scholarly journals The Way of the Mystic: The Sanjuanist stages of the spiritual path

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Celia Kourie
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Spiritual Journey ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Dark Night ◽  
Spiritual Path ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Spiritual Marriage ◽  
John Of The Cross ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

A major conceptual dynamic in all major religious traditions is the need for purification and transformation of the individual in order to effect integration and maturation of the personality in the divine. Although the means by which this purification takes place differs according to the cultural and religious configurations of any given tradition, nevertheless a recurring image is that of an inner and outer odyssey. A major example is the threefold path of John of the Cross, which presents a psycho-spiritual journey by which ‘divine osmosis’ can be realised, passing through the ‘dark night of the soul’, and culminating in ‘spiritual marriage’. Although not accepted by many theoreticians and practitioners of mysticism, nevertheless the value of the Sanjuanist schemata still holds sway in contemporary society.

scholarly journals Różne stany doskonałości. Proboszcz z Ambricourt według Bernanosa i Bressona

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 165-173
Author(s):  
Maciej Gorczyński
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Dark Night ◽  
Saint John ◽  
The Senses ◽  
The Cross ◽  
John Of The Cross ◽  
The Way

Different state of perfectness. The priest from Ambricourt according to Bernanos and BressonIn the paper the author draws a comparison between Georges Bernanosʼ Journal d’un curé de campagne The diary of a country priest, and Robert Bresson’s adaptation of the book. The aim of the comparison is to show, how different artistic principles affected the way the holiness is presented. The author claims that it is not actually holiness, but a peculiar state, which Saint John of the Cross called Dark Night of the Senses. The paper represents fields of literary studies, and film studies.

Suspending Events, Loving the Margin: Solitude According to Barthes

Paragraph ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
SABINE HILLEN
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
The Other ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Collective Enterprise ◽  
The Way

In our contemporary society one would be tempted to see solitude as the result of individualism. The most striking idea Barthes developed in Comment vivre ensemble was the way in which solitude could be lived as a collective experience. This collective enterprise was not the result of a selfish retreat devoted to personal preoccupations. It fulfilled itself rather as an action dedicated to the other. In front of this singular way of seeing, the question arises how Barthes conceived this culture of distance as a ‘social’ action. Is it correct to present this ideological pathway as a form of courtesy, implying that others do not need to be confronted with the inner life of the individual? Taking these preliminary thoughts as a keystone, my article explores the content Barthes gives to his so-called socialisme des distances and how texts of early mystical societies develop this notion of distance.

scholarly journals La Noche Oscura como misteriofanía negativa. Hacia una ontología fenomenológica del acontecimiento de lo divino, en la Subida del Monte Carmelo, de San Juan de la Cruz

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucero González Suárez
Keyword(s):  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
San Juan ◽  
Christian Mysticism ◽  
Dark Night ◽  
Saint John ◽  
Phenomenology Of Religion ◽  
The Cross ◽  
John Of The Cross ◽  
Dual Origin

El presente artículo es un análisis fenomenológico de la Subida del Monte Carmelo, cuyo propósito es mostrar que la Noche Oscura es una misteriofanía negativa que acoge tres sentidos. En primer lugar, San Juan de la Cruz llama Noche Oscura a la negación de los apetitos relativos a las potencias. En segundo lugar, la fe es Noche Oscura para el hombre, porque la donación de lo divino causa ceguera en el entendimiento. Finalmente, Dios es Noche Oscura para el hombre debido a que su manifestación es invisible. La intención de estas páginas es hacer algunas aportaciones a la fenomenología de la experiencia mística cristiana, cuyos conceptos fundamentales tienen un doble origen: la fenomenología contemporánea y la fenomenología de la religión y de la mística, desarrollada principalmente por la escuela española.This article is an original phenomenological analysis of the Ascent of Mount Carmel, whose purpose is to show that Dark Night is a negative mysteriophany, which implies three senses. First of all, Saint John of the Cross calls Dark Night the denial of the appetites of the faculties. Second, faith is Dark Night to humankind because the donation of the divine causes blindness in the understanding. Finally, God is Dark Night for men, because his manifestation is invisible. The intention of those pages is to make some contributions to phenomenology of Christian mysticism, whose fundamental concepts have a dual origin: contemporary phenomenology and the phenomenology of religion and mysticism, developed mainly by the Spanish school.  

