Medieval Mysticism Research Articles

UM DEBATE EM TORNO DAS RELAÇÕES ENTRE OS SISTEMAS DE PERSECUÇÃO PENAL E A PRODUÇÃO DA PROVA NA IDADE MÉDIA NA PERSPECTIVA DA DOUTRINA JURÍDICA

This article addresses the issue of the production of evidence in criminal prosecution systems in search of truth in the Middle Ages. The search for the truth has always been complex and aims to settle legal conflicts. The mystical means of solving criminal causes during much of the Middle Ages took place through ordeals. With the Magna Charta Libertatum, the modern criminal procedure is born with the clause of due legal process, which seeks to limit the State's discretion and the rationale for the solution of conflicts based on evidence; In addition, a study is made about the inquisitive, contradictory and adversarial systems in the production of evidence. It seeks to present, in a didactic and clear way, how the production in the civil law and common law criminal prosecution systems takes place in the search for the truth. The research methodology used in the study is the bibliographical that focuses on the researched topic. From this perspective, it is demonstrated that the search for the truth in criminal prosecution is gradually moving away from medieval mysticism and approaching rationality in the production of evidence, with criminal prosecution systems to legitimize criminal justice by establishing the truth. Keywords: Criminal persecution. System. Test. Truth. Due criminal process.  

Die ‘vyf trane’ as mistieke uitdrukking in die Dialoë van die Dominikaanse non Katharina van Siëna (1347–1380)

The ‘five tears’ as mystical expression in the Dialogues of the Dominican nun Catherine of Siena (1347–1380). This article explores the underestimated teaching of the ‘five tears’ as mystical expression in the text Il dialogo (The dialogues, written in 1378) by the Dominican (Mantellate) nun and philosopher-theologian, Catherine of Siena (Caterina Benincasa, 1347–1380). The objective of the article is to indicate the significance of the teaching of the ‘five tears’, against the backdrop of the wider symbolic function of tears and ‘holy grief’ in Late Medieval mysticism. After presenting a biographical introduction, the contemplative, communicative and secretive import of the meaning of tears in the Middle Ages are reappraised and applied to The dialogues. By synthesising the scarce references in the relevant secondary literature, the teaching of the five tears are henceforth discussed: the tears of damnation, which are the tears of ‘evil and sinful people’; the tears of fear, which are the tears of fallen humankind in the presence of God’s judgement; the tears of gratitude, cried by a ‘saved humanity’ who now ‘see and taste God’s goodness’ (implicitly referring to the eucharist); the perfect tears, cried by people in their selfless disposition toward and love for the human Other; and the sweet tears of tenderness, cried by those who love God and humankind, in a radicalisation of Jesus of Nazareth’s summary of the Law, ‘more than thyself’. Catherine’s teaching of the ‘five tears’ certainly presents unique features and its own considerations, but should, nevertheless, be interpreted as an extension of the contemplative and secretive functions of ‘holy grief’ as already presented in Scripture and reconsidered by the Eastern and Western church fathers in the second to the fifth centuries. Catherine’s contribution to Medieval mysticism is established therein that she expanded those initial contents by presenting the teaching of the five tears as a ritualised prerequisite for development in the Medieval pilgrim’s spiritual itinerary to God.Contribution: This article contributes to scholarship in Medieval philosophy by contextualising Catherine of Siena’s teaching of the ‘five tears’ within the wider symbolic realm of tears and ‘holy grief’ in late Medieval mysticism, stressing the contemplative, communicative and secretive import of tears throughout the Middle Ages.

An Immanence without the World

AbstractThis essay proposes to rethink the conceptual associations that bind immanence to the secular and oppose it to (divine) transcendence. It asks: What if immanence is divorced from the conceptual opposition between the world and its openings to (divine) other(s), between enclosure and the trace of a transcendent outside? What might arise if immanence is severed from its link with secularity, if it ceases to be merely another conceptual support in secularism’s metaphysical armature? To pursue these questions, the essay engages a variety of materials, including medieval mysticism, anthropological critiques of the secular, work in Black studies, critiques of the subject, and François Laruelle’s non-philosophical thought. The result links immanence more intimately with dispossession than with the subject’s self-possession—and entwines it with the undercommons, as the atopic lowest place, rather than with the nomos and topos imposed by the (modern) world and its regime of the proper. Immanence is thought of as anti- and antenomian force, a groundless ground coming underneath the conceptual logics of the world, its normative order of things, and life lived according to its distributions. As a result, rather than a weapon in modernity’s endless self-justifying polemics with religion, immanence opens forth trajectories for its destitution and delegitimation.

