scholarly journals Meditatio Septuaginta: Torah recitation as a spiritual discipline

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Boyd-Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Spiritual Discipline ◽  
Lexical Analysis ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
Torah Study ◽  
Pierre Hadot

There is evidence that the practice of meditative reading was cultivated by Hellenistic Jews as a discipline analogous to the spiritual exercises of the philosophical schools. The present study traces (1) the Deuteronomic antecedents of this practice, (2) its reconfiguration in the Torah Psalms, and (3) finally its expression in Greco-Jewish translation, with special reference to the Greek Psalter. Taking its cue from the work of Pierre Hadot, it situates this development within the larger matrix of Hellenistic philosophical discourse. The philological focus of the study is the use of the Hebrew verb I הגה Qal in contexts where Torah study is thematic and its rendering by μελετάω in the Septuagint. To frame the lexical analysis, it draws on the slot-filler model pioneered by Charles Fillmore.Contribution: This article situates a key Greco-Jewish translation with reference to both its Deuteronomic antecedents and to practices cultivated within the philosophical schools of the Hellenistic period. The analysis demonstrates the relevance of Frame Semantics to philological investigation.

Questioning the Presence of the Past

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-91
Author(s):  
Thomas Kriza
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
World View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
The Past ◽  
Truth Claim ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
Pierre Hadot

Abstract This paper questions the contemporary turn towards horizons of existential meaning going back to antiquity especially in the shape of a turn to religion by pointing to crucial differences between antique conceptions of thought and their modern revivals. Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault interpret antique thought as spiritual exercises to perfect human existence, exposing an inherent existential relevance and connection to a peculiar conception of truth. I argue that because of these ties to a truth claim deeply alien to the modern scientific world-view, antique horizons of existential meaning cannot be revived within modern frames of thought. Their contemporary presence is more likely the expression of the deeply ambivalent modern relationship to premodern horizons of existential meaning, rather than a genuine revival.

VIRTUE AND PHILOSOPHY IN 4 MACCABEES

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 307-325
Author(s):  
Paul B Decock
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Fourth Section ◽  
The Third ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Pierre Hadot ◽  
Practical Question ◽  
Jewish Religion

The first section of this article focuses on the use of the term and theme of ἀρετή in the argument that the Jewish religion can be seen as a most worthy philosophy. The second section shows how 4 Maccabees can be seen as a Jewish version of a philosophical work in the ancient Greco-Roman tradition: it raises the practical question of the noble way of life and shows us inspiring examples of persons who embodied this way by the manner in which they faced their death. The third section explores how a reading of 4 Maccabees can be seen as one of the “spiritual exercises” in the philosophical tradition (Pierre Hadot). The fourth section touches briefly on the issue of the Hellenization of the Jewish religion, of which 4 Maccabees is a strong example.

The Spiritual Exercises of John Rawls

2021 ◽  
pp. 009059172110417
Author(s):  
Alexandre Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
The Self ◽  
Original Position ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Standard Interpretation ◽  
Spiritual Exercise ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Pierre Hadot

In this article I interpret John Rawls’s concept of the original position as a spiritual exercise. In addition to the standard interpretation of the original position as an expository device to select principles of justice for the fundamental institutions of society, I argue that Rawls also envisages it as a “spiritual exercise”: a voluntary personal practice intended to bring about a transformation of the self. To make this argument, I draw on the work of Pierre Hadot, a philosopher and classicist, who introduced the idea of spiritual exercises as central to ancient and modern conceptions of philosophy. By reading Rawls alongside Hadot, this article portrays Rawls as a thinker deeply concerned with the question of how subjects can lead more just and fulfilling lives. It also proposes that the original position as a spiritual exercise can help defend liberalism as a social and political doctrine.

scholarly journals The metamorphosis of the soul. an attempt to read ancient philosophy as a praxis of life – Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault.

