Introduction
The environment in which we live is particularly important for understanding ourselves and our communities. In the second half of the 20th century the idea of contextuality as a recognition and acknowledgement of the medium that defines us has been reinforced in both theology and the social sciences. As a result, liberation, feminist and black theologies, among others, were born overseas, responding sensitively to the social challenges of the time.[1] At the same time, the paradigm of systems thinking has also gained ground, according to which there is also no reality independent of the observer, and we are in a continuous interaction with the environment around us in terms of cognition.[2] From our point of view, we could say that we are part of the history of the world, the history of Europe, and the history of Hungary.
In my study, first I would like to present the wounded collective identity concept of András Máté-Tóth, a Catholic theologian and religious scholar, as an approach that pays special attention to the impact of the historical context of the Central and Eastern European region on the formation of social and individual identity. The exploration of the concept also touches on the theme of religiosity, from which I would like to highlight the concepts of woundedness and securitisation. Secondly, I will sketch the work of two Protestant theologians along these two concepts, highlighting the emphasis related to the topic, as a kind of response to the problem of wounded collective identity. One of them is Miroslav Volf, who turned to the theme of proper remembrance and reconciliation in the wake of the confessions he suffered in communist Yugoslavia. Another is Helmut Weiß, who, as a Transylvanian-born man forced to flee his homeland in 1944, formulated the essence of his concept of pastoral care as the affirmation of the certainty of existence. I hope that these attempts to respond will also contribute to a dialogue that can be healing for both our national and individual identities.
The reality that defines us
Researchers studying Central and Eastern European societies have mostly interpreted the processes taking place here according to theories that were born in the social milieu of Western Europe and North America in the 1950s and 1970s.[3] “And although social analyses based on the paradigms of modernisation (Talcott Parsons) and the closely related paradigms of secularisation (Peter Berger, Bryan Wilson) help reveal many features of the Hungarian situation, they seem to have a kind of regional wolf-blindness”.[4] Taking this geopolitical and geocultural perspective into account, other interpretations are possible. András Máté-Tóth, among others, points this out when he identifies pain, the historical injustices and traumas suffered, and the role of victimhood associated with them as the most defining features of the Central and Eastern European region.[5]
To understand his theory, we should also look at the ideas of Piotr Sztompka, who distinguishes four characteristics of traumatogenic social change. We consider a potentially traumatogenic change to be one that is sudden, comprehensive, fundamental and unexpected. The first is the sudden and rapid onset, which causes a state of shock. The second is a broad and sweeping change that affects everyone. The third is the radical, profound and fundamental feature of traumatogenic change, which affects central issues of social life and personal destiny. The fourth is the anticipation of change and the associated mood of disbelief.[6] If we look at the Central and Eastern European region, including Hungary, from this perspective, we can discover its distinctive features.
István Bibó can be seen as a forerunner of the trauma-centric interpretation of the region, who in his works (The Misery of the Small States of Eastern Europe; The Distorted Hungarian Character, Hungarian History in a Dead End) referred to the decisive role of small statehood and suffering in the life of the Hungarian people as early as the 1940s. Like him, others have also paid particular attention to the consequences of the Second World War and the losses and social transformations that followed (Stefano Bottoni: The Waiting West, Timothy Snyder: The Bloody Zone).[7] András Máté-Tóth also joins this line of thought, identifying woundedness as the defining metanarrative of the region, and of Hungary in particular.[8] In the following I would like to briefly present his theory and its cornerstones.
Wounded collective identity
András Máté-Tóth defines his theory of the region with the following minimalist definition:
The wounded collective identity is a metaphorical construction of collective consciousness – based on the specific experience of Central and Eastern Europe – with significant elements such as trauma-centred memory, a sense of threat and an obsessive need for permanent self-determination. Wounded collective identity is not a descriptive category. It is an approach to properly understand the specific dynamics of the region. A wounded collective identity is like an ancient code to decode social and religious processes.[9]
Its primary feature is its historical scars. These are the collective experiences of violence and radical incursions that have largely defined Hungarian history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Without being exhaustive, I can list the effects of world wars and revolutions, changes in national borders, genocides, forced measures and the traumas of radical social change.[10]
Closely linked to this is the notion of intermediate space, which is a consequence of the geopolitical and geocultural situation of the region. Already from the time of the Roman Empire onwards, the area in the buffer zone between West and East was strongly influenced by the pressure of the surrounding powers, by mutual invasions and the resulting changes in the borders.[11]
This results in a sense of victimhood, fear of foreign empires, a sense of being a minority, a sense of being trapped and transient, which greatly influences the collective identity of societies in the region.[12]
In support of this theory, Máté-Tóth and his colleagues have conducted several empirical studies on the topic, the most significant findings of which I would like to present below.
