Piotr Mazurkiewicz

Does Politics Bring Any Hope at All?

Hope seems to be a theological virtue. Ultimately, it always refers to eschatology.

Since the French Revolution, we have been dealing in politics with immanentization
of eschaton. Politics mobilizes crowds, especially totalitarian politics, promising
them some form of temporal salvation. The ideology used for this purpose serves as
a surrogate religion. An important role in this ideology is played by the category of
progress, understood as the inevitable accumulation of human achievements. After
the collapse of totalitarian systems at the end of the twentieth century, we know that
they did not offer people hope but only a utopia. However, the discrediting of these
systems does not prevent people from creating monuments or organizing devotions to
those who invented them (vide: celebrations in honor of Karl Marx in Trier in 2018).
Therefore, questions arise: Does this mean that politics brings any hope? Is it possible
to protect people from putting false hope in politics? What changes the process of
secularization of European societies and the growing presence of Islam in our view of
the relationship: politics and hope?

If [hope] wanted (…) to make its pure springs out of pure water,
it would never find enough of it in My entire creation. Yet it is
bad waters that hope transforms into its springs of pure water.
Hence it always holds pure water in abundance. But that is also
why it is Hope… And there lies the most beautiful secret that
exists in the garden of the world. (Charles Péguy)1.

Dante placed the inscription: «Abandon hope all ye who enter here»2 above
the gates of hell. Saint Isidore of Seville wrote on a similar note: «To commit a
crime is to kill the soul, but to despair is to fall into hell»3. Despair, the anti-thesis

1 C. Péguy, Przedsionek tajemnicy drugiej cnoty, Wydawnictwo Karmelitów Bosych,

Kraków 2007, p. 175.
2 Dante Alighieri, Devine Comedy, Cantos III, 9, https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/
dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-3/ (11.05.2019).
3 Saint Isidore of Seville, De Summo Bono, II, 14, after: Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologiae, II-II, q. 20 a. 3, http://www.logicmuseum.com/wiki/Authors/Thomas_Aquinas/
Summa_Theologiae/Part_IIb/Q20 (12.05.2019).
106 PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ Philosophical News

of hope, builds around Man a closed universe, where nothing good can happen.
It changes the world into a great coffin, from which it is impossible to get out.
One can only expect the day, when the lid will become shut. One is wholly aware
of this. One is internally reconciled in the sense that one had already abandoned
trying to get outside.
Once we are unable to face the reality, we are exposed to two dangers, to forms
of hopelessness: despair and presumption (praesumptio) – as noted by Josef Pieper,
after Saint Augustine4. Ista enim duo occidunt animas, aut desperatio, aut peruersa
spes5. The former anticipates failure, the latter unrealistically promises fulfilment.
Despair is not passive. «Despair, much like hope, assumes a longing»6 – writes
Pieper. We ourselves long and wait for disaster, usually unconsciously. We say: I
succumb to doubt. The second form of experiencing hopelessness is an attempt to
escape from the present into what seems to “lie ahead”, by way of some deceptive
promises and false hopes. One grasps at various promises trying not to know that
they come from false prophets and either cannot come true, or if they do nothing
of importance changes in one’s life7. Audacity as an attempt to escape “ahead” is
yet another pathological form of hope.

1. Faith and expectation

In the popular expression “hopefully”, the word “hope” usually means

a specific wish for the future. Something may happen, but it is not sure if it
will happen. In this case one rather expects than hopes. Gabriel Marcel uses
the phrase “let us hope that”, as opposed to the general “hopefully”8. While
expectation denotes uncertainty, hope – in the language of faith – suggests some
degree of certainty as to the future «Hope does not disappoint» – writes Saint
Paul (Romans 5:5). However, this is not a guarantee that some fact or other
will occur, that one promise or another will be fulfilled. The transition from
anticipation, from “I hope that,” to “I hope” occurs in the process made of
freeing ourselves from various specific expectations with which initially hope
was connected. It means recognizing that «hope exceeds my imagination, so that
I even forbid myself to imagine the object of my hope»9. One can go as far as
saying: hope expects nothing. T.S. Eliot writes:

4 J. Pieper, O miłości, nadziei i wierze (Faith, hope, love), W drodze, Poznań 2000, p. 169.
5 Saint Augustin, Sermones 87,8, http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/augustine/serm87.
shtml (18.03.2019).
6 J. Pieper, O miłości, nadziei i wierze, p. 172.
7 Cf. Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 84, http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/
apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.
html (12.05.2019).
8 G. Marcel, Homo viator. Wstęp do metafizyki nadziei, Instytut Wydawniczy Pax,
Warszawa 1984, p. 33.
9 Ivi, p. 46.
Philosophical News DOES POLITICS BRING ANY HOPE AT ALL? 107

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting10.

In a sense, hope is helpless in the face of the situation and yet it expects an
unspecified salvation in the future. It is not a hope for something, but hope per se.
If it brings confidence, it is through a lack of fear for the future. The hopeful are
free from a paralyzing fear of a future that cannot be controlled. Why? Because
the future does not depend on our efforts. We do not have the power that would
allow us to control it completely. The only way to “control” the future is to place
oneself in the hands of someone one can rely on completely. To entrust oneself.
The righteous man “transfers” his case to God, completely “burdens” God with
his fate11. «Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act» (Psalm
37:5). Entrusting one’s uncertainty to God does not disperse the darkness of the
situation, does not explain what will happen. The psalmist does not disclose what
God will do in the future. He only makes a general promise, that God will act for
the good of Man. Marcel uses the term “to place one’s hope in”, and points out,
that the wrong choice of someone or something that Man places his hope in, may
turn the hope into an act of idolatry12. However, there is Someone with regard to
whom taking the risk of unrestricted faith and forbidding oneself to despair is most
definitely rational13. Experiencing our helplessness, aware of the impossibility of
saving ourselves on our own, we can nevertheless be certain the future will bring
an unspecified salvation, because the future is in the hands of the One who loves
us. «The future is in the hands of God – said Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati – and it
cannot be better»14.
Another aspect of this calm expectation for the future is stressed by Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger. The weakness of man concerns not only his inability to control
the world, but also his own life. Its other side is sin and the feeling of guilt that
accompanies it. If God remembered all the sins of man, he would inevitably
deserve to be condemned. Hence, says Ratzinger, the future is hope only when it
is forgiveness15.
The Psalmists often evoke the tension between expected salvation based on
human calculation, and entrusting the future to God. «Some trust in chariots
and some in horses…» (Ps 20,7). Yet neither “horses” nor “chariots” will save

