nosso país, a AKET promove agora o 1º SEMINÁRIO DE NEOCALVINISMO, que se realizará de 13 a 15 de Maio, em Belo Horizonte-MG, nas instalações do L'Abri Brasil. O tema básico do seminário será: a Visão Neocalvinista de Sociedade. Você pode participar como apresentador de comunicação ou como ouvinte. Os interessados devem ter um conhecimento mínimo sobre o Kuyperianismo e/ou o trabalho de H. Dooyeweerd, sendo o evento destinado, preferencialmente, para pessoas que já estão aplicando esses conhecimentos de forma acadêmica ou prática.

APRESENTAÇÃO DE COMUNICAÇÕES

Haverá a oportunidade para a apresentação de comunicações científicas, que não precisam ser sobre o tema central do evento, mas devem interagir criativamente com o pensamento neocalvinista e com as idéias do filósofo holandês Herman Dooyeweerd.
Os interessados devem preparar um paper (de três páginas) sobre o tema da comunicação e enviar para o email
secretaria.aket@gmail.com até, no máximo, dia 30 abril de 2011. A comunicação oral terá 20 minutos de duração, acrescidos de 10 minutos para perguntas.

INSCRIÇÕES

Todos os interessados deverão fazer a inscrição através do preenchimento da ficha anexo e pagamento do valor da inscrição através de depósito bancário na conta da AKET.

Valor: R$ 140,00

A Ficha pode ser solicitada pelo email: secretaria.aket@gmail.com

INFORMAÇÕES

(31) 9225-1923 | Vanessa

(31) 2535-8962 | Guilherme

terça-feira, 29 de março de 2011

Escritos Políticos de Dooyeweerd em Revisão


Ótimas notícias,

O segundo volume de nossa série de livros de Herman Dooyeweerd está em estágio adiantado de revisão. O tema é a Idéia Cristã do Estado, e a tradução crítica e a introdução são obra de dois membros da nossa Associação Kuyper BH: Lucas Freire (atualmente doutorando-se nas áreas de economia e filosofia da ciência em Exeter, UK) e Leonardo Ramos (Doutor em Relações Internacionais e professor da PUC-Minas). Vejam a boa notícia aqui:

http://neocalvinismo.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/escritos-politicos-de-dooyeweerd-em-revisao/

A AKET tem uma parceria formal com The Herman Dooyeweerd Foundation para traduzir as obras de HD para o português. O primeiro volume já foi publicado (veja mais informações na barra à direita).

Happiness and the Image of the Paradise

Caros,

vários amigos ouviram o podcast sobre felicidade no site da Ultimato. Como eu disse, temos uma série inteira sobre o tema, com várias palestras.

Ainda não foi possível escrever algo mais completo em português (nem em inglês!), mas disponibilizo abaixo o ESBOÇO (atenção, não é o argumento completo) da palestra que apresentei na Conferência Internacional de L'Abri, em Rochester (EUA). Tendo em vista que é um esboço, peço a tolerância dos interessados no assunto!

obs: perdoem também a falta de proficiência na língua. Lá o gringo era eu :-D

O link do podcast está abaixo:

http://ultimato.com.br/sites/blogdaultimato/2011/02/21/a-felicidade-e-um-objetivo-cristao/

******************************************************************************

Happiness and the Image of the Paradise

Guilherme de Carvalho

L’Abri Brazil

A. Does Happiness Matter?

  1. The Present Culture of Happiness
  2. The Liberal Roots
  3. Happiness and Hyperconsumption System
  4. Happiness Studies Today (critical evaluation)
  5. Is Happiness a Christian Goal?
  6. Desire shepherding against desire technique

The Present Culture of Happiness

Would not be any exaggeration to say that today’s culture is a culture of happiness.

For centuries human beings have struggled for the minimum achievement of survival, rarely enjoying much more then the daily bread, and far from comforts as medicines, social justice, psychological assistance, technology or any of this modern wonders.

