Christian Humanism: Fatherhood, Economics, and Relational Ontology

In continuity with the first two chapters of the second part, Giulio Maspero’s thesis is that the cultural dimensions to which one must turn in order to find the reasons for the meta-crisis of both liberalism and socialism, highlighted by Donati, are metaphysics and anthropology, specifically the relationship between modernity and fatherhood. The chapter is divided into two parts: The first offers a philosophical–theological narrative that links three main metaphysical systems to different understandings of the role of the father in the societies characterized by those ontological frames. A sketch of the differences implied for the socioeconomic perspectives by these relationships in the cases of Ancient Greek, Jewish, and Christian cultures as follows. In the second part, three phenomenological analyses in very different research fields are presented: René Girard’s work on myths and sacrifice, Michael Tomasello’s cognitive approach to the relational specificity of the human being, and Pierpaolo Donati’s relational sociology. These different approaches seem to converge toward an acknowledgment of the value of relation. This may explain the real difference between two kinds of markets: one characterized by pure competition and imitation, as in consumerism, another marked by the possibility of a true ontological novelty thanks to the relational element. Christian humanism has produced great progress through the latter approach, made possible by Trinitarian revelation. But this means that there is no freedom without relations and no fraternity without a father, who takes care of these relations. So the future of liberalism depends on the concrete ability to develop a culture that makes fathers grow. In this sense, it seems urgent to become aware of the importance of Christian Humanism, with the Trinitarian ontology and anthropology that characterize it, as secularization is corroding the foundations of this possibility, thus exposing us to the real danger of an economic apocalypse.