Alexander Blok between Vl. Solovyev and E.V. Anichkov: A. Blok’s drama “The Rose and the Cross” and the legacy of Western esotericism

In the third article of the series publications on the topic “A. Blok and Vl. Solovyov”, the author considers the representation of the heritage of Western esoterism in Blok’s drama “The Rose and the Cross” on the example of the poet's appeal to the themes of Joachimism and Catharism, including the neo-mythological connection of the Cathars with the legend of the Holy Grail. The author analyzes the influence of V.V. Solovyov's historiosophy and E.V. Anichkov's aesthetics on the symbolism of the drama from the perspective of rethinking these themes. It is shown that the drama of Blok is deeply intertwined with the neo-mythological concepts of the "French school" of Western esotericism, which were widely discussed in the circle of Russian symbolists, for example, in connection with the work of Sar Peladan. The conclusion is made about the influence on the symbolism of the drama of the works of V. Solovyov and the beliefs of E. V. Anichkov associated with medieval mysticism. An extensive bibliography is provided.

The Life of Christina of Hane. Trans., intro., and annotations by Racha Kirakosian. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2020, lxi, 4 b/w ill.

Abstract: However we might think today about medieval mysticism, it certainly provided many late women with unique opportunities to turn to writing and thus to gain authority and respect, if they were not persecuted and executed by the male superiors, such as Marguerite de Porète (1310). Christina of Hane (1269‐ca. 1292; previously identified as Christina of Retters), whom Racha Kirakosian has focused on much in her previous edition and study (2017), left a remarkable ego-document, her Life, which Kirakosian has now translated into English, accompanying it with an excellent and in-depth introduction. She might have been the sister of the German King Adolf of Nassau (r. 1292‐1298).

СОПОСТАВИТЕЛЬНОЕ ИЗУЧЕНИЕ ОБРАЗА ВОЛАНДА В РОМАНЕ М. БУЛГАКОВА "МАСТЕР И МАРГАРИТА" И ИСЛАМСКОГО ГНОСТИЧЕСКОГО ПОДХОДА К ПОНЯТИЮ "ДЬЯВОЛ"

The problem of evil and the devil as a representative of evil has long existed in the religion and culture of different nations. This article attempts to find similarities on this issue in the novel “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) and in the approach of some Islamic Sufis, such as Mansur al-Hallaj (858-922) and Ain al-Kuzat Hamadani (1098-1131), etc. What is common in the image of the devil in the pages of the novel of a Russian writer of the twentieth century, a native of the Orthodox environment, and in the texts of medieval Islamic mystics? Common to representatives of these different cultures and eras is the desire to comprehend the problem of the existence of evil in the world and its embodiment in the form of the devil. The similarity is in the fact that the problem of evil and its bearer is posed by Bulgakov and Sufis both in a purely religious context, and in philosophical, Gnostic. In both Islam and Christianity, the devil (“Satan”, “Shaitan”) is the main opponent of the heavenly forces, which is the highest personification of evil and pushes a person on the path of spiritual death. In addition to the religious context, the devil is seen as the result of a Gnostic and mystical approach by different thinkers in the form of an artistic image.

Ментальный поворот в преддверии Средних веков и концепт интуиции

The article is devoted to follow to the essential characteristics of intuition think­ing. Intuition thinking is the way of understanding and extract of meanings. In this issue are analyzed such notions as sense, understanding and symbol. In this issue a symbol is a key figure in the way of thinking of the Middle age. Ancient Greek’s way of thinking and Middle age’s way of thinking are com­pered. The border of epochs is a main location of the turn from sensation to feel­ing and from revealed to hidden. In this article the evolution of notion of intu­ition, its semantic metamorphosis and its changing cognitive status are shown. According Socrates intuition has a form of daimonion, impersonal force helping him become a person and make decisions according to ethical standards. The fig­ure of Augustine impersonates the metanoia on two levels, subjective and level of epoch. The notion of “Self” ceases to be an entity autonomous from the nature of God, because only in the process of cognition, merge with God a person emerges. This is the fundamental difference in the way of being acient Greek and medieval cultures. Therefore, two epistemological paradigms, determining the cognitive status of intuition, are faced. On the base of mystics’ experience in the Middle age and Neoplatonism intuition is defined. For medieval mystics, con­templation, the direct vision of the truth in God, played an important role. From this phenomenon then comes the Cartesian clarity and distinctness of truth. Well known the intuition is the highest cognitive ability for rationalists

Stagel, E. (2019). <i>Lives of the nuns of Töss</i>. Ed. by M. Reutin. Moscow: Ladomir, Nauka. (In Russ.)

