Memory of man is fragmented sometimes. As the proverb "to err is human…. "the following, less famous since less sympathetic, is: "to persevere is devilish" (Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum) and refers to Evil... The 20th century was the most deadly in all the history of mankind. The two major ideologies of this century, and directly responsible for this abomination, are called Nazism and Communism. What common feature do we find in these two totalitarian regimes ? A virulent atheism.
Considering the third millennium, in 1979, Jean Borella published: "Desecrate Charity"*, which represented the amount of twelve years of thinking post-Vatican II, about the place of Charity, (which is one the major Theological virtues within Christianism) in our modern world. He denounced the distorted form that notion took, by the unforeseen turn of politically correct, acculturation of our society and its excessive materialism.
To Jean Borella: charity isn't just altruism of philanthropy, it aims at deification, that is to say the understanding by man that he is not to become a God (Prometheus), but on the contrary a "useless servant". Since "to love one's neighbor" of "just to love" isn't a feeling or an anthropomorphic action: the action of Loving is born in God: "I am not the one loving, but it is God who loves within me" he says.
Through the manifestation of charity in the social sphere (horizontal and material) or spiritual (vertical and unutterable), do you want to comprehend its antidote: the fundamental notion of Evil ?
What distinctions can we do between the different forms of Love which are Eros, Philia et Agape ?
Is our western society, following the ideals from the Enlightenment (which reduced evil to a social organization), works for Good ? Or against Evil ? Are these two efforts similar or antinomic ?
What does the growing disaffection of spirituality reveals in our society (perseverare diabolicum?)
Answer by Jean Borella in this 56-minutes interview, presented by Catherine Conrad and Bruno Guillemin.
* this book has has just been published again as "Amour et Vérité " (2011, Ed Harmattan)
