Apocalypse and redemption. The education of young people in face of global risk

Abstract

This work considers the possibility of interpreting some great themes present in the work of Ernesto de Martino, in particular in his last published posthumous studies from an educational
standpoint. It is possible to summarize the basic question with a question: does current education make us aware of the apocalyptic risk of our time? If, in the face of the nightmare of a nuclear war, of the prevailing pollution, of the warming of the climate, in short of the global risks that loom over our time, we question ourselves on the concrete possibility of the “end of the world”, perhaps the desire for redemption would increase, a term with which the Neapolitan scholar indicated the human capacity to operate in history with reference to values. For us it is clear that this resource is always the result of education, while the crisis can only present itself in the dimension of cultural void, where and when the formative factor has become weak, so much so as to risk losing the meaning of effective orientation in the world. The approach is hermeneutical and the framework is interdisciplinary.