Of course the majority of the world population lives below the poverty line, and remains still excluded from those benefits, but for a significant parcel of western society, even when they are below middle class, the supplying of needs and pleasures are beyond anything imagined in pre-modern times.

The fulfillment of so many needs and the augmenting of individual freedom made possible for millions of people, for the first time in history, to search not only for survival, but also for happiness. It changed from a luxury into a duty.

The evidences of that transformation are around us: not only the market sells happiness in the form of new products for consumption, but multiple ways and techniques of well-being and happiness are made accessible through hundreds of books, courses and so on.

There are now national surveys in many countries to check the levels of satisfaction and happiness between the citizens. According to surveys, 90% of the Europeans say they are happy; in 2004 60% of the French declared to be happy in life – yet 70% declared the other co-citizens weren’t happy.

And now we have one of the last achievements of the technological society: the new science of happiness, leaded by names as Robert Emmons, Martin Seligman, and many others, and new paradigms as the positive psychology, focused in the development of positive feelings and attitudes, instead of the pathologies, as in traditional psychology and psychoanalysis.

Happiness is definitively in, and we Christians should say something about.

The Liberal Roots of the Happiness Quest

The current discourse on happiness is something strongly rooted in modernity’s higher aspirations, and particularly in the liberal project of culture.

This is beautifully represented in the movie THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (2006), starred by Will Smith. In this movie the struggle of a man against frustration and limitations is shown without any blame on society or particular persons. He appears as the self-made man, the guy with persistence and courage to use the opportunities. No one makes anything easy to him, but he is quite happy with his country, even quoting Thomas Jefferson at a certain point as a genius. In the end he finds happiness – because, according to the movie, he becomes a millionaire.

It is relevant the fact that the title wasn’t “In search for success”, or “A loving Father”, but “In Search for Happiness”. It is a direct reference to the American Independency declaration. We should give a check on it:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

But everybody knows what happened to “happiness” (5 amendment constitution):

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

But this is not just an American Dream. French scholars have pointed out the strong presence of the theme of happiness within the discourse of the French revolutionaries. Saint-Just, comrade of Robespierre in the revolution and in the following terror, declared literally: Happiness is a new idea in Europe.

Therefore the historian Arlete Farge admitted 1789 as the year one of happiness – it was a happiness associated to political freedom, civic virtue, but above all reason [SPONVILLE, 122].

We should not despise this connection between a happiness ideal and the cultural program of liberalism. THE REDISCOVERY OF FREEDOM MADE POSSIBLE THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

Now, two important transformations were introduced by modernity in the very concept of happiness:

(1) the first one was the new expectations that through science and technology human being would became a master of his destiny reverting the effects of the fall. We find the roots of this redemptive perception of science starting in Francis Bacon’s NOVUM ORGANUM and in his NEW ATLANTIS.

Man’s Science and Power coincide, once as, being the cause ignored, is frustrated the effect. Because nature is not defeated, except when becomes obedient. (III aphorism).

This changing, accompanied by a strong rejection of speculative philosophy, implied a transformation of the old eudemonistics, in completely new terms – in PROMETEIC TERMS.

The idea of a paradise of new Jerusalem coming from heaven is substituted by a NEW ATLANTIS built by human power-science – the modern equivalent of Babel with its tower.

(2) The second important changing was closely observed by the French philosopher Andre Comte Sponville, also a student of happiness.

Sponville sees in Socrates a indentification of happiness with the pursuing and encounter with the GOOD in itself. Classical greek thinking thought virtue and happiness as things internally connected. For that reason he didn’t believe the evil could be happy.

Yet, Kant introduced a second philosophical revolution in the west, and in this respect he promoted a central shift: the collapse of the beliefs in ultimate good. Modernity is even characterized by this collapse. Therefore, has become impossible since Kant to sustain a necessary connection between VIRTUE and HAPPINESS. According him there are evil persons that are happy, and good ones that are sad (p. 20, 34, 42).

