Il teatro della pietà. La fondazione del corpo politico nella Passione di Cristo

This essay aims to demonstrate that the political ethos of "pietas" and the theatrical reading of pain, studied in particular by Hannah Arendt and Luc Boltanski, are rooted not only in Christian compassion of the origins but also in medieval drama centring on "pietas". By providing a highly realistic and moving representation of the agonized body of Christ, Medieval Christian society sought to convert sinners and to awaken the fervour of the faithful, but it also kindled the disinterested and concrete help of the faithful towards the poor, the sick, the unfortunate as well as towards pilgrims, through associations, care institutions and hospitals. The martyred body of Christ was seen as a specific denunciation of social injustice, of the afflictions and sufferings of the body politic, the Church and the State. The fundamental difference between the ethos of "pietas" in the Middle Ages versus the modern age consists in the transition from local perception of the unfortunate to a decidedly universal view. Over the centuries the ethos of "pietas" was intensified through the gradual inclusion of all men in the category of the unfortunate to soccour, sweeping away any discrimination based on family, local or regional rivalry, ethnic or social concerns, racial prejudice or religious bias.