QUESTION: Jean-Luc Marion, prominent Catholic philosopher and recipient of the 2020 Ratzinger Prize said in an interview, “no society can exist without a principle of community. It is precisely what is missing in all societies, both in the U.S. and in Europe. There is a deficit of community”.  As a theologian of India how do you evaluate the situation of India especially in this time of Covid-19?  – Jessy Joseph

ANSWER : Jacob Parappally MSFS

Created in the image and likeness of God the Trinity or the Absolute Communion, all humans are communitarian by nature. They cannot but live in communion. All human societies or human groupings are built on this principle of communion. Only in communion can humans become truly humans because communities provide the means necessary for human unfolding as humans. The most important means for this development of humans is the communitarian relationship. Precisely, on account of this, Jean-Luc Marion, a prominent Catholic philosopher and theologian, affirms that no society can exist without the principle of community.

While emphasizing the principle of community, Jean-Luc Marion makes an observation that it is missing in all societies both in the U.S. and in Europe. It is surprising that both these societies are at least nominally known as Christian societies. But these societies seemed to have lost the sense for essential communion that makes societies truly human. Has the salt of Christian faith lost its saltiness? Has the light lost its brightness, its warmth? If those societies which had Christian faith tradition for centuries have this deficit of the principle of communion, can we expect it in other societies where Christian communities form only small minorities as in all Asian countries especially in India? Perhaps, we find communion among people in those societies of Asia more than in Europe or in the U.S. It is a communion that goes beyond the boundaries set by religion or ethnicity. It is a communion among people who enter into authentic relationship with others as humans.

A Lost Cause of Communion?

Certainly, in the Asian societies and particularly in India, there are exclusive, sectarian, caste, class and tribal relationships that would exclude others or have only minimum necessary relations with others. Such societies consider those who do not belong to that particular society or so called community as “outsiders”. There are conventions or unwritten laws on how to deal with outsiders. Here too, there are no true communities. Only when humans can transcend the boundaries of themselves, their families, culture, caste, class, gender, language, ethnicity etc. can they form genuine human communities. Neither nationality nor religion nor political ideology can bring about true communion or build societies based on the principle of community.

The fratricidal wars and destruction of one another among the believers of the same religion or various social and political groups of the same nation reveal that the idea that religion or nationhood, religious beliefs or patriotism do not unite people. In the final analysis, they are only make-beliefs. No religion has created communion among people. Paradoxically, both the presence of religion and the absence of it created conflicts and disharmony among people. No ideology of nationhood or so called patriotism can bring about true communion among people. No political system or ideology could produce harmony and concord among all people. One may wonder, then what is the purpose of the sacrifices some make and even offer their entire life for the purpose of bringing about unity and thus build communion among people? Is it a lost cause?

The great advancement in the field of science and technology achieved during last hundred years alone surpasses everything that the human mind achieved during the previous centuries. The evolution of the human spirit is confirmed through humanizing spiritual values and high ideals of humanity lived by some individuals or groups throughout the centuries. But at the same time a large number of humans engaged in war and violence, destruction of lives and properties are also signs of the power of humans’ capacity for evil that prevent the unfolding of the innate human orientation and capacity to live in communion with other humans and the entire creation. While there are some positive signs of actualizing everything good and noble in human beings especially during a natural calamity or a national disaster like the spread of Covid 19 pandemic, there are also sinister designs to manipulate religious sentiments to secure political power by dividing people according to their religious affiliations. What is at stake is the principle of communion that nurtures and promotes happiness and fulfilment in life.

Individualism versus Communion

It is to be noted that the principle of communion based on the essential inter-relatedness of humans as in a net-work of relationships was devalued at every stage of the rise of liberalism in the western world. The philosophy of Enlightenment which emphasized individual autonomy dominated the thinking in the West and it found expression in various ways since the early modern period. The ideology of liberalism downplayed the importance of religious and cultural traditions which appeared to put shackles on the freedom of the individuals to pursue their own interests independent of any overarching restrictions of religion and society. As an ideology it focuses on the independent choices and decisions of the individuals over the decisions of the community. Individuals are given to understand that their choices are their sacred right as long as they are not harming anyone. If self-interest and not harming anyone are the criteria to judge the rightness of an action then there is no room for self-sacrificing attitudes and actions for promoting communion among people in a society.

It is clear that the cause of the rise of individualism and the slow death of communities is the philosophy of Enlightenment and the growth of Liberalism in Europe and in North America. Liberalism developed and found its place in 20th century and influenced society as a reaction to the modern collectivist alternatives like fascism and communism that reduced individual to a cog in the machine of the society. Liberalism dethroned collectives and communities and enthroned the individual and his or her choices in their place. Everything, social, political, economic, legal decisions revolves around individual.

Important fallout of the rise of liberalism and consequent individualism was the damage it has done to the integral communion and community life that Christianity proclaimed and lived. Christianity proclaimed the equality of persons and freedom of individuals and at the same time, it affirmed that freedom is always coupled with responsibility to live as an authentic human person in communion with others. True communion is not possible or genuine community cannot be built if each one pursues his or her own happiness alone, of course, without hampering the happiness of others. To build communities one has to go beyond oneself and reach out to the other with self-emptying love as Jesus did. This is the core teaching of Christianity. However, the liberal thinking could show that the equality of persons which the Church professes as fundamental to its faith is not practiced in the structures of the Church itself. While affirming self-emptying love as foundation to a life of communion, the visibility of the Church is more manifested in the power structures of domination and control than in the former. Such contradictions not only affected the credibility of the Church but also found resistance and sometimes even complete rejection by Christian believers themselves. One of the clearest examples for such an individualistic attitude is the passing of the abortion law by the traditionally Catholic Irish parliament in recent times.