Theory in the light of empirical data
Just as geographical units and their changes affect the wider society, they are also reflected in the psyche of individual people.[13] For this reason, Máté-Tóth and his colleagues set out to investigate the existence of wounded collective identity in Hungary and the factors influencing it,[14] as well as the sense of threat and the religious-based search for security resulting from a traumatised national view.[15]
Their surveys show that in Hungarian society there is a very high level of agreement with the statement describing the feeling of collective woundedness. The chances of being wounded are higher among those who perceive the country as vulnerable, are more prone to authoritarianism, are more religious, attach importance to public commemoration of historical events, and are rural. Accordingly, wounded collective identity is determined by social memory, personality, welfare expectations, religiosity and demographic factors (settlement types).[16] It has also been found that personal, subjective religiosity is linked to a wounded collective identity through the pursuit of security (securitisation).[17]
With reference to international research, it is also worth mentioning the increasing need for security in response to collective threats, the hostile attitude towards external groups with a victim role, the lack of trust, the reduced empathy and the inability to compromise. At the same time, there is a risk that the suffering of other, external groups may be questioned, relativised, or even become a potential source of danger in the eyes of the group in the victim role.[18] In the context of the 2016 Eurobarometer survey on the value choices of young Europeans aged 16-30, György Csepeli also points out that “the value of security is much more important for Central and Eastern Europeans than for Western Europeans. Security is the most important value in both Central and Eastern Europe. The choice is not a coincidence, obviously linked to the fact that Central Europeans and Eastern Europeans live in much greater insecurity than their Western European counterparts.”[19]
Máté-Tóth thinks it is important to highlight two aspects of his thought at the intersection of social science and theology: the notions of woundedness and securitisation as perspectives that vividly capture the social and religious psychological imprint of the Central and Eastern European region, including Hungary.
Woundedness instead of modernity, securitisation instead of securalisation
As I have already pointed out above – following Máté-Tóth’s line of thought – the theories interpreting the social changes of the last two centuries have been formulated in the most developed European and North American societies. However, its universal validity is questionable in many contexts. However, in the light of the historical experience of the Eastern and Central European region that I am examining, wounded as a determinant of social processes becomes more pronounced.[20] The history and identity of the region is clearly distinguished from other European regions by the non-organic social development and vulnerability to large empires, for the reasons already described. We call these wounds in a summary metaphor. These wounds represent the primary identity of the area, through the filter of which the social processes taking place in the region can be interpreted.[21]
The basic principle of secularisation is that the more modern a society is, the less religious it becomes. However, this perspective, like modernity theory, leads to a strong simplification of social self-understanding. The question of ontological, existential and social security is crucial for the Central and Eastern European region, including Hungary.[22] If we accept that the main characteristic of the territory is woundedness, then it follows that the religious dimension of wounded collective identity is closely, and perhaps primarily, linked to the sense of ongoing threat. Consequently, we can say that in the region, both in the personal and in the public sphere, the quest for security, securitisation, is of paramount importance.[23]
Theological connections
Based on empirical studies, Máté-Tóth and his colleagues have shown that people with a stronger wounded identity – i.e. a significant part of Hungarian society – see potential in religion to improve the coexistence of people and to heal social wounds.[24] And while the theological reflection on this question has not been elaborated in detail, it has provided two important findings that lead us further into the Protestant theological response.
