TO EXIST WITH AND FOR THE PEOPLE: PHILOSOPHICORELIGIOUS ROOTS AND THE NEED OF A MORAL COMMON FAITH

Abstract

Historical dynamism, moral and religious dimensions, and even the sacral and soteriological sense of our journey through this world can all be found in Judaism. However, it was Christianity which overcame the temporal and national limitations proper to the Old-Testament conception, providing new traits to the idea of a ‘people’. This idea was at the root of political theories (especially, those of Spaniards Vitoria and Suárez) which decisively influenced Modern Age. Nevertheless, it was subsequently transformed and distorted by Liberal and Marxist traditions. Traditions which, however, have shown themselves incapable of building neither the unity needed by peoples, nor the universality to which our nature points, nor the attention demanded of the neediest human beings. Nowadays, to respond to these challenges in a democratic and pluralist environment, it is essential that a moral common faith, structured around a set of objective principles accessible to everybody (but of a Christian inspiration) exists. In the case of politicians, it demands to exist with and for the people.