DOCSLIB.ORG

The Salmon of Knowledge, the Cloud of Unknowing, and Other Accounts of Instant Knowing

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Salmon of Knowledge, the Cloud of Unknowing, and Other Accounts of Instant Knowing Studies in Spirituality 26, 217-248. doi: 10.2143/SIS.26.0.3180809 © 2016 by Studies in Spirituality. All rights reserved. MICHAEL MCGLYNN THE SaLMON OF KNOWLEDGE, THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING, AND OtHER ACCOUNts OF INstaNt KNOWiNG SUMMARY – This article considers the fourteenth-century treatise The Cloud of Unknowing as a description of instant, non-sensory cognition. The text has an ostensibly particular function as an instruction manual in Christian contemplation, but bears on a universal experience, that of quickly knowing without knowing how we know. To demonstrate the universality of quick knowing, the literary motif of instant knowing is briefly considered, and a survey of intuition and non-sensory cognition in cognitive science is sustained throughout. A case is made that the author-mystic’s experience of unknowing is not unrelated to some aspects of everyday cognition. A corollary argument is made that early religious and literary texts provide new meaning when viewed as ethnographically and empirically valuable (as opposed to recursive and indeterminate). 1. NOWHERE BODILY There is a robust and continuous tradition in the mythical and mystical texts of medieval Europe which posit, implicitly or explicitly, a theory of cognition beyond sensation, of knowing beyond physicality. This robust tradition stretches from the oldest mythical narratives of Europe through the present-day West, operating under a scientific paradigm. Toward the beginning of our chronology, or at least the beginning of the medieval period, the legendary Irish hero Finn mac Cool’s immediate and complete acquisition of knowledge of the world through one taste of the salmon of knowledge obviates the need for hard-won empirical data, i.e., life experience.1 A belief in the non-physicality of reality and therefore of the cognition of reality is also expressed in assertions such as this, from The Cloud of Unknowing, ‘Because nowhere bodily is everywhere spiritually’.2 This quotation from chapter sixty-eight elaborates ‘unknowing’ as no place, a spatial metaphor for the absence of physical sensation, for cognition 1 The Boyhood Deeds of Finn survive in the Psalter of Cashel, an Old Irish manuscript. 2 Ch. 68, p.121: ‘For whi nogh-where bodily is euerywhere goostly’. This and all references to the Cloud of Unknowing are taken from Phylis Hodgson’s edition (London: Oxford University Press, 1944). 99213_SIS_26_09_McGlynn.indd 217 7/12/16 15:15 218 mICHAEL mCgLYNN based not on processing sensory inputs, but rather on instantaneous intuited realization; in metaphysical terms ‘nowhere’ is a quality of the formless absolute. ‘Unknowing’ is the Cloud-author’s term for the cognition of reality through contemplation. ‘Unknowing’ and other grammatical tropes of the ineffability of reality and truth are the leitmotiv of this and many other texts written about the mystical experience, enlightenment, and ultimate reality in many religious and philosophical traditions. In the Cloud-author’s theological language, physical things are subject to spir- itual things, and not the opposite.3 This statement is not a moralizing Church platitude about life after death, so much as a theory of, if we may borrow con- temporary language, non-physical, non-local causality. This is the gist of the Cloud-author’s program of ‘spiritual reading’ (ch. 51), which is really an imma- terialist epistemology in which ‘up’ is not spatial but metaphorical and ‘heart’ refers to the ‘spiritual heart’, or faculty of will (ch. 51), which the author says is stirred only by God (ch. 34). Theories of non-physical causality are common to an esoteric tradition which runs parallel to and also intersects with mainstream tradition throughout Western history – Pythagoras, Plato, Gnostic Christianity, Paracelsus, Quietists, Mesmer, Berkeley, Swedenborg. In this essay I explain a 14th-century theory of non-discursive, non-sensory cognition in light of 21st- century cognitive science, including neurological correlates of religious experi- ence, somatosensory experience and cognition, and theories of perception. One purpose for exploring this idea of non-sensory cognition is to consider the idea that texts now treated as ‘literature’ might be empirically valid, phe- nomenologically real, and historically valuable – in short, that they refer to real and valid experience as opposed to referring to nothing because ‘text’ is inher- ently indeterminate and recursive or because political concerns motivate people to fabricate most of what they write.4 Literary episodes such as the Salmon of Knowledge and treatises such as the Cloud of Unknowing represent some aspect of cognition or some psychological reality. To draw a simple analogy, everyone with legs has the capacity to run, but only a few develop marathon-running skill. The exercise explained in the Cloud develops into a skill a latent universal human capacity.5 Trance states can be productive. Medieval Studies scholars need not 3 Ch. 61, p.113: ‘For alle bodily þing is sogette unto goostly þing & is reuild þerafter, & not agenward’ (‘For every physical thing is subject to and governed by spiritual things, and not the opposite’). 