"When therefore I speak of Existentialism, I must be understood to refer specifically to the philosophy of Dread -- in all senses of that word, ranging from the holy awe of Kierkegaard to the more mundane shudders of Sartre." (Ussher 10)
This holy awe is the expression of the inner dynamism that animates the believer into action. For Kierkegaard realized that the positive elements of time separate the believer from himself, while the leap of faith, which requires a transcendent choice, only brings about a deeper commitment to the true self. Sartre realized that the historical relation to the other, either in society or in nature, provides a setting where the religious experience could occur. The religious experience was not particularly for Sartre a notion of revealed faith as an assurance that these events in nature could define the event of being drawn towards the other, beyond the historical as the other beyond history caused this dreaded moment of revelation within oneself.
For revealed religions, do not provide a quick recipe for all people to make choices as if all had been pre-ordered without the exposure to events within time. These religious actions must be subsumed within the living human subject. A true religious being is a subject that is wholly oneself and free of the complexity of a dualism. Progress in society means that religious development must take place within the horizon in which every man can develop in to a full human dynamism. Most religions understand the man s called to be perfect, though they may disagree on the method of this perfection.
For Kierkegaard and Sartre the facts of the other reveals itself in that the other always exist as for-itself, while the subject can approach the other and speak to the other, yet the other remains largely unmoved as an autonomous being. Every religious tradition expresses its doctrines and dogmas in a concrete world of do's and don'ts. For Kierkegaard, whose voluminous writings reveal his multi-faceted personality, seemed to be taken away with the life project of his authorship towards the other, yet understood that the other to whom he remained anonymous, in the period of his first authorship, was free to interpret his writings as if independent of the author himself. Kierkegaard was not trying to impose on others a religious experience, so much as relate to the others in his authorship, he understood that he couldn't violate the others right to remain free in his own determination towards a religious being.
Religious Freedom and Dignitatis Humanae
Vatican II in its document Dignitatis Humanae , on religious freedom ,stressed this fact that man has an inalienable right to worship God as he sees fit, and that deep in his conscience an is a religious being. It could be said, as we began this essay, that in every event in man's life, he cannot abstract from the trans-historical in his life. Values such as truth, honesty, duty and the like all impose upon every person, regardless of religious development within a natural or revealed religion, the ever imposing truth that he cannot escape from his integral truth of himself. He cannot become another, nor can the other become himself.
The United States Committee on International Religious Freedom is to "monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress." The commissioner can be reached at its USCIRF offices; or its intern program.
In his relationship with these social events man comes into contact with other psychological entities other than himself, which requires his interaction and cooperation. He cannot master the other, he must submit to the forces of the other in and working thru social forces:
It is evident that the facts of participation and communication, which characterize those interactions we call social, form as unique a distinction from the biological or psychological as that, which separates the organic from the inorganic. However much society is composed of individuals, the social is itself not the psychological. It is a relationship between psychological entities. (Coyle x)
Seeking the Spiritual
As man finds for himself in and thru these interactions with the other he comes to the spiritual within himself. But the spiritual us not the finite, the spiritual is simply the Oneness of mankind that makes man strive for the One unity above time and history. It is only right to expect that what is right for one person can be right for all. It can be seen and understood clearly now that at the heart of the dread man senses within himself in his commitment or shrugging off his commitment to a religious tradition, at heart he is a responsible psychological entity to himself and to that oneself that lies deep within his own naturally religious being. He cannot deny this sense of oneness with all mankind, even when he is in the midst of the most intense activities. His commitment to the timeless within himself, in whatever way it communicates itself to his consciousness brings about this ever-longing desire for unity among all.
Rarely does he experience this oneness in history. Contrary to his desire, the historical facts, which confront his own desire, seem to betray his own religious desires. He is confounded, even when he moves from religions to religions, he cannot find the center of his peace without confronting his own values, before adhering to the values of any other objective natural or revealed religions. Perhaps this is the mark of religions that they make man confront his own integrity and it is only thru accepting himself, as he is before God that he can accept the otherness of the other in society amid the changing event of time and history.
Dominating influences that lie at the heart of society as technology development or the arts, sciences and literatures, will also help to redefine, age by age, the deeper significance that man is called to worship God as he sees fit.