First of all, from a theological point of view, it gives itself the wounds of the region to be compared with the wounds of Jesus Christ. This centre of the Christian tradition, the wounded and risen Christ, offers a strong spiritual and emotional connection with the suffering human community of each moment. At the same time, the wounds are not only portrayed in a negative light, but also, by framing them through faith, remind us of the resurrection, the possibility of healing. And Christian communities are presented as healing communities that can work for reconciliation and cooperation in the wider social community.[25]
Another important idea that Máté-Tóth raises in the context of healing a wounded collective identity is the reality of religion, which is an imperative for all of us. To this end, he invokes the definition of the Protestant theologian Paul Tillich: “What affects us in an absolute way is independent of any contingent condition of human existence. No part of ourselves or of our world is excluded from it.”[26] In this definition, religion appears as the connecting link. Regardless of ethnicity, state, cultural differences, borders. It can be understood as a reality that permeates and weaves together the fabric of both individual and societal life. It is a common ground on which to build, despite the wounds and the contradictions.[27]
Following on from these two important ideas, let’s explore the work of two Protestant theologians who developed their theological concepts as natives of the region and bearing its scars.
Right remembrance and reconciliation (Miroslav Volf)
“The greater suffering a person experiences, the more deeply it is embedded in their identity. Therefore, he sometimes tends to see himself primarily as a »sufferer«, and the people around him see him in the same way.”[28] Miroslav Volf, a Croatian-born evangelical theologian, experienced the brutal reality of this claim when he was subjected to months of interrogation during his mandatory conscription in communist Yugoslavia in 1984. His only crime was that he married a woman of American nationality and studied theology in the West. But this was enough to make the authorities of the time see him as a spy and an anti-establishment rebel.[29] And although the interrogations ended once and for all when his military service was over, the haunting memory of them continued to haunt his life. And in 1993, when the infamous Serbian Chetniks had been ravaging his homeland for months, locking people in concentration camps, raping women, burning churches and destroying cities, he began to ask himself with renewed vigour: how could he embrace the wholly other, the evil other? How would this act affect the human and Croatian identity? How could you justify your embrace? What would give it strength? He was aware that as a theologian he could not hang up his convictions, his rebellions, his doubts, like a coat when he entered his study. So he decided to deal with it.[30]
The starting point of Volf’s concept is that to redeem our past, it is not enough to remember,
we must learn to remember correctly. For him, the redemption of the past is part of the great story of God’s healing of a sick and broken world, past, present and future.[31] So, from a Christian point of view, right remembrance means “looking back on the grievances we have suffered through the lens of Christ’s death and resurrection.”[32] This leads us to the idea that Christ died not only in solidarity with those who suffer, but also for those who abuse. That alongside the couplet of suffering and deliverance, the couplet of enmity and reconciliation is also a dominant part of his redemptive work.[33]
So by welcoming hostile humanity into the divine community through the death and resur-
rection of Jesus Christ, God is also setting a pattern for how human beings should relate to one another. According to Volf, the way to do this is through repentance, forgiveness, making room in ourselves for the other and healing memories. It helps us to move from victimhood, from exclusion – through long and arduous inner work – to embrace.[34]
The power for this difficult and rough road comes from the self-giving love that comes to
the centre of the self, as the Apostle Paul says: “I am crucified with Christ: it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me“ (Gal 2:20). This enables the sufferer to give of himself for others and to let others come close to him, instead of being closed in on himself.[35] This is how Volf arrives at the theology of the embrace, which he distinguishes in four stages.
The first movement: arms outstretched. This expresses openness and the desire for the other.
That I have made space within myself for the other and allow them to enter. In doing so, I invite them to connect.
The second movement: waiting. A gently softening opening that respects the other’s boundaries. Not coercing, not manipulating, but waiting to be reciprocated.
The third movement: closing the arms. The mutual connection, entering into the other’s space. Listening to the needs of the other.
The fourth movement is to extend the arms again. Freeing the other and respecting their difference. It is also an opportunity for another embrace.[36]
The aim is to break the cycle of violence, the principle and practice of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It does not mean passively serving ourselves to others, but it does mean a radical critique of the system of violence.[37] And perhaps healing our collective wounds.