10 T.S. Eliot, East Coker, in: The same, Wybór poezji, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy,
Warszawa 1988, p. 91.
11 Cf. G. Ravasi, Psalmy. Psalmy 22-68 (Psalms. Psalms 22-68), Wydawnictwo Salwator,
Kraków 2007, p. 40.
12 Cf. G. Marcel, Homo viator. Wstęp do metafizyki nadziei, p. 58.
13 Cf. ivi, p. 56.
14 P.G. Frassati, Lettera a Marco Beltramo, 3 febbraio 1925, in Lettere e pensieri del Beato
Pier Giorgio Frassati, www.centrolapira.it/Portals/0/Tabor/Parole di vita... (15.03.2019).
15 Cf. J. Ratzinger, Przyszłość wiary. Refleksje teologiczne (The future of faith. Theological
reflections), Wydawnictwo WAM, Kraków 2019, p. 65.
108 PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ Philosophical News

Israel. «Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who
trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very
strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord!» (Is.
31:1). «The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his
great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might
it cannot rescue» (Psalm 33:16-17). The hope of which Saint Paul says that “it
can never fail” is unfailing – as he explains – «because God’s love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us» (Ro
5:5). It is not a diligent calculation of strengths and possibilities that guarantees
peace of mind as to the future, but the credibility of the person to whom the
future has been entrusted. «O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and
forevermore!» (Psalm 131:3).
Pope Francis points out that in the case of Abraham, the living model of trust,
the basis was a word from God. «The word spoken to Abraham contains both a call
and a promise. First, it is a call to leave his own land, a summons to a new life, the
beginning of an exodus which points him towards an unforeseen future. The sight
which faith would give to Abraham would always be linked to the need to take this
step forward: faith “sees” to the extent that it journeys, to the extent that it chooses
to enter into the horizons opened up by God’s word. This word also contains a
promise: Your descendants will be great in number; you will be the father of a
great nation (cf. Gen 13:16; 15:5; 22:17)»16. Every step into the unknown opens
a new space, only in which the promise can be fulfilled. «Abraham’s faith – the
Pope underlines – would always be an act of remembrance. Yet this remembrance
is not fixed on past events but, as the memory of a promise, it becomes capable
of opening up the future, shedding light on the path to be taken. We see how
faith, as remembrance of the future, memoria futuri, is thus tightly bound up with
hope. Abraham is asked to entrust himself to this word. Faith understands that
something so apparently ephemeral and fleeting as a word, when spoken by the
God who is fidelity, becomes absolutely certain and unshakable, guaranteeing the
continuity of our journey through history»17.

2. Hope and Optimism

Hope is something completely distinct from optimism. «Optimism is simply a

matter of optics, – writes Richard John Neuhaus – of seeing what we want to see
and not seeing what we don’t want to see. Hope is only when it is hope with eyes
wide open to all that challenges hope»18. In the case of an optimist all problems

16 Pope Francis, Lumen fidei, 9,

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/pl/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20130629_
enciclica-lumen-fidei.html (16.03.2019).
17 Pope Francis, Lumen fidei, 9-10.
18 After: C. Chaput, Strangers in a strange world. Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-
Christian World, Henry Holt and Company, New York 2017, p. 148.
Philosophical News DOES POLITICS BRING ANY HOPE AT ALL? 109

can be solved by a visit to an optician and the order of rose-tinted glasses. An

optimist is a person convinced that “things will work out, somehow”. The sources
of this conviction can be varied, as pointed out by Marcel, from purely emotional,
through to seemingly rational ones. The optimists owe their “rationality” – in their
own opinion – to the use of empirical, metaphysical, or theological arguments. The
optimist presents himself as an exceptionally keen observer, who can look at things
at the right angle and from the right distance. «If your eyesight is as good as mine,
you will not fail to notice that… If your vision is weaker than mine, do not hesitate
to trust my testimony, my acumen…» – as Marcel describes this type of thinking19.
According to him the difference between optimism and hope lies in the lack of an
external reference point in the former, i.e. taking into account religious faith20. This
results in the lack of resistance of optimism to the stress-test. Ultimately, therefore,
optimism can work in the face of everyday challenges, but always fails when it
comes to a genuine trial.
Hope does not promise there will be no difficult moments in life. God does not
promise things will be easy. Nevertheless, He helps survive those moments with
dignity, with a raised head. The question of hope stands before man in all acuteness
when life seriously tests him; when everything seems to lose its meaning, and he
looks into the eyes of despair. In a sense, hope is the fruit of disappointment.
It arises from the purification of man from ordinary, everyday hopes, which
ultimately are but an illusion. Herbert Plügge calls this type of hope “authentic”
or “fundamental”21.
It is only when there is a risk of losing hope that we realise what hope is, and
what it means for us. In a sense, the situations that cause the temptation of despair
contribute most to the growth and maturing of hope. Hope is born in a situation of
trial. It protests when what is most precious is under threat. «It is an act, owing we
actively or victoriously fight the temptation [of despair]»22. Hope is not something
that one can receive as a gift or go somewhere to buy it. It is the ability to trust.
Thus, it is a measure of man’s readiness to entrust his life to the One, who is
worthy of complete trust. In this sense, hope is in the hands of human freedom,
and at the same time it gives man «freedom as a measure of hope ultimately placed
in resurrection»23. It is not the fruit of man’s passiveness, but the answer he gives
in the face of danger. “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you,” says the Psalmist
(Psalm 56:3). Hope gives man a kind of valor that makes him unafraid even when
he looks into the eyes of evil. «For wickedness, – we read in the Book of Wisdom –
of its nature cowardly, testifies in its own condemnation, and because of a distressed
conscience, always magnifies misfortunes. For fear is nought but the surrender
of the helps that come from reason; and the more one’s expectation is of itself

