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Il Metodismo in Italia Dall'unità Al Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia – Dipartimento di Storia Culture Religioni Dottorato di Ricerca in Storia, Antropologia, Religioni (XXIX ciclo) Curriculum E: Storia delle religioni SSD: M-STO/07 Il metodismo in Italia dall’Unità al “caso Buonaiuti” Profilo storico-religioso Tutor: Prof. Gaetano Lettieri Dottorando: Andrea Annese Co-tutors: Prof. Paolo Naso, Prof.ssa Silvana Nitti Coordinatore del Dottorato: Prof. Alessandro Lupo Coordinatore del Curriculum E: Prof. Sergio Botta Anno Accademico 2016-2017 Indice Introduzione ................................................................................................................................... 5 I. Le origini del metodismo in Italia: la missione wesleyana ................................................... 12 1. Dalle origini alla fondazione della “Chiesa Evangelica Metodista in Italia” (1869) .......... 12 2. Diffondere le «dottrine distintive» del metodismo: primi periodici e volumi ....................... 24 II. La missione metodista episcopale americana ...................................................................... 42 1. Da Porta Pia alla Chiesa metodista episcopale italiana. La gestione Vernon (1871-1888) 42 2. La produzione culturale fino al 1888. Tra la Didaché, Rosmini e gli articoli di fede metodisti..................................................................................................................................... 52 III. Intellettuali metodisti tra filosofia, teologia e storiografia: Pietro Taglialatela, Enrico Caporali, Teofilo Gay ..................................................................................................... 77 1. Pietro Taglialatela: la dialettica tra filosofia, teologia e Scritture ...................................... 77 2. Enrico Caporali: per un «Positivismo Cristiano» ................................................................ 94 3. Teofilo Gay: controversia antipapale e argumentum patristicum....................................... 120 IV. Wesleyani ed episcopali tra fine Ottocento e inizio Novecento ....................................... 132 1. La Chiesa wesleyana dagli anni Settanta al nuovo secolo .................................................. 132 1.1. Storia della denominazione. Consolidamento dell’opera e nuova autocomprensione . 132 1.2. Produzione culturale. Tra il cristianesimo precostantiniano e il centenario luterano ... 139 2. La Chiesa episcopale dalla gestione Burt alle soglie della Grande Guerra....................... 145 2.1. Storia della denominazione. Il progetto di Burt: la conquista di un posto nello “spazio pubblico” ........................................................................................................ 145 2.2. Produzione culturale. Tra modernismo cattolico, nuove correnti teologiche e tradizione metodista .......................................................................................................... 152 V. Il metodismo italiano e la Grande Guerra ......................................................................... 171 1. Dall’inizio della guerra al maggio 1915 ............................................................................. 172 2. Il maggio radioso: la svolta ideologica e l’intervento italiano ........................................... 177 3. 1916: un dibattito sul pacifismo .......................................................................................... 182 4. 1917: l’anno di Wilson e di Caporetto ................................................................................ 185 5. 1918: la fine della guerra e gli entusiasmi patriottici ......................................................... 187 6. L’atteggiamento verso la guerra: metodismo italiano, altre Chiese cristiane, Lutero, Wesley ...................................................................................................................................... 193 7. Le azioni pratiche dei metodisti italiani durante la guerra................................................. 197 3 VI. Ernesto Buonaiuti, il metodismo e gli evangelici italiani ................................................ 200 1. Il modernismo, la cattedra contesa, le prime esperienze interdenominazionali: fino al 1929 .............................................................................................................................. 201 2. Il cammino comune: dagli anni Trenta alla morte di Buonaiuti ......................................... 206 3. L’interpretazione buonaiutiana del metodismo e del valdismo .......................................... 224 Conclusioni ................................................................................................................................ 