Addressing fear as a form of diakonia

Public engagement of the church

Abstract

This paper, which is based on a qualitative research, identifies public engagement of the Academic Parish of Prague as diakonia—a specific exercise of Christian service to others. It explores some ways that the parish handled fear among the Czech population especially in connection with the European migrant crisis in 2015 and a debate on gender in 2016.

By positioning the public activities of the parish under diakonia of the Church, it argues that the parish challenged emotion of fear with reasoning: it tried to cultivate a responsible reflection both within Church and society. In times of recent crises, the Academic Parish stressed truth and love to navigate people towards critical thinking, and, by doing so, to reduce their fear and sense of insecurity. The parish seemed to enter the public space to serve the poor of our times—seekers and disoriented ones.

Theologically, this research emphasizes the importance of nurturing trust, both social and religious, and portrays it as a relevant response of the Church to fear in population. Pastorally, it calls for supporting people in their own spiritual practice—the most natural way of developing trust.