Page - 13 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

13 | www.limina-graz.eu point, transnational and global solidarity seem to be the only answer to the current political renationalization. Yet, we need to consider whether a one- sided theological focus on supra- or post-national concepts fails to recog- nise the effectively unbroken ideal of the nation state and is no longer able to provide adequate solutions. The question is – Is there a critical and con- structive theology of state that can recognise and acknowledge the state’s power and relevance without nationalist constraints or dismissing it? All these conflicting tensions demand of us to imagine the unimaginable; or in the words of Weizsäcker: “Since the beginning of humanity there has been, as far as we know, no world peace; we are presented with the unprecedented. The history of humanity teaches us that the so far unprecedented can often become reality one day. This requires extraordinary efforts; and if peace is to be humane than these efforts must be moral.”2 The realisation of prophetic-visionary utopias as envisioned in the holy scripts of the Jewish-Christian tradition lies at the basis of the fundamen- tal idea of the United Nations: The bronze sculpture by the Russian art- ist Yevgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich in the garden of the UN headquarters in New York is a sculptural reference to Biblical lore, showing a man ham- mering a sword into a ploughshare and entitled “We shall beat our swords into plowshares” (1957; it became known as the stylistic symbol of the GDR peace movement, 1980).3 The text reference appears twice in the prophetic books of the Bible: “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isa 2:2–4 [cited from the English Standard Version] // Mic 4:1–3)4 lImIna 2:1 | new nationalisms and the vision of a shared humanity | editorial 2 Ibid. 3 Cf. images in Klaus Koenen, art. Schwerter zu Pflugscharen, in: Wi- BiLex, online: https://www.bibel- wissenschaft.de/de/stichwort/11412/ [8.3.2019] 4 In Joel 4:10, the promise of peace is sarcastically inverted to become the polar opposite through disso- nant experiences of reality. “The history of humanity teaches us that the so far unprecedented can often become reality one day.”