4 I am referring here to certain currents of postmodern and Foucauldian criticism that suppose all experience and meaning to be relative and all motivation to be self-interested. 5 Hageman et al. posit a biological mechanism underlying all trance phenomena; Joan H. Hageman et al., ‘The neurobiology of trance and mediumship in Brazil’, in: Christian G. Jensen, Stanley Krippner & Harris L. Friedman (Eds.), Mysterious minds: The neurobiology of psychics, mediums, and other extraordinary people, Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger: 2009, 93. 99213_SIS_26_09_McGlynn.indd 218 7/12/16 15:15 THE SALmON OF KNOWLEDgE 219 be apologetic about their texts, assuming they make no truth-claims simply because Medieval Studies scholarship is produced within the metanarrative that views things religious as the proverbial Marxian opiate. This reduction might be innocent; religious studies has traditionally claimed that its object of study is irreducible to the terms of any other discipline.6 Our quickly-globalizing schol- arly community can now see cognition (experience) without subjecting it to the presuppositions or conceptual priorities of disciplines which would reify it beyond ordinary use or reduce it to something below common interest. Medita- tion is conditioning with real effects on the physiology of the brain and somatic experience. Davidson et al. found that mindfulness meditation had ‘demonstra- ble effects on brain and immune function’.7 Kaplan cites research that shows that meditation hypoactivates the parietal lobe, resulting in a diminishing of the distinction between subject and object, which Kaplan then shows to be both a somatic experience (an experience of reality) measureable in the brain and in subjective experience as well as a goal of Advaita Vedanta (Hinduism).8 Lutz et al. famously showed physical changes in the brains of Tibetan Buddhist monks resulting from more than 10,000 hours of meditation on compassion.9 In his article on the origin of the universal human experience of ‘being a subject among objects’ in Vedanta and neurology, Kaplan tries to dignify seemingly opposed disciplines. He writes, Contrary to the existential feeling of the average person’, who believes that their subjectivity is an indisputable fact independent of any phenomenal objects and is confirmed merely by their thinking it so, this research has disclosed that our sense of subjectivity unfolds only in relation to a phenomenal world (…) both Advaita and the neurosciences attest to that.10 Both Kaplan’s conclusion and his methodology support the thesis I am advanc- ing here, namely, that the Cloud is a kind of research still valuable today. 6 Ann Taves, ‘Ascription, attribution, and cognition in the study of experiences deemed reli- gious’, in: Religion 38 (2005), 126. 7 Richard J. Davidson et al., ‘Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindful- ness meditation’, in: Psychosomatic Medicine 65 (2003), 564. 8 Kaplan takes a religious proclamation – ‘that there is no subject without object and neither without the movement of the mind’ – and shows that this ‘is no longer merely an abstract philosophical statement’; Stephen Kaplan, ‘Grasping at ontological straws: Overcoming reductionism in the Advaita Vedanta-neuroscience dialogue’, in: Journal of the American Acad- emy of Religion 77 (2009) no.2, 264. 9 A. Lutz et al., ‘Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: Effects of meditative expertise’, in: PLoS ONE 3 (2008) no.3, e1897 (doi:10.1371/­journal.­ pone.­0001897). 10 Kaplan, ‘Grasping at ontological straws’, 264. 99213_SIS_26_09_McGlynn.indd 219 7/12/16 15:15 220 mICHAEL mCgLYNN Overview of Cognitive Science There is no single cognitive science. In simple terms, cognitive science is the fruit of various academic disciplines researching the mind. In his introductory study for non-scientists, Hogan writes that cognitive science is an ‘interdiscipli- nary study [that] grew out of post-Behaviorist psychology, linguistics, computer science, neurobiology [with] connections with virtually every discipline in the modern university’.11 Conclusions reached by different disciplines are often con- tradictory, though there are broadly recognizable trends. I find no more attrac- tive statement of these trends than in Lakoff and Johnson’s Philosophy in the Flesh. The opening salvo of their rewriting of the Western philosophical tradition
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Facilitating Contemplative Silence Among Mandarin Speakers in the Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary Kin Heng Leong
