Le Refus Lévinassien de la Mystique

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (45) ◽  
pp. 69-81
Author(s):  
Fabio Samuel Esquenazi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
Ethical Commitment ◽  
Consequent Reduction ◽  
The Needy ◽  
Prime Location ◽  
Ethical Experience

Despite recognizing the Other, particularly the needy person, as a prime location for a meaningful experience of God and the metaphysical nature of his interpretation of the fundamental ethical experience, a careful reading of Levinas’ corpus reveals the modulations of his rejection of the mystical phenomenon. This paper analyzes the main arguments that justify his « Lithuanian » distrust of mysticism and the consequent reduction of religion as ethics in his thought, as a result of forgetting that the perception of and adherence to the same transcendent principle present in the deep consciousness –conversio cordis – that directs one’s gaze towards the need and suffering of others –conversio morum – is common to the mystical experience, faith – as core of religious experience to Jewish-Christian tradition –, and ethical commitment.

scholarly journals "With Sincere Reverence": A Christological Perspective for the Interreligious Dialogue Envisioned by Nostra Aetate

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Gamberini, SJ
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
The Other ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
First Moment ◽  
The Church ◽  
Third Moment ◽  
Practical Dimension

Theologians have a particular task to provide discernment when expressing in interreligious dialogue the Christological proclamation that Jesus Christ is "'the way, the truth, and the life,' (Jn 14:6), in whom people may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself" (Nostra Aetate, §3). Therefore, there is a need to renew the spirit of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate,, which reminds us that the Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in the other religions. The Church acknowledges with sincere reverence ("sincera cum observantia") that the other often religions reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all people. In this article, I highlight three different moments in which this sincere reverence towards other religions may be realized. The first moment may be called methodological and refers to the Ignatian tradition of the Spiritual Exercises. I develop first of all the praesupponendum (presupposition) as an attitude of being able to listen to the religious experience of the other; then the contemplatio ad amorem (contemplation in attaining love), as awareness and recognition of the action of the Spirit: being able to distinguish the religious experience of God from its theoretical and practical interpretations; finally the magis, the continuing transcending of the religious conscience in reaching out God: Deus semper maior (God is always greater). The second moment of my paper is more theoretical. I deal with the question of Truth within the interreligious dialogue and how God’s ineffable transcendence and otherness have been revealed in this Jesus of Nazareth; "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him" (Jn 1:18). The humanity of God, Jesus’ particularity, is not a limitation for interreligious dialogue, but constitutes an adequate perspective for determining the universality of Jesus Christ. The third moment considers the practical dimension of the dialogue. I relate the inner otherness of God (Trinity) with God’s becoming other than himself (Incarnation), showing how the evangelical praxis of the believer, who makes himself everything for everybody, is able in the praxis, more than in theory, to sustain the eschatological tension between the already and not yet that is characteric of interreligious dialogue.

scholarly journals Christian Spiritual Experience as a Model of a Culture of Dialogue

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 85-94
Author(s):  
Adam Rybicki
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Spiritual Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Spirituality ◽  
Mutual Respect ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
The World ◽  
Cross Reference

Abstract A space for dialogue between people and the cultures is a focus of this article. To start with, the biblical basis for analysing spiritual experience is presented, followed by the components of Christian spiritual-religious experience. It is also explored whether it is possible to cross-reference the said components with the culture of dialogue. A particular focus is made on the spirituality of encounter and mysticism that leads to a conclusion that a reliable and continuously deepening reflection on Christian spirituality shows its value not only on a “vertical” (upright) plane, i.e. a dialogue with God, but also on a horizontal, flat plane. It shapes the overall attitude of a person, both towards other people and towards themselves, as well as towards the world around them. Certain elements may play a major role in shaping the culture of dialogue between people and the communities of people. These elements are: relational character, desire of getting to know “the other you”, emphasizing the dignity of “the other you”, mutual respect, shared search for and acceptance of the truth and a communal dimension (communion). The ethical aspects of spiritual experience – including a mystical experience – such as conscience, virtue or value, have also been regarded because the ethical elements play a very important role in the dialogue of people and communities.

