Revista de Filosofía Open Insight ISSN: 2007-2406 [email protected] Centro de Investigación Social Avanzada México Szalay, Mátyás Marriage as Temporal Experience. Sacramental versus Contractual Constitution of the Meaning of the Spousal Community Revista de Filosofía Open Insight, vol. XI, no. 23, 2020, September-, pp. 35-56 Centro de Investigación Social Avanzada México Available in: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=421664631003 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System Redalyc More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Journal's webpage in redalyc.org Portugal Project academic non-profit, developed under the open access initiative Marriage as Temporal Experience. Sacramental versus Contractual Constitution of the Meaning of the Spousal Community El matrimonio como experiencia temporal: La constitución sacramental versus la constitución contractual del significado de la comunidad conyugal Mátyás Szalay Instituto de Filosofía Edith Stein, España [email protected] Abstract Resumen Within a Christian context, the sacred En un contexto cristiano, el significado sa- meaning of temporality is clearly ex- grado de la temporalidad está claramente emplified by marital life. It is possible ejemplificado por la vida marital. Es posi- to argue on both the theological and ble argumentar tanto en el nivel teológi- philosophical levels that reflecting on co como en el filosófico que reflexionar marriage —the strongest and highest in- sobre el matrimonio (que es la relación terhuman relationship— can provide us interhumana más alta y fuerte) puede pro- with essential insights into how the expe- veernos de intuiciones esenciales sobre rience of temporality is interpersonally cómo la experiencia de la temporalidad co-constituted. está co-constituida interpersonalmente. I will offer a brief phenomenological En este trabajo ofrezco un breve análisis analysis of the temporal experience of fenomenológico de la experiencia tempo- marital life by elaborating on the differ- ral de la vida conyugal, desarrollando las ences between the secular and sacred diferencias entre las perspectivas seculares perspectives on the past, present and fu- y sagradas sobre el pasado, el presente y ture. The aim of these paper is to find a el futuro. El objetivo de este trabajo es way to interpret the experience of tem- encontrar una manera de interpretar la porality that is shaped by marriage, i.e., experiencia de la temporalidad moldeada co-constituted by the relationship with por el matrimonio, i.e., co-constituida the beloved, in order to unify the frag- por la relación con el amado, con la finali- mented life. dad de unificar la vida fragmentada. Keywords: marriage, phenomenology, Palabras clave: Fenomenología; relationality, sacramental logic, lógica sacramental; matrimonio; temporality. temporalidad; relacionalidad. Open Insight • Volumen XI • Nº 23 (septiembre-diciembre 2020) • pp. 35-56 35 The title of the 7th International Conference «Beyond Secular Faith» in Granada was “Sacramental versus Secular Logic”. First, let me briefly make a general comment on the title, for it allows us to bet- ter understand the point I would like to raise concerning a specific issue which exemplifies the relationship between sacramental and secular logic. The main claim suggested by the title is as follows: Although there is a major difference, and even a contradiction, between secu- lar and sacramental logic, there are no two equally strong realities; they are not simply «opposed to each other», and they certainly do not exclude each other.1 Using the expression of Romano Guardini, one can rather call this complex relationship a «polar opposition»2 in which there is a tension between sacramental and secular logic, thereby establishing a field in which the corresponding phenomena are formed according to their relation to these poles. Yet, in spite of the collaboration between secular and sacramental logic in the 1 The relationship between sacramental and secular logic is certainly rooted in being, i.e. how things really are, and how the sacramental reality, the supernatural, is related to the natural. Claiming that there is no separate and autonomous reality of the natural (natura pura), and all that implies, has been convincingly argued on both the theo- logical and philosophical levels. Our so-called «purely secular relations» are still formed and transformed by the supernatural, for, according to the wise words of Henri de Lu- bac (which were affirmed by the Second Vatican Council): The natural naturally desires the supernatural. See Hollon (2009). The fact that the natural human desire of the beatific vision transcends the proxi- mate natural ends towards a supernatural object also reveals that all natura pura has its supernatural origin. In this short essay, I strongly rely on this tradition by pointing out the elements within the temporal experience of marriage that point to a supernatural origin and correspond to a desire which transcends natural ends. 