Emergenza antropologica, emergenza educativa

(Anthropological Emergency, Educational Emergency)

Abstract

The open letter published in 2011 on “Avvenire” by Pietro Barcellona, Paolo Sorbi, Mario Tronti and Giuseppe Vacca invites to a “new alliance” between believers and non-believers in order to face what the four authors name an “anthropological emergency,” that is, a situation characterized by the technical possibility of wide manipulations of human life and the commodification of human life itself within an uncontrolled globalization. In view of such new alliance, the four scholars invite lay people, Catholics, and believers of other denominations or religions (especially within the area of Italian center-left) to a shared reflection on Pope Benedict XVI’s magisterium. Reflecting later on their own letter, the four scholars have highlighted the connection between the anthropological emergency that is the focus of their open letter and the educational emergency to which Pope Benedict has devoted several remarks. In this essay, I will reflect on these two concepts, elucidate their connection further, and emphasize the role played by hope or trust in the goodness of life as condition for education and, in general, for all non-objectifying attitudes toward human beings.