Gabriel Marcel's Perspectives on the Broken World

Gabriel Marcel's Perspectives on the Broken World PDF Author: Gabriel Marcel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) was a French existentialist and playwright who authored some 30 plays and an equal number of philosophical writings. This volume presents a translation of his four act play, The Broken World, with illustrations, commentary, a companion essay by Marcel titled Concrete Approaches to Investigating the Ontological Mystery, and a number of relevant appendices. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Gabriel Marcel's Perspectives on the Broken World

Gabriel Marcel's Perspectives on the Broken World PDF Author: Gabriel Marcel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) was a French existentialist and playwright who authored some 30 plays and an equal number of philosophical writings. This volume presents a translation of his four act play, The Broken World, with illustrations, commentary, a companion essay by Marcel titled Concrete Approaches to Investigating the Ontological Mystery, and a number of relevant appendices. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Being and Having

Being and Having PDF Author: Gabriel Marcel
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1446547523
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
I hope that this book will be widely read, and I especially commend it to four classes of persons: I. For myself I have come across nothing more important than M. Marcel’s writings here and elsewhere on the problem of metaphysics. I say problem advisedly: for we are all of us these days in the end puzzled as to what exactly metaphysics is. The strict Thomist has his answer: so has the positivist: so too the Biblical theologian who is much too ready to find in the decay of ontology an argument for the authenticity of ‘Biblical perspectives’. M. Marcel was trained in the tradition of idealism: and he knew the influence both of Bergsen and of W. E. Hocking. His conversation with himself certainly betrays their influences: but it is of far wider significance. Professor Ayer and Dr. E. L. Mascall have their answer to the question what ontology is: they have their formulae. Marcel probes beneath these answers; for him ontology is much more than a body of doctrine. It is the intellectual expression of the human situation; what is expressed in the syllogisms of, for instance, Père Garrigou-Lagrange, is valid only in so far as it catches and summarises the very being of man and the universe, as that being is lived through and met with by man in his pilgrimage through life. I find as I read M. Marcel that the frontiers are blurred reflection, metaphysics, spirituality. And that is the strength of his seemingly inconsequent method. In a way he is too wise to suppose that the arguments of the philosophia perennis are enough in their abstract form to convince a man; they only carry conviction in relation to a whole experience of life of which they are the expression. The issues between the Thomist, the positivist, the idealist are not issues simply of doctrine but of life; and to see what they are, one must probe, stretching language beyond the frontiers of poetry, somehow to convey the issues as things through which men live. 2. The book should be studied closely by the moralist whether he be philosopher or moral theologian. Where some of the most familiar ethical ideas are concerned, Marcel reminds us of their ‘inside’ when we so often in our discussion think simply of their ‘outside’. What is a promise? We have our answer pat, our formula which permits us to go on with the discussion of our obligations to keep the promises we have made and so on. We don’t wait to probe. I find myself inevitably using that word ‘probe’ again and again in connection with M. Marcel: for what he does is to probe the unsuspected profundities of the familiar. Most professional students of ethics are morally philistine, men who give little time to penetrating the ‘inside’ of the ideas they are handling. And there Marcel pulls them up short. 3. The book should be widely read by the many Christian ‘fellow-travellers’ of today, those who follow, as it were, afar off the Christian way without themselves coming yet to the point of an act of faith in the Crucified. Its very incompleteness will respond to their groping anxiety, and it will enrich their vision of life. And this it can do because it eschews dogmatic exposition seeking rather to shew the inside of the truly Christian way of life. Fidelity, hope, charity, mystery—these are fundamental categories of the Christian way: and of all these Marcel has much to say, which is in every way fresh and yet at the same time rooted in the tradition of Catholic Christianity. The reader of such a work as Albert Camus’ La Peste, with its preoccupation with the problem of an atheistic sanctity, will understand M. Marcel. In a way he challenges the possibility of Camus’ vision; and he does so not on dogmatic grounds but by an analysis of holiness and goodness which shews indirectly their inseparability from acknowledgment of the all-embracing mystery of God. An age which has known evil as ours has and does still know it, is inevitably interested in goodness; and it is with goodness, as something inevitably issuing out of God because a gift from him, that Marcel’s studies deal. 4. And lastly I commend this book because at a time when minuteness and subtlety of mind are too often the prerogatives of the light-heartedly destructive, he reminds us that a true minuteness and a true intellectual subtlety are rooted in humility and purity of heart, and manifest the soil in which they are nourished by graciousness whose charm none can escape and a strength of argument which none can break.

