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193850

The communication of hope

Clyde Pax

pp. 105-116

Abstract

The meaning of God in human experience is not limited to the question of the existence of God or of man's certainty regarding God's existence. Of much more central concern is the question of man's drawing near to God by actually structuring his life and his social institutions in such a way that the presence of the Divine can ennoble human life and human associations. This becomes clear if we prescind from the name "God" for the moment and look at the issues involved. What man seeks is not only to know that there is some ultimate sense to his existence but to bring himself, by discovery and creativity, into harmony with this meaning; man wishes to conduct his life in the world and to structure his society in such a way that life becomes as richly meaningful and satisfying as possible. In a philosophical discussion the use of the name "God" is a kind of a shorthand expression to designate at once the ultimacy of the search for meaning and hope, and the conscious awareness that the search cannot be made less than ultimate without at the same time destroying all meaning for man.

Publication details

Published in:

Pax Clyde (1972) An existential approach to God: a study of Gabriel Marcel. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 105-116

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-010-2416-7_7

Full citation:

Pax Clyde (1972) The communication of hope, In: An existential approach to God, Dordrecht, Springer, 105–116.