Héroe y trascendenciala imagen intolerable de ser libre

  1. Ruth Gutiérrez Delgado 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Navarra
    info

    Universidad de Navarra

    Pamplona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02rxc7m23

Journal:
Conocimiento y acción

ISSN: 2683-2798

Year of publication: 2024

Issue Title: ¿Es el Héroe alguien extraordinario?

Volume: 4

Issue: 1

Pages: 33-56

Type: Article

DOI: 10.21555/CYA.IVI.1.2896 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Conocimiento y acción

Abstract

The aim of this article is to define the religious meaning of the main forms of the heroic. To do so, it is essential to explain it in the context of moral skepticism surrounding the phenomenon of the hero. Some authors such as Bröckling propose to “dismantle” the heroic as a matter of urgency. This attitude is signaling a social emergency under the sign of suspicion of any mode of inequality that threatens the egalitarian achievements of modern democracy. Thus the discourses that discredit any form of heroism become more virulent insofar as “heroisms” manifest a moral inequality (although it is also interpreted in relation to other ranks: gender, social, religious, economic...). This indicates that the very recognition of the “hero” implies agreeing on “something”. In spite of this de-heroizing current, the heroic impulse -not exempt from problems and threats-is still in force. In contrast, from psychology, authors such as Franco and Zimbardo propose incorporating the heroic attitude into every day life, considering each person as a potential hero. In the field of media culture, especially infiction, there is great resistance to the hero’s disappearance.On the one hand, the fact that fiction continues to show some forms of leadership, exemplary paradigms or heroic figures can be interpreted as a sign of a longing or a lack. But, on the other hand, if fiction improves nature or perfects it, according to Aristotle, the constant presence of the heroic in representation may be indicative of its necessity. Factors such as the professionalization of certain jobs or the sophistication of administrationand legislation impose new frontiers on the appearance of the hero, understood in its supernatural, transcendent, sacrificial and religious dimensions. In order to present these ideas, three forms of the heroic and their possible religious roots are distinguished: the mythical, the cultural and the moral.

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