In Search of Peace

The Absolute War and the Political Value of the Spirit in the Reflections of Romano Guardini

Abstract

Acknowledging the problem of war and peace as a key element in all his thinking, Romano Guardini dedicates to it an intense reflection, and places it first and foremost in the political sphere as its natural and most appropriate dimension. By insightfully looking at the evolution of Western culture and civilization, he outlines the current face of war, defining it as an "absolute war". He highlights how this absolute war is inextricably linked to the problematic nature of technical-scientific progress and to the power that derives from it, posing questions and challenges of the utmost urgency to contemporary man. Among these, the search for an adequate peace to the current historical-existential conditions is essential, together with the conscious need to develop an equally adequate political attitude, whose realism can be enlivened by the most concrete spiritual sources that nourish the human being.