Man and transcendence according to Gabriel Marcel

Humanism, from our point of view, does not claim to dominate the world, but is the understanding that man has of himself, of the conditions in which he has experienced his existence and which give meaning to his humanity. Being is an energy that unfolds and transcends the materialistic sphere, tending towards its perfect fulfillment. This means that, subjectively speaking, there is nothing human in man that can be refuted as strange and incompatible with his destiny.When one man persuasively seeks to distance another from God, from the idea of death and the afterlife, and thus from immortality, he is effectively denying his capacity to expand towards his destiny. This is precisely what nihilism produced in the 19th century, the consequences of which are still visible in our societies today.Thus, human existence, understood as the starting point towards a perfection of being, must be measured not only against nothingness, but also against being-in-itself. To hope is to fix one's gaze on a profound future, to break down the obstacles of contingency in order to reach an end that is desirable to all and to each individual.