Apophatic Measures: Toward a Theology of Irreducible Particularity
The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters
Citation Bannon, R. Brad. 2015. Apophatic Measures: Toward a Theology of Irreducible Particularity. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Divinity School.
Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:15821959
Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Apophatic Measures: Toward a Theology of Irreducible Particularity
A dissertation presented By R. Brad Bannon To The Faculty of Harvard Divinity School In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Theology In the Subject of Theology Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2015 © 2015 Richard Bradley Bannon
All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Francis X. Clooney, SJ R. Brad Bannon
Apophatic Measures:
Toward a Theology of Irreducible Particularity
Abstract
Apophatic Measures: Toward a Theology of Irreducible Particularity is a work of constructive comparative theology examining select writings of a kara (Eighth Century, India) and Nicholas of Cusa (Fifteenth Century, Germany). It argues that, for a kara and Cusa, apophasis does not culminate in what Michael Sells calls a “semantic event,” but instead in a sensual event. For each, negation removes intellectual distractions, awakening one to a heightened state of sensual attentiveness. For a kara, this is observed in the embodied encounter wherein a teacher incarnates Ved nta scripture to reveal “This Self is Brahman”
(M kya Upani ad 2). For Cusa, the intimate encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4) is paradigmatic of true, attentive sensuality. Employing a heuristic device termed “apophatic measure” in its trifold meanings of method, sensuality, and particularity, this dissertation contributes to contemporary discourses on the ontology of difference, the theo-ethical valuation of diversity, and the singularity of unique bodies. Rather than reducing individuals to ethnic, gendered, or other essentializing measures, persons are regarded as unique disclosures of ultimate reality. Each person is re/cognized as an unprecedented imago Dei or particular manifestation of tman-Brahman. Through the pedagogy and performance of apophatic theology, one progressively removes epistemic universals and thereby cultivates a phenomenology of irreducible particularity as a vision of God. Awakened to
an attentive sensuality, one re/cognizes this Self, incarnate before one’s very eyes, as an
apophatic measure of the immeasurable divine. Table of Contents
Abstract ...... iii Table of Contents ...... iv Table of Figures ...... viii Acknowledgements ...... x Abbreviations ...... xiv
Introduction ...... 1 Apophatic Measures ...... 1 Apophatic Measure1: Phenomenological Method ...... 3 Apophatic Measure2: Attentive Sensuality ...... 4 Apophatic Measure3: Irreducible Particularity ...... 4 Apophasis ...... 10 Approximating Apophasis ...... 10 Negating Universals ...... 11 Removing Ignor/ance ...... 12 Sensual Event ...... 13 Measuring ...... 14 Measuring the Immeasurable ...... 14 Measuring Particularity ...... 16 Unity fulfilled in Diversity...... 17 The Cardinal Teacher: di a kara c rya ...... 18 Historical and Methodological Background ...... 18 Review of Secondary Literature ...... 24 The German Cardinal: Nicholas of Cusa ...... 33 Historical and Methodological Background ...... 33 Review of Secondary Literature ...... 38 Comparative Theology: Three Contexts ...... 47 Constructive Comparative Theology ...... 51 Chapter Outline ...... 54 Part One: Apophatic Measures in a kara ...... 56 One: Learning to Hear Harmoniously: Method and Structure of the M kya K rika ...... 60 The M kya Upani ad ...... 61 The Text ...... 62 The Score ...... 63 Spiritual Practice ...... 66 The Gau ap da K rika and its Complications ...... 66 The Four Prakara as ...... 66 Gau ap da as Teacher ( c rya) ...... 69 Ved nta-artha-s ra-sa graha ...... 71 Harmoniously Coordinating Particulars ...... 72 Coordination (Upasa h ra) and Harmonization (Samanvaya) ...... 72 Seeing and Grasping Together, Concordantly ...... 74 Learning to Hear, Harmoniously ...... 75 Conclusions ...... 77 Two: a kara’s Apophatic Theological Method ...... 80 Sensual Event: From Reading to Hearing ...... 81 Textual Knowledge as Event ...... 81
