Sárospataki Füzetek 20. (2016)

2016 / 2. szám - ARTICLES / STUDIEN - Henk E. S. Woldring: Comenius' Search for Conditions of Peace set against the Perspective of Shalom

Henk E.S. Wold ring

land and the Netherlands had been driven by nationalist self-interest, the desire for expansion of colonial property, and the ambition to conquer new markets and to gain a clear victory. These reasons underpinned their strivings to maintain fleets of warships to ensure dominance at sea.1 In summary, Comenius named the factors that had promoted warfare: nationalism, avarice, and political and military power.

3. Negative and Positive Peace

Comenius struggled with Machiavellid idea that politics would, in essence, mean that governments should maintain their positions of power, possibly even by lie and deceit.2 On the other hand, Comenius argued that a government should be duly bound to use its power in favour of the citizens. Therefore, it has a moral obligation to finish the war, and, moreover, to strive for enduring peace, and in this way to promote a just world order.3 4 In other words, Comenius not only had the absence of war (a negative peace) in mind, but a positive or enduring peace as well to promote a national and international order of law and justice. In his book The Road of Peace (Cesta pokoge), that was published in Poland in 1637, he writes: ‘Peace means a situation in which the human being (...) can enjoy his life carefree in a pleasant social order, without any hindrance of others.’“* Although this last-mentioned book was about peace among followers of various confessional persuasions, its application was wider: peace meant maintaining a stable social and political order, existential security in public life, and freedom (formulated positively) to enjoy this order and existential security, and (formulated negatively) without to be threatened by others in this order and existential security.

In Angelus pacis Comenius did not discuss a situation of enduring peace only to promote a national and international legal system that offers citizens their existential security. He also discussed peace as a necessary condition to achieve general welfare.5 This idea did not involve individual or group interests, but general interest that was at issue in the meaning of general, all-embracing, welfare. Although one may conclude from Angelus pacis that Comenius was a pacifist, he was not an unconditional pacifist. I will explain the conditions.

4. Conditions of Enduring Peace

In early of 1667, a couple of months before the publication of Angelus pacis, Comenius wrote a pamphlet of 28 pages, entitled Publication of the Prophetic Book (Voluminis prophetici ... dimissio). This pamphlet was intended to draw the attention of the diplomats in Breda to another issue: in it, he criticised the pope and the Habsburg emperor Leo1 Comenius, J.A.: Angelus pacis/ Friedensengel, eingeleitet, erl. und hrsg. von Walter, Eykmann, Würzburg, Königshausen en Neumann, 1993.

2 Machiavelli, N.: The Prince (1532). XXI., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.

3 Comenius, J.A.: Angelus pacis/ Friedensengel, 21.

4 Quoted from Blekastad, M. Comenius, Versuch eines Umrisses von Leben, Werk und Schicksal des Jan Amos Komensky. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget/Praha: Academia, 1969., 241.

5 Comenius, J.A.: Angelus pacis/ Friedensengel, 4.

68 Sárospataki Füzetek 20. évfolyam 2016-2