KÜLÖNBSÉG ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emese Faragó
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Pierre Hadot

The metamorphosis of the soul. An attempt to read ancient philosophy as a praxis of life – Pierre Hadot: Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. (Review) Hadot, Pierre: Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Trans. Ákos Cseke. Budapest, Kairosz, 2010.

scholarly journals UM ESBOÇO DE UMA PERSONALIDADE MÍSTICA - DOI 10.5752/P.1983-2478.2014v10n17p13

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 13-24
Author(s):  
Luiz Felipe Pondé
Keyword(s):  
Ralph Waldo Emerson ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Short History ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pierre Hadot ◽  
Do So

ResumoA intenção deste artigo é fazer um esboço do que seria uma personalidade mística portadora de uma ciência mística. Para tal, levantamos alguns instrumentos conceituais para este fim. Percorremos um breve histórico semântico da palavra “mística” no cristianismo. Em seguida, identificamos o que seria o elemento místico nas religiões, segundo o pesquisador Friedrich Von Hügel. Na sequência, analisamos os conceitos de exercícios espirituais do filósofo Pierre Hadot na filosofia antiga e de transcendentalismo (autoconfiança) no romantismo americano de Ralph Waldo Emerson, a fim de neles iluminar o que seria uma filosofia mística. Como último instrumento, vimos o conceito de aristocracia espiritual do filósofo russo Nicolai Berdiaev. Os principais traços dessa personalidade identificados são: ausência do problema de sentido da existência, enfrentamento da contingência, amor espontâneo pela vida, vontade autoconfiante, coragem, generosidade e atenção a presença da dimensão transcendente.Palavras-Chave: Mística. Cristianismo. Exercícios espirituais. Transcendentalismo. AbstractThis article intends to a make a sketch of what would be a mystical personality and its mystical science. In order to do so, we have identified some conceptual tools. First, we have followed a short history of the semantics of the word “mysticism” in Christianity. From there, we have moved onto Friedrich Von Hügel’s concept of mystical element, Pierre Hadot’s spiritual exercises in ancient philosophy, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalism (self reliance), and, last, but not least, Nicolai Berdiaev’s concept of spiritual aristocracy. The main traits of the mystical personality we have identified are: lack of fear concerning the problem of meaning life, facing of contingence, spontaneuos love for life, self reliance, courage, generosity and atention to the transcendent dimension.Key words: Mysticism. Christianity. Spiritual exercises.Transcendentalism.

Jesuit Philosophy as a Way of Life: The Contributions of W. Norris Clarke and John F. Kavanaugh

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 1425-1450
Author(s):  
M. Ross Romero
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Recent Interest ◽  
Ignatius Of Loyola ◽  
Pierre Hadot

John F. Kavanaugh and W. Norris Clarke, two twentieth-century Jesuits, contributed to philosophy through their development of a Thomistic and personalist view of reality emphasizing the human endowments of knowing, freely choosing, and loving. While spiritual exercises played a role in the formation of both Jesuits, the function of spiritual exercises in their own philosophy has not been explored. Recent interest in philosophy as a way of life provides a means by which this can be accomplished. In their work Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot have shown how spiritual exercises function in the formation of the self and in the acquisition of a synoptic vision that allows contemplation of one’s participation in the whole. This paper shows that while Kavanaugh primarily uses spiritual exercises in his philosophy to accomplish a disciplinary/formational aim Clarke’s aim is dialogical/exploratory. A brief examination of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola reveals how these different aims in fact complement one another.

Thomas More and the “Prayer for Detachment”

Moreana ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (Number 199- (1-2) ◽  
pp. 61-82
Author(s):  
Joseph Koterski
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
Tower Of London ◽  
Proper Sense ◽  
The Face

This paper focuses on a theme of special importance in The Sadness of Christ, one of the last writings of Thomas More. While awaiting execution in the Tower of London, he wrote this book as a way to reflect on passages from the Gospel that depict the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. In looking upon Christ as a model for virtue in the face of suffering and persecution, More commented at length on how to treat those who wrong us and how to cultivate a proper sense of detachment. This essay will compare More’s advice with that of his contemporary, Ignatius Loyola, with special reference to such passages from the Spiritual Exercises as the “First Principle and Foundation” and the “Three Degrees of Humility.”

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