Spirituality Research Articles

Dr. Annemarie Schimmel on Sheikh and Salik Relationship in Sufism: A Study

Prof. Annemarie Schimmel is deemed to be eminent intellectual of the contemporary era who has produced gargantuan intellectual works in the sphere of Islamic Studies, particularly that of sufism, the subject which is broad ranging, intricate and critical field. There are plenitude of elements associated with the concept of sufism on which Annemarie Schimmel has delved deep. However, the one that we will be dissecting in this very paper is Annemarie Schimmel’s views on the role sheikh plays in the life of salik on the spiritual path. How he aids him in this convoluted journey and what are the downsides of having such undiluted authority in life.

Wearing fire and chewing iron: Oaths of peace and the suspension of monotheism in contemporary Alevism

AbstractThis article examines the practices and discourses surrounding theikraroaths by which some Alevis in Turkey and the Turkish diaspora are initiated into their spiritual path. I examine a contemporary revival of this Alevi oath complex, which is a historical product of the same messianic trends in post-Mongol Sufism that shaped the Mughal imperial idea ofsulh-i kull, or ‘Peace with All’ religions. I argue that theikraroaths are paradigmatic examples of ‘post-Islam’ or Islam after the messianic suspension of its scriptural law. I show how Alevis seek to maintain their suspension of monotheism through ritual practices of animal sacrifice and music as well as the replacement of standard monotheistic oaths with post-Islamic oaths. Focusing on a recent liturgical reform movement led by the shrine of Hacı Bektaş in central Turkey, I demonstrate how the shrine works to maintain Alevis’ suspension of monotheism within the constraints of modern secularism, in part by reinterpreting secular constraints in terms of post-Islamic Alevi values, thereby highlighting elective affinities between post-Islam and secularism.

Jurema In Contemporary Brazil: Ritual Re‐Actualizations, Mysticism, Consciousness, And Healing

AbstractThis article proposes an exposition and analysis of perceptions intrinsic to rituals carried out with the use of the jurema plant, especially when mixed with Syrian rue (juremahuasca) in contexts of contemporary esoteric re‐actualizations in Brazil. These rituals are conducted by people who look at jurema as a spiritual path, once acquainted with its psychedelic properties. We highlight the mystical attributes and the cultural bricolage elaborated by these individuals, who conduct ceremonies in ritual spaces in which participants experience altered states of perception and consciousness. Considered as an entheogen, jurema leads to states of mystical transformation in people. Such personal changes are often considered by users as the rhetoric of healing. Life stories and ethnographic contexts form the background of the article, which seeks to advance understandings about jurema based on speculations around the intertwining of the themes of consciousness, mysticism, and healing.

Buddhist Ethics as a Path: A Defense of Normative Gradualism

This essay defends a new interpretation of Buddhist ethics: normative gradualism. According to normative gradualism, what we have normative reason to do depends on our stage along the Buddhist spiritual path. The essay shows how normative gradualism can justify distinctive features of Buddhist ethics and reconcile consequentialist and eudaimonistic interpretations of Buddhist moral thought.

Mysticism and Theosophy in the Service of the Regime: Azharite Scholars and the Challenges to Religion-State Relations under Mubarak

Abstract Challenged by Salafi Islam, Sufism managed to reassert itself in Egypt by acquiring new roles in society while emphasizing commitment to the Sharia. This article explores the role played by the religious organs of the state in promoting Sufism under President Hosni Mubarak, in the context of growing challenges to religion-state relations during this period. Focusing on the thought of ʿAlī Jumʿa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt (2003–2013), and the current Shaykh al-Azhar Aḥmad Muḥammad Aḥmad al-Ṭayyib, it also assesses the contribution of popular preachers, many of whom were graduates of al-Azhar, to this mystical discourse. The study aims to demonstrate that these popular preachers shared with the Azharite scholar some form of identification with theoretical mysticism, reflecting a broad inclination towards Sufism within Egyptian society. The Shaykh al-Azhar and the Grand Mufti sought to prove the compatibility between spirituality with its esoteric and introspective basis and Islamic law with its more worldly and structured dimension, by incorporating a theosophical debate within an apologetic exchange with Western thought. While this encounter with mysticism did not represent a new phenomenon, the novelty was in its political direction, in which a Sufi-oriented worldview became a tool to strengthen the regime’s position in its struggle against Islamist movements. The regime’s growing dependence on its religious institutions to counter the challenge of political Islam enhanced the bargaining-position of al-Azhar and Dār al-Iftāʾ, providing them leverage to advance the path of Islam and mitigate the regime’s secular orientation. While many popular preachers backed moderate Islamism, the religious officials of al-Azhar and Dār al-Iftāʾ relied on mysticism to support a highly supervised state-sponsored Islam. The reliance on the spiritual path to support diverse political trends demonstrates the all-encompassing and dynamic nature of theoretical mysticism as it was infused with rationalism, new knowledge, politics and a Sharia-based worldview.

