Comunicare il Dio «immanifesto»: Giovanni Papini e la società del nulla

The essay develops a socio-cultural interpretation of Giovanni Papini’s Memorie d’Iddio (God’s Memories), a little-known work on the communicative shortcuts in the relationship between faith and society and illustrating relevant autobiographic inspiration. The author echoes not only Leopardi and Nietzsche’s nihilism, Bergson’s enigmatic thought, James and Peirce’s pragmatism, but also Pareto and Durkheim’s sociology and Pascoli and d’Annunzio’s symbolism. The text is addressed to a society encumbered by the loss of value and identity references and fuelled by the social relevance of nothing. Hence follows the communicative short circuit determining God’s soliloquy addressed to human beings, “the most antidivine beasts I have ever created”, in which he invokes liberation from theological inventions and liturgical practices. This is a God who prays human beings and repudiates their religion since it is founded on rites, beliefs, symbols and representations unequal to the task of expressing the mystery of creation. Papini’s work can be best understood if framed within the Futurist mindset and the great season of Leonardo, La Voce and especially Lacerba, inspired by corrosive polemics strength, which influenced the twentieth century’s tendency to personalize faith.