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A Theopoetic Reflection on Thomas Traherne, Meister Eckhart and Mother Julian of Norwich

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A Theopoetic Reflection on Thomas Traherne, Meister Eckhart and Mother Julian of Norwich A theopoetic reflection on Thomas Traherne, Meister Eckhart and Mother Julian of Norwich by James Arthur Charlton BA (University of Tasmania) B. Soc. Admin. (Flinders University of South Australia) MA (University of Cambridge) A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Philosophy of the University of Tasmania Hobart Tasmania Australia © James Charlton April 2011 Declaration of Originality This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly acknowledged in the thesis, and to the best of the my knowledge and belief no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text of the thesis, nor does the thesis contain any material that infringes copyright. Authority of Access This thesis is not to be made available for loan or copying for two years following the date this statement was signed. Following that time the thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. signed: dated: ii Acknowledgements Professor Wayne Hudson‘s multifarious assistance has been indispensable; I am also indebted to Dr. Lucy Tatman and to Dr. Anna Alomes for vital criticisms and suggestions. Thanks is also extended to Dr. Antony Bellette for sharing his expertise on Traherne and for allowing unrestrained access to a private collection of manuscripts and books. iii Abstract A theopoetic reflection on Thomas Traherne, Meister Eckhart and Mother Julian of Norwich This study provides a poet‘s readings of the non-dualism of Thomas Traherne, Meister Eckhart and Mother Julian of Norwich. Traherne, Eckhart and Julian are interpreted as theopoets of the body/soul who share what might be described as moderate non-dualism. They also share a concern for unitive spiritual experience, expressed in their attempts to balance an absolute level of truth with a conventional level of truth. Separate chapters on Traherne, Eckhart and Julian focus on their differing - yet commensurate - non-dual registers. On their view, the conditio sine qua non of ‗being human‘ is participation in the divine. Two additional chapters link the so-called mysticism of Traherne, Eckhart and Julian with construals of both ‗the Self‘ and spiritual awakening, as enunciated by Advaita Vedānta. My own poems are integrated into the text. Many issues explored in the text are contested and aporetical and my own readings may not always be shared by others. Although aware of the usefulness of dualism, and of the subject/object distinction in particular, I seek to provide a countervailing perspective to the general Western over-emphasis on the separateness of the human and the divine. In so doing, I hope to show that Traherne, Eckhart and Julian can be read in consonance and even at times in innovative ways. iv Abbreviations BgG (or Gītā): Bhagavad Gītā Gk: Greek KJV: King James Version L: Latin LT: Julian‘s Long Text MHG: Middle High German NJB: New Jerusalem Bible NT: New Testament NRSV: New Revised Standard Version REB: Revised English Bible Skt: Sanskrit ST: Julian‘s Short Text Up: Upanishad v Contents Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv Abbreviations v Introduction 1 Chapter One: Thomas Traherne 14 A devout humanist Imagination as a liberating power An ‗eternal Correspondence‘ The world as Christ‘s body A perichoretic cosmos Chapter Two: Meister Eckhart 89 Letting-be A stripping of self-images Divine birth ‗Without a why and wherefore‘ Entering the life divine One without boundaries Chapter Three: Mother Julian of Norwich 145 Divine maternity Enfolded by the Infinite Popularity Three ‗mystics‘ as connected presences vi Chapter Four: Losing and Finding the Self 177 Influence of Ramana Maharshi Charles Taylor and the demise of Western Christian non-duality Simone Weil and attentiveness Andrei Rublev and Buddhist ‗emptiness‘ Derrida and the faith of the ‗mystics‘ Shiva and the Spirit‘s transformative power Chapter Five: Non-dual ‗Awakening‘ 239 Awakening to a redefinition of boundaries A kenotic view of the divine Raimon Panikkar and pluralism Parallel ways of relating ‗I am nothing; I am everything‘ ‗Where our skin stops, our bodies do not stop‘ Conclusion 285 Bibliography 295 vii Introduction The great religions are the ships; poets are the lifeboats. Every person I know has jumped overboard. - Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky, trans.) The metaphorical process of poetry is the natural predecessor and the continuing ally of theology. At its best, theology has always probed ultimate questions with an awareness of its own dependence on metaphor. Sensing the role of imaginative intuition, good theologies are rightly chary of putting forward absolute certitudes. Aware of the necessity of creativity in theologizing, Stanley R. Hopper writes as follows: When language fails to function at the metaphorical or symbolic levels, the imagination goes deeper, soliciting the carrying power of archetype, translating the archetype from spent symbolic system into fresh embodiments.1 Theopoetic writing consciously includes the attempts of the imagination, rather than of logic or of analytical reason, to express the Inexpressible. The current return to theopoetics was famously fore-grounded by Emerson who asserted that theology and philosophy would one day be taught by poets. Within its hybridized, sometimes unorthodox ways of attempting the impossible, theopoetic readings of texts may be presented, re-presented, interpreted against the 1 Quotation from: The Way of Transfiguration: Religious Imagination as Theopoiesis, Hopper S.R. (Keiser, R.M. & Stoneburner, T., eds.) Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 1992. 1 apparent grain and laced with tidbits of personal experience. Relevant nouns include the following: ‗intersection‘, ‗interpellation‘ ‗connection‘ and ‗reconnection‘.2 This study responds to the relative neglect of what could be termed ‗spiritual non-dualism‘ in the Western heritage. From this particular poet‘s point of view, the neglect implicates those people with a vested interest in the distortion of hierarchical structures. But it is not my intention to address any damage caused by excessively dualistic patterns. Rather, I intend to bring to the fore the non-dual tone of Thomas Traherne, Meister Eckhart and Mother Julian of Norwich. Their qualified or moderate non-dualism will form a structuring motif of this study. For present purposes the term ‗non-dual‘ implies bringing the subject (for example, the Source or the One) and the object (for example, a worshipper of the Source) more closely together.3 Although Traherne‘s type of non-dualism could be nominated as ‗experiential non-dualism‘ in partial distinction from the ‗more conceptual non-dualism‘ of Eckhart and perhaps Julian, this is unsatisfactory. Each of these writers is concerned with ‗spiritually non-dual‘ experience, and none of them defines the sense (or senses) in which they favour non-dualism. Distinctively, Traherne begins with re-creations of a child‘s sense of non-duality. He keeps imaginative truth in tension with conceptual truth; he keeps experiential truth in tension with both. Accordingly 2 The current literature on theopoetics ranges from the self-referential and solipsistic to the more helpful and sometimes theo- centred. Appraisals include: a number of articles in Cross Currents 60:1 (2010), passim; Callid Keefe-Parry Theopoetics: Process and Perspective, in Christianity and Literature 58:4 (2009) pp.579-601; Matt Guynn Theopoetics: That the dead may become gardeners again, in Cross Currents 56:1 (2006) pp.98-109; Scott Holland Theology is a kind of writing: The emergence of theopoetics, in Cross Currents 47:3 (1997) pp.317-331. 3 The distinctions of Western dualism are helpful, to a degree. Historically, they have been emphasized to the point where they harden into separations. Classic dualities include: subject/object, God/humanity, spirit/matter, one/many, inside/outside, cause/effect, good/evil, heaven/hell, free will/determinism, knower/known, self/other, mind/body. A common assumption has been that of regarding ‗mind‘ as distinct from ‗matter‘. But dualities can fade; it is no longer generally thought that ‗mind‘ has nothing in common with ‗matter‘. By the same token, religious people no longer uniformly consider that anything resembling a materialist account of thinking is subversive to the idea of a soul. 2 his poetry moves between a claimed experience of ‗oneness‘ with the divine and an experience of ‗otherness‘ from the divine. The experience of ‗not twoness‘ might be said to equate with a kind of inner resurrection or on-going process of identification with the Source. But, as implied above, neither Traherne, Eckhart nor Julian discuss varieties of non-dualism. They are unlikely to share an identical non-dual stance, and their individual views might oscillate between various meanings.4 Their intention is to awaken their hearers and readers, not to a conceptual understanding of non-dualism, but to what they understand as Christocentric non-dual experience.5 The focus of chapter one lies with Traherne. Chapter two goes backward in time to focus on the work of Eckhart. Chapter three moves slightly forward in time to concentrate on Julian. Chapter four develops the understanding that a non-dual approach to life involves kenosis, the practice of self-reduction in order to allow space and time for the care of ‗the other‘. The fifth and final chapter offers ‗awakening‘ as an implied theme of my chosen writers. Possible convergences between Traherne, Eckhart and Julian are brought forward. Implicitly they share the notion that as we awaken from a sense of ‗twoness‘, of separation from others, we are more likely to respond with inclusive love. I picture them as re-weaving ‗feeling‘ with ‗thought‘ and as re-weaving spirituality with theology. The divine and the human are understood to share something fundamental: both are constituted by relationship.
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