    Fuller Theological Seminary Masthead Logo Digital Commons @ Fuller Doctor of Ministry Projects School of Theology 6-14-2019 Word to Silence: Facilitating Contemplative Silence among Mandarin Speakers in the Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary Kin Heng Leong Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fuller.edu/dmin Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Ministry Focus Paper Approval Sheet This ministry focus paper entitled WORD TO SILENCE: FACILITATING CONTEMPLATIVE SILENCE AMONG MANDARIN SPEAKERS IN THE MALAYSIA BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Written by MATTHEW KIN HENG LEONG and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry has been accepted by the Faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary upon the recommendation of the undersigned readers: _____________________________________ Cindy S. Lee _____________________________________ Kurt Fredrickson Date Received: February 28, 2019 WORD TO SILENCE: FACILITATING CONTEMPLATIVE SILENCE AMONG MANDARIN SPEAKERS IN THE MALAYSIA BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY A MINISTRY FOCUS PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY MATTHEW KIN HENG LEONG FEBRUARY 2019 Copyright© 2019 by Matthew Kin Heng Leong All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Word to Silence: Facilitating Contemplative Silence among Mandarin Speakers at the Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary Matthew Kin Heng Leong Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2019 The goal of this study is to explore how contemplative silence can be used to facilitate spiritual growth among Mandarin speakers at the Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary. It is argued that these inward practices of spiritual disciplines are reproducible, and can lead to spiritual growth on personal and communal levels when introduced in a context sensitive and creative manner.
    [Show full text]
  • Durham E-Theses
    Durham E-Theses The contemplation of Christ and Salvation in the liturgical Canons of St John Damascene Pokhilko, Alexander How to cite: Pokhilko, Alexander (2004) The contemplation of Christ and Salvation in the liturgical Canons of St John Damascene, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1757/ 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 CONTEMPLATION OF CHRIST AND SALVATION IN THE LITURGICAL CANONS OF ST JOHN DAMASCENE Alexander Pokhilko A copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Ph.D. thesis University of Durham Department of Theology 2004 13 JUN2005 `The Contemplation of Christ and Salvation in the Liturgical Canons of St. John Damascene' Alexander Pokhilko Faculty of Theology, University of Durham Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Ashland Theological Seminary
    ASHLAND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY A VIDEO RESOURCE FOR TEACHING MEDITATIVE PRAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION TO PEOPLE LIVING WITH TOURETTE SYNDROME A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ASHLAND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY JEROME BEERS ASHLAND, OHIO NOVEMBER 12, 2020 To my precious son, Jesse James Beers, living courageously with Tourette Syndrome Contemplative prayer is primarily a prayer of the heart. It is a cry de profundis, out of the deep. A recondite connection is formed between the human soul and the Divine Spirit which transcends the physical plane. Olivier Clement APPROVAL PAGE Accepted by the faculty and the final demonstration examining committee of Ashland Theological Seminary, Ashland, Ohio, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Ministry degree. ________________________________ ________________ Academic Advisor Date _________________________________ ________________ Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program Date ABSTRACT The purpose of this project was to create a resource on spiritual exercises that would provide support for families participating in the Pennsylvania Tourette Syndrome Alliance. The design of the project was to survey a panel of experts. They were given access to the resource and directions in how to use it. A set of statements and open-ended questions were provided for them to record their impressions. The results of the project revealed positive reviews by the experts. They recorded strong affirmation that the goals of the project were achieved. CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………… vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS …………………………………………........... viii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ………………………… 1 2. BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL, AND HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS …………………………………… 27 3. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE …………………………….
