Ai confini delle parole… Considerazioni sull’opera di Drago Šimundža (in occasione del suo 75° compleanno)

Abstract

Fedora Ferluga Petronio To the Ends of Words… Comments on the Works of Drago Simundža (On the Occasion of His 75th Birthday) This article is a tribute to Drago Simundža on the occasion of his 75th birthday. A priest and currently pastoral vicar of the archbishop of Split, Drago Simundža is an outstanding scholar, historian, philosopher, theologian, publicist and translator. His huge bibliography, which ranges over literature, literary criticism, theology, philosophy, sociology, pedagogy and journalistic information, consists of 12 volumes and over 860 articles where attention focuses on his two recently published volumes Bog u djelima hrvatskih pisaca. Vjera i nevjera u hrvatskoj književnosti 20. stoljeca (God In The Works Of The Croatian Writers: Religiousness and Non-religiousness In The Croatian Literature Of The 20th Century) by the Matica hrvatska, a volume of more than 748 pages, followed by the second one of 825 pages the next year in 2005. Hence in all two volumes that with their 1550 pages collect Simundža’s critical thinking on the spiritual, metaphysical, religious and atheist, agnostic, non-religious aspects of the Croatian authors of the 20th century both in prose and poetry as well as drama. In this article other Simundža’s activities are highlightened such as his work as managing editor for the theological and philosophic magazine Crkva u svijetu (The Church In The World) from 1969 to 1992 and the pastoral activity he has been doing within the Church both in administration and organization. The Author emphasizes the clarity of his literary criticism writings, his inborn intuition, his sharp critical and aesthetic instinct which involve both the expert and the common reader.