John of the Cross, the Dark Night of the Soul, and the Jh?nas and the Ar?pa States

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 65-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. Harris
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practice ◽  
Dark Night ◽  
Discursive Thought ◽  
The Cross ◽  
John Of The Cross ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
First John

This paper examines function and structure within the religious paths advocated by John of the Cross (1542–1591), and the Buddha, with particular reference to the jh?nas and the ar?pa states, as represented in selected suttas within the P?li texts. First, John of the Cross and the jh?na and ar?pa states are contextualised. The teaching in The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night (John of the Cross), and the S?maññaphala Sutta, the Niv?pa Sutta and the Anupada Sutta (Sutta Pi?aka) is then summarised. The two are then brought into conversation with each other to examine the extent to which the religious paths described move within the same landscape of spiritual practice. Differences in context and metaphysical underpinning are recognised. The paper argues, nevertheless, that similarities are more than evident, particularly with reference to attachment to sensory objects, discursive thought, and the idea of the self or the ‘I’. The paper demonstrates that the two speak of mystical paths, which share many of the same practices and fruits, although couched in different metaphors.

scholarly journals From human desire to divine desire in John of the Cross

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDWARD HOWELLS
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Spiritual Journey ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Union With God ◽  
The Cross ◽  
John Of The Cross ◽  
Human Desire

AbstractJohn of the Cross presents a spiritual journey of desire in which desire changes from a painful yearning for an infinite other, always out of reach (human desire), to the satisfaction of desire in mutual love and rest (the goal of union with God, conforming human to divine desire). John asserts a continuity of desire between these two states, and that it is possible for human desire to grow from one into the other. Yet they are very different. John's treatment of desire and how he asserts this continuity are assessed through a critical reading of his Spiritual Canticle.

scholarly journals “O Sweet Cautery”: John of the Cross and the Healing of the Natural World

Horizons ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 308-331
Author(s):  
Mary Frohlich
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
Full Capacity ◽  
The Cross ◽  
John Of The Cross ◽  
The Web ◽  
Lengthy Process ◽  
The Way

Contrary to what may appear in a superficial understanding of his spirituality, John of the Cross strongly affirms the goodness of creation and its capacity to mediate the presence of God. He specifically identifies the web of mutual interactions among creatures as a primary manifestation of divine love, and he affirms that the more a person participates in God, the more he or she participates fully and joyfully in this community of creatures. Activation of creation's full capacity to mediate divinity, however, depends on the full fruition of the human person in God. Experientially, this involves a lengthy process of a back-and-forth rhythm between the glimpse of God in creation and the complete renunciation of dependence on creaturely knowledge in favor of faith. John's writings invite us to participate in the healing of the natural world by pursuing this contemplative rhythm all the way to its fruitional climax.

scholarly journals Językowy sposób wyrażania doświadczenia mistycznego w polskim tłumaczeniu Nocy ciemnej św. Jana od Krzyża

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
Magdalena Gawrońska-Garstka
Keyword(s):  
Dark Night ◽  
The Cross ◽  
John Of The Cross

The article presents the issues of mystical language in the book The Dark Night St. John of the Cross. The analysis of the material shows rich repertoire of linguistic forms used by the author. The characteristics of mystical language: expression, simple syntax, dialogue, subjectivity, persuasion, symbolism and ambiguity.

scholarly journals Mystery, Humility and Religious Practice in the Thought of St John of the Cross

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 89-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Dark Night ◽  
Common Motif ◽  
The Cross ◽  
John Of The Cross ◽  
Locus Classicus

The ‘dark night of the soul’ is a common motif in Christian spiritual writing; and the locus classicus for this motif is the work of John of the Cross, a Spanish Carmelite friar of the sixteenth century. My aim in this paper is to use John’s account of the ‘night’ to consider how the themes of mystery, humility and religious practice may be subsumed, and related to one another, within a Christian conception of God and of human life lived out in relation to God.

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