Sisterhood in 5D

Sisterhood in 5D

Studi Komparasi Konsep Tuhan dalam Mistisisme Jawa dan Advaita Vedanta Adi Śańkarācārya

Mysticism gives a different nuance in defining the concept of God. Because this is related to the individual experience of those who reach the mystical consciousness, awareness of God in mysticism cannot be reached by reason or empirically but through the way of the senses in mind. This article attempts to explain the concept of God in Javanese mysticism and Advaita Vedanta Adi Śańkarācārya. The method used in this research is (library research). The results of this study are 1) the concept of God in Javanese mysticism (Sangkan Paraning Dumadi) and Advaita Vedanta (Brahman as the highest and absolute reality) is monistic theism, namely understanding God as one (transcendent monotheism). 2). In the view of Javanese mysticism, the universe is sourced from God and will return to God, while in Advaita Vedanta, apart from Brahman as an absolute reality, everything else, including nature, is an illusion of Maya. 3). To achieve God's consciousness, Javanese mysticism emphasizes doing Heneng, Hening, Henong, and Catur Lampah Laku, with the spiritual path to reach Manunggaling Kawula Gusti. Whereas in Advaita Vedanta, the union between Atman and Brahman can be achieved by removing the veils of Maya and avidya (ignorance).

Menkıbelerde bir af dilenme makamı olarak eşik

Eşik seen in many fields from the oldest mythical narratives to modern literary texts and generally defined in dictionaries as “the low step at the bottom of the doorway” carries out a highly important function while interpreting the relation between murshid (spiritual director) and murid (seeker) in tasawwuf culture. According to conventional wisdom, a murid who wants to transfer from zahir (outward) to batin (inward) and to walk confidently on the spiritual path needs to put his head in eşik of his murshid. Thus, murid expresses his devotion and surrender to his murshid. From this perspective, eşik symbolizes humility, devotion, and giving up the ego. Eşik having such a deep meaning is also used in hagiographies while asking for forgiveness for a mistake. Murids who follow their nafs (ego) in a moment’s heedlessness and hurt the feelings of their murshid ask for forgiveness as waiting on eşik of murshid and finally they achieve these goals. One of the best examples of this shows itself in the famous hagiography of eşik between murshid Tapduk Emre and his murid Yûnus Emre. However, this is not the only example in the hagiographies of the use of eşik as a scale of asking for forgiveness. It is seen that a similar situation occurred between murshid Zengî Ata and his murid Seyyid Ahmed Ata, murshid Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli and his murid Molla Sadeddin and murshid Emir Külâl and his murid Behâeddin Buhârî and the murids who commit a fault try to be forgiven by their murshids as putting their heads in eşik of their murids. Firstly, this study deals with the meaning of the term, eşik in tasawwuf culture, then, eşik as an expression of regret is scrutinized in the framework of the sample hagiographies.

Doran's Being in Africa

<i>Doran's</i> Being <i>in Africa</i>

Al-Ghazali’s Qur’anic Sufi Hermeneutics: Study on the Story of Abraham In Search of God

The existence of hermeneutics in the Islamic world, especially in the interpretation of the Qur’an is quite problematic. Some Muslim scholars consider hermeneutics to be inapplicable in interpreting the Qur'an. moreover, historically hermeneutics has a close relationship with the tradition of biblical understanding. However, al-Ghazali in his book Jawāhir-ul Qur'ān has introduced hermeneutics-based ta'wil. This article aims to discuss the concept of the Qur’anic sufi hermeneutics developed by Imam Al-Ghazali. This study is a library research with deductive method. The research data were analyzed using Edward Husserl's phenomenology investigation to highlight the illumination of al-Ghazali's method to reach the essence of the text. The results of the study found that the discovery of the essence of the text can be achieved by mystical intuition rather than categorical intuition. Al-Ghazali asserts that individuals who seek the spiritual path are endowed with mystical intuitive abilities. Therefore, mystical experiences and spiritual readers help to uncover the hidden layers and meanings of the Qur'an. As indicated in his interpretation of Q.S al-An'am: 76-78 about Abraham's contemplation when seeking the essence of God. According to al-Ghazali, it shows how Ibrahim uses a higher faculty than the cognitive faculties of sensory perception, creativity and reason. His interpretation of Surah al-An'am relies solely on mystical intuition and cannot be understood by anyone who is not inclined towards such an interpretation.