19 G. Marcel, Homo viator. Wstęp do metafizyki nadziei, p. 35.

20 Ivi.
21 Cf. H. Plügge, Wohlbefinden und Missbefinden. Beiträge zu einer Medizinischen
Anthropologie, Tübingen 1962, after: J. Pieper, O miłości, nadziei i wierze, p. 15-16.
22 G. Marcel, Homo viator. Wstęp do metafizyki nadziei, p. 37.
23 P. Ricoeur, Podług nadziei, Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, Warszawa 1991, p. 286.
110 PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ Philosophical News

uncertain, the more one makes of not knowing the cause that brings on torment».
(Wisdom 17:11-13). Hope says: you are too great and too different to lie. There are
values worth living and dying for. Remember, «Satan is short of breath»24. Devils
will soon flee like cockroaches. You are not the only one, who cares for you. «You
are worth more than many sparrows» (Matthew 10:31). Someone exists who is
faithful and worth trusting.
A moment of trial is also a time when one should be ready to «give an answer
to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have» (1Peter
3:15), that is to testify, that hope is that driver one’s life.

3. Things more precious than life

In confrontation with evil, man’s desire is not limited to the desire to save his
life at any price. He is driven by elementary values, the adherence to which allows
him to experience himself as a value. Ultimately, the point is to be good and be
considered good in the eyes of the Other, which means that human existence is
justified. Hope evokes God as a witness of human dignity. It does not refer to the
possibility of one day finding oneself in some “society of satiety” or “tax haven”,
but in real paradise, or on other words, being recognised as worthy of eternal life.
“Hope – writes Josef Pieper – is either a theological virtue, or is no virtue at all”25.
Love tells man: it is good that you exist. Hope says: you will not die. I will not
allow it. I am holding you by the hand and I shall lead you through the gates of
death. «If man has no hope – Pieper writes – concerning ‘the other world,’ in the
sense that it can be realized on the other side of death, then man has no hope at
all»26. Hope that does not save from death is no real hope. «If only for this life we
have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied» – writes Saint Paul (1
Corinthians 15:19)27. «In this sense it is true that anyone who does not know God
[reads Spe salvi], even though he may entertain all kinds of hopes, is ultimately
without hope, without the great hope that sustains the whole of life (cf. Eph
2:12)»28. He fails to understand the word of hope received in the rite of Baptism.
The words found in the Letter to Hebrews are very moving: «Because God
wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of
what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two

24 K. Iłłakowiczówna, Daj mi złagodnieć, in ivi, Sługi nieużyteczne, Wydawnictwo

Poznańskie, Poznań 1982, p. 361.
25 J. Pieper, O miłości, nadziei i wierze, p. 156.
26 J. Pieper, Nadzieja a historia (Hope and History), Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, Warszawa
1981, p. 47.
27 Josef Pieper emphasises that hope, which is not a theological virtue is no virtue at all.
For in a natural area hope can be at the disposal also of objective evil, without, for that matter
ceasing to really be hope (Cf. J. Pieper, O miłości, nadziei i wierze, pp. 156-157).
28 Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 27:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/pl/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_
enc_20071130_spe-salvi.html (16.03.2019).
Philosophical News DOES POLITICS BRING ANY HOPE AT ALL? 111

unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to
take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope
as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the
curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become
a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek» (Heb 6:17-20). Hope is thus a
secure and firm anchor for the soul cast already by the other shore, since spe salvi
facti sumus – «For in this hope we were saved». (Ro 8:24). «We hold Christ with
our hand of hope. We keep Him and He keeps us. But it is something greater that
Christ holds us than that we hold Him. For we can only hold Him for as long as
He holds us» – writes Paschasius Radbertus29.
Holding on to the “anchor cast behind the curtain” also has temporal
consequences. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews addresses believers who
have experienced persecution, saying: «you had compassion on the prisoners,
and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property (hyparchonton–Vg.
bonorum), since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession (hyparxin–
Vg. substantiam) and an abiding one» (Heb 10:34). Thus Benedict XVI comments,
«Hyparchonta refers to property, to what in earthly life constitutes the means of
support, indeed the basis, the ‘substance’ for life, what we depend upon. This
‘substance,’ life’s normal source of security, has been taken away from Christians in
the course of persecution. They have stood firm, though, because they considered
this material substance to be of little account. They could abandon it because they
had found a better ‘basis’ for their existence – a basis that abides, that no one can
take away»30. Christian hope enables heroism, the heroism of the present, to which,
for example, so many Christians in the Middle East now bear witness. «Faith is not
merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent:
it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting
for, and this present reality constitutes for us a ‘proof’ of the things that are still
unseen. (…) The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is
touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those
of the present and those of the present into those of the future»31.