2 Here we must recall the classic distinction between contrary (Gegensatz) and contra- diction (Widerspruch). The supernatural and the natural are clearly distinct from each other and, in certain ways or concerning certain aspects of reality, this difference can be manifested in concepts that are contrary to each other. Being contrary is part of a dialectic that brings about a fruitful tension and should obviously not be confounded with exclusive contradictions. See more about this distinction in Guardini (1965). For more about the contemporary relevance of this issue see Borghesi (2018). Marriage as Temporal Experience. Sacramental versus Contractual 36 Constitution of the Meaning of the Spousal Community • Mátyás Szalay formation of current social phenomena, ontologically speaking, one can talk only in a limited sense about secular logic. The latter is to be regarded rather as derivation of sacramental logic. The secular is the externalization and the temporalization of the sacred, but when it presents itself as an autonomous reality with its own logic, it can only be a deviation from or a deformation of «sacramental logic». Secular logic as logic in this sense, i.e. as a structured and function- ing autonomous and independent reality, subsists only in a parasitic way by precisely opposing itself to its very origin and foundation. I understand «secular logic» not as the proper logic of the natural reality as it is derived from the supernatural, but rather as a way of conceiving of and perceiving social and political realities in a broad sense, as it is primarily derived from a certain experience and interpreta- tion of temporality. This rather peculiar interpretation is supported by secular culture, by which I mean the post-modern outcome of re- thinking Illustration. This is certainly a quite general definition, and this paper points out it by explaining the nature of the specific expe- rience of temporality that gives rise to thinking in terms of «secular logic» more precisely. The nature of a culture is essentially characterized by how it establishes the categories of time (and space) with special regard to transcendence.3 It is highly questionable that there are purely secular categories of time; yet, there is a special consideration of how high times or sacred times as opposed to low or profane times are un- derstood and what the specific relationship between these two basic categories is.4 3 See Fejős (2000), Gell (1998: 9-24), Geeretz (1973: 391-398), Bloch (1977: 278-292). 4 I will not discuss in this paper how time and space are related to each other; I simply take it for granted that it is more adequate to talk about time-space than about space- time. To our human existence (and even to the created world around us), temporality is more decisive than space. Moreover, the spatial existence of things is due to an event that brought time into existence, namely, creation. Therefore, the dramatic nature of human existence is temporal rather than connected to space and extension, i.e., being human is about a limited earthly life that exists in tension with our eternal vocation of responding to an everlasting love. Open Insight • Volumen XI • Nº 23 (septiembre-diciembre 2020) • pp. 35-56 37 Within a Christian context, the sacred meaning of temporality is clearly exemplified by marital life. It is not just theologically but also philosophically arguable that reflecting on marriage —this be- ing the strongest and highest interhuman relationship— can provide us with essential insights into how the experience of temporality is interpersonally co-constituted. Marriage is not just an analogous reality to how Christ loved the Church and how therefore the su- pernatural transforms natural reality, it is by the same token also the best example of how the person, and thereby one’s inner perception of time, is transformed by the strong link to the other and to the community of the beloved. In what follows, in this article, I will offer a brief phenome- nological analysis fleshing out the most important features of the transformation of internal time-perception within marriage. These elements allow for a renewed vision of reality, discovering its sacra- mental origin, principle, and vocation. Marital Life as Temporal Experience All married men could testify that marital life conveys a radically different experience of temporality when compared to premarital or single life. I would like to argue first that the radical change in our perception of temporality due to marriage is not caused by a ho- mogeneous experience; rather, it is a conflux of two different types of perceptions of temporality. Secondly, I assume that the relation- ship between these two types results in a paradox that fundamentally characterizes marital life. a) On the one hand, it is a widely acknowledged social fact that the marital bond by which one becomes part of a wider social net- work, with its specific rules, responsibilities and rights, reduces the free time available for personal use.