The book comprises manuscripts written by female mystics in Middle High German and Latin in the 1200s–1300s. The works are created in the genres of sister-books, revelations, Gnaden-vita (‘blessed lives’), and private epistles. In the comments to the collection, its translator and compiler examines various aspects of the origin and existence of medieval mysticism, reconstructing its historical and cultural context, and explores everyday behaviour and distinctive psychological traits of Dominican nuns and the Beguines. Based on the stylistic and verbal characteristics of the works, the scholar reveals the meaning of the metaphors employed and considers the utilized text-generation models and their connection with behavioural ones. This method appears highly relevant in the light of contemporary research into the performative character of medieval culture.

The Reformation of the Heart: The Making of ‘Mysticism’ in Seventeenth-Century England

ABSTRACT This essay considers the significance of various efforts – both Protestant and Catholic - to revitalise or revolutionise British religion in the seventeenth century, often seen as compromised by secular entanglement, using the resources of medieval and contemporary mysticism. The engagement with the Rhineland mystics and their Reformation disciples was central to this project, which helped to create the category of ‘mysticism’ in the English language, as a subversive but vital element in religious life. It is a central argument of this paper that modern ‘mysticism’ did not emerge simply as a polemical construct. Neither can it be attributed to a reaction against ‘the Enlightenment’. Instead, mysticism – understood as a quest to recover a distinct spiritual way in religion, part of a continuous tradition through Christian history – had an agency and provenance of its own. This quest often and increasingly took the form of dissent from the established churches.

Lenten Preaching in Thirteenth-Century England: The Case of a Franciscan Sermon Handbook

ABSTRACT Late medieval English mysticism and devotion was shaped by the preaching of the friars. This article studies the Lenten cycle of sermons in an English Franciscan preacher's handbook from the late thirteenth century, demonstrating that the preacher paid much less attention to confession or the sacraments in general than might have been expected, preferring the more subtle and interior aspects of Christian life. This both presumed and created a lay audience able to profit from more advanced spiritual teaching.

Antaios: a mythical and symbolic Hermeneutics

The aim of my research is to define the Religious Hermeneutics that can be identified as the specific core of Antaios (1959-1971), the German journal directed by the historian of religions Mircea Eliade and the writer and philosopher Ernst Jünger. We’ll focus on the philosophical-religious interpretation of Antaios contents: the so called “mythical-symbolic hermeneutics” is probably the most interesting theoretical theme connected to the Weltanschauung of Antaios. This cultural journal could embodies a counter-philosophical perspective that is at the same time intrinsic to Western speculation. This position has been repeatedly emerged in many phases of our cultural history. I am referring to a mythical-symbolic thought, characterized by an analogical interpretation of the world, whose structure is considered as a stratification of truth levels, that are complementary ontological levels of reality. This tradition sees reality as a specific kind of totality that allows human perception to take place through the structures of myth and symbols. The theoretical unity of the project is rooted in the mythical-symbolic tradition that, starting from the religious and esoteric pre-philosophical meditations, crosses the Platonic thought, the various neoplatonisms, passes through medieval mysticism and alchemy, reappears in Romanticism and is revealed in the twentieth century by the reflections of the “thinkers of Tradition”. With this paper I would like to communicate the main topics that from this Hermeneutics can be identified: speculations about symbol, myth, coincidentia oppositorum (coincidence of opposites), archetypes, ontological pluralism are at the core of this paradigm.

The Moral Dimensions of Sufism and the Iberian Mystical Canon

This study explores the shared spaces and common ground between the moral theosophies of Sufism and Christian mysticism in Spain. This article focuses on how Sufis, Carmelites and other mystical authors expressed spiritual concepts, establishing networks of mutual influence. Medieval and Golden Age mystics of Islam and Christianity shared a cultural canon based on universal moral principles. Both their learned and popular traditions used recurrent spiritual symbols, often expressing similar ethical coordinates. Spiritual dialogue went beyond the chronological and geographical frameworks shared by Christianity and Islam in the Iberian Peninsula: this article considers a selection of texts that contain expansive moral codes. Mystical expressions of Islam and Christianity in Spain are viewed as an ethical, cultural and anthropological continuum.