Creative Fidelity

Creative Fidelity PDF Author: Gabriel Marcel
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 9780823221844
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
These lectures and essays were regarded by Marcel as the best introduction to his thought. Creative Fidelity not only deals with perennial themes of faith, fidelity, belief, incarnate being, and participation, but also includes chapters on religious tolerance and orthodoxy and an important critical essay on Karl Jaspers.

Time in the Philosophy of Gabriel Marcel

Time in the Philosophy of Gabriel Marcel PDF Author: Helen Tattam
Publisher: MHRA
ISBN: 1907322833
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) stands outside the traditional canon of twentieth-century French philosophers. Where he is not simply forgotten or overlooked, he is dismissed as a 'relentlessly unsystematic' thinker, or, following Jean-Paul Sartre's lead, labelled a 'Christian existentialist' - a label that avoids consideration of Marcel's work on its own terms. How is one to appreciate Marcel's contribution, especially when his oeuvre appears to be at odds with philosophical convention? Helen Tattam proposes a range of readings as opposed to one single interpretation, a series of departures or explorations that bring his work into contact with critical partners such as Henri Bergson, Paul Ricoeur and Emmanuel Lévinas, and offer insights into a host of twentieth-century philosophical shifts concerning time, the subject, the other, ethics, and religion. Helen Tattam's ambitious study is an impressively lucid account of Marcel's engagement with the problem of time and lived experience, and is her first monograph since the award of her doctorate from the University of Nottingham.

Two One Act Plays

Two One Act Plays PDF Author: Gabriel Marcel
Publisher: Lanham, MD : University Press of America
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
A brief but representative sampling of the theater of Gabriel Marcel, renowned French existentialist writer. Valuable to Marcel scholars and students of literature, drama and philosophy.

Homo Viator; Introduction to a Metaphysic of Hope

Homo Viator; Introduction to a Metaphysic of Hope PDF Author: Gabriel 1889-1973 Marcel
Publisher: Hassell Street Press
ISBN: 9781013744709
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Invisible Threshold

The Invisible Threshold PDF Author: Gabriel Marcel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781587313899
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
French philosopher and dramatist, Gabriel Marcel (1888-1973), who belonged to the movement of French existentialism, is one of the most insightful thinkers of the twentieth century. Unlike some of his contemporaries who took existentialism in an atheistic, even nihilistic, direction, Marcel approaches human existence from a theistic perspective, and gives priority to the themes of hope, fidelity and faith in the human search for meaning in a challenging world. Author of seventeen major works of philosophy, Marcel also wrote more than thirty plays, including tragedies and comedies, many of which were staged in theaters in Paris, Germany, Belgium, England, Ireland and the United States. Marcel regarded dramatic art as having priority in both a chronological and an intellectual sense. His plays deal with challenging experiences and issues of contention that arise between people, especially families, in day-to-day life. Describing his own style as "post-Ibsen," because it involves a sense of realism, depictions of passion and sincerity, and a sense of moral duty, Marcel''s plays rarely provide complete or settled answers to the difficulties they confront, but suggest possibilities both of interpretation and with regard to the choices on life''s journey. One of his aims is to allow audiences (and readers) not only to arrive at their own conclusions, but to feel the echo of the dramatic action in their own lives, and so provoke both insight and critical reflection on the dramas of existence. The plays in this new volume were written early in his career, and were published together under the title Le Seuil invisible (The Invisible Threshold) in 1913. The first play, Grace, explores the theme of religious conversion. The drama depicts a crisis between characters of genuine depth and sincerity, who are struggling with different interpretations of shared experiences. After a serious illness, Gerard, one of the main protagonists, undergoes a religious conversion, an experience which allows of two different and irreconcilable interpretations. The first is the interpretation of the scientific materialist; the second regards Gerard''s illness not as a cause but as an occasion to exercise the subject''s creative freedom. The play also raises the question of grace: the role that God may play in the choice of faith. Marcel asks us to consider the sincerity of our choices, and those attitudes and temptations that play a role in our motivations, in a profound dramatization of the experience of the religious as it emerges through challenging life situations. Similar themes are addressed but developed differently in the second play, The Sandcastle. Through the character of Moirans, this drama explores the confrontation between one''s beliefs and their consequences when faced with challenging family and social circumstances. The play asks us to think about what happens when our beliefs and theories, especially about religion, morality and politics, come up against situations in life that can test them. Marcel raises issues of moral character, commitment and sincerity, and introduces the role doubt plays in the way we form and hold our convictions. The springboard for the unfolding of the drama is Moirans'' egotism, and his growing realization of the difference between accepting Christianity in an intellectual and cultural sense, and a Christianity that is lived. This predicament then provokes his daughter, Clarisse, into some profound soul-searching of her own. Drama of this profundity offers audiences and readers a mirror that reflects their own problems, which leads to further awareness and understanding. Marcel''s dramatic works deal with the difficulties in acknowledging many of life''s most profound experiences, in reacting to them in an authentic way, and often illustrates our failures with regard to them. One of the major themes of both his dramatic and philosophical work is that life''s most profound, fulfilling experiences are being compromised more than ever in what he describes as the modern, broken world (le monde cassé), one unfortunately characterized by alienation, loss of meaning and feelings of despair. These new plays of Marcel''s, here translated into English for the first time, will appeal to all who are interested in the role of grace in everyday life, in the influence of culture on belief, the relationship between faith and reason, the choice of faith in a secular world, and the struggle between inauthentic and authentic existence. Marcel raises profound questions about these and related topics, but does not offer final answers. In his plays, he leaves that to us.

