“Phase transition” between Confrontation and Dialogue in the Light of the Concept of the Unity Charism

Abstract

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pepsi-2016-0015

In the twenties of the last century the process of building a new type of philosophical culture began, based on the sensitivity towards another person, the recognition of values and dignity of the person and the search for platforms of dialogue and compromise between people. However, it did not gain a broad social resonance. The 20th Century became the scene of the triumph of totalitarianisms, based on the idea of collectivism and marked by the contempt towards the individual, his rights and needs. In the post-war reality environments favouring the humanization of the culture of coexistence earned a voice, but they too did not manage to divert the tendency towards building a bureaucratic and technocratic order. In this kind of system, the person feels reduced to his instrumental functions, and the dialogue submerged in the world of humanistic values becomes a distant and unequalled dream. This text undertakes the problem of the conditions which must be met in order for the tendency towards dialogue and mutual respect to prevail over the hostile, confrontational approach, which characterizes many contemporary social environments. The author suggests that we refer to the analogy with the thermodynamics phenomenon, phase transition, and consider the notion of spiritual energy (the analogue of the physical term enthalpy) as an agent regulating the internal disposition of the individual to “freeze” or “thaw” relations with his fellow human beings. The key thesis is that the most important source of energy indispensable to move from confrontation to dialogue lies in the resources of religious experience- the openness to the grace flowing from the transcendental reality, and the guides on the path to discovering this source are the witnesses of faith- among them the spiritual heirs of Chiara Lubich’s charism.