Beginning last spring Nordwest Radio in Bremen started a series of programs with the theologian and psychologist Eugen Drewermann. The first program was a call-in show on the topic of War and Peace and it is well-worth downloading and listening to (it is a two-hour program). Drewermann is a provocative thinker and mesmerizing speaker; he is a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church. Eugen Drewermann was a Roman Catholic priest whose license to preach was revoked by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1992.
In the program, Drewermann discusses his first break with the Church over the issued of conscientious objection to war. In the 1950s the Catholic Church in Germany prohibited non-participation in a "just war" scenario. This got the young Drewermann interested in the pyschological origin of war and the role of religion in promoting war. He also wanted to find answers for why the most destructive wars of modern history – and the development of weapons of mass destruction – originated in ostensibly "Christian" nations. The war-impulse is deeply embedded in the human psyche and once war happens religion is powerless to stop it. So the church promotes and rationalizes war with actions and theories – such as "just war". War evolves out of the human "spiral of fear", shaped by the struggle for survival of early humans, fear of biological death. There is in human beings a tendency to seek "final solutions" : only the eradication of the "other" can eliminate fear. Christianity, Drewermann asserts, has the potential to act therapeutically in promoting a peaceful human attitude toward life. On the other hand, the sadomasochistic theologies of the cross only serve to fuel the fears that manifest themselves in war. Drewermann has written extensively about the confluence of war and Christianity in his 1982 book Der Krieg und das Christentum (which I have put on my 2009 readling list). Unfortunately, very little of Drewermann's extensive work has been translated into English.
In the radio program Drewermann has harsh criticism of the United States as the instigator of current wars. He points out that a huge percentage of America's GDP is tied up with the development and perfection of weapons of mass destruction and training young men and women in the practice of killing other human beings. In general, the Darwinian, neo-liberal vision of globalized, unfettered market capitalism exacerbates the fears and insecurities that lead to new wars.
I look forward to listening to the other Drewermann programs in the series, which cover such topics as Evil, The Power of Money, Depression, Fears, and Death.