4. Two kingdoms and several possible forms of pathological hope

Moving the reflection on hope into the area of political life definitely complicates
matters, although at first glance it should simplify them. If we define hope as
directly related to eternal life, it is quite clear that politics does not carry such
hope. Its aspirations are – or at least should be – only temporal, and the category
of salvation does not apply to states or nations. The Pastoral Constitution on
the Church, however, reads: «Hence, while earthly progress must be carefully

29 Paschasius Radbertus, after: J. Pieper, O miłości, nadziei i wierze, p. 162.

30 Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 8.
31 Ivi, 7.
112 PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ Philosophical News

distinguished from the growth of Christ’s kingdom, to the extent that the former
can contribute to the better ordering of human society, it is of vital concern to the
Kingdom of God» (GS 39). There is therefore, according to the teaching of the
Church, a relationship between the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God,
between one great hope and the little hopes of man. What is its nature?
Before Pilate, Jesus says: «My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my
servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my
kingdom is from another place» (Jn 18:36). In the Old Testament, there are two
distinctly inseparable directions in which hope is heading: the expectation of a
new, transformed world in which people «will beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning hooks» (Is 2:2-4; Mic 4:1-3), and the perspective
of the suffering Servant of Jahweh, who saves the world by accepting contempt
and suffering32. We therefore have the expectation of the Messiah, who, to put
it bluntly, saves the world through politics, makes the world better or even
establishes a golden age on earth, and of the Messiah, who, having been rejected
by the people, separates the religious dimension from the political dimension and
inaugurates the non-political Messianic Kingdom33. According to Benedict XVI,
this second variation, the separation of politics and faith, politics and the people of
God, belongs to the essence of the message of the Gospel. However, it was possible
only by «a truly complete loss of all external power, by the radical stripping of
the Cross»34. «The Kingdom of God is hidden beneath its opposite, the cross»
– writes Paul Ricoeur35. In his commentary on the Eucharistic Speech from the
Gospel of St. John, Benedict XVI states that when listening to the words of Jesus,
people understood that they should not place their hope for the establishment
of the earthly kingdom of Israel in Him: «In listening to this address the people
understood that Jesus was not the Messiah they wanted, one who would aspire
to an earthly throne. He did not seek approval to conquer Jerusalem; rather he
wanted to go to the Holy City to share the destiny of the prophets: to give his life
for God and for the people. Those loaves, broken for thousands, were not meant
to result in a triumphal march but to foretell the sacrifice on the Cross when Jesus
was to become Bread, Body and Blood, offered in expiation. Jesus therefore gave
the address to bring the crowds down to earth and mostly to encourage his disciples
to make a decision. In fact, from that moment many of them no longer followed
him»36. Also, the choice made by the people of Jerusalem between Barabbas and

32 Cf. J. Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI, Jezus z Nazaretu. Od chrztu w Jordanie do Przemienia

(Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration), Wydawnictwo M,
Kraków 2007, p. 49.
33 Cf. the same, Jezus z Nazaretu. Od wjazdu do Jerozolimy do Zmartwychwstania (Jesus
of Nazareth Part Two, Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection),
Wydawnictwo Jedność, Kielce 2011, p. 185.
34 Ivi, pp. 183-185.
35 P. Ricoeur, Podług nadziei, p. 285.
36 Benedict XVI, Angelus, 19.08.2012:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/angelus/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_
ang_20120819.html (11.05.2019).
Philosophical News DOES POLITICS BRING ANY HOPE AT ALL? 113

Jesus during the trial was not accidental. «Barabbas was a messianic figure. (...)
there were two messianic figures opposite each other, two forms of messianism.
(...) It seems as if [Barabbas] was a double of Jesus who makes the same claims, but
in a different manner»37. The people therefore had to choose between two forms of
messianism and two forms of the messianic kingdom, and their actual choice leaves
no doubt as to which side they opted for.
The tension between the promise of mortality and the promise of eternity
constantly accompanies the Church in history and reveals various practical forms
of the pathology of hope. Benedict XVI is particularly concerned with two of them.
The first is to place one’s trust in false means that are supposed to achieve a good
end. It involves, above all, the discovery that the kingdom of Christ is weak in itself,
and therefore constantly under the threat of being stifled or even defeated by the
forces of evil. Jesus teaches: «I am sending you out like sheep among wolves» (Mt
10:16) He sends his pupils «not only among the wolves, but also to the very centre
of the wolves», and at the same time orders them to show the gentleness of sheep.
We remember the meaningful example of King David preparing to fight Goliath. He
was right to believe that if he laid lions and bears dead, he would have no trouble
defeating the “uncircumcised Philistine”: «The LORD who rescued me from the paw
of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine» (1
Sam 17:37). Yet when Saul dressed David in armour, the latter said: «I cannot go in
these», (…) «because I am not used to them» (1 Sam 17:39). And He took them off.
All it took was the name of the Lord, the God of Hosts, and a few stones. Too heavy
armour would only be a hindrance. When man is confronted with all the evil of the
world, he faces temptation to fight it with the same methods as the world. However,
this leads nowhere. By sending helpless disciples into the world, Jesus reveals to
them a new “law of war”. “And as you act in this way”, writes St. John Chrysostom,
«manifest the gentleness of the sheep, even though you are to go among wolves, and
not only among wolves, but to the very centre of them (…) For in this way I will best
show my power when the sheep will defeat the wolves, even though they are in the
midst of them, they will receive innumerable wounds from bites, and not only will
they not perish, but they will even convert them. The fact that they will change the
wills and minds of wolves is more admirable and more important than killing, along
with the fact that there were only twelve of them, and that the whole world was full
of wolves»38. Man, sent as a sheep among wolves, faces the temptation to become
like wolves, which inevitably leads to self-destruction. God has promised to help the
sheep of which he is the shepherd. But he is not a shepherd of wolves. “As long as
we are sheep, we win, even if we are surrounded by thousands of wolves, we come
out victorious and defeat them. But when we become wolves, we surrender, because
we lack the help of a shepherd. He is not the shepherd of wolves, but of sheep; He

37 J. Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI, Jezus z Nazaretu. Od chrztu w Jordanie do Przemienia, p. 47.