Philosophy of Religious Experience and the Nag Hammadi Texts

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-22
Author(s):  
Stephen Bush
Keyword(s):  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Experiential Knowledge ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Nag Hammadi ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Theoretical Issues

This essay, in response to Michael Kaler and Philip Tite, examines several theoretical issues about mystical experience in the Nag Hammadi texts. First is the problem of whether experiences can be an object of study at all, and I argue that they can, so long as we attend to the causes of the experiences. Attending to the causes of experiences, however, means that neo-perennialists must articulate and defend an account of the cause(s) of the cross-culturally universal experiences that they suppose occur. As for the attempt to apply contemporary psychologists' attachment theory to the experiential knowledge described in the Nag Hammadi texts, questions remain about the relation between attachment to the divine figure purportedly experienced and the experiencer's attachment to his or her religious community.

The Logic of Mysticism

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-123
Author(s):  
Stephen Grimm
Keyword(s):  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
Union With God ◽  
Direct Encounter

I argue that mystical experience essentially involves two aspects: (a) an element of direct encounter with God, and (b) an element of union with God. The framework I use to make sense of (a) is taken largely from William Alston’s magisterial book Perceiving God. While I believe Alston’s view is correct in many essentials, the main problem with the account is that it divorces the idea of encountering or perceiving God from the idea of being united with God. What I argue, on the contrary, is that because our experience of God is an experience of a relationship-seeking, personal being, it brings with it an important element of union that Alston overlooks.

If One Does Not Have the Spirit of Christ, One Does Not Belong to Him

2020 ◽  
pp. 134-166
Author(s):  
Giovanni B. Bazzana
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Spirit Possession ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Productive Role

This chapter attends to the social and ethical functions of the religious experience of possession in the Pauline groups. Recent ethnographic literature has illustrated how spirit possession can have a truly “productive” role in shaping social structures, ways of knowing, moral agency, and even the formation of individual subjectivities. This chapter shows that these same traits are recognizable in the Pauline Christ groups. Specific attention are given to the forms in which possession enables a poiesis of the past. The sense of temporality underlying such an experience is remarkably different from the archival and academic study of history typical of western modernity. Through his very embodiment of the πνεῦμα‎ of Christ, Paul (and arguably the other members of his groups) could make the person of Christ present in a way that affectively and effectively informed not only their remembrance of and interaction with the past but also their moral agency and even their subjectification as Christ believers.

scholarly journals Institutional Religion and Religious Experience

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 791
Author(s):  
Lidia Rodríguez ◽  
Juan Luis de León ◽  
Luzio Uriarte ◽  
Iziar Basterretxea
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
God Image ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City ◽  
Depth Interviews

A number of empirical studies have shown the continuous lack of adherence and the growing autonomy of the population regarding religious institutions. This article reflects on the kind of relationship between deinstitutionalisation and religious experience based on the following hypothesis: the evident decline in religious institutions does not necessarily lead to the disappearance or the weakening of religious experience; rather, it runs simultaneously with a process of individualisation. Our aim is to provide empirical evidence of such transformations; therefore, we do not get involved in speculations, but take into account the contributions of scholars concerning three key terms integrated in the conceptual framework of “religious experience’’: “experience of God”, “God image”, and “institutional belonging”. We analysed 39 in-depth interviews with a qualitative approach; interviews were conducted during the years 2016–2018 amongst Evangelical and Catholic populations in three Latin American cities (Córdoba, Montevideo, and Lima) and in the city of Bilbao (Spain). These interviews clearly indicate a growing autonomy from the religious institution, while evidencing a rich range of experiences of God and a great diversity of God representations. In both cases, they point to processes of individualisation of believers who elaborate their own religious experience in a personal and complex way.