Strengthening the certainty of existence (Helmut Weiꞵ)
Helmut Weiꞵ has also experienced the region’s hardships first hand, and reflects on them as follows:
Every pastoral care worker knows how crucial the individual life journey is in pastoral care work. The emotional experiences and experiences that we more or less process and store up influence our relationships, affect our encounters and determine our spiritual life and religious beliefs… My family comes from Transylvania. I was born there and my mother and grandparents had to flee from there in 1944. My father, who was in the war at the time, only came back to us after he was taken prisoner of war. The escape, of which I have two early memories, had a profound effect on me. I grew up in a small town in northern Bavaria, in Franconia, where we were always considered strangers among the locals.[38]
His personal story – embedded in the history of the Central and Eastern European region – helps us to understand the main emphases of his concept. For him, the main task of pastoral care, as a religious activity, is to strengthen the certainty of existence. The process of learning (or relearning) to trust life.[39]
His idea is similar to Dietrich Rössler’s concept of security of life, who also refers its promotion, strengthening, renewal and foundation to the competence of pastoral care.[40] But Weiß finds the static nature of this unsatisfactory. His concept is also linked to Paul Tillich’s notion of courage, who sees it as the power of trust rooted in God to overcome anxiety.[41] Weiß also emphasises this trust, highlighting its processual nature, its dynamism, likening the certainty of existence to a kind of search for a path.[42]
He uses the work of Jesus as a basis for affirming the certainty of existence and overcoming the dangers that threaten life, who, according to biblical accounts, was intensely concerned with human need. Jesus saw people’s hunger and satisfied it. He noticed broken relationships and restored them. He opened up new life opportunities for those in the grip of self-destruction. He healed physical wasting. He knew the sin, and forgave it. He defended people against the wrath of nature. Last but not least, he took away the power of death. He worked his whole life to restore people’s trust in life to give them the security that is essential for life.[43] However, this security is not a static state, but rather a relationship. It is a trust in God, which always involves a search.[44]
Summary
Examining András Máté-Tóth’s theory of wounded collective identity and the Protestant attempts to respond to it, we can see that the churches have a special responsibility and opportunity to strengthen and heal the identity of Hungarian society and the people living in it. However, the notion of collective trauma can be misleading, in the sense that it uniformises the woundedness of a region and tries to identify similar trauma patterns for everyone. In contrast, Gábor Hézser offers the concept of the trauma community, “a community of solidarity of those who have to cope with the consequences of the same complex event, in their own way, but not independently of their community environment.”[45] In a similar way, the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians senses the duality of this: “Bear one another’s burdens… For each one bears his own burden.” (Gal 6,2.5) To do this, we can help by right remembrance, reconciliation and affirmation of our certainty of being, using the tools and relationality of pastoral care.
Finally, let me conclude my reflections with an encouraging biblical image that paints for us a hopeful future for the subject of my study, again highlighting the importance of the church: “All sorts of fruit trees will grow on the banks of the stream, from here and beyond. Their leaves shall not wither, their fruit shall not fail: every month a new one shall spring up, for water flows there from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall be for food, and their leaves for medicine.” (Ezekiel 47:12)
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Csepeli György: A vén Európa ifjúsága, Educatio, vol. XXVIII., 2019/1, 34–41.