38 Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, 33, http://www.
documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0345-0407,_iohannes_chrysostomus,_homilies_on_the_
gospel_of_matthew,_en.pdf (11.05.2019).
114 PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ Philosophical News

steps away and leaves you, for you do not want his power to be revealed. If you show
meekness in persecution, all victory is attributed to Him39.
The Church was faced with the temptation to link the hope of effective action with
the support of political power when the Roman emperors considered Christianity
to be a factor that could bind the empire together. «The powerlessness of faith,
the earthly powerlessness of Christ, must be helped by giving them political and
military power»40. Throughout the centuries, the temptation to strengthen faith
through political power returned in various forms. In the end, it always ended
badly for the Church, which lost its freedom in the embrace of power and had to
recognize as its own the criteria adopted by political power at a given point.
The second form of a pathology of hope is in a sense the opposite of the first
one. It concerns the horizontalizations of salvation41. Thus, Christianity would
be bringing man earthly hope in the form of a utopia of the “better world”42.
«A Christian empire or the secular power of the Pope», writes Benedict XVI,
«is no longer a temptation. However, presenting Christianity as a recipe for
progress and general prosperity, considered to be a proper goal of all religions
and therefore also Christianity, is a new form of the same temptation. Today it
takes the form of a question: What has Jesus brought us if He has not built a
better world?»43. Interestingly enough, in 2007, hence in the beginning of his
pontificate, Benedict XVI reminds us of a minor work by Vladimir Solovyov
entitled “A Story of the Anti-Christ”. in which the title character, endowed with
an honorary doctorate in theology from the University of Tübingen, presents
himself as the worldly saviour of mankind44.
The removal of God to the margin of social life that we are witnessing today does
not mean giving up hope for final salvation, but rather placing it in the temporal
sphere. The “Kingdom of God” – remarks Joseph Ratzinger – has been reduced to
the belief in a Utopia of a “better world” that lies not “above” us but “ahead” of

39 Ibidem.
40 J. Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI, Jezus z Nazaretu. Od chrztu w Jordanie do Przemienia, p. 46.
41 «The temptation today is to reduce Christianity to merely human wisdom, a pseudo-
science of well-being. In our heavily secularized world a “gradual secularization of salvation”
has taken place, so that people strive for the good of man, but man who is truncated, reduced to
his merely horizontal dimension. We know, however, that Jesus came to bring integral salvation,
one which embraces the whole person and all mankind, and opens up the wondrous prospect of
divine filiation». (John Paul II, Redemptoris missio,11:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/pl/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_
enc_07121990_redemptoris-missio.html) (15.03.2019).
42 Cf. J. Ratzinger, Difficulties confronting the faith in Europe today, Laxenburg, 2.05.1989:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/incontri/rc_con_
cfaith_19890502_laxenburg-ratzinger_en.html# (15.03.2019).
43 J. Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI, Jezus z Nazaretu. Od chrztu w Jordanie do Przemienia,
pp. 48-49.
44 Cf. V. Solovyov, A short story of the Anti-Christ:
http://www.rassegnastampa-totustuus.it/cattolica/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/A-SHORT-
STORY-OF-THE-ANTI-CHRIST-V.Soloviev.pdf (11.05.2019).
Philosophical News DOES POLITICS BRING ANY HOPE AT ALL? 115

us45. People and societies seek their ultimate fulfilment in the world of the present,
in the form of the ultimate, perfect society (la società definitiva)46. Fulfilment is
identified with a state in which man lacks nothing (fulfilment-society)47 «except
maybe the same, only in larger quantities”. Human hope will be satisfied in the
future, which will be just like the present “only with more options”48. From the
point of view of Christianity this means a reduction of faith to some form of “intra-
worldly eschatology» (eschatologia intramondana)49.
The future, which is at stake in Christian hope and which, as mentioned, has
an influence on the present is of a particular kind. The author of the Letter to
the Hebrews perfectly illustrates this, when writing about Abraham, who, «when
called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went».
However, the author of the Letter states, even though he reached Canaan, that he
did not achieve what he was promised, «they only saw them and welcomed them
[only] from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth».
Although they reached Canaan, they were still looking for their homeland, and
did not think about the one they had left, namely Ur of the Chaldees, for «if they
had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity
to return». This means that indeed «they were longing for a better country – a
heavenly one» (Heb 11:8-19). The fulfilment of the promise, therefore, was not to
come in a future which was “ahead” of Abraham, as it were, but in a future which
was “above” Abraham. As always in Christian hope, it is about eternal life and the
Kingdom of God, definitively achieved in another aeon.

5. Faith in progress as a new religious utopia

Looking at the way in which modern Europeans live their hopes, it is

essentially about what is “ahead” of them, not “above” them. It is a promise to
be fulfilled at this time, on earth and, moreover, by “the hands of man”; it is a
promise of a “better world” to be achieved through the constant improvement
of the present world by man, until all that bothers man in any way and prevents
him from being completely happy is removed. In other words, today’s faith in
progress has replaced the old religious faith in God, promising man worldly
salvation that awaits him in the near future. «Progress as constant improvement
is the correlate of the idea of salvation»50 – as Chantal Delsol writes. Or – as

45 Cf. J. Ratzinger, Difficulties Confronting the Faith in Europe Today.

46 Ibidem.
47 Cf. J. Pieper, Nadzieja a historia, p. 49.
48 T. Eagleton, Kultura a śmierć Boga. Refleksje nad debatą o Bogu (Reason, Faith, &
Revolution. Reflections on the God Debate), Aletheia, Warszawa 2014, p. 56.
49 J. Ratzinger, Powołanie i przeznaczenie Europy. Europa obietnicą czy zagrożeniem?
(Vocation and destiny of Europe. Europe is a promise or a threat?), Znaki Czasu, 19/1990, p. 4.
50 C. Delsol, Kamienie węgielne. Na czym nam zależy? (Corner Stones. What we care
about?), Wydawnictwo Znak, Kraków 2018, p. 178.
116 PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ Philosophical News