In that connection, Sponville tries to give an account of happiness including Kant-modern view. And he proposes that we give up to think of reality as having meaning or sense.

There is a place, and only one, where Marselha doesn’t make sense: it is in Marselha. When we are there, you cannot get there anymore. The sense is always in another place, and we are always here. Only the other has meaning, and only the same has reality. 51

From this he concludes “Happiness only is the meaning of life for the unhappy ones”. Experience of happiness isn’t at all an experience of meaning, but an experience of the present, of reality, of the actually available truth. Happiness becomes totally HEDONISTIC.

This separation of meaning and enjoyment parallels the break between pleasure and good.

Now was exactly this separation what made possible to pursue happiness throughout technical control and increasing of pleasure and well-being without any necessary reaching of virtue, moral good, and so forth.

Since than, the search for happiness becomes a search for pragmatic and sensorial well being, lacking expectations of heavenly paradises and non temporal delights

Edenic Paradise versus Babelic Atlantis

As many scholars have pointed out, modernity secularized the biblical expectation of paradise, but finally denaturized this hope creating another image: the one of a society organized on the basis of technical control of reality and egoism.

The new idea isn’t so much of to pursue happiness, but to reach it through scientific power and in the form of pleasing moments.

Despite the strength of the progress ideology – a secularized version of Christian eschatology – the resilient tendency of modernity is to eliminate progressively those religious elements. So says Sponville, arguing that HOPE brings unhappiness, and that a lucid atheist must give up hope (that is a passion, not a virtue) and enter the despaired happiness, the joy without hope.

What is interesting is to perceive that the idea of the paradise wasn’t so much secularized as was substitute by a babelic expectation.

Modernity is about freedom, but also about happiness. Happiness is what human being looks for when leaves in search for freedom. He wants be happy, and that is the reason why he turns against any constraint or limitation to his freedom.

But modern happiness is prometeic and hedonic.

Happiness in the Hyperconsumption Society

The story of modernity is the story of the implementation of a functional narcissistic cultural system. This is very important: narcissism prevents sound human relationships and virtue, so that to find a functional system for narcissism isn’t a little thing.

Narcissistic anxiety is what emerged in the west when the Renaissance man decided to find happiness without God and lost his human identity and coherence.

The cultivation and augmenting of individual freedom was the way taken by modern man to find happiness, but this loss of coherence blocks true happiness.

The more efficient way found by modernity to create and distribute happiness was the combination of the political state of rights and the consumption capitalism. Some thinkers have called it the HYPERCONSUMPTION SOCIETY.

Hyperconsumption society has a simple basis: atomizes humanity and feeds narcissism, creating the homo consumans. He is the BATTERY of the system. The discourse on freedom is used to justify and reinforce that condition and keep consumerism working. The promise is that staying in the system people will be happy.

The French philosopher Gilles Lipovetsky wrote recently (2006) a relevant book entitled Paradoxical Happiness: an essay on the hyperconsumption society. He agrees that:

Happiness is the central value, the great ideal celebrated without truce by consumption civilization. P. 348

He is quite open about the strength of this system:

The search for happiness throughout mercantilized goods and services is just in the beginning of its historical adventure. Health, leisure, games, transport, culture, communications, information, protection of nature – the integrality of the needs is what has been annexed by the logic of goods, installing the phase III of capitalism in the whole country. It is necessary to surrender in front the evidence; the hyperconsumption society imposes itself as our only horizon, and nothing will stop the expansion of paid consumption towards everyone of our activities, the omnimercantilization of the world. If there are different economical or social policies, there isn’t by now any alternative solution to hyperconsumption society.

Gilles Lipovetsky,

A Felicidade Paradoxal: Ensaio sobre a Sociedade de Hiperconsumo.

2006, p. 127.

