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Durham E-Theses Durham E-Theses The spiritual guide in late antiquity and the middle ages: a comparative study Bates, Sandra Annette How to cite: Bates, Sandra Annette (1999) The spiritual guide in late antiquity and the middle ages: a comparative study, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4797/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY By Sandra Annette Bates A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of M.Litt. University of Durham 1999 Approved by Chairperson of Supervisory Committee Program Authorised to Offer Degree Date The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the written consent of the author an information derived from it should be acknowledged. ° 2 NOV 1999 UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM 1999 DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY ABSTRACT THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY Sandra A. Bates This thesis analyses the idea of the spiritual guide in the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The guides are found in both human/earthly and divine/celestial forms and are treated in the following sequence: living, deceased masters, angels, a higher self and a personified active intellect. The chapters thus follow a logical sequence from the concrete to the abstract. In terms of methodology, this comparative study identifies an exemplum or model present in the mystical traditions of these three religions within a specific historical and geographical context. I argue that the spiritual guide is experiential and, therefore, is manifest in different forms and through my analysis I prove how and why these forms are manifest in one tradition rather than in another. As all these guides, save the living spiritual guide, are both immanent and transcendent they can be contacted through various mental and physical practices. Therefore, comparisons with Hindu and Buddhist meditation and yoga have been included where relevant. Examples from the lives and works of the Desert Fathers, Byzantine monastics, and the Franciscan St. Bonaventure illustrate the human spiritual guide in the Christian tradition. Sources from the various strands of Judaism - orthodox rabbinical, mystical, ethical and pietistic represent the Jewish spiritual guide. In Islam, the living guide is especially well documented in the lives and works of two mystics: ibn 'Arab! and Rurnl. For the deceased spiritual guide, I have compared and contrasted the imam of the Shi'a, the sheikh of the Naqshbandl Sufis, the Gnostic Christ and the 'Rabbi from Beyond' in the Kabbalah. The significant angelic guides: - Metatron, the angel as Kavod and Shekinah, the angelic Christ and the angel Sophia - are drawn from diverse sources. These are the Enoch books, the Hekhalot literature, the Zohar and Hasidic literature, the Gnostic scriptures and Byzantine art; and the poetry/poetic prose of ibn 'Arab! and Ruzbehan. The Arabs were instrumental in introducing the idea of the spiritual guide as the higher self and the active intellect in their translations, such as al-BIruni and al-Kindl, and their interpretations of Indian and Greek philosophy. In historical terms, the Muslim conquest of Indian and Central Asia, Spain and the Maghreb provided the crossroads for the interchange of ideas and the meeting place for Islamic and Jewish mysticism. Examples of the higher self, visualised in yoga, are, therefore, found in the works of Kubra, ibn 'ArabI and Abulafia. The active intellect, arising from a misrepresentation of Aristotle's De Anima 3 (5), appears as an external spiritual guide in Islamic and Jewish mysticism, through Avicenna and others, but was rejected by Christian Medieval Scholastics. One such was Thomas Aquinas, who insisted that the active intellect formed a unity with the other powers within the soul. The spiritual guide is, therefore, an important theme in the study of mysticism, which I have traced in many sources extant in different languages and disciplines and, in its various forms, it both united and divided religious traditions. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preliminaries - Glossary of Terms Introduction ix Chapter 1 The Human Spiritual Guide 1 Chapter 2 The Deceased Guide 67 Chapter 3 The Angelic Guide 114 Chapter 4 The Higher Self 158 Chapter 5 The Active Intellect as Spiritual Guide 193 Chapter 6 Conclusion 235 Bibliography Maps Appendix LIST OF FIGURES MAPS Number 1: Central Asia - Chinese 2: Central Asia - Russian 3: Northwest Frontier region 4: Iran li ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to acknowledge her supervisor Dr. Andrew Louth, of Durham University, for his help throughout the research of this thesis, and his reading of the final transcript. I would also like to acknowledge Sr. Benedicta Ward of Oxford, who was my first teacher in Theology, when I studied for my MA in Medieval Studies, at Reading University. I am also indebted to the Bodleian Library collections, and those of the Oriental Institute, Oxford. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the help given by my father's personal library, which was left to me on his death. ui GLOSSARY Ahl al-sunnah: The majority group in Islam or the Sunnis. 'Alam al-ghayb: The unseen or spiritual world. 'Alam al-mithal: mundus imaginalis -The imaginal world. This is where visionary guides are said to manifest. Also known as 'alam al-takhayyul. The imaginal world is said to stand between the physical and intelligible worlds. Al-'aql al-fa"al: The active intellect was understood to be an intelligible entity by the Arabs. Also known as the angel Gabriel, he played the role of guide to salvation in some of the Sufi writings. He was the 10 in a series of emanating intellects, the first of which was known as 'Aql al-awwal. Baqa' The highest mystical station in Sufism to which the soul can aspire. Dhikr Allah: The remembrance of God's name. It can form part of meditation practices, and can be silent or spoken. It may be combined with bodily movement, dancing and music. It can bring about ecstatic states, or the experience of fana, or annihilation of the self, leading to the soul resting in God. Hadith: The sayings of the Prophet. Al-haqlqat al-muharnmadiyyah: The Muhammadan Reality, which may be called the Muhammadan light. It concerns the pre-existence of the Prophet's nature, and can be identified with the Greek term Logos. It is this Nur al-Muhammadi or the Light of the Prophet, which may illumine those on the Sufi path. Imam: In Shl'ism the term has a different meaning than among Sunni Muslims. There are seven or twelve Imams, depending on whether the ShTa groups are "Seveners" or "Twelvers". The Imams were pre-existent spiritual guides, who have lived on earth, but the last has gone into occupation, or has been withdrawn by God. Like the prophets they live in a celestial world, and watch over their followers. They sometimes manifest in the visionary world. The hidden Imam will appear on the Last Day. Sometimes he is identified with the angelic entity, the active intellect. Khanaqah: Sufi meeting place. IV Al-Khidr: Another pre-existent being, a prophet mentioned, though not by name, in the Koran, in connection with Moses. He is an esoteric spiritual guide who manifests himself to some visionaries, particularly the Uwaysi Sufis. Al-Mahdi: The "rightly guided one" who will bring in the reign of peace during the Last Days. His role is often associated with that of the coming of the Imam, mentioned above. Maqam: A Sufi station, or stage in the spiritual life. Mithal: Image. Al-nafs al-ammarah: The part of the soul, which incites the passions, and is associated with the evil inclination. Al-nafs al-hayawaniyyah: The fleshly soul. Al-nafs al-lawwamah: The blaming soul. When this part of the soul starts to predominate, it means some progress has been made on the Path. Then the disciple begins to recognise and rectify his/her faults. Al-nafs al-mutma'innah: The tranquil soul. To have this part of the soul predominate over the lower soul is the goal of the Sufi. Shahid: Witness. In Kubra's writings this term means the alter ego or the higher self. Sheikh: Spiritual Guide, also known as Pir in Persian Sufi writings Shuhud: Vision and contemplation. Silsilah: The initiatic chain, linking all Sufi masters to the Muhammadan Light and to God. Tasawwuf: Sufi mysticism. Wall Allah: Literally Friend of God. Term used to describe a Sufi holy man JEWISH TERMS Ein-Sof: The Infinite. The unknowable aspect of the Divine, beyond all distinctions, found in Kabbalist writings. It has something in common with the Platonic 'One' and may be identified with Aristotle's First Cause. Kavod: Divine Glory. Also it is an aspect of the Divine which may become manifest in visionary experience. It can be understood to be an angel and may be identified with the angelic guide Metatron.
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