iv Prayoga and Apophatic Performance ...... 83 Learning Ignorance ...... 88 Removing Ailments (MKBh Introduction) ...... 90 Measuring AUM (MUBh 1) ...... 94 Signifying Relations ...... 95 Signifying Intentions ...... 99 Wakeful Attentiveness ...... 100 Negating Universal Measures ...... 101 Perception and Cognitive Error ( abara) ...... 103 Dissolving Superimposition ...... 105 Seeing and Perceiving ...... 106 Attending to the Teacher’s Intention ...... 107 Unfolding AUM ...... 109 AUM as Apophatic Measure ...... 116 Dissolving Measures (MUBh 2-7) ...... 119 Quarter Measures ...... 120 Progressive Dissolution (p rvap rvapravil pana) ...... 125 Learning to See beyond Measure ...... 128 Conclusions ...... 134 Three: Apophatic Measures in a kara ...... 137 Apophasis in the Pr jña and the Tur ya ...... 139 Negation in the Pr jña ...... 139 Prajñ naghana in MU 5 ...... 139 Prajñ naghana in the B had ra yaka Upani ad ...... 140 Cosmological Coordination and Harmonization ...... 141 Sensual Potential ...... 142 Liminal Door ...... 143 Aviveka: Failure to discriminate between particulars ...... 145 Removing Darkness ...... 146 ruti as Apophatic Measure ...... 149 Double Negation in Tur ya ...... 150 Devoid but not a Void ...... 150 Not-Three Measures ...... 151 “I am that” ...... 153 Incarnate Witness ...... 155 Ecstatic Bodies ...... 157 The Tur ya as Apophatic Measure ...... 158 Measuring Brahman ...... 158 Apophasis and Sensuality: Vision of Brahman...... 158 M tr : Measuring the Infinite Cosmos (MUBh 8-12) ...... 160 Coordinating Measures ...... 160 Apophatic Measurer ...... 161 Infinite Measure without Measure ...... 163 Brahman as Apophatic Measure ...... 165 Apophatic Measure ...... 167 ruti enables Perception ...... 168 Self is Able to be Perceived ...... 171 Phenomenology of Cause and Effect ...... 172 Self as Apophatic Measure ...... 174 Unable to be named (anabhidheyatva ) ...... 175 Apophatic Measure as Sensuality ...... 176
v Apophatic Measure as Particularity ...... 177 Apophatic Measure as Method ...... 178 Perceiving through the Apophatic Measure ...... 179 Seeing as Act of Consumption (the vai v nara) ...... 180 Perception as Nature (the Tur ya) ...... 181 Conclusions ...... 184 Part Two: The Apophatic Measure in Nicholas of Cusa ...... 189 Four: Apophatic Measures in Cusa, After Ved nta: Conjecture, Coincidence, and the Ontology of Perception ...... 190 Outline and goals ...... 190 Learned Ignorance: Comparative Relation and Conjecture ...... 191 Comparativa Proportio ...... 191 No Proportion between Finite and Infinite ...... 194 Non-proportionality of Singularity ...... 196 Conjectural Epistemology, after Ved nta ...... 200 Polygonous Knowledge and Truth ...... 200 Linguistic Points and Concord ...... 202 Aporetic Pedagogy ...... 203 Comparative Relation and Comparative Theology ...... 206 Being Enfoldedly: Coincidence and the Sensual “Ladder of Ascent” ...... 207 Vision as a Pathway for Seeking God ...... 207 Being Sensually: In Living Color ...... 210 Being Rationally: Measuring Binaries ...... 216 Being Intellectually: Learned Ignorance ...... 217 Beyond Coincidence: Being Seen and Being Known ...... 220 Attention: Graceful Descent of the Divine Light ...... 224 Coincidence of Orientation: Attention and Intention ...... 224 Failing to Recognize the Passerby ...... 