CHAVARA: A PROPHET OF OUR TIMES

Abstract

A charismatic feature of human society is that it develops or is des- troyed through the role played by certain individuals during the course of its history. This is true of society. political and religious leaders all over the world. Whereas Francis of Assisi is responsible for the birth and growth of a dynamic spiritual movement in the church during the 13th cen- tury, Adolf Hitler is responsible for attempting the total destruction of the world order in the 20th century through his political ambition and mis- guided philosophy. It is the vision of life such people held which ultima- tely conditioned the kind of role they played in human society either to promote its growth or to bring about its destruction. Posterity looks back to these persons either with gratitude or with hatred, depending on the kind of part they played in shaping the human society at large during that time.