In the previous article, I mentioned that the Christian-democratic project might be promising for Armenia. Let’s briefly consider what it is. In Germany, this project began to be implemented after the defeat in the Second World War. It is known that political institutions were practically crushed during the Nazi regime.
The attitude of the National Socialists towards the Church was also more than cold: they believed that a German and, say, a French cannot pray to the same God, the “chosen nation” must have its own, special mythology. In other words, the universalism of the Christian faith was unacceptable to the Nazi ideology. However, both the Catholic and Protestant churches were able to largely maintain their structures during Hitler’s time, unlike political and social organizations.
The initial impulses of German Christian-democracy were given in the Vatican even before the Second World War. In the 1930s, the German Jesuit Oswald von Nell-Breuning, whose works presented proposals to reform the Catholic Church, had great influence in the Holy See. The German thinker called not so much to come to terms with democracy and market relations (which contradicted Catholic dogmas), but to accept them as an inevitable reality and “work” with them. On the other hand, secular leaders began to realize that being Christian did not necessarily mean being pro-monarchy. Catholics and Protestants came together on that ground, and immediately after the war, in June 1945, they formed the Christian-Democratic Union. That movement gained momentum also because Catholic and Protestant priests went to the common people and shared their worries.
After losing the war, the stressed, deprived Germans had to be offered a program that would differ from the “laws of the jungle” typical of liberalism, where the strongest, the fittest should win in a brutal competition. Christian-democracy is based on the so-called “solidarism,” which rejects extreme individualism. The rich should help the poor, the state should subsidize social projects, including social entrepreneurship. The citizens of the country, of course, have different statuses, different financial opportunities, but they must overcome difficulties together, standing behind each other.
And the most important thing is that thanks to Christian-democracy, the philosophical and ethical problems affecting humanity returned to politics. I think it is clear from this why this project can be interesting for us Armenians.
Aram Abrahamyan
