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The (spiritual) crisis in Western Europa
World of thought Dr. F. de Graaff
De Graaff focuses on the course of European culture in relation to Christianity. He foresaw a decline in Western European Christianity, resulting in secularization. Others did not yet see this and found it too pessimistic. His book When the gods die (1969) made a great impression. Eight years later, Anno Domini 1000 - Anno Domini 2000 follows. In both books his vision of metahistory is expressed. His book When the gods die (1969) made a big impression. Eight years later, Anno Domini 1000 - Anno Domini 2000 - followed. According to him, his best book, which many seemed too bold.
Both books assume that cultures are ruled by intermediate beings, who can be called gods or angels. They are subject to the God of the Bible: the God of Israel. These in-between beings are mortal if they allow injustice in their culture. If the intermediary dies, this culture will eventually be founded. After all, a culture exists by the grace of a connection with God. The Graaff's vision stems from Psalm 82. Here he follows the exegesis of Martin Buber and shows that he is under the influence of Dostoevsky and Kafka.
Western culture was also led by an intermediary, who is an intermediary (an angel or a deity) between the highest God and Christian (Western) Europe. This intermediary has died. De Graaff first believes that the connection between God began to be lacking in the time of the Renaissance. He later places the beginning of that eclipse around the year 1000.
De Graaff deduces from the Bible that Western Christianity sees this intermediary for Jesus himself. However, the Western intermediate system is not the same as Jesus, who Christians call the Son of God.
The Graaff's central idea is: Jesus and the god of European Christianity are not the same. He investigated the Bible, in particular the gospels, and the ideas of Israel - in which Jesus was born - and on the other hand in the history of European culture, that is, of European philosophy, literature, visual arts and music. He considered the developments therein more essential than the developments in Western science - which simply do not take into account divine intervention in nature and history.
In all his philosophical and theological work, in the background, but sometimes in the foreground, there is the question: what is the relationship with Jesus, where is the connection with Jesus only seemingly present.
De Graaff writes two books with the title Jesus the Hidden, in which two gospels were dissected to get a clear picture of Jesus. De Graaff called this process of clarification initiation.
He is referred to as elitist in that context, while initiation by him only means that one person has penetrated more into spiritual things than the other. This is not because of a difference in intellectual capacity, but because more is revealed to one than to the other.
Dr. F. de Graaff foresaw a major change in European culture around the year 2000
What happened around the year 2000 so far?
The church is unable to prevent secularization. The church's departure continues. The Roman Catholic Church comes in great difficulty in our time, the mass immigration and the rise of militant Islam.
Books
The problem of guilt in the philosophy of philosophy of Martin Heidegger, 1951.
European nihilism, about the backgrounds of the Western cultural crisis, 1956.
As good people die, the crisis of Western culture, 1969, second edition 1970.
Anno Domini 1000 - Anno Domini 2000, the thousand years by the grace of the dead god, 1977.
Spinoza and the crisis of Western culture, 1977.
Nietzsche, 1979.
The secret of world history, seven reflections of words from Sacred Scripture, 1982.
Jesus the Hidden One, a preparation for initiation into the Mysteries of the Gospel, 1987.
Jesus the Hidden One, part 2, translation and explanation of the Matthew gospel, 1989.
The opera The Magic Flute by Mozart, the libretto declared from the Spirit of Music, 1990 Israel - Hellas - Rome, the mystery of ancient civilization, 1993