HONING the MYSTICAL EAR: Making Sense of Music As a Means of Mystical Living
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HONING THE MYSTICAL EAR: Making Sense of Music as a Means of Mystical Living by Michael J. Lamanna, S.J. A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Licentiate in Sacred Theology at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry Readers Rev. John Baldovin, S.J., Ph.D. Rev. Brian Dunkle, S.J., Ph.D. April 19, 2021 Table of Contents Introduction: “A New Kind of Humanity That Is Musical” ........................................................ 2 The Challenge from Fr. Nicolás ................................................................................................................ 2 The Approach ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Some Background Music and Conceptual Ground Clearing .................................................................... 5 The Theological a Priori ........................................................................................................................... 6 Why Bother Giving This a Listen?............................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1: Honing the Ear .......................................................................................................... 12 The On-Ramp: Theological Aesthetics ................................................................................................... 13 Bridge One: Music is Communication, but also Cognition .................................................................... 15 Bridge Two, Level One: Music works on us, from within us ................................................................. 22 Bridge Two, Level Two: Opening up to Trust ........................................................................................ 27 Bridge Three: Improvisation and Discovery ........................................................................................... 34 The Off-Ramp: Schooling the Ear to School the Soul ............................................................................ 40 Chapter 2: The Spiritual Senses .................................................................................................. 42 Back to the Sources ................................................................................................................................. 42 Origen of Alexandria ............................................................................................................................... 47 The Tradition of the Spiritual Senses is Carried Forward ....................................................................... 55 Balthasar’s Theological Aesthetics ......................................................................................................... 59 Balthasar and the Spiritual Senses........................................................................................................... 63 Balthasar on Perceiving Christ in the World ........................................................................................... 67 Balthasar’s Doctrine of the Spiritual Senses for Today’s Listeners ........................................................ 69 Chapter 3: Sounding Out A Stumbling Block—The Scandal of the Particular and the Scandal of the Cross in American Music .................................................................................................. 72 The Scandal of the Particular .................................................................................................................. 73 The Scandal of the Cross ......................................................................................................................... 81 The Spiritual Senses and Material Spirituality ........................................................................................ 87 Shared Fragments .................................................................................................................................... 90 Honing the Mystical Ear.......................................................................................................................... 92 Conclusion: An Ignatian Coda.................................................................................................... 95 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 101 Key for Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................... 101 Works Cited and Consulted .............................................................................................................................. 101 1 Introduction: “A New Kind of Humanity That Is Musical” The Challenge from Fr. Nicolás In 2016, the then-Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, gave an address to Jesuits and lay educators at Sophia University to mark its 100th anniversary. In this address he remarks that if one is to have religion, one must have a sensitivity to the “transcendence, depth, gratuity and beauty” of human experience. He compares that sensitivity to the appreciation of classical music, and then he states that “religion is first of all very much more like this musical sense than a rational system of teachings and explanations.” He continues: “…Just as this musical sense is being eroded and weakened by the noise, the pace, the self- images of the modern and postmodern world, so is religious sensitivity.” He warns against simply educating students with a paradigm structured by “instrumental reason or materialist conceptions of life” geared toward economic gain and secular values, because “our reason for being in education is completely different.” He then suggests that “mission today must first of all work toward helping people discover or rediscover this musical sense, this religious sensibility […] this awareness and appreciation of dimensions of reality that are deeper than instrumental reason or materialist conceptions of life allow us…We want to form a new kind of humanity that is musical, that retains this sensitivity to beauty, to goodness, to the suffering of others, to compassion."1 Fr. Nicolás’ exhortation to form “musical persons” is an echo of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s warning against a gradual divorce between head and heart, leading us to “a visionless 1 Christopher Pramuk, “A New Kind of Humanity: The Legacy of Adolfo Nicolas,” America, July 2020. 2 theology and a mindless spirituality.”2 My discussion here is an attempt to reveal the luminous theology and mindful spirituality contained within the mystical tradition of the Church and the experience of music making, especially in an American context. We are capable of perceiving God in this world, even though this perception comes as a foretaste of a further, deeper union with God. Musical persons have trained ears; for the Christian musician, this faculty is part of a larger spiritual sense in which the Word of God operates. Music forms us—from the most amateur to the most professional music maker—and in doing so, opens up wavelengths to hear the Word within us. The Approach In this thesis, I argue that the way that one hones his/her musical intelligence informs how one hones his/her spiritual senses. Derivatively, the way we hone our musical ear affects the way we hone our spiritual ear. When given a deep listen, a beautiful sound is never simply something to be received and enjoyed passively; rather, it attunes us to something transcendent. In my first chapter, I show how musical cognition is a skill with theological implications, in that it allows us to perceive affective forms of knowledge. Relying on the work of Suzanne Langer, Pierangelo Sequeri, and Paul Ricoeur, I describe how the aesthetic perception involved with music is a particular mode of communication of knowledge. The performing arts mediate meaning to performers and observers, even though the content and mode of mediation can be quite different than other forms of communication. I highlight how music acts on us and within us, such that we are opened up to the transcendent. The evocative and improvisational nature of 2 Raymond Gawronski, “The Beauty of the Cross: The Theological Aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar,” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 5, no. 3 (2002): 196, https://doi.org/10.1353/log.2002.0032. 3 music places the musician in an embodied, dynamic relationship of trust with God and others, and this relationship is a medium in which the Word of God manifests itself.3 In my second chapter, I discuss the tradition of the theological category of the “spiritual senses.” Starting with Origen, there has developed within Christian theology a constellation of terms to describe the perception of the divine (whether the Trinity, or Christ, or spiritual things in general). The “interior senses,” “eyes of the heart,” “ears of the soul,” and various other terms are popular phrases even in contemporary spirituality when describing a kind of communication with God. In the ressourcement of the twentieth century, this theological category was reappropriated, especially by scholars, such as Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar, who had studied the writings of the Fathers of the Church. Hans Urs von Balthasar is of particular interest here because of his work in theological aesthetics. Ultimately, I argue that we do indeed perceive God with our “spiritual senses,” which