Current events can seem gloomy or even hopeless if we only see crises where everything would disappear, while in their crossing, there are glimmers of hope and renewal. In the teeming landscape of publishing, a book with an evocative and completely original title published in early 2021 is an emblematic example, to confront crises in movements and communities, but the interest of this book goes beyond this framework. Its title is The creative destruction of Luigino Bruni *.
Luigino Bruni is a professor of economics, and for many years he was a close collaborator of Chira Lubich, the founder of the Focolare movement. Luigino Bruni draws on this personal experience as well as on his work on the Bible, which can inspire a "grammar of crises." In addition, his expertise as an economist is in management, human relations and organizational theory. According to him, religious organizations are 98% similar to non-religious organizations: crises in religious organizations are due to these 98% or to 2%, or sometimes to both types of organization.
I draw many lessons from the twenty or so themes that are covered and that it would be impossible to summarize in a few words. Concerning the experience within charismatic communities or religious organizations in general, I would emphasize the importance of distinguishing the ideal community and the ideal of the community. Indeed, there is always a gap between the two, between "the ideal reality" and "the ideal of reality." This gap is not a failure in itself. On the contrary, this gap is inherent in our human condition, marked by limitation and imperfection, and driven by the never-fulfilled quest for an ideal.
In our human condition confronted with the limit, Luigino Bruni also evokes the experience of vulnerability, the capacity to be altered by the other. It invites respect for every person but also the possibility of being hurt in the relationships between us, while keeping the moral imperative and the sense of justice.
Another aspect very well highlighted by Luigino Bruni is fraternity: the first crisis in ecclesial movements or organizations is that of fraternity when, because of the charisma carried by the founder or the office of those in charge, privileges begin to be insinuated which, little by little, become royal courts, when the founder, those in charge or the clergy are made idols. Castes multiply. Fraternity is in crisis.
Luigino Bruni also underline the importance of establishing spaces of freedom and creativity with the encouragement of difference, not only as a right but also as a necessity: no to a loss of "spiritual biodiversity". Plurality within communities is necessary to bring the ideal to life in the diversity of charisms and vocations, to arouse creativity but also criticism and resistance to hegemonic temptations.
Finally, the author draws inspiration from the Bible, for example from the prophet Jeremiah and from the experience of the Exile. Israel understood then who God was, without a Temple, and also the fact that one can pray outside one's homeland. God can be true, even if he has lost, on the contrary as the Cross shows. We always want to be successful, while truth does not coincide with numbers or success.
* Luigino Bruni (2021). Creative Destruction. Facing Crises in Movements and Communities. Nouvelle Cité Editions.
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