Introduction. Paul Ricœur: The Revolutionary Dies, the Pacifist is Reborn, Always a Christian

Abstract

This essay aims to shed light on the early years of Paul Ricœur’s cultural and political commitment (1936-1939) in which his articles appeared in the journal «Terre Nouvelle», organ of the Chretiens Revolutionnaires placed on the Index by the Holy Office in 1936. The first part offers an annotated reading of some of Ricœur’s most incisive articles on his militancy for peace and socialism in the war scenarios of Europe, on the themes of Christian philosophy bent to understanding the complex reality of that historical moment. The second part of the contribution dwells again on the ‘conflict’, but as a key to the conceptual reading of some of the French philosopher’s biographical experiences and the hermeneutical joints of his ethics, in which the value of concrete action, non-violence and justice, lived Christianity, find synthesis and balance in the narrative discourse of memory and identity.