Terry Eagleton puts it – it is the «translation of the term ‘afterlife’ into the
language of liberal rationalists»51.
Faith in progress therefore plays the role of a secular, immanent religion, which
is a surrogate of transcendent religion52. In order for the belief in progress to
appear as something unambiguously good and inevitable at the same time, it was
necessary to go through several stages53:
1. Blaise Pascal made a significant change in the perception of history by
proposing that human history be seen as the fate of one man who never dies and
constantly enriches his knowledge.
2. Thanks to the belief in the accumulation of achievements, the ageing of the
world has ceased to be a problem. This concerns not only the accumulation of
material goods, as in the case of the bourgeoisie, but also the accumulation of all
spiritual and cultural achievements of humanity. Charles Péguy calls this way of
thinking about progress the theory of the savings bank. «It is a small intellectual
savings bank, automatic in the sense that we constantly put something into it, but
never make a withdrawal. (...) It also establishes a huge universal savings bank, a
common savings bank for the entire humanity»54. So, we have accumulation and
capitalization, which, like escalators, makes us ascend and never descend, all
the way to eternity. From the point of view of the idea of progress, since old age
is the most distant period from childhood, the old age of universal man should
not be sought in antiquity, when people, like small children, had extremely
limited knowledge. They were merely born earlier. The truly old people were
born recently, with access to all the knowledge and skills of humanity. They are
burdened with the experience of the past. Human progress is therefore made as
the world ages55.

51 T. Eagleton, Kultura a śmierć Boga. Refleksje nad debatą o Bogu, p. 105.

52 Thanks to propaganda the revolution: “assumed that quasi-religious character which so
terrified those who saw it, or, rather, became a sort of new religion, imperfect, it is true, without God,
worship, or future life, but still able, like Islamism, to cover the earth with its soldiers, its apostles,
and its martyrs.” (A. de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and The Revolution, Harper & Brother
Publishers, New York 1856, p. 27, https://archive.org/details/oldregimeandrev00tocqgoog/
page/n6; 11.05.2019).
53 More: P. Mazurkiewicz, Category of progress in the Catholic social doctrine, in M. Jevtić,
M. Veković (eds.), Politology of religion. Biannual conference 2018. Conference proceedings,
Center for Study of Religion and Religious Tolerance University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political
Sciences, Belgrade 2019, s. 257-280.
54 «C’est la théorie même et l’idée du progrès. Elle suppose, elle crée une petite caisse
d’épargne intellectuelle particulière automatique pour chacun de nous, automatique en ce sens
que nous y mettons toujours et que nous n’en retirons jamais. (…) Le grand triomphe du monde
moderne: épargne et capitalisation, avarice, ladrerie, économies, cupidité, dureté de cœur,
intérêts; caisse d’épargne et recette buraliste» (C. Péguy, Clio. Dialogue de l’histoire et de l’âme
païenne, in: the same, Œuvres en prose complètes, vol. 3, Gallimard, Paris 1992, p. 1031).
55 «Non seulement chacun des hommes s’avance de jour en jour dans les sciences, mais
que tous les hommes ensemble y font un continuel progrès à mesure que l’uni vers vieillit, parce
que la même chose arrive dans la succession des hommes que dans les âges différents d’un
particulier. De sorte que toute la suite des hommes, pendant le cours de tant de siècles, doit être
Philosophical News DOES POLITICS BRING ANY HOPE AT ALL? 117

3. The optimism of the advocates of progress is not limited to stating that certain
states of affairs are better than others (and therefore reforms that bring us closer
to these better states of affairs should be supported), but also implies that this
approximation also occurs automatically over time. The new, therefore, as a rule,
is better than the old. This illusion, as Roger Scruton points out, is based on «the
conviction that time can have its own causal power»56. Therefore, it is enough to
do nothing to make the future better.
4. The Grotius formula postulating a description of the world “as if there were
no God” profoundly changed the meaning of scientific work. Science is to explain
the world in a way that is free from any metaphysical or theological controversy. It
no longer needs theology, moreover, theology – like ethics today – is perceived as
an obstacle rather than an aid in the development of science (i.e. in an increasingly
precise description of the world as if there were no God). Science discovers the
laws of the functioning of the world perceived more and more mechanically, but at
the same time the progress of knowledge means the change of the status of these
laws from eternal laws of nature to laws that are true only temporarily, replaced
with time by others that are more true because they are newer. There is also a
completely new relationship between science and practice. Francis Bacon’s goal for
science is not only to know the laws of nature in the sense of better understanding
them, but also to acquire knowledge that gives us the power to rule the world and
to transform it according to the will of man. It is about “the victory of art over
nature” (victoria cursus artis super naturam)57. If there is no God, then there is
no act of creation through which things, including man, would receive from the
Creator an unchangeable nature.
5. A mechanistic vision of nature and reducing nature to the level of on object
of technical manipulation brings about serious theological consequences. Benedict
XVI remarks, «Up to that time, the recovery of what man had lost through the
expulsion from Paradise [as a result of the original sin] was expected from faith
in Jesus Christ: herein lay ‘redemption’. Now, this ‘redemption’, the restoration of
the lost ‘Paradise’ is no longer expected from faith, but from the newly discovered
link between science and praxis». The interplay of science and praxis is to lead, in
time to the emerging of a totally new world, the kingdom of Man, a substitute for

