what is mysticism, and what is christian
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Christian Mysticism,TRANSCRIPT
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Introductory lecture
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» Andrew Louth: The Origins of Christian Mystical Tradition. From Plato to Denys Oxford 2007
˃ not only Christian writers but also pagan philosophers
˃ a lot of fragments of source works
˃ clear and distinct language
˃ lacking of theurgical aspect of late Neoplatonism
˃ Iamblichus and Proclus only mentioned without wider presentation
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» Norman Russell The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition, Oxford 2004
˃ In Patristic tradition Deification had played a key role in understanding a mystical path
˃ Denys the Areopagite: deification is the union with God
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» Gregory Shaw entitled: Theurgy and the soul. Neoplatonism of Iamlichus, Pennsylvania 1995
˃ Iamblichus view on philosophy which is understood as a platonization
of popular Greek religion
˃ this form of philosophy can be seen as a Cosmical Liturgy
˃ role of the material world and the signs (synthemata) in the way to God
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» mysticism started to be a subject of regular study from the time of Plato
» writings of Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagite are natural breaking point because his treatises are known in the East and West both
» formative period of Christian mystical theology
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» formative period of mystical theology is bound up to the formative period of dogmatic theology
» today we experience separation between dogmatic and mystical theology
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» today we think that contemplation is purely religious activity, that it is a kind of prayer
» theoretical means, that given problem has almost nothing in common with daily life
» in Ancient period there was no mystics without true knowledge of God and there was no knowledge of God without contemplation of Him and his works
» which works are known and proper
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» in a 1899 W.R. Inge compared twenty five definitions
» today we there are two main definitions ˃ essentialistic
˃ epiristic
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» focus on identity of human mystical experience
» human nature is more or less the same regardless of culture, religion, and historical period
» and the man is always experiencing the same supreme being
» mystical experience in all religions are basically the same
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» mystical experience depends on culture, religion, period in history etc.
» Hans H. Penner: that there is no pure mystical experience which happens without the medium of language or culture
» there is almost nothing in common between mysticism in different religions
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» D.L.Carmody and J.T.Carmody (Mysticism. Holiness East and West): „mysticism is immediate experience of final reality”
» obvious conclusion: in mystical experience there is something which is in common with all others and something unique
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» Christian thinkers who red Pagan authors treated the contents of those works as their own experience (St Augustine)
» Christian mysticism although it is in its basics the same with Pagan tradition, brings something new and unique – nonexistent in earlier Greek heritage.
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» The phenomenon which characterizes the whole of the first millennium of Christian theological thought ... is the use of Platonism as the form for [its] philosophical expression and the framework of the world-picture in terms of which the proclamation of revealed truths was made — in other words, Christian Platonism. (Ivanka, Plato Christianus)
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» We must remember that Neoplatonism was composed of many philosophies.
» Platonism was indeed the strongest, but there was also Aristotelism in it, and of course elements of Stoicism.
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» The key term in whole course is: nous.
» Every scholar has a problem of how to translate it. ˃ A. J. Festuriere – „...faculty called nous by the ancients, the ‘fine point
of the soul’ by St Francis de Sales, and the ‘heart’ by Pascal.”
˃ Stephen MacKenna; Andrew Smith - intelect
˃ Andrew Louth – mind, intelect, soul
Term „intellect” is the best because: - Marius Victorinus constantly translated nous as intellect - this term underlines passive vision of intellectual reality (contemplation)