The system is strong, but extracts its strength from the individuals, jailing them in the narcissist condition, as if it was freedom:

The relaxing of the collective controls, the hedonistic norms, the choose of top quality, the liberal education, the whole thing contributed to compose an individual detached of common ends and which, reduced only to his own strength, shows himself unable to resist both to external solicitations and internal impulses. Therefore, we’re witnessing a whole set of unstructured behaviors, of pathological and compulsive consumption. As the principle of full power over the direction of its own life gets wider, the manifestations of dependency and subjective impotence develop in a growing rhythm. What is represented in the contemporary stage of consumption is so much released Narcissus as it is chained Narcissus.

Gilles Lipovetsky,

A Felicidade Paradoxal: Ensaio sobre a Sociedade de Hiperconsumo.

2006, p. 127.

Lipovetsky also uncovers the contradiction in the system: despite the development of technology, political liberties, health services and access to goods raising the quality of life, the effect hasn’t been happiness and satisfaction. Why?

Since the individual disengage from communitarian coercions, his irresistible search for happiness cannot help to make its existence problematic and unsatisfactory: this is the destiny of the socially independent individual who, without collective and religious support, faces alone and unsupported the trials of life.

Gilles Lipovetsky,

A Felicidade Paradoxal: Ensaio sobre a Sociedade de Hiperconsumo.

2006, p. 338.

Finally: Do we have any way out of this trap? According to Lipovetsky:

When happiness became less identified to the satisfaction of the maximal number of necessities and to the limitless renewing of objects and leisures, the hyperconsumerism cycle will be closed […] p. 368

The truth is that only interests and passions of another kind might raise barriers up against the hyperconsumerist wave […] What could take persons to give up search for happiness exclusively in mercantile goods if not different desires and centers if interest: work, creation, public engagement? The demand for the future is the invention of new ways of education and work that allow individuals to find identity and satisfaction in other places rather then in the fleeting paradises of consumption.

Gilles Lipovetsky,

A Felicidade Paradoxal: Ensaio sobre a Sociedade de Hiperconsumo.

2006, p. 366-7.

Desire technique versus Desire shepherding

I found Lipovetsky’s insight exceedingly valuable as an interpretation of what is going on in contemporary search for happiness, but I want to focus a piece of this last quotation:

According him only the discovery of new interests and passions can break the hyperconsumerist cage. And that demands the invention and construction of new centers of desire. These new places would supplant THE FLEETING PARADISES OF CONSUMPTION.

I believe this last expression is not casual. Modernity paradises are really elusive and fleeting, but are paradises in some way. They appeal to the human affections.

The right answer to that state of affairs is the recovery of the Biblical Image of the Paradise, but not merely as a theological concept. The paradises of consumption are aspects of the modern techniques of desire – the apparatus designed to cultivate, manage and enhance human desires for the maximum profit.

By a recovery of the biblical image of paradise we mean a Christian answer to the modern desire techniques, in terms of authentic and incarnated happiness.

As Kuyper once said only a complete life system would be able to face the modern life system, we should be aware that worldview changing is not enough: against desire manipulation techniques, we must offer the shepherding of human desire.

B. The Image of the Paradise


  1. The Image of the Paradise

1.1. Familial communion

1.2. Creative dominion

1.3. Spirituality

  1. Curse and Unhappiness

2.1. Ingratitude

2.2. Out of Eden

2.3. Babel Dream: the pagan answer

  1. Paradise Imagination in the Hebrew Bible

3.1. Ten Commandments

3.2. Wisdom Literature

3.3. Prophecy

  1. New Testament: Paradise Already/Not Yet

  1. Revelation: Paradise Recovered

There is a world of things we could take for the discussion here, as the historical development of the Paradise expectations in the west, of the details of the biblical doctrine about.

Instead I’ll be very selective going straightly to three biblical texts that I find very illuminating.

The first is Gn chapters 1-2, the second, Ps 138 and finally, the book of Eclesiastes.

The Original Paradise: Gn 1-2

If I’m not wrong, every one here probably is acquainted to this biblical passage, so that I’ll just call your attention to some details here.

Firstly, the first thing said about human being is about his identity. He is said to be created in the Image of God; and he receives commandments and also blessings, in what characterizes a covenantal relationship with God.

