The Meaning of Meeting as an Existential Event in the Perspective of the Unity Paradigm

Abstract

Abstract The article discusses the key meaning of meeting, understood as an existential event and considered in the perspective of the paradigm of unity. The two mentioned categories: meeting and paradigm of unity are not presented in the literature in the context of their direct relation to each other. Therefore, the main problem presented in the paper is: how far they are cognitively relevant. The starting point for reflections is the recognition of a meeting situation in the perspective of human spiritual development which happens through turning towards the other. This development is experienced in overcoming the tension between the declarative attitude towards the mutual love and the real act expressing the actual openness to this gift. According to Chiara Lubich, the gift of love is the central category of the paradigm of unity. If we follow Thomas Kuhn and define the paradigm as a worldview that unites a community in their holistic vision of the world, then it is the meeting that is an integral and necessary element of this paradigm. Experiencing a meeting, in this context, is the condition for reaching the spiritual unity in a community of people who are led by mutual love and out of that love bear with one another in their otherness.