solidarity

a liberal eye on…
solidarity
Christophe Cousinié

When people talk to me about theological theological liberalism, the first criticism is that of being too optimistic about the human element or about the situation in the world today. When it is not seen as a simple humanism, it is called unrealistic, a sweet (crazy) dream that ignores the harshness of reality. It is merely the expression of a utopia.

And why not? Don’t we have to dream in order to see tomorrow part of the realisation?

Félix Pécaut said of the artist that « he is the one who sees through nature and through all the works of of all time an invisible ideal that he will never achieve but which he always pursues ». And in the field of ethical action: « the man of duty and devotion is not one who carries out a task, obeys instructions and remains satisfied with himself once done. No, it is the man who is in love with an ideal. It is the person one whose conscience is drawn to the Good. With the same force as Beauty attracts the artist’s imagination and Truth the reason of the thinker.”

There is no question of denying reality or, worse still looking away from it and saying that it doesn’t exist. On the contrary, we have to face the most miserable situations, recognising and naming and name the real social scourges that are ruining or disfigure humanity, and to hope again and again in human beings, in their ability to progress as human beings, without guilt but with lucidity.

At the Congress of Peace and Freedom in Lausanne in 1869, Ferdinand Buisson declared: « I am not one of those who believe that thinking about the future is to indulge in utopianism. To transport oneself in advance into a future, however distant, is already to walk towards that future; one must have dreamt of the ideal for a long time in order to be able to realise it one day ».

In terms of social action or solidarity, and echoing these last words, we can take up the words of Paul Tillich, who, it seems to me, looks at things with a liberal eye:
« It is more in keeping with the spirit of love to root out evil itself than to try to alleviate, by half-measures, the suffering that it never ceases to cause. It is better to do away with the conditions that make alms-giving necessary than to alleviate poverty by giving alms; it is better to destroy the foundations of economic misery than to save from the worst, by works of Christian love or by social legislation, those who have fallen into misery; it is better to put an end to the possibility of economic selfishness than to restrict it by legislating for the protection of labour or by appealing to the patriarchal duty to assist. It is better to destroy the source of war by waging a merciless struggle against national selfishness, through an international legal organisation, than to heal the wounds of war through works of love. If for the present, and doubtless for a long time to come, assistance and social legislation are indispensable, the ideal of making them superfluous must be recognised even by those who consider it unattainable. As for the Church, it must make this ideal its own and demand its realisation in the name of Christian love. »
To take a liberal view of solidarity is to bet on optimism and to look at it from the perspective of a dreamer. With Oscar Wilde, I would say: « Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

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