    [Show full text]
  • Hesychasm and Tibetan Buddhism Compared
    University of Latvia Faculty of Theology PhD Thesis Dimensions of Mystical Anthropology of the XX Century: Hesychasm and Tibetan Buddhism Compared Elizabete Taivåne Rîga 2005 In remembrance of Brother Roger from Taizé 2 Contents Page INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 5 The Interspiritual Age: The Aims of Dialogue among Religions.................................. 5 The Starting-point of Dialogue: Quest for Appropriate Methodology .......................18 The Phenomenological Approach of Mircea Eliade and Its Links to the Psychological School of C.G. Jung .....................................................................................................25 Mysticism as the Universal Core of Religions ............................................................38 Searching for a Clue to Differences .............................................................................58 The Notion of Mystical Anthropology.........................................................................63 A Survey of Sources in the Context of the Hystory of Hesychasm and Tibetan Buddhism ......................................................................................................................67 THE DOCTRINE OF MAN IN CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM.................96 Christian Theology and Buddhist Philosophy .............................................................96 Christian Anthropology and Buddhist Psychology...................................................103
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Contemplation – Merton
    Christian Contemplation By Thomas Merton What is contemplation? Contemplation is the awareness and realization, even in some sense experience, of what each Christian obscurely believes: “It is now no longer that I live but Christ lives in me.” Hence contemplation is more than a consideration of abstract truths about God, more even than affective meditation on the things we believe. It is awakening, enlightenment, and the amazing intuitive grasp by which love gains certitude of God’s creative and dynamic intervention in our daily life. Hence contemplation does not simply “find” a clear idea of God and confine Him within the limits of that idea, and hold Him there as a prisoner to Whom is can always return. Hence contemplation is a sudden gift of awareness, an awakening to the Real within all that is real. A vivid awareness of infinite Being at the roots of our own limited being. An awareness of our contingent reality as received, as a present from God, as free gift of love. This is the existential contact of which we speak when we use the metaphor of being “touched by God.” Contemplation is also the response to a call: a call from Him Who has no voice, and yet Who speaks in everything that is, and Who, most of all, speaks in the depths of our own being: for we ourselves are word of His. But we are words that are meant to respond to Him, to answer to Him, to echo Him, and even in some way to contain Him and signify Him.
    [Show full text]
  • Contemplation: a Means to Wholeness and Harmony
    CONTEMPLATION: A MEANS TO WHOLENESS AND HARMONY WITH SELF, GOD, AND PEOPLE by Sister Esuria Fabronia Mendonca A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Milwaukee, Wisconsin December, 1986 Graduate School Office of the Dean Marquette MU University 1217 West Wisconsin Milwaukee, WI 53233 (414) 224-7137 Cable: MUGRAD July 3, 1986 Ms. Fabronia Mendonca 1501 South Layton Blvd. Milwaukee, WI 53215 Dear Ms. Mendonca: In partial fulfillment of your master's degree, I am pleased to report that your thesis outline has been officially accepted by the Graduate School. You have reached another objective in pursuit of your degree and I wish you every success as you execute your thesis outline. It has been returned to your Department Chairperson. As you know, Dr. Nordberg will serve as your thesis director with the support of Rev. Lambeck and Dr. Collins as valuable committee members. Please keep in close contact with your Thesis Committee as you enter the final stages of your degree program. Sincerely, >PLQYL I'\- £ . (YlVY1UVAC ~{~ E. Miner Assistant Dean, and Director of Research Support LEM:j 1c cc: Education Dr. Nordberg Rev. Lambeck Dr. Collins PREFACE This paper is born out of a personal search. De~pite any name, fame or glory earned through being an effective teacher and an efficient administrator and animator, de~p peace and a sense of fulfillment was not realized. Hence a search began, a search for the unknown, the other shore, the Absolute. The author looked for someone who would free her from this earthly mire at times and lead her on the right direction to peace.
