Abstract
Phenomenology of Grace attempts to explain intangible yet possible changes, which help to gain new insights ensuring dimensions of what society values. Compelling scenes of violence emerging everyday are capable of paralysing people’s vision for a society that values human bond by creating a mounting concern among those who are consistently attempting to face this challenge for a better future. Significant in the Indian context is the role of Gandhi and many others who had to deal with the imperialist conflicts, violence and deepening social inequalities with an ideology of non-violence. Before them reformists and spiritual leaders like Shri Chaitanya, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had to respond to such challenges in extremely trying times while having a laudable goal to fulfil the aspirations of especially those treated as Other.
The gulf between the privileged and the non-privileged existed in all times, however, as this undermines the human values, the personalities referred to above attempted to maintain some measures of social and cultural equality not just as theoretical principle but also as praxis for the future generation to be inspired. Like John Locke (1632), Chaitanya (1486) too believed that all people were naturally equal by virtue of being human. He demonstrated a profound understanding of this conviction and tried his best to find ways in which it needed to be applied to make it relevant for society through ‘grace’ which might have looked religious but which contributed to radical aspects that influenced social life a lot by “working on behalf of the future in projects” (Bussey).
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Notes
- 1.
The Bhakti movement refers to an Indian devotional movement in Hinduism and Sikhism. It produced a deep poetic and mystical expression with profound political and cultural implications. It can be dated to the fifteenth and seventeenth century CE.
- 2.
Bussey , Marcus (2018). Personal communication on the theme, ‘Phenomenologies of Grace’.
- 3.
Kabir. Oral Tradition.
- 4.
Accessible on: www.iep.utm.edu.locke
- 5.
See: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Principle_of_locality (accessed May 7, 2019).
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Accessible on https://physics.stackexchange.com
- 7.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessible on: http://iep.utm.edu
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Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessible on: http://iep.utm.edu
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Bhagavadgita. Reprint: 1960. Chapter 4. Verse 39. Gorakhpur: Geeta Press.
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Accessible on https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_History_of_Western_Philosophy (accessed May 7, 2019).
- 11.
Accessible on: http://iep.utm.edu
- 12.
Accessible on: en.m.wikipedia.org
- 13.
‘Anandat hi Khalu Imani BhutaniJayante…’ Taittiriya Upanishad.3.6.1. In Principal Upanishads, Ed. S Radhakrishnan. 1953. London. George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
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Chakravorty, M. (2020). A Phenomenology of Grace: The New Insights. In: Bussey, M., Mozzini-Alister, C. (eds) Phenomenologies of Grace. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40623-3_11
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