He is told to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what represents in my understanding, the possibility to make himself without reference to God, independently – that was the snake temptation, they would be like God, and so forth.

Secondly, human being was commanded to rule the earth, dominating over every creature.

The nature of this ruling is shown in the second chapter, where God plants a garden and puts man to cultivate and take care of it. Human task was to understand creation, to explore the potentials hidden within it by God, and take care lovingly of nature.

This is what was conventioned to call the CULTURAL MANDATE. As God is shown creating 6 days and resting in the 7, Man is supposed to work 6 days in the garden God planted expressing in it his likeness to God, and resting in the 7 as a remind of the relativity of his own creativity.

Thirdly, we have family: God tells himself that would not be good for man to stay alone, and creates the woman. Both together, ish plus ishah – comprises ADAM, the human. This love relationship is made sacred and raised to be the creational context for the growing of human race and the formation of new individuals and families.

Isn’t that a paradise? It is something very simple and prosaic. Meaningful and creative work, in harmony with nature; life in family under the aegis of fidelity; and identity totally based in the communion with God, for ever.

Yet this paradise is now lost; and the doors of Eden are guarded by fire swords. Does it have any meaning for us now?

A Creational Structure

Of course we were expelled from the Paradise as a perfectly blessed condition, but that doesn’t mean the life structures God created for humanity were dissolved.

Actually, as theologians have pointed out, God’s course over creation implied suffering and death, but without any revocation neither of the original commandments nor of the original blessings.

Thereby I want to call your attention to our next biblical passage:

Here we are gifted with a synthetical presentation of what means to live under God’s covenantal patterns. The blessed man is the one that fears the Lord, works in a non-alienating context and enjoy familiar relationship with his wife and children with Joy (wine) and value (olive).

This blessed guy is, again, who fears the Lord, and receives his grace from Zion – a clear covenantal reference.

That is exactly the kind of picture is offered in Eclesiastes, through a sort of existential inversion. The king explains in the beginning of his book his own path trying to extract happiness inhabiting in time and repetition, and he discovers that mere repetition of pleasure experiences brings boredom and can’t produce true happiness. He tries to take the reader’s attention pointing seven times, in the book, that there is nothing better to man than enjoy the fruits of his own work, and enjoy his wife, within a real relationship to God. It is essentially the same structure we find in Ps 128 – actually, it is the structure of the Wisdom Movement on the issue of temporal happiness.

C. A Christian Way to Happiness

1. Images of the Paradise

2. Babelic and Ierosolimic Solutions

3. Cultivating the Objective conditions of Happiness

4. The “Subjective” side

What should we have in mind now?

In the first place: I would invite you to come with me to the New Jerusalem (Revelation last chapters), in our imagination. What do we see here: a CITY with a GARDEN. The very core of the New City is the accomplishment of the early creational expectations. I think that gives us a powerful tool to understand what is happening and how should we live.

First of all: Babel substitutes the garden planted by God by a Tower of man’s pride, designed to give man independency and control. That corresponds to modernity’s project of happiness through arbitrary freedom, prometeic technology and hedonic pleasure.

Instead, God’s project is the City – with all its complexity and richness – existing around and protecting the Garden, the core of tasks and experiences that alone can give human being happiness, if experienced sacramentaly.

Against modernity, the Christian experience of happiness is the enjoyment of the essential conditions of sactisfaction within time – the enjoyment of those very prosaic and temporal pleasures, moment by moment. BUT

With the enduring awareness that these things are translucid; are mediations and sacramental presentations of God’s love toward us, which we experience through these things.

The city is there, with all its wealth, but having its proper center in the garden realities. And that implies the non-prometeic (because the garden is the gift, not the tower) and the non-hedonic (because reality has meaning, the gift points to the donor).

Against the wisdom of the modern, the Christian message must to point out real happiness trough the recovering of the biblical image of the paradise, and trough a religious and political praxis of creational gratitude and sacramental conscience.