considérée comme un même homme qui subsiste toujours et qui apprend continuellement: d’où
l’on voit avec combien d’injustice nous respectons l’antiquité dans ses philosophes; car, comme
la vieillesse est l’âge le plus distant de l’enfance, qui ne voit que la vieillesse dans cet homme
universel ne doit pas être cherchée dans les temps proches de sa naissance, mais dans ceux qui
en sont les plus éloignés? Ceux que nous appelons anciens étaient véritablement nouveaux en
toutes choses, et formaient l’enfance des hommes proprement; et comme nous avons joint à leurs
connaissances l’expérience des siècles qui les ont suivis, c’est en nous que l’on peut trouver cette
antiquité que nous rêverons dans les autres» (B. Pascal, Préface sur le traité du vide, https://www.
ebooksgratuits.com/ebooksfrance/pascal_preface_sur_le_traite_du_vide.pdf) (13.03.2019).
56 Cf. R. Scruton, Słownik myśli politycznej (Dictionary of Political Thinking), Zysk i S-ka
Wydawnictwo, Poznań 2002, p. 294.
57 F. Bacon, Novum Organum, I, 117, http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bacon/bacon.
liber1.shtml (16.03.2019); Cf. Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 16.
118 PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ Philosophical News

heaven58. Faith in progress presupposes the belief that scientific knowledge gives
man more and more control over his own fate, and therefore also the possibility
to control the future. Therefore, man, knowing the deterministic laws of history’s
development, may “accelerate” the future59.
6. Technical development and industrialization fashioned new social context.
«After the bourgeois revolution of 1789, the time had come for a new, proletarian
revolution: progress could not simply continue in small, linear steps. A revolutionary
leap was needed»60. The leap is to accelerate the course of history and to lead to an
imminent enactment of the end of history, the advent of a society so perfect, that
further improvement would be impossible. The drama of history will be definitely
eliminated61. «Once the truth of the hereafter had been rejected, it would then be
a question of establishing the truth of the here and now. The critique of Heaven
[Benedict writes of the achievements of Marx] is transformed into the critique of
earth, the critique of theology into the critique of politics. Progress (…) towards the
definitively good world, no longer comes simply from science but from politics – from
a scientifically conceived politics that recognizes the structure of history and society
and thus points out the road towards revolution, towards all-encompassing change»62.
7. The secular belief in progress leads to the domination of pragmatism in the
social space. Over time, this will also be reflected in the field of Christian theology.
“The primacy of the future”, notes Joseph Ratzinger, «is combined with the primacy
of practice, the superiority of human activity over all other attitudes. Theologians,
too, are becoming more and more open to such a vision, and orthopraxis is
replacing orthodoxy. ‘Eschatopraxis’ seems more important than eschatology»63.
Artificial fertilizers are more effective at increasing soil yields than prayer. «The
same argument can be found in modern ‘religious’ literature today»64, literature
also marked by the terminology of a “better world” or even “better Church” which
should replace the one founded by Jesus Christ65.

Believing in a better future does not solve man’s problem. Even the longest and
best life on earth does not solve the problem of despair. It does not remove the
prospect of the inevitability of death. Man still asks himself questions: «What is this

58 Cf. F. Bacon, The New Atlantis, http://www.fcsh.unl.pt/docentes/rmonteiro/pdf/

The_New_Atlantis.pdf (13.03.2019).
59 Cf. R. Scruton, Słownik myśli politycznej, p. 294.
60 Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 30.
61 Cf. C. Delsol, Nienawiść do świata. Totalitaryzmy i ponowoczesność (Contempt of the
world. Totalitarianism and postmodernity), Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, Warszawa 2017, p. 53.
62 Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 20.
63 J. Ratzinger, Przyszłość wiary. Refleksje teologiczne, p. 104.
64 Ibidem.
65 «The idea of a better Church [writes Benedict XVI] created by ourselves, is in fact
a proposal of the devil, with which he wants to lead us away from the living God, through a
deceitful logic by which we are too easily duped». (Benedict XVI, The Church and the scandal of
sexual abuse, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/full-text-of-benedict-xvi-the-church-
and-the-scandal-of-sexual-abuse-59639) (11.05.2019).
Philosophical News DOES POLITICS BRING ANY HOPE AT ALL? 119

sense of sorrow, of evil, of death, which continues to exist despite so much progress?
What purpose have these victories purchased at so high a cost?, [if they do not
resolved man’s fundamental concerns]?» (GS 10). Nowadays kiosks and bookshops
at airports and railway stations are full of super-optimistic literature and Yuval
Noah Harari’s books belonging to this genre are breaking records of popularity.
Harari states for example that mankind has reached such a level of technological
development that it is able to guarantee the immortality of every human being on
Earth. Death is only a “technical problem” that we will definitely deal with in the
near future. All we have to do is just wait a little longer. These are not long-term
problems66. On the one hand, this once again raises the question of the causality of
time. On the other hand, if a solution is found in the future, it is not clear why people
whose destiny is only limited to “this” life should commit themselves voluntarily
to improve a world they will never enter. If temporal faith really motivates them to
make such sacrifices, then, as Ratzinger stresses, it is not real faith, but a placebo67. A
world without death, as Harari imagines it, will also be a world without heaven, hell,
and reincarnation, and therefore without Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism. No God
will be needed, for his place will be taken by man68.
However, belief in progress is also confronted with its results to date. From this
point of view progress itself turns out to be ambivalent. It is not only about the
so-called transitional phase, well known to us from experience, which, in Marx’s
opinion, was only to precede the advent of communist paradise69. The point is
that progress and regress go hand in hand, as it were (Cf. GS 9). The inevitable
accumulation of human achievements does indeed take place, but only in relation
to the material products of human activity, especially in the field of technology,
although accumulation can also refer to material products of culture70. Although
the idea of progress was broadly criticised already in the 19th century, its ambiguity
was revealed with extreme sharpness in the 20th century. None of what we have
achieved under the heading of progress has protected Europe from becoming one
enormous funeral home. «Without doubt, [writes Benedict XVI] it [progress]
offers new possibilities for good, but it also opens up appalling possibilities for
evil – possibilities that formerly did not exist. We have all witnessed the way
in which progress, in the wrong hands, can become and has indeed become a
terrifying progress in evil»71. The obvious ambiguity of progress cannot be ignored.
Auschwitz and Hiroshima are blurred in our memories, but the prospect of a

