Sublime

In the Prussian Upper House, to which he belonged ex officio as lord mayor of Cologne, he voted against the Enabling Act. He refused an invitation to welcome Hitler at Cologne airport during the election campaign. And in the week before the election he ordered the removal of Nazi flags from bridges and other public monuments. Adenauer was dismissed

But value pluralism and peaceful co-existence are only possible within a shared polity that is committed to the common good: the individual fulfilment and mutual flourishing of all persons. Otherwise plural values will dissolve as political tribes clash and a revived social Darwinism takes hold once again.

Theology, for Schmitt, lingers across the so-called “modern divide” in the political.

torn asunder. There is the kingdom of the preached word of God, and there is the kingdom of the sword. The kingdom of the Church, and the kingdom of the world. The realm of the spiritual office, and the realm of secular government. The sword can never bring about the unity of the Church and of the faith. Preaching can never govern nations. But the

It is not in the power of humans to bring about the Kingdom of God, according to this theology; but one cannot serve Christ unless one seeks to live towards the Kingdom, which inevitably must involve the attempt to create conditions that manifest in concrete social, political and economic forms the justice of God’s reign. The

Living in a climate of deep insecurity, Jesus, faced with so narrow a margin of civil guarantees, had to find some other basis upon which to establish a sense of well-being. He knew that the goals of religion as he understood them could never be worked out within the then-established

Christianity to champion the equality of all men; its business today will be to defend passionately human dignity and reserve.

The duties of nations, as he viewed them, were their own justification; oratorical embellishment could only distract from that basic understanding. Adenauer’s unobtrusive style also suggested the role he foresaw for the new Germany in helping to shape a new Europe through consensus.

Conceda-me, Senhor, serenidade para aceitar as coisas que não posso modificar, coragem para modificar aquelas que posso e sabedoria para reconhecer a diferença. REINHOLD NIEBUHR