228 Bibliografia ................................................................................................................................ 233 4 Introduzione Le origini del metodismo italiano sono intimamente connesse con i processi che condussero l’Italia dal Risorgimento alla completa unificazione. Sorto alla fine degli anni Trenta del Settecento come “movimento di Risveglio” in seno alla Chiesa anglicana, il metodismo aveva una caratteristica “missionaria” fin dalla nascita: il suo fondatore, il pastore anglicano John Wesley, nel 1739 aveva affermato «considero il mondo intero come mia parrocchia», riflettendo sull’accusa di violare i confini parrocchiali, rivoltagli dai superiori. Costituitosi come Chiesa autonoma da quella anglicana solo dopo la morte di Wesley (1791), il metodismo aveva iniziato le prime “missioni” già negli anni Sessanta del Settecento. In seguito si costituirono ufficialmente delle Società Missionarie, sia della Chiesa metodista britannica (nel 1813), sia di quella statunitense (1819), che era divenuta autonoma dalla Chiesa d’origine nel 1784. Furono proprio dei missionari metodisti a giungere in Italia, prima inglesi (1861, dopo viaggi esplorativi già nel biennio precedente), poi americani (1871). Già queste date fanno comprendere il legame con il Risorgimento italiano: l’arrivo dei missionari anglosassoni si inquadra nell’interesse che, in quelle nazioni, si era sviluppato per la situazione politica italiana. Si tratta di ciò che Giorgio Spini ha chiamato «il mito dell’Italia protestante»1 o che è stato definito anche come «il sogno protestante»2: l’idea di una riforma etico-religiosa italiana che completasse il mutamento politico. Già da metà Ottocento inglesi e americani guardavano con interesse all’Italia, convinti di una prossima fine del cattolicesimo “papista” (convinzione espressa talvolta tramite immagini apocalittiche, sulla caduta di “Roma-Babilonia”), che sarebbe arrivata come conseguenza dell’Unità d’Italia e della costituzione di un governo italiano liberale. Queste speranze erano condivise non solo dai metodisti italiani (i primi convertiti dai missionari), ma anche dagli altri protestanti della Penisola: dai valdesi, radicati nel Paese da secoli, alle Chiese libere, ai battisti, anch’essi sorti per iniziativa di missioni inglesi ed americane. Il sogno protestante non si realizzò, eppure tale prospettiva continuò ad agire per decenni: ne resta traccia nei testi e nelle strategie adottate dagli evangelici italiani per tentare di promuovere un rinnovamento morale, religioso e culturale che “liberasse” la nazione da quelle che essi consideravano le “tenebre” del cattolicesimo, soprattutto in un periodo in cui il contesto cattolico era quello del Sillabo, del Concilio Vaticano I con la proclamazione dell’infallibilità ex cathedra del pontefice, dell’imporsi dell’intransigentismo, quindi del neotomismo e dell’elusione di un dialogo con le nuove correnti sociali, culturali, teologiche – interne ed esterne – fino ad arrivare alla condanna del modernismo (e prima ancora alla marginalizzazione del cattolicesimo liberale)3. E anche dopo la fase più acuta della crisi modernista (1907-1908), permaneva una lotta alle figure “dissidenti”: emblematico è il “caso Buonaiuti”, che proprio con la storia del 1 G. SPINI, Risorgimento e protestanti, Claudiana, Torino 2008 (1998) [ESI, Napoli 1956; Il Saggiatore, Milano 1989], dal titolo del cap. VIII. 2 Cfr. S. NITTI, Il sogno protestante, in A. MELLONI (dir.), Cristiani d’Italia. Chiese, società, Stato, 1861- 2011, 2 voll., Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Roma 2011, vol. I, pp. 183-196. 3 Su questo contesto cfr. anzitutto G. MICCOLI, Chiesa e società in Italia fra Ottocento e Novecento: il mito della cristianità, in ID., Fra mito della cristianità e secolarizzazione. Studi sul rapporto chiesa-società nell’età contemporanea, Marietti, Casale Monferrato 1985, pp. 21-92; D. MENOZZI, La Chiesa cattolica e la secolarizzazione, Einaudi, Torino 1993. metodismo italiano va ad intrecciarsi strettamente. Furono infatti i metodisti wesleyani ad accogliere Buonaiuti – dopo la condanna ecclesiastica definitiva (1926) e la rimozione dalla cattedra a causa del mancato giuramento al regime fascista (novembre 1931) – al punto da affidargli un insegnamento nella loro Facoltà Teologica e il pulpito per la predicazione, nelle loro comunità. Si comprende da ciò come in alcuni casi la ricezione delle correnti di innovazione sopra nominate era attuata proprio dal mondo evangelico italiano. Un altro esempio, tornando al Risorgimento, è la diffusione di idee liberali, per la quale il protestantesimo italiano funse da tramite con le altre nazioni: del massimo interesse è dunque che l’aspetto teologico fu veicolo anche per le idee socio-politiche4. Non va dimenticato, inoltre, il fatto che molti di coloro che diventarono
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