Сатышевское медресе: преподаватели, выпускники, история религиозных зданий

The madrasah in the village of Satyshevo, Mamadyshsky district of Kazan province (modern Sabinsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan) was one of the oldest rural madrasas in the province. The activity of the Satyshevsky madrasah begins no later than the middle of the 18th century (after the 1750s). In the 19th – early 20th centuries it was one of the largest rural madrasas in Russia. At the beginning of the 19th century, the training center consisted of 3 wooden buildings, and by the beginning of the 20th century, a complex of mektebe and madrasah of 7 buildings was being created. At the beginning of the 20th century, a second parish was allocated in the village and another mosque was being built. The teachers and students of the madrasah were famous imams and recognized theologians in the Volga-Ural region. The madrasah in Satyshevo village had extensive educational ties with the Muslims of the main educational centers of Kazan, Orenburg, Troitsk, Bukhara and Dagestan. The founder of the madrasah should be considered Imam Abdurrashid bin Kadermukhammad. The next famous imam and mudarris was Ibrahim bin Jagfar as-Satyshi. After him, Mukmin ben Budach continued his spiritual path in Satyshevo. One of the famous imams and mudarris of the Satyshev madrasah was Yarulla bin Bikmukhammad (1794–1869). His son Mubaraksha continued his spiritual ministry at the Satyshevo Mosque. One of the students of Yarulla hazrat was Muhammad bin Ali (Mukhammet Mukhammetgaleev), his name is associated with the further development of teaching in the Satyshev madrasah. After his death in 1902, the position of the first imam passed to his son – Abdrakhman Mukhametov, and the second imam in the documents is indicated by the son of Mubaraksha hazrat – Gabdulla. The teaching program at the madrasah was old-fashioned, classical. It is known from the preserved description of the library of the madrasah that there were a large number of manuscripts and books published in Russia and Turkey.

«КУЛЬТУРА МОВЧАННЯ» ЯК ІНСТРУМЕНТ «ПОЛІТИКИ ГОЛОСУ»

The «culture of silence», as well as the «politics of the voice», are interpreted differently in the Eastern and Western traditions. For example, in Japanese culture, silence acts as a spiritual practice and is evidence of a person's level of education. In archaic cultures, silence was also part of a person's spiritual path, his formation, and his search for himself. It is characteristic of a Western person to consider silence in a slightly different way. For her, silence, first of all, is a sign of inability to express oneself, one's position, etc. That is why in Western culture preference is given to the voice as a confirmation of one's will. The key opposition underlying European culture is the binary of sound and its absence. European culture attached great importance to the word. Speaking for a European means, first of all, self-defense and self-affirmation, defending oneself and one's place in the social structure, and accordingly silence is perceived, as a rule, in three modes: or as something abnormal; or as a sign of surrender; or as an attack on another person expressed in a certain way. For Europeans, a person who does not give voice, a will that is not expressed by voice, in the social sense is equal to zero. Precisely because of this, power structures that operate only by voice, on the one hand, do not perceive gestures of silence, or if they do, it is only as a sign of consent, and on the other hand, they are the voice they fear, bow to and which admit. That is precisely why, based on the analyzed material, we come to the conclusion that silence is not always golden. For a government that only pursues the «politics of the voice» a person's silence indicates nothing but consent and submission. Silent resistance means absolutely nothing to the power structures. And in a person who gradually gets used to only perceiving the voice of the conditionally stronger, the experience of resistance, the experience of expressing personal will gradually atrophies, he is drawn into a paranoid tendency and fear of being revealed or visible.

«Небожительница с шапкой из волос»: о жизни и даосских деяниях Тянь Сянь-гу

The article is devoted to the problem of the female spiritual path in the Daoist school of Complete Perfection (Quanzhen). The Quanzhen school was famous for actively attracting followers, regardless of gender and social status. One example of lower-class women who converted to Daoism and became abbess of monasteries was the Daoist Tian Xian-gu. For twenty years, she did not comb or wash her hair, collecting it upstairs in a high hairstyle, for which she received the nickname “Celestial Lady with a Hat of Hair” (Fa-guan Xian-gu). Despite the fact that Tian Xian-gu came from a peasant family, thanks to her eccentric appearance and extraordinary abilities, she was worshiped as a saint and a temple was erected in her honor. In memory of her Daoist deeds, the Stele conferring the highest decree [on the monastic abode of the name] “The Palace of Ultimate Perfection and Endless Longevity” (Chi ci Jizhen wanshou gong bei) was installed in it by the Yuan scholar and writer Zhang Yang-hao (1270–1329) which served as the source of this study. The most important mile­stones of her spiritual path, listed on the stele, such as reclusion, begging, asceticism, purification of the heart, are explained through the poetic and prosaic instructions of the first patriarchs of the Quanzhen school. The ques­tions of improving the Daoists nuns in the point of view of the philosophical, religious, social, historical and cultural ideas that existed in the medieval China and had a great influence on the further evolution of Daoism and its institution of monasticism are studied on the example of the female monastic tradition in XIII–XIV centuries.