231 Awakened to Perceive the Quiddity of Beings ...... 234 Seeing through Cusa’s Wall and a kara’s Liminal Darkness ...... 238 Comparative Theology as Faith Seeking Liberated Understanding ...... 238 Seeing through Doors ...... 240 Conclusions ...... 246 Apophatic Measure ...... 248 Enfolding Touch ...... 249 Five: Creative Measuring in Nicholas of Cusa: Math, Maps, and the Trinitarian Imago Dei ...... 252 Outline and Goals...... 252 Historical and Theoretical Context ...... 253 1453 ...... 253 Four Premises ...... 256 First Premise ...... 256 Second Premise ...... 258 Third Premise ...... 260 Fourth Premise ...... 261 Creative Measures ...... 263 Mathematics as Theological Method ...... 263 Incorruptible Certainty ...... 263 Complementary Pram as ...... 266 Squaring Circles ...... 267 Circles under our Eyes ...... 271
vi Cosmography as Theological Method ...... 273 Creative Disjunction ...... 274 Being Other-wisely ...... 275 Cartography as Cosmography ...... 276 Theory of Perspective (Phenomenology) ...... 277 Epistemic Apophasis ...... 277 Perspectival apophasis ...... 278 Transcending perspective ...... 280 Mapping the Circle of Life ...... 284 Creative Spirit ...... 288 Apophatic Measure as Creative Remeasuring ...... 288 Unsaying Imago Dei ...... 290 Theophany and Christ: Learning to See ...... 293 A more anointed image ...... 294 The amazing grace of an amazing gaze ...... 296 Theophany and Creator: Double-Beryl Vision ...... 300 Intentional bodies ...... 300 Perceptible oikos ...... 301 One and Many: Seeing through the Beryl Stone ...... 303 Spiritual Theosis: Creative Harmony ...... 305 Conclusions ...... 309 Part Three: Comparative Theology as Learning to See ...... 312 Six: Theosis and Perception in a kara and Nicholas of Cusa ...... 314 Introduction ...... 314 Apophatic Measure as Theory and Theoro ...... 316 Becoming Oneself ...... 319 Awakened to Perceive ...... 321 Scriptural apophasis ...... 321 Perception and theosis ...... 326 Perceiving Imago Dei ...... 328 The vision of God ...... 328 The vision of Jesus ...... 329 Perception and theosis ...... 332 Comparative Theology and Perception ...... 334 Toward ...... 337 Hospitable Wonder ...... 341
Appendix ...... 344 The M kya Upani ad (Sanskrit Text) ...... 344 M y ...... 344 M y as “Measuring” ...... 347 M y as “Illusion” ...... 351 M y as Knowing ...... 354 Bibliography ...... 359
vii Table of Figures
Figure 1: Eternal connection between word, universal, and particular ...... 98 Figure 2: Double signification of words ( abara, PMSBh I.3.33) ...... 99 Figure 3: Two moments of cognition in perception ( abara, PMSBh I.1.5) ...... 103 Figure 4: Perceptual cognition for abara (PMSBh I.1.5) ...... 104 Figure 5: Cognitive error in perceptual process ( abara, PMSBh I.1.5) ...... 105 Figure 6: Prapañca as superimposition upon the buddhi ( a kara, UMSBh III.2.21) ...... 106 Figure 7: Error in "two moons" analogy ( a kara,UMSBh III.2.21) ...... 107 Figure 8: Primary signification of nouns ( abara, PMSBh I.3.33) ...... 110 Figure 9: Liminality of prajñ naghana as cetomukha ...... 144 Figure 10: Epistemic darkness in MUBh 5 and MUBh 7 ...... 148 Figure 11: Perception as a valid means of knowledge ...... 181 Figure 12: Perception as an end unto itself ...... 183 Figure 13: Conjectural Universals as abstracted rational entities ...... 198 Figure 14: Measuring in a kara and Cusa in light of Polygon-Circle analogy ...... 203 Figure 15: Cusa's Ontology of Perception ...... 223 Figure 16: First Premise in DB ...... 257 Figure 17: Second Premise in DB ...... 259 Figure 18: Third and Fourth Premises in DB ...... 262 Figure 19: Quadrature of a Circle ...... 268 Figure 20: Mapping the Circle of Life ...... 286 Figure 21: M y in the process of perception ...... 346 Figure 22: M y in rope-snake analogy ...... 353
viii
Jointly Dedicated
to
Elizabeth