scholarly journals Mysticism, historical and contemporary

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl-Martin Edsman
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
The State ◽  
Spiritual Training ◽  
The Way

An evident experience of God's presence is the basis for all religion. Mysticism is considered to be piety in so far as primary importance is attached to inner religious experience, to religion as occurring in the soul. Mysticism is pure religious introversion. The special religious experience of mysticism, its epistemology and its ascetic ethics or technique, occur with startling likeness in widely different times and types of religion. This does not, however, exclude a multitude of variations and differences. The way of mysticism includes different stages, but the state which generally distinguishes mystical experience is ecstasy or rapture. It is, however, often impossible to isolate this from the preparatory physical and spiritual training and even less from the revolutionary consequences for the whole life of the mystic. It can result in complete devotion to the service of one's neighbour, and the not infrequent accusation that the mystic gives himself up to a selfish and anti-social enjoyment of God is not entirely justified.

scholarly journals Competências genéricas auto referidas por universitários brasileiros

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Priscila Larangeira Carvalho ◽  
Fernanda Ribeiro de Araújo ◽  
Rodolfo Eduardo Scachetti ◽  
María Jesús Freire Seoane ◽  
Nancy Ramacciotti de Oliveira-Monteiro
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Private University ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ethical Commitment ◽  
Planning Ability ◽  
Generic Competences

Although there is no standardization of the notion of competence and for the instruments used in its evaluation, generic competences are associated with employability, and understood as a composition of cognitive and practical abilities, behavioral and social skills, gathering individual characteristics and qualities required for activities of different professions. Education promotes the development of specific competences for the exercise of certain occupations, in addition to opportunities for increasing generic competences, which are also required in the labor market. This study targets to evaluate self-perception of the valuation of generic competences acquired in undergraduate students from nocturnal courses of Brazilian private university, according to area of knowledge and condition of being or not inserted in the labor market. 1,001 of these students were evaluated in the third year of their graduation, using the Generic Competences Scale. The highest value in the global sample was attributed to Responsibility at work, followed by Ethical commitment and, thirdly, by Capacity to learn. At the other end, of lesser value, were Capacity for organization and planning, Ability to manage information and Problem solving. These results were compared with data from other studies, in Latin America and Europe.

An Ordinary Soviet Death

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-149
Author(s):  
Victoria Smolkin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
The West ◽  
Rational Argument ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter describes the timing and motivations of the USSR's promotion of atheist doctrine. At the outset, it seems, the Soviets expected Orthodoxy to wither away, invalidated by rational argument and the regime's own record of socialist achievement. This did not happen, but Soviet officialdom did not take full cognizance of the fact until the 1950s and 1960s at the height of the Cold War. Then it was that the Soviet Union's confrontation with the West came to be recast in religious terms as an epic battle between atheist communism on the one hand and on the other that self-styled standard-bearer of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the United States. So, here indeed, in Soviet atheism, is a secular church militant—doctrinally armed, fortified by the concentrated power of the modern state, and, as many believed, with the wind of history at its back. It speaks the language of liberation, but what it delivers is something much darker. The chapter then considers the place of ritual in the Soviet secularist project.

Before Infinitude: A Levinasian Response to Meillassoux’s Speculative Realism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Braver
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Speculative Realism ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Human Rationality ◽  
Ethical Experience

This chapter argues that like Meillassoux, Levinas opposes correlationism—a term encompassing both idealism and anti-realism in philosophy. However, Levinas’s attempt to overcome correlationism differs markedly from that of Meillassoux. Whereas Meillassoux argues that mathematizable, scientific discourse can determine facts about reality independent of human thought or awareness, Levinas appeals to an ethical experience of the other that remains correlated with awareness but transcend human rationality. Their attempts to overcome correlationism are thus reverse images of each other: whereas Meillassoux uses reason to transcend experience, Levinas appeals to experience to transcend reason. Taken together, these disparate approaches point to a more nuanced understanding of correlationism and its possible overcoming.

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