An Alternative Political Philosophy of Emancipation

The article discusses the role of Christian messianism in the process of emanpcipation of man and society. On the one hand, Christian messianism would be nothing without its institutionalization by the Church, on the other hand, the history of Christianity has shown that there have always been stark contradictions between the two institutions of the Church: hierarchy and messianism. In the context of this vocational dilemma of the Church, the author explores the exceptional significance of Christianity as a religion of salvation, of mankind. Thanks to its messianism, Christianity developed a dialectic of history and the end of time, which does not reduce emancipation to its purely immanent and inevitable realization. An example of such a messianic revival is Luther’s Reformation with its two-kingdom doctrine, which opposed the millenarian concept of Christ’s kingdom. In post-Christian European societies, a similar peril could emerge. Following the communist project of collective emancipation and the advent of a perfect society on earth, the Western world is now traversed by another equally immanent emancipatory ideology, but now centered on the individual (evident in movements such as feminism, wokism, and cancel culture). This represents another secular form of millenarianism. The author posits that Christian messianism has the potential to offer a contemporary political philosophy of emancipation. This philosophy acknowledges both individual aspirations (such as individual rights) and collective ones (like social justice and an economy that serves humanity rather than vice versa), but it never treats these aspirations as absolute or ultimate, instead offering an alternative form of emancipation of a spiritual nature. The democratic and liberal individuals are caught in a paradox: they are dominated by the passion for possession, yet simultaneously seek an existence centered on personal dignity. This is where the fundamental emancipatory task of Christian messianism resides.

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