    [Show full text]
  • Merton's Last Book, the Climate of Monastic Prayer
    “Merton’s last book, The Climate of Monastic Prayer, is the climax of a lifetime spent in both the practice and the theory of prayer. Its particular benefit is that it takes as its focus the negative experiences that sometimes come to people who pray regularly, the ennui, the confusion, the anxiety, the dread. He tackles these difficulties head on and seeks to find a response to them in the wisdom of monastic tradition. “Fifty years after it was written the book retains a surprising relevance with solid teaching expressed in Merton’s typically relevant language. It will come as a revelation to many readers.” —Michael Casey, OCSO Tarrawarra Abbey Author of Seventy-Four Tools for Good Living “How many different faces Merton reveals—here, the serious scholar of monasticism. This process of grounding his identity enabled him to enter deep within, thus to better engage with the outer world. While some may miss his ‘snarky usurper of status quo’ face, a few glimmers appear: his condemnation of sacrifice that’s ‘infantile self-dramatization’ or prayer that disintegrates into ‘operatic self-display.’ In this book, Merton addresses those simply trying to keep themselves together, to maintain interior silence and spiritual freedom in a dizzying world. He aptly names the dread of being untrue to our best self, and of standing alone before God in naked need. His counsel: rest in God, find ourselves rooted in concrete experience as well as in God’s truth. His words hold a mirror to our times. No gimmicks nor shortcuts on this path, an invitation to an inner sanctuary and the springs of silence, without which there is no wisdom.” —Kathy Coffey Author of When the Saints Came Marching In “The ‘climate’ of monastic prayer, Merton says, is the desert, the monastic community, but this wonderful book, from his last years, is for all of us.
    [Show full text]
  • Contemplative Prayer and Meditation : Their Role in Spiritual Growth
    ABSTRACT CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER AND MEDITATION AND THEIR ROLE IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH by Karen L. Bray This dissertation covers the role of contemplative prayer and meditation and the role they may play in spiritual growth. This project included a model for teaching various contemplative practices. The means of teaching these practices included lecture, small group experiential opportunities, and individual practices. The participants for this research were primarily, white, middle-class members of the United Methodist Church. Many, but not all of the participants had previous experience with contemplative prayer and meditation. The project was founded upon theological and historical Christian foundations of meeting God in moments of stillness and contemplation. Each weekly session focused on a contemplative practice, its historical and theological background and experiencing the practice as a small group. The participants were given the opportunity to experience the practice during the following week and to journal about their experience. Evaluation of the project was based on pre- and post-tests, journal entries and short answer questionnaires. The research revealed that participants felt a closer relationship with God after practicing contemplative prayer and meditation. They also came to understand that contemplative prayer was accessible to all Christians. CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER AND MEDITATION: THEIR ROLE IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Asbury Theological Seminary In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements
    [Show full text]
  • Clement of Alexandria: Incarnation and Mission of the Logos-Son
    CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: INCARNATION AND MISSION OF THE LOGOS-SON Daniel Lee Worden A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2016 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/16500 This item is protected by original copyright Clement of Alexandria: Incarnation and Mission of the Logos-Son Daniel Lee Worden This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews Date Submitted: 20 June 2016 1. Candidate’s declarations: I, Daniel L. Worden, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately eighty thousand words in length, has been written by me, and that it is the record of work carried out by me, or principally by myself in collaboration with others as acknowledged, and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September 2011 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in 2015; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2011 and 2015. Date: ………………… Signature of candidate: ……………………………………………… 2. Supervisors declaration: I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of Ph.D. in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree.
