A prática espiritual de Jesus e o sentido da vida: o sentido da vida no cristianismo analisado a partir da teoria de VICTOR EMIL FRANKL

Abstract

The purpose of our study is to analyze one of the deepest questions of humanity, which is the question about the meaning of life. Concerning this issue, we find contrary and favorable positions to the possibility that life has a meaning and, so, there are people who believe that it s not possible to be found, and the ones who believe that without finding it we fall in an empty existence, where neuroses are generated. Among these is Victor Emil Frankl, founder of Logotherapy and existential analysis. We associate this issue with the thinking and acting of Christianity, which is a generating source of meaning and an axiological promoter within the social relations. Thus, this work tends towards finding the interface between these two propositions, in other words, to reflect on the dynamics of the Christian spirit from the practice of Jesus and how this may influence the discovery of meaning, necessary for psychical equilibrium and singular for becoming man, according to the theory of Frankl. While for him it s a possibility of cure for mental problems, for Christians it is a gift and mission, acknowledging and valuing, however, the spiritual dimension of human beings, common to both positions. The hypothesis that man / woman, influenced by scientific knowledge and by the comfort and consumerism generated by post-modernity, have rejected the institutional religions does not dismiss a serious reflection on the human spiritual dimension, both through the many ways this spirituality has appeared in groups of diverse spiritualities and the analysis of the dimension of the spirit, which, being essentially dynamic, has motivated in many ways the search for human transcendence. Thus, this study, in its first chapter, deals with the life and theory of Victor Emil Frankl, helping us understand the emergence of existential emptiness, which is a strong impression in the historical period in which he lived with the two world wars and the consequences of philosophy with the idea of the death of God, besides the creation of his psychotherapy, whose goal is to find meaning. In the second chapter we write about the spiritual practice of Jesus, who, with his life and actions, reveals through the Gospels how we can live the question of meaning in human existence, despite the suffering, pain and even death, and the role it plays in the life of Christians. In the third chapter we analyze the importance of Christianity as meaning-generating spirituality and the tangible effects that can be felt in the lives of those who embrace such spirituality