Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Miroslav Kocúr: For God and Nation: Christian National Populism
For God and Nation: Christian National Populism Parliamentary democracy in its liberal version took the path of separating the legislative, executive and judicial power and their independent control. Consequently, religion became in essence a private business of individuals. It is socially binding only for members of the community of those who share identical beliefs and know each other. Due to geographic and social mobility of the modem world, large religious communities are encountering previously unknown rate of anonymity among community members. The spirit of community where everyone knows everybody else and they support each other has become almost nonexistent in large Christian communities. As a result, religion began to play a socio-cultural rather than personality-spiritual role. While these two dimensions do not exclude one another, they have their own particular forms and ways of expression in practical social life. On the socio-cultural level, a return to common past, language, habits and culture seems very useful. This reminds one very much of efforts by Slovak Christian intellectuals including theologians to present love for the nation as a natural horizontal dimension and a practical demonstration of love for God. Similar ideas appeared in a book Rozprava o kultúrnosti [Treatise on Culture] by Ladislav Hanus published in 1943, i.e. during the first Slovak Republic.26 The personality-spiritual function of Christianity is gradually becoming the matter of individuals’ private and personal attitudes. In this sense of the word, spirituality is often associated with mysticism that does not really strive for socio-cultural extensions of Christian convictions. Christianity and the national principle, national and ethnic affiliation In the time of an increasingly open debate on ethnic exclusiveness of smaller cultural communities, globalization becomes a true challenge. This challenge ensues not only from cultural exclusiveness but also from values embodied in cultures and related ethical standards. The issue of nationality and ethnic affiliation is not a central biblical issue; however, the biblical context forms the common foundation and provides the key to interpretation and early understanding of ancient texts that date back to the time when the so-called Jewish-Christian civilization was bom, first as a result of mutual exchange and later that of mutual confrontation. In the Hebrew Bible and its early Greek translations as well as in the final part of biblical collection of books referred to by experts as the New Testament or the New Treaty, the notions of people and nation are very precisely defined. The more a community becomes aware of its specifics ensuing from interaction with surrounding cultures, the more obvious is the circumscription of terms such as ‘people’ and ‘nation’. ‘People’ is a term that refers to a community of people that is aware of its privileged status 235