«Ей, гряди, Господи Иисусе», или Тайна смерти Гоголя: К 170-летию со дня кончины

The author of the article addresses the issue of N. V. Gogol’s death, analyzes his last words, behind which one can clearly hear the well-known saying of the saint close to Gogol’s soul Apostle Paul. The work shows that the righteous Christian death of Gogol became the pinnacle of his spiritual path, the last step of the ladder built in his soul which he climbed all his life. The Church Slavonic semantics of the word “requirement” is explained on the margins of Gogol’s Bible, it is assumed that the word “requirement” is used by the writer as Church Slavonic in the meaning: “need, necessity.” Some of Gogol’s thoughts are given about death and its impact on the people around him, educating a person from a young age in such a way that he always understands the real meaning of life, so that death is not an accident for him. It is shown that the words engraved on Gogol’s tombstone express the most important thing in his life and work: the desire to acquire the Holy Spirit and the preparation of the soul for a meeting with the Lord.

Особенности моделирования художественного пространства в сказке Софьи Прокофьевой «Королевство семи озёр»

The features of modeling artistic space in Sofia Prokofieva’s fairy tale “Kingdom of Seven Lakes” (2004) are interpreted. The interaction of parallel worlds – real and fairytale – takes place in a fairy tale through dynamic metamorphoses of space: an uninhabited house turns out to be a portal to a magical land, a mysterious staircase is a path to an unknown world. In “Kingdom of Seven Lakes”, one of the ways to model space is the complete disappearance of real coordinates and the miraculous appearance of a new world from “nowhere”. Spatial characteristics and metamorphoses of the fairy tale space, the mythologeme of the ladder and the key, the opposition of horizontal – vertical, disappearance – appearance, openness – isolation, infinity – limitation, the coordinates of the demonic and heavenly worlds in Prokofiev’s work are subject to the movement of ethical thought. The downward movement, on the one hand, carries the semantics of growing danger, fear, doom, approaching death, on the other hand, it marks a magical transition into a fairy tale and back into the real world. The vertical – horizontal dialectics represents the motive of the main character’s journey in his movement towards an unknown goal. The adventures of the protagonist in the fairy tale universe with its spatial dynamics and the growing tension of struggle and movement determine Alyoshka’s actions, which require mercy, patience and courage from him and ultimately led to the salvation of the wonderful kingdom. His journey through the fabulous lakes symbolizes certain stages of the character’s spiritual path. The space of Evidentis Castle has a special status in the fairy tale. In the work there is an implicit opposition of heaven and hell, which has spatial characteristics. The sulfur lake, both in its name and in appearance (lack of air and in general real space in it, all-burning fire) marks a hellish place, while the revived royal castle of Evidentis appears as an image of universal happiness, love and unceasing fun, an eternal feast in divine bosom. Modeling of multidimensional and ambivalent space has a great discursive significance in the “Kingdom of Seven Lakes” and makes it possible to realize in the fairy tale the most important motif of the path – the path of growing up, knowing the world and self-knowledge of the young character, finding the higher meanings of being.

Whole Faith: The Catholic Ideal of Emilia Pardo Bazán by Denise Dupont

Reviewed by: Whole Faith: The Catholic Ideal of Emilia Pardo Bazán by Denise Dupont Jennifer Smith DENISE DUPONT. Whole Faith: The Catholic Ideal of Emilia Pardo Bazán. Washington D.C.: The Catholic University Press of America, 2018. 242 pp. In Whole Faith: The Catholic Ideal of Emilia Pardo Bazán, Denise DuPont aims to give a comprehensive overview of the Galician author's spiritual beliefs. The book consists of a preface, an introduction, four chapters, and a two-page conclusion. In the substantial introduction, DuPont shows how Pardo Bazán's commitment to Roman Catholicism imbued her thinking on a wide array of topics from feminism and politics to artistic production. For the Galician writer, Catholicism also held promise as a path to national regeneration. She rejected socialism and anarchism as solutions to economic inequality and advocated for "the Catholic idea of charity as the only solution to poverty" (22). Furthermore, she viewed art, beauty, and aesthