Religie, ideologie și violență în modernitate. O lectură teologică și antropologică
Religion, ideology and violence in modernity. A theological and anthropological reading

Author(s): Sorin Bute
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Theology and Religion, Other Christian Denominations
Published by: Ideas Forum International Academic and Scientific Association
Keywords: natural religion; biblical revelation; violence; scapegoat mechanism; political religions; person; ideology;
Summary/Abstract: This article examines the relationship between religion, ideology, and violence in modernity, starting from the tension between two opposing theses: that religion has been the primary historical source of conflict, and that the highly secularized twentieth century represents the apex of collective violence. The distinction between natural, idolatrous religion—structured around sacrificial- violent mechanisms—and biblical revelation, which desacralizes violence and establishes the centrality of the person, proves decisive. Engaging with Jan Assmann, Friedrich Nietzsche, René Girard, and Eric Voegelin, the study argues that Judaism and Christianity expose the scapegoat mechanism, separate the religious from the political sphere, and radically limit the legitimacy of violence. Modern ideologies are interpreted as “political religions” that reproduce ancient idolatry in secular form, sacralizing the collective (race, class, nation) and rendering the individual expendable. The conclusion reached is that the extreme violence of modernity is not explained by Christianity, but by the loss of the Christian ethos and by an idolatrous regression; the only coherent antidote remains the biblical anthropology of the person and the ethic of love.

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