The Undeniable Import of Marcel’s Hope

Abstract

The contemporary man’s inclination to transcendence and the ontological is threatened to collapse due to technology, bureaucracy, and the “problematical.” With the pervasiveness of both public and private organizations’ processes focusing on profit and selfish motives, discounting human and spiritual formation, man’s descent to desolation is certain. Hence, “alienation” from himself and the loss of all the wonder, thrill, curiosity, and enthusiasm for all values of life is conceivable. Gabriel Marcel, who experienced the devastation and desolation of the two world wars and, the many excruciating events, such as death and suffering with his family, describes his situation as a “broken world.” But because of the profound love and hope that he and his family shared with one another, he was able to keep going in his life. These experiences made him triumphantly confront the relations among death, love, and hope in his life. Accordingly, with man’s situation today that are closing his inclination towards transcendence and the ontological, this paper aims to ascertain the import of Marcel’s hope. From several Marcellian themes, which are preliminary and interrelated in the discourse of hope, to hope itself, this paper further poses the proposition that hope is undeniable in man’s life addressing the many sways for desolation.