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References
- Máté-Tóth András: Sebzett identitás Kelet-Közép-Európában, Koinónia, vol. XXIII., 2016/3, 3088. ↑
- Hézser Gábor: Miért? Rendszerszemlélet és lelkigondozói gyakorlat, Budapest, Kálvin Kiadó, 2001, 15. ↑
- Máté-Tóth András – Balassa Bernadett: A traumatizált társadalmi tudat dimenziói – adatok a sebzett kollektív identitás elméletéhez, Szociológiai Szemle, vol. XXXI., 2022/2, 58. ↑
- Balassa Bernadett – Gyorgyovich Miklós – Máté-Tóth András: A vallási szekuritizáció és a sebzett kollektív identitás modellje a magyar társadalomban empirikus adatok alapján, Replika, vol. XXXIII., 2022/4, 135. ↑
- Máté-Tóth: Sebzett identitás, 3089. ↑
- Piotr Sztompka: The Trauma of Social Change: A Case of Postcommunist Societies, in Jeffrey C. Alexander – Ron Eyermen – Bernhard Giesen – Niel J. Smelser – Piotr Sztompka (eds.): Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, University of California Press, 2004, 158–159. ↑
- Máté-Tóth – Balassa: A traumatizált társadalmi tudat, 58–59. ↑
- Máté-Tóth András: Sebzett kollektív identitás – autopoietikus szempontok Kelet-Közép-Európa vallási folyamatainak elemzéséhez, in Máté-Tóth András – Povedák Kinga (szerk.): Hegemóniák szorításában – vallás Kelet-Közép-Európában, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 2023, https://mersz.hu/hivatkozas/m1100hsz_book1. (Letöltés: 2024. március 10.) ↑
- Máté-Tóth András: Sebzett kollektív identitás és vallásértelmezés, Erdélyi Társadalom, vol. XX., 2022/1, 16. ↑
- Máté-Tóth: Sebzett identitás, 3090–3091. ↑
- Máté-Tóth: Sebzett kollektív identitás, 15–16. ↑
- Máté-Tóth András – Szilárdi Réka: Szekuritizáció és vallás Kelet-Közép-Európában, REGIO, vol. XXX., 2022/1, 32. ↑
- Máté-Tóth: Sebzett identitás, 3091. ↑
- Máté-Tóth – Balassa: A traumatizált társadalmi tudat, 63. ↑
- Balassa – Gyorgyovich – Máté-Tóth: A vallási szekuritizáció, 139. ↑
- Máté-Tóth – Balassa: A traumatizált társadalmi tudat, 72-73. ↑
- Balassa – Gyorgyovich – Máté-Tóth: A vallási szekuritizáció, 145. ↑
- Máté-Tóth – Szilárdi: Szekuritizáció és vallás, 31-32. ↑
- Csepeli György: A vén Európa ifjúsága, Educatio, vol. XXVIII., 2019/1, 39. ↑
- Máté-Tóth: Sebzett kollektív identitás, 17. ↑
- Máté-Tóth: Sebzett identitás, 3090–3091. ↑
- Máté-Tóth: Sebzett kollektív identitás, 18. ↑
- Máté-Tóth – Szilárdi: Szekuritizáció és vallás, 34. ↑
- Máté-Tóth – Balassa: A traumatizált társadalmi tudat, 69–70. ↑
- Máté-Tóth: Sebzett identitás, 3091–3092. ↑
- Paul Tillich: Systematische Theologie, Band I., Stuttgart, Evangelisches Verlagswerk, 1956, 19. ↑
- Máté-Tóth András: Sebzett kollektív identitás – autopoietikus szempontok, on. ↑
- Miroslav Volf: Emlékeink gyógyulása, Budapest, Harmat Kiadó, 2016, 88. ↑
- Miroslav Volf: Emlékeink gyógyulása, 9–10. ↑
- Miroslav Volf: Ölelés és kirekesztés, Budapest, Harmat Kiadó, 2001, 11–12. ↑
- Miroslav Volf: Emlékeink gyógyulása, 50. ↑
- Ibid., 113. ↑
- Ibid., 125. ↑
- Miroslav Volf: Ölelés és kirekesztés, 112. ↑
- Ibid., 77–79. ↑
- Ibid., 158–162. ↑
- Ibid., 297–298. ↑
- Helmut Weiꞵ: Lelkigondozás – szupervízió – pasztorálpszichológia, Kolozsvár, Exit Kiadó, 2011, 13–14. ↑
- Ibid., 55. ↑
- Dietrich Rössler: Grundriꞵ der Praktischen Theologie, Berlin/New York, Walter de Gruyter, 1986, 182. ↑
- Paul Tillich: Létbátorság, Budapest, Teológiai Irodalmi Egyesület, 2000, 196. ↑
- Helmut Weiꞵ: Lelkigondozás, 55. ↑
- Ibid., 33–38. ↑
- Ibid., 55. ↑
- Hézser Gábor: Létezik-e „kollektív trauma” – és ha nem, miért igen?, Embertárs, vol. XVIII., 2020/3, 211–212. ↑