From the Holy Family to patchwork reality: what values shape the family?
Prof. Dr. Angelika Walser works as a Catholic moral theologian and university professor at the University of Salzburg. Together with Ms. Bernadette Breunig, she has put a scientific spotlight on co-parenting: She conducted a qualitative study.
In your research, you deal with the topic of family and how it is subject to change. What are the values that define the family?
Values such as reliability, stability, care, loyalty and attentiveness have been and continue to be practiced in all forms of families. In a family, we should actually distinguish more precisely between the relationship between the parents and the relationship between parents and children. Different values are important here. Of course, values change over the course of history and are always culturally dependent: Until not so long ago – more precisely until the time of Romanticism and the Enlightenment – gender equality, for example, was not an issue in Europe as a criterion for partnership relationships (to name just one particularly important example of the relationship between adults). In the relationship between parents and children, for example, awareness of the need to respect children’s autonomy was also slow to develop, and this was finally reflected in law in the formulation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Values are therefore in a constant state of historical and cultural flux, particularly in relation to the family. They all point to the fact that people still find it meaningful to live together in families and to build good relationships there.
Where does the family stand today in a historical context?
In his resonance theory, which is widely received in theological and ethical terms, Hartmut Rosa speaks of the family as the last great “port of resonance”. This is where people hope to find support, security and a sense of purpose in the “shark tank of humanity”. Expectations of the family are therefore higher than ever before.
What influence do church and secular world views have on the value structure of family structures at present?
Church influences are becoming increasingly weaker in a secular society, with the laws and values of the world of work dominating instead. In our research, we have repeatedly heard of “working on the child project” and of “life planning that should be optimized by having a child.” Sociologists such as Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim are increasingly talking about children as a kind of emotional resource for adults. The hope here is obviously for a lifelong bond that is no longer expected due to bad experiences in the relationship with an adult. Even though I understand this longing for attachment in principle, as a theological ethicist I sometimes feel a little anxious about such statements: a child is first and foremost a great and sometimes insanely challenging gift – not social capital that I earn and invest in so that I won’t be lonely when I get older. In my eyes, this shifts the focus from the parental relationship alone to the parent-child relationship and can possibly take the child’s breath away due to huge expectations. In addition, there is always the danger of instrumentalizing children.
At the moment, there are some governments in Europe that are conservative and right-wing. Do you see social adaptation in the area of the family as a result of these political changes?
Throughout Europe, the new right is attempting to instrumentalize Christian church groups for political purposes in a well-organized network: Here, the necessity of the fight against gender is then invoked, homosexuality is condemned and all new family forms are rejected out of hand as “non-Christian”. In Italy and Hungary, for example, members of right-wing parties are already successful. Their political goal is to weaken democracies, especially their plurality and diversity in matters of private life. In the USA and Russia, too, the tactic is already working. There is evidence that women’s rights and the rights of sexual minorities are currently being curtailed again – often in the name of “true Christianity”. The major Christian churches are distancing themselves from this appropriation, and rightly so. We need to be very vigilant at the moment. In Lower Austria, for example, the FPÖ launched a poster for Christmas that showed the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus) behind the slogan “Our festival – our values”. To instrumentalize Christmas, the feast of the Incarnation of Christ for all people, as part of a xenophobic FPÖ campaign is truly perfidious and has rightly provoked massive protest.
What socio-political framework would you like to see for families?
I hope that we do not link the socio-political responsibility for the protective space that all families need so that the above-mentioned values can be lived exclusively to the traditional family form. Much would be gained if people were given legal and moral recognition and institutional support in their willingness to take responsibility for good and stable relationships. All Christian churches know how relieving institutions can be. I would therefore like them to support all families, not just their own clientele. In my view, a greater plurality of partnership and family forms does not represent a socio-political danger, but rather an opportunity – precisely with regard to the typical family values mentioned above, the realization of which can then also change our societies.