    [Show full text]
  • THE NATURE of 1-IRT.=TAN Myttivi TN the THOUGHT of BARON -VON HUGEL and GEORGE TYRRELL JOHN BERRY
    THE NATURE OF 1-IRT.=TAN MYTTIvI TN THE THOUGHT OF BARON -VON HUGEL AND GEORGE TYRRELL JOHN BERRY SUBMITTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Ph.D THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES JANUARY 1989 This thesis seeks to establish the place of Baron von aigel and George Tyrrell in the revival of interest in mysticism at the beginning of the present century. Though leading figures in the modernist movement in the Roman Catholic Church, their collaboration on the subject of mysticism was central to their friendship and work. They helped to retrieve the central concerns of mystical theology after a retreat from mysticism which had affected the Church since the condemnation of Quietism in 1699. Their account of Christian mysticism, which involved a critique of Buddhism, neo-Platonism and pantheism, rested on a world- affirming attitude to creation, a balance between divine transcendence and immanence and the articulation of a legitimate panentleism. It also involved a positive acceptance of the bodily-spiritual unity of human nature and ordinary experience as the locus of mystical encounter with God. Their account also emphasised the reality of direct contact between God and the individual, and the affective and cognitive dimensions of mystical experience. They asserted the centrality of mystical union as a dynamic communion of life, love and action which is the primary goal of the Christian life. They emphasised the necessity of contemplation, understood not as passive inaction, but as a profound energising of the soul. Asceticism, the embracing of suffering, self-discipline and a right ordering of human affection, was also judged indispensable.
    [Show full text]
  • October2005screen.Pdf
    THE WAY a review of Christian spirituality published by the British Jesuits October 2005 Volume 44, Number 4 SPIRITUALITY, TRADITION AND BEAUTY a Special Number in honour of Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) … if God wishes to reveal the love that He harbours for the world, this love has to be something that the world can recognise, in spite of, or in fact in, its being wholly other. The inner reality of love can be recognised only by love. Hans Urs von Balthasar, Love Alone Is Credible THE WAY October 2005 Introduction 5-6 The Beauty of Christ 7-20 Gerald O’Collins A meditation on a sermon of Augustine’s about the beauty of Christ in every phase of his existence: his eternal generation; his incarnation, his cross and resurrection; his return to heaven. Caravaggio and the Resurrection of the Body 21-35 Thomas J. McElligott How three great paintings by Caravaggio convey and nourish Christian faith in the resurrection of the body and soul—faith which involves commitment as well as assent. Responding to Beauty’s Call: The Shape of an Aesthetic 36-47 Spirituality Christine Valters Paintner When we awaken to the call of beauty, we become aware of new ways of being in the world. Christine Valters Paintner considers how beauty, both natural and artistic, can nourish the spiritual life. Hans Urs von Balthasar—Theologian of Beauty 49-63 Joan L. Roccasalvo An introduction to the life of the great theologian whom this collection celebrates, and an exploration of beauty’s role in his thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Becoming One Spirit: Origen and Evagrius Ponticus on Prayer
    College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses School of Theology and Seminary 10-18-2006 Becoming One Spirit: Origen and Evagrius Ponticus on Prayer Hilary Case OSB College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/sot_papers Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Case, Hilary OSB, "Becoming One Spirit: Origen and Evagrius Ponticus on Prayer" (2006). School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses. 6. https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/sot_papers/6 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Theology and Seminary at DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BECOMING ONE SPIRIT: ORIGEN AND EVAGRIUS PONTICUS ON PRAYER by Hilary Case, OSB Box 7066 St. John’s University Collegeville, MN 56321 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology of Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Monastic Studies SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY Saint John’s University Collegeville, Minnesota October 18, 2006 This Thesis was written under the direction of _____________________________________ Professor Columba Stewart, O. S. B. and ______________________________________ Professor William J. Cahoy Hilary Case, O.S.B. has successfully demonstrated the use of French and Greek in this Thesis. _____________________________________ Professor Columba Stewart, O.S.B.
    [Show full text]