Folia Theologica et Canonica 9. 31/23 (2020)
Sacra theologia
FOLIA THEOLOGICA ET CANONICA (2020) 35-39 Mihály Kránitz THE BELL RINGS. SOME THOUGHTS ON MIGRATION IN THE SPIRIT OF SPIRITUAL ECUMENISM Keywords: Ecumenism, European Christianity, interfaith dialogue, meaning of ‘nations’, migration The bell rings; the bell rings for something, or rather the bell rings for Somebody! We are trying to find an answer to this question within the framework of a short talk, according to the theme of our conference focusing on the present social situation the roots of which go back deep into the past. It is important to note that, as we can see on the basis of the Holy Scripture, God intended humankind to live in a community and in unity as a single folk. In the Old Testament one chosen folk became God’s people carrying his promises, and in the New Testament the Church took over this role. Let us examine history and learn from it in order to understand what the notions of nation and people mean for us in the context of Christianity. Back to the Old Testament, we can see that the Jews spent more than 400 years in Egypt, and yet they did not integrate to an multicultural, polytheist environment.1 The people did not become Egyptian or polytheistic in the course of centuries, they kept their identity, even though at that time Egypt was regarded as the ‘West’, as we consider the modem world. In the New Testament times we can see something similar with Christians: in the Roman Empire they did not become ‘Romans’, i.e. polytheistic. They accepted martyrdom instead, and, eventually, they made the empire of many nations become Christian. Christianity developed in a rich liturgical diversity among the folks of different traditions, and, in addition, it created culture in the different branches of fine arts. It is extremely interesting how the early Christian letter to Diognetus describes the presence and the tasks of Christians among a given people: “Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or 1 1 The original version of this article was presented in Mannheim/Ludwigshafen (Germany) at the conference of Societas Oecumenica on Nationalism and Migration as Challenges for Ecumenical Theology on 25th August 2018. - The length of sojourning in Egypt varies in different records: Gen 15:13 (400 years); Ex 12:40 (430 years); in Stephen’s speech 400 years (Acts 7:6); in Apostle Paul’s speech 450 years (Acts 13:20).
