Abstract:
An important personality of the Swedish cultural space and of the world diplomatic space,
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961), left to posterity, besides his literary works, his economic and
diplomatic contributions, the most important spiritual autobiography from the Swedish
protestant space of the 20th century. Discovered shortly after his death and published by his
disciples in 1963 in an English version in London (at Faber and Faber Publishing House),
Markings presents the struggle of the author with himself, illustrated in a great diversity of
styles, from haiku poems to short meditations, pastels (lyrics or prose), biblical exegeses and
so on. Apart from the description of his spiritual life, his relationship with God, or his
conception of spiritual issues, the work also contains some interesting references to aspects of
political theology. These aspects represent the subject of our research. After a short presentation
of his life and activity and of the influence of his family on his education, we will try to present
the way in which aspects of political theology are emphasised in the aforementioned work and
which are some important elements of the author’s conception of this subject. In this respect,
we will resort not only to his spiritual autobiography, but also to the most important writings
about him, published by specialists in diplomacy, literature and politics. Unfortunately, it is
difficult to find theologians who wrote about his spiritual autobiography (except some who
talk about him in theological dictionaries). Therefore, one of the main strengths of this research
will be the fact that it presents a theological approach to Dag Hammarskjöld.
Description:
Rev. Iuliu-Marius is
participating in the research
project, ‘Political Theology’,
directed by Dr Tanya van
Wyk, Department of
Dogmatics and Christian
Ethics, Faculty of Theology,
University of Pretoria.
