Gift and the Unity of Being. Antonio López M.

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Название Gift and the Unity of Being
Автор произведения Antonio López M.
Жанр Религия: прочее
Серия Veritas
Издательство Религия: прочее
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781630870416



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give. The potentiality to give, however—or “gift,” considered as a verb—is only one aspect. “Gift” is also a noun and, as such, describes the nature of the concrete singular. In addition to the inseparability of these two aspects of the word “gift,” there also exists a proper taxis between them. The singular’s capacity to give or to be given rests in its being given completely to itself. It is true that the gift is to grow in the truth of its being, yet this is a growth into what has already been given: participation in being. The totality proper to the singular being, therefore, also contains a promise of more, that is, of being confirmed in being and of participating in a being with others that knows no end. The promise is not made, however, because the beginning of the singular’s existence is an empty void waiting to be filled. The promise of more is, rather, an increase of what has already been given. This promise is not a movement from sheer potency to actuality, but an indwelling of the latter. An inquiry into the meaning of substance in what follows will explore in what sense the connotations of gift’s actuality and potentiality are not dialectically related, and why the need to grow in the gift does not threaten the concrete singular’s being. It suffices here to note that to think of time without relation to eternity is to give potentiality priority over actuality. Taking as primordial the verbal sense of gift as potency grounds the claim that history is all-encompassing.80 This claim, however, looks at the concrete singular from its historical end (death) rather than from its inception, and holds up the future rather than the present as time’s fundamental category. The human being is indeed oriented towards the future, but this is because the fullness of the present opens him to it. How is the “present” then to be understood?