With atomized individuals pursuing their own private interests even at the cost of the well-being of the entire community of a society in many parts of the Western world, it looks as though they are only pseudo-communities. Analyzing the socio-political and cultural problems in the making of a society as a community and suggesting its solutions Scott M. Peck says that the four stages of community-making include pseudo-communities, chaos, emptiness and finally community. Society as a pseudo-community with superficial relationships will be followed by chaos after a period of relative peace. It cannot be sustained for long as superficial relationships break up and animosities and struggles to dominate others would emerge necessitating the rule of law. It would not bring lasting peace in any society and there is no true community in such societies. Only when the members of a society learn to empty themselves of their false sense of importance or their false ego can an authentic community develop and true peace be experienced by the members of a society (The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace , Simon & Shuster, 1987). The views of Scott M Peck have their roots in Christian theological and spiritual tradition on communion and community living. Indeed, to be is to be related because it is the very nature of humans who are created in the image and likeness of God the Absolute Communion as we have already seen. Liberalism and its offshoot individualism would eventually disorient humans’ natural progression towards becoming authentic humans as well as devalue its supporting and nurturing base, namely, community. What is happening in the Western societies, is the rise of individualism and the death of persons and communities.

Individualism and Communalism in India

Often a superficial comparison between the life-style of the people in the West and in India is made by distinguishing the former as individualistic and the latter as communitarian. We have seen that the rise of individualism has a philosophy of liberalism behind it. In contrast to it, there are communitarian life ideals based on certain spiritual vision in India. For example, there are religious ideals like, “the whole world is a family’’ (vasudhaivakutumbakam) or work for “welfare of all beings” (lokasamgraha). However, one’s duty (svadharma) according to Bhagavat Gita is to fulfil the specific duties of one’s caste. The religious prescription to fulfil one’s caste duties, in a way advocates a kind of collective individualism. At the level of Hindu spirituality itself, the ultimate goal of life of an individual is his or her self-realization. It is in no way related to the other.. Thus an individualistic understanding of liberation or salvation as well as a narrow understanding of one’s obligation to the society as limited to the fulfilment of one’s caste duties breeds both individualism and communalism.

If individualism as a consequence of the philosophy of liberalism in the West affect every aspect of one’s life in the Western societies, individualism and communalism based on religion and its spirituality prevent true communion among the people of all religions and ideologies in India. Certainly, there are some persons in India who could transcend their own religion and caste and their own ideological and political affiliations to build communion among people. Mahatma Gandhi was one of them. However, the rise of religious fundamentalism and the fragmentation of the Indian society on religious, caste, linguistic and ethnic lines are destroying the unity of the nation as well as communion and concord among people. The complex interplay of various interest groups, namely, many educated young people who have imbibed the western values of individualism, a large group of young people who blindly follow religious fundamentalism, groups which champion the cause of their own castes, subaltern groups which seek to secure their rights and assert their identity, political leaders who manipulate religion and cultural symbols to divide people to secure power etc., are following a collective individualism or communalism without communion.

Physical Distancing and Social Distancing

The spiritual idealism of India considering the entire world as a family remained only as an idealism for centuries while physical and social distancing were practiced by the dominating castes in India. The inhuman practice of untouchability with severe punishments meted out to the so called untouchables or dalits if they violated the rules of physical distancing were sanctioned by the Hindu religious texts. Physical distancing was the expression of social distancing with an underlying religious belief in the inequality of human persons. There is no religious system anywhere else in the world that perpetuated inequality and discriminated humans on the basis of their birth in a caste that is already determined either as high or low, touchable or untouchable! True communion among people cannot be possible in such societies.

The Corona virus affects everyone who is not protected without any discrimination of caste or creed, rich or poor, male or female. This pandemic is a big leveller. Everyone is vulnerable to this pandemic Covid19. Has it brought people who were already fragmented on the basis of religion, caste, class, gender etc., to live in communion at least in this suffering? While all health workers, NGOs and ad hoc groups of volunteers reach out to every victim of Covid19 without any discrimination, there are religious and caste fundamentalists who would not rise above their false and inhuman beliefs to treat humans as humans. They would not give help or receive help without ascertaining the religion and caste of those who offer them help or seek their help. If humans do not let themselves be transformed by God whose glory they are, there cannot be any true communion among people.

The call for social distancing to prevent the spread of Covid19 is actually a call for physical distancing. Whether at this time when Covid19 is spreading fast throughout our country or when it is contained and the people are free from this virus or any other contagious disease any social distancing do not promote communion. Religiously sanctioned and socially and culturally enforced social distancing as in the case of caste practices of discrimination prevent the actualization of the principle of communion or community. Wherever there is higher or lower, superior or inferior in human relationships there would not be any authentic communion. Liberalism which affirmed equality of all humans gave birth to individualism and religion, caste or socio-political groupings gave birth to collective individualism. What is required is the realization that humans are humans only to the extent that they are related to others beyond all barriers created by religion, society or ideology. Communion among humans is possible only when independence of individuals or groups give way to interdependence; competition gives way to collaboration and love of power gives way to the power of love, indeed, self-emptying love!