Apophatic Measures: Toward a Theology of Irreducible Particularity
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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 akara (Eighth Century, India) and Nicholas of Cusa (Fifteenth Century, Germany). It argues that, for akara 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 akara, this is observed in the embodied encounter wherein a teacher incarnates Vednta scripture to reveal “This Self is Brahman” (Mkya Upaniad 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 akara crya ........................................................................................... 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 akara ................................................................................... 56 One: Learning to Hear Harmoniously: Method and Structure of the Mkya Krika ............................ 60 The Mkya Upaniad ........................................................................................................................ 61 The Text .............................................................................................................................................. 62 The Score ............................................................................................................................................ 63 Spiritual Practice ................................................................................................................................. 66 The Gauapda Krika and its Complications ........................................................................................ 66 The Four Prakaraas ........................................................................................................................... 66 Gauapda as Teacher (crya) ......................................................................................................... 69 Vednta-artha-sra-sagraha ............................................................................................................ 71 Harmoniously Coordinating Particulars .................................................................................................. 72 Coordination (Upasahra) and Harmonization (Samanvaya) ......................................................... 72 Seeing and Grasping Together, Concordantly .................................................................................... 74 Learning to Hear, Harmoniously ........................................................................................................ 75 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 77 Two: akara’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 ............................................................................................................................