Mistyka relacyjna i metafizyczna w Księdze św. Anieli z Foligno

The article discusses the coexistence of two forms of Christian mysticism – metaphysical and relational – in The Book of Angela of Foligno. The metaphysical type, associated with the Neoplatonic philosophy, is probably inspired by The Soul’s Journey Into God by Saint Bonaventure who describes the experience of God as viewing existence or being (esse). The relational type is focused on the human and personal aspect of Jesus and the experience of love in the I-You relationship. While in many medieval mystics there is only one type of mysticism (e.g. metaphysical in Eckhart, relational in Bernard of Clairvaux), in Angela there is an interesting coexistence of both these types of experience of God.

In the Honour of Tristram Engelhardt, Jr.: On the Sources of the Narrative Self

Modern philosophy is based on the presupposition of the certainty of the ego’s experience. Both Descartes and Kant assume this certitude as the basis for certain knowledge. Here the argument is developed that this ego has its sources not only in Scholastic philosophy, but also in the narrative of the emotional self as developed by both the troubadours and the medieval mystics. This narrative self has three moments: salvation, self-irony, and nostalgia. While salvation is rooted in the Christian tradition, self-irony and nostalgia are first addressed in twelfth-century troubadour poetry in Occitania. Their integration into a narrative self was developed in late medieval mysticism, and reached its fullest articulation in St. Teresa of Avila, whom Descartes read.

ŚLAD MISTYKI ŻYDOWSKIEJ W TRANSCENDENTALNEJ ANTROPOLOGII KARLA RAHNERA

This principal aim of deliberations in this paper was to verify the hypothesis that Karl Rahner’s anthropology operates on premises which dovetail with fundamental ideas originating with medieval Jewish mystics. In order to argue the hypothesis, the author relies on comparative methodology to discuss essential anthropological concepts advanced by K. Rahner and M. Buber.

Editor's Note

Editor's Note

Luther, Loyola and La La Land

AbstractThis article compares and contrasts Martin Luther's and St. Ignatius of Loyola's theological anthropologies. Drawing upon the mystical sources that Luther used to develop his own account of the human person, I argue that Luther came to reject an indwelling of the divine presence in the human person and located our relation to God in the external realm of faith alone. The resulting conception of the human person is one in which we are by nature rotten by sin. Union between us and God occurs through the darkness of faith and no longer in the highest parts of the soul as it had for the German medieval mystics upon whom Luther drew. For Loyola, by contrast, whilst human nature was damaged by sin, it could be restored by God's transforming grace to actively cooperate in the process of salvation. Loyola sees the inner stirrings of grace permeating our desires and will and restoring our freedom to its natural end of giving praise, reverence, and service to God. Such an apostolic mysticism is orchestrated by Loyola through formation in the Spiritual Exercises, which provide a unique synthesis in which action becomes a form of contemplation. I conclude by sketching the reasons why these contrasting theological anthropologies of Luther and Loyola find little appeal with the dominant philosophical anthropology of exclusive humanism in the modern west.

An Introduction from the Editor of Medieval Mystical Theology

An Introduction from the Editor of Medieval Mystical Theology

Commitments to Medieval Mysticism within Contemporary Contexts, ed. Patrick Cooper and Satoshi Kikuchi. Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium. Leuven: Peeters, 2017, pp. xv, 382.

This volume seeks to address an important issue: namely, the challenges associated with studying medieval mysticism in our distinctly non-medieval, pluralistic, philosophically and confessionally diverse age. It also asks why scholars continue—and should continue—to engage with medieval mysticism, given its contextual differences and—one <?page nr="248"?>might argue—apparent irrelevance to the (post-)modern age. Through its eighteen essays, Commitments to Medieval Mysticism succeeds, I believe, in arguing for the ongoing utility and relevance of medieval mystical literature. It also includes several useful essays about how to approach medieval mystical writings as literature, particularly in the context of teaching undergraduates.

LOVE (AMORE AND CARITAS) AS A COGNITION AND LINK BETWEEN RATIO AND INTELLECTUS. THE HIGHEST DIMENSION OF CREATIVITY

The purpose of the article is to reveal the historical and philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of love, which is the key to the work of Nicholas of Cusa in the light of his epistemological constructions, and in view of his reflections on the nature of human. The author focuses on the anthropological nature of the system of Nicholas of Cusa, exploring that this approach makes it possible to better understand the ontological basis of the tradition of correlation in the philosophy of Nicholas of Cusan intellectus and creative intentions in man, and also leads to the final concept of the anthropological doctrine of Nicholas of Cusa, namely, deiformitatem (deification). The obtained results can be used in the development of normative courses, special courses on the history of philosophy and philosophy of religion when considering medieval mysticism.