advenu

Can anyone help with the phrase "le vrai visage de cette humanité advenue à elle-même"?

I know what it means, I think, but am having trouble bringing it into English. "humanity that had achieved its own potential", for example?

this use of "advenir" is unusual, it sounds like "livrée à elle-même", but without the notion of becoming lost. In my opinion, it looks like the humanity has encountered its-self randomly. Circumstances occured so that the humanity is existing, growing and dealing with that. Mystic sentence ...


"achieved its own potential" is completely different, I don't believe one iota in this interpretation... The french sentence would read as "cette humanité qui a réalisé son potentiel".

Thank you, Marcolo ... It is indeed a bit mystic.

Would "spontaneously discovered itself" work, to your ear?

That could work, I am not sure. Can you give us more context, the year when the book was written, the general topic of the book, some sentences around.
Thank you.

Sure -- it is a current book about philosophy. Some context:

"Rosenzweig qui, depuis les tranchées de Macédoine où il conçoit et écrit L'Etoile de la Rédemption, dans le sang et l'horreur des batailles dont il lui est donné d'être le témoin, voit le vrai visage de cette humanité supposée, selon les universalistes toujours, advenue à elle-même, arrivée au terme de sa théodicée, nimbée du divin halo de la Présence réalisée ..."

Yep, that helps 👁 Smile :)
As a result, I agree with "spontaneously discovered itself".
Somehow, I have the feeling that "advenue à elle-même" is a denial of religious beliefs that say that God created humanity. The expression "arrivée au terme de sa théodicée" seems to prove that. I think that "arrivée au terme de sa théodicée" means that the theodicity doesn't hold anymore, this is no longer possible to explain the presence of humanity by the sole intervention of God.


Now, I am a bit deficient in philosophy and religion, I hope someone else will have better insights about that sentence !

Yes -- so am I, hélas for someone translating a book about philosophy and religion! I am going to stick with "spontaneously discovered itself" unless someone has a better idea ...