Filantropie și asistență socială. Considerații asupra a două modele europene de manifestare a grijii pentru celălalt

Abstract

In our paper we propose a historical analysis of two European models of putting into practice the care for the other: Philanthropy and social assistance. We will present the role of philanthropy – “working faith through love” (Galatians 5, 6), through the Church, in Romanian spirituality and how it can be associated with social assistance. Although the concept of social assistance may seem somewhat opposite to that of philanthropy, if not at least incomplete and restrictive, the Romanian Orthodox Church has managed to give it philanthropic attributes, achieving a harmonious
synthesis between the Christian life based on love and the model offered by itself. The creator of everything and everything, God and respectively the standards of specialization promoted by the professionalism imposed by Western European culture. Both are European models, representing the result of the different evolution in time of the Orthodox Church, respectively of the Catholic Church, but also of the two spaces, Eastern and Western Europe.