Climactic act of reaching one's limit and turning to the sky/God/universe for answers
I'm looking for a word to describe the dramatic moment when, after being pushed to the limit, someone drops to their knees and turns to the sky/God/universe. In other words, this is the moment when humanity confronts their own powerlessness in the face of greater powers.
There might be different words for this idea, when it is an act being performed, vs. when it is a moment in a performance. I am curious about both of them, as well as any religious interpretations of it you might know about.
I was trying to say to a friend yesterday that Christianity as a religion has really done a good job of capturing this feeling in the popular imagination. Yet I suspect this idea of humanity being overwhelmed by fate has been around since Greek tragedy, or even might be fundamental to humanity. That is why I want to find as many words that have attempted to describe this as possible.
Solution 1:
I believe the act is called invocation. The verb is to invoke. A more dramatic version would be a desperate cry (for help).
Etymonline: late 14c., "petition (to God or a god) for aid or comfort;...
The act or an instance of invoking, especially an appeal to a higher power for assistance.
the act of invoking or calling upon a deity, spirit, etc., for aid, protection, inspiration, or the like; supplication.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/invocation
It is also mentioned as praying as a last resort out of desperation. For example, Tvtropes explains the "Prayer Is a Last Resort" trope as below:
Nothing seems to be going right. The character is continuously failing to make any progress, despite constantly trying. But eventually, they reach a point where they've exhausted all avenues for success and there are no other options.
Now is a good time to pray.
This trope is an observation about the use of prayer in fiction. Praying is seen as a sign that the character is giving up and acknowledging that they have no control, and so for a character to pray as a first response is almost always a sign of weakness. As such, works will typically portray prayer as a last resort or an act of desperation after the character has tried and failed to resolve the conflict on their own.
Solution 2:
To get as many synonyms as possible find a good one and then use a thesaurus.
Epiphany is a common expression for this event in one's life.
NOUN
A moment of sudden and great revelation or realization.
Then, as if we all have an epiphany at the same moment, we simultaneously yell out.
But I have to believe my epiphany was the decisive moment in my adult life.
In a sudden epiphany, he had remembered that he still had Krillir's guns, silver weapons with eagles engraved on the handles.
In a sudden epiphany, he had remembered that he still had Krillir's guns, silver weapons with eagles engraved on the handles.
Translations of the biblical account of the Prodigal Son use several phrases:
"He came to himself" KJV
"He came to his senses" NIV
We often turn these phrases,
"He came to the end of himself."
"He met God."
Solution 3:
In it's most general sense I believe you are referring to a
crisis
A point where a difficult or important decision must be made:
"Our arguments and conflicts have brought us to this crisis."
A synonym could be crossroad.
Some people refer to this as "hitting the wall."
In reference to God, your crisis will produce either bitter hatred or grateful love for God
Solution 4:
humanity confronts their own powerlessness in the face of greater powers
This is known as an Existential Crisis.
The introduction to the Wikipedia article reads as follows:
An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose, or value.
Solution 5:
In, "The Dark Night", Saint John of the Cross documents the soul's journey from its Earthly and bodily home to its union with God. In this work, Darkness represents the hardships and difficulties the soul meets in detachment from the world and reaching the light of union with the Creator. The main idea of the work concerns the painful experiences people endure as they grow in spiritual maturity toward union with God. The poem is divided into two books that reflect the two phases of the dark night. For Saint John the first phase is purification of the senses, and the second and more intense is the purification of the Spirit. Dark Night of the Soul was written between 1578 and 1579, while John of the Cross was imprisoned by his Carmelite brothers, who opposed his reformations to the Order. The term "dark night (of the soul)" is also used in Roman Catholicism in reference to an individual's spiritual crisis.