Experimenting on Gabriel Marcel’s Idea of ‘Creative Fidelity’ in A World of Brokenness and Fragmentation: An Appraisal

Abstract

This work is expository and evaluative in its methodology. It aims at offering a critical assessment of the claims of Gabriel Marcel on Creative Fidelity, in order to ascertain whether or not such claims are philosophically robust, sustainable and realizable, or merely deflationary and idealistic. Gabriel Marcel’s work on Creative Fidelity does not only deal with perennial themes of faith, fidelity and belief, incarnate being and participation, but also discusses religious tolerance and orthodoxy. Creative fidelity refers to the tenacious, constant desire to elaborate who we are. To have a greater sense of being, we need creative fidelity. For Marcel, to exist only as body is to exist problematically. To exist existentially is to exist as a thinking, emotive, being, dependent upon the human creative impulse. He believed that, as soon as there is creation, we are in the realm of being, and also that, there is no sense in using the word ‘being’ except where creation is in view. Thus, we become creatively faithful when we bridge the gap between ourselves and others by making ourselves present to them, and so defy absences with presence. Thus, it is not enough to be constant, since constancy is tenacity towards a specific goal, which requires neither presence nor an openness to change. If the creative élan is a move away from the objectification of humanity, it must be essentially tied relationally to others. Creative fidelity, then, entails a commitment to acts which draw the subject closer to others, and this must be balanced with a proper respect for the self. Self-love, self-satisfaction, complacency, or even self-anger are attitudes which can paralyze one’s existential progress and mitigate against the creative impulse. To be tenacious in the pursuit, the fidelity aspect is the most crucial part of the creative impulse, since creation is a natural outflow of being embodied. The central argument of this work is that “creative fidelity,” as theory, is quite captivating and fascinating, and seemingly realizable in a possible world of altruistic human beings. However, in practice, it seems unattainable or unrealizable, especially in a concrete world that is populated by self-serving, fragmented and broken human beings.