66 J. Pieper, Nadzieja a historia, p. 32.

67 Cf. J. Ratzinger, Difficulties confronting the faith in Europe today.
68 Cf. Y. N. Harari, Homo Deus. A Brief History of Tomorrow, Harper Perennial, New
York 2018, p. 22.
69 Cf. Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 21.
70 «Moral reflection, self-knowledge, understanding of the human condition are, from
a certain point of view, accumulated as instruments of life. There is a moral and spiritual
‘experience’ of mankind, which is capitalised in the same way as material wealth» (P. Ricoeur,
Podług nadziei, p. 181).
71 Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, 22.
120 PIOTR MAZURKIEWICZ Philosophical News

global environmental disaster or “human enhancement”, until the replacement

of man with some post-human being, moves many minds today. Man also would
like to be liberated from this so progressive face of the world. Progress, therefore,
although it solves many of mankind’s temporal problems, not only fails to offer
true hope, but only provides a kind of placebo, and even its temporal promises are
often ambiguous. Christian hope, on the other hand, should serve as an exposing
factor in the face of all the pathologies of hope. It should make man and society
immune to the voice of various false prophets proclaiming new forms of Utopia.

6. Ethics – not eschatology or eschato-practice.

Let us once again recall a sentence from Gaudium et spes: «Hence, while earthly
progress must be carefully distinguished from the growth of Christ’s kingdom, to
the extent that the former can contribute to the better ordering of human society, it
is of vital concern to the Kingdom of God» (GS 39). This sentence is accompanied
by a footnote referring to the encyclical Quadragesimo anno, in which Pius XI
speaks of a possible analogy between a social organism and the Mystical Body of
Christ, in a hypothetical situation when the former is properly ordered72. In the
encyclical we will find more sentences describing the desired relationship between
social reality and the Church. Among other, we read: «Certainly the Church was
not given the commission to guide men to an only fleeting and perishable happiness
but to that which is eternal. [Indeed] «the Church holds that it is unlawful for her
to mix without cause in these temporal concerns»; [however] the Church can in
no way renounce the duty God entrusted to her to interpose her authority, not
of course in matters of technique for which she is neither suitably equipped nor
endowed by office, but in all things that are connected with the moral law. For
as to these, the deposit of truth that God committed to Us and the grave duty of
disseminating and interpreting the whole moral law, and of urging it in season
and out of season, bring under and subject to Our supreme jurisdiction not only
social order but economic activities themselves»73. In Quadragesimo anno we have
a clearly defined purpose and mission of the Church, and at the same time a clearly
expressed conviction that part of the mission is a sense of responsibility for the
moral dimension of social and economic life. It is not driven by a concern for its
own interests, but by its concern in the face of the suffering of thousands of people,
the threat of spiritual harm, through to the risk of losing eternal life if a godless
political system were to prevail on earth. «The Church of Christ, built upon an
unshakable rock, has nothing to fear for herself, as she knows for a certainty that
the gates of hell shall never prevail against her [cf. Mt. 16:18]. Rather, she knows

72 Cf. Pius XI, Quadragesimo anno, 90:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_
quadragesimo-anno.html (11.05.2019).
73 Ivi, 41.
Philosophical News DOES POLITICS BRING ANY HOPE AT ALL? 121

full well, through the experience of many centuries, that she is wont to come forth
from the most violent storms stronger than ever and adorned with new triumphs.
Yet her maternal heart cannot but be moved by the countless evils with which so
many thousands would be afflicted during storms of this kind, and above all by the
consequent enormous injury to spiritual life which would work eternal ruin to so
many souls redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ»74. Therefore, the relationship
between the two kingdoms runs through ethics, and through ethical reflection we
know that certain systemic solutions should be excluded in advance.
A similar thought about the type of relationship between the two kingdoms can
be found in Joseph Ratzinger, who states that: «The Message of the Kingdom of God
has political significance, not through eschatology, but through political ethics. The
question of Christian responsibility for politics is not a matter of eschatology, but
of moral theology, and in this way the message of the Kingdom of God has decisive
content to convey to politics. Politics is all about the noneschatological»75. Ethics is
therefore a tool that makes it possible to assess both the value of cultural heritage
coming from the past, and to decide responsibly what deserves to be creatively
continued, and to preserve freedom in relation to current projects of political change;
freedom based on the human capacity for evaluation. This corresponds perfectly to
the reminder contained in Gaudium et Spes that the Church’s duty is at all times and
in all places «to pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public order
when the fundamental rights of a person or the salvation of souls require it. In this,
she should make use of all the means – but only those – which accord with the
Gospel and which correspond to the general good according to the diversity of times
and circumstances» (GS 76). The connection between politics and religion through
ethics and not eschatology is also a reminder that Christian hope is not linked to any
political project, but to the expectation of the Kingdom of God. In other words,
politics brings man preview of accomplishments of various small expectations, but
it has nothing to say about this one hope, the loss of which means that we say that
man no longer has any hope76. It brings man different small hopes, rouses different
expectations in the plural and offers nothing to support hope in the singular.

Piotr Mazurkiewicz
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University
p.mazurkiewicz@uksw.edu.pl

Fr. Piotr Mazurkiewicz has been ordained in 1988 for the diocese of Warsaw.
1996 – PhD in sociology. 2001 – habilitation in political science. 2009 – professor
in political science. 2008-2012 – COMECE secretary general; 2013-2014 –

74 Ivi, 144.
75 J. Ratzinger, Eschatologia – śmierć i życie wieczne (Eschatology – death and eternal life),
Księgarnia Świętego Wojciecha, Poznań 1984, p. 76.
76 Cf. J. Pieper, Nadzieja a historia, p. 14.
adviser in Pontifical Council for the Family. Main books: Church and democracy;
Europeanization of Europe. On the cultural identity of Europe in the context
of the process of European integration; Violence and politics; Europe as kinder
surprise; Two towers and a minaret. Essays on the Catholic social teaching.