Gabriel Marcel and American Philosophy

Gabriel Marcel and American Philosophy PDF Author: David W. Rodick
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498510442
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
Gabriel Marcel and American Philosophy: The Religious Dimension of Experience examines the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel and its relationship to key figures in classical American Philosophy, in particular Josiah Royce, William Ernest Hocking, and Henry Bugbee. Few scholars have taken sufficient note of the fact that Gabriel Marcel’s thought is vitally informed by classical American philosophy. Marcel’s essays on Royce offer a window into the soul of Marcel’s recent philosophical development. The idealism of early Marcel stemmed from an omnipresent sense of a “broken world”—an experience of rent or tear within the tissue of experience similar to what John Dewey referred to as an “inward laceration of the spirit.” Furthermore, Marcel’s intuition concerning the primacy of intersubjective experience can help us understand W. E. Hocking’s thought. Finally, Marcel’s notion of ľ exigence ontologique clarifies his relationship to Henry Bugbee. Marcel and Bugbee explore the contour of experience—the indigenous circuit of associations pertaining to the self as coesse. Through a reflexive act Marcel refers to as “ingatherdness,” the self undergoes increasing degrees of unification by experiencing “an act of faith made explicit only in a dialectical act of participation.” David W. Rodick shows that Marcel’s relationship to these American philosophers is not coincidental, but rather the philosophical expression of his Christian faith. Marcel’s most important legacy is his commitment to unity of Christian philosophizing, a unity derived from both reason and revelation. Its diversity stems from the objective plurality of what is pursued as well as the subjective plurality of those who pursue it. Christian philosophizing seeks a truth that every Christian believes can never be untrue to itself.

The Mystery of Being: Faith & reality

The Mystery of Being: Faith & reality PDF Author: Gabriel Marcel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consciousness
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description


Before Theological Study

Before Theological Study PDF Author: Harry O. Maier
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666706558
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Before Theological Study will orient students to the aptitudes, knowledge, spirituality, imagination, and dispositions that are appropriate to thoughtful, engaged, and generous theological study. The book has the character of a modern theological enchiridion (handbook) for engagement with the disciplines that are a part of preparation for ministry. It is characterized by the vision of the Vancouver School of Theology to prepare students for thoughtful, engaged, and generous Christian ministry practiced in a way that is alert to the multi-religious contexts and the colonial legacy of mainline Christianity. The essays in this handbook are written in a variety of registers, yet each remains accessible to the newcomer or potential newcomer to theological education. The book is not rooted in a unified orthodoxy but expresses the bandwidth of contemporary theological viewpoints.