Separation as a Primary Source of Unhappiness in Modern Society
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/lie.1698Keywords:
G. K. Chesterton, Joseph Ratzinger, Karl Rahner, virtues, separation, individualismAbstract
This article addresses the causes of unhappiness in modern society from the perspective of three twentieth century writers. G. K. Chesterton, Josef Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) and Karl Rahner. In his work Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton, states that the virtues have been separated from each other and as such have gone mad. The effect of this causes separation in people as well. Josef Ratzinger proposes that in modern society death has been separated from life, the effect of which is a distortion of both. Karl Rahner demonstrates how people can become unhappy and unable to deal with the ever‑changing situations of life because the modern person attempts to be happy by controlling and constructing his or her own future. The perspectives of these writers are used in this article to explain factors, which play upon the growing phenomenon of separateness and individualism that account for a feeling of isolation and unhappiness in modern societies.Also, a solution to these problems will be addressed suggesting a way that each individual, even from the very place of his or her own separateness, can attempt to join with others, but more specifically to help the other, as a way to overcome the isolation, fear, and separateness that lead to unhappiness.
References
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Libereria Editrice Vaticana: Citta del Vaticano, 1997.
Chesterton G. K., Orthodoxy, Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009.
Pieper J., Faith, Hope, Love, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997.
Rahner K., “A Fragmentary Aspect of a Theological Evaluation of the Concept of the Future”, Theological Investigations X. Writings of 1965–1967 2, trans. D. Bourke, New York: Herder and Herder, 1973, p. 235.
Ratzinger J., Eschatology, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1988.
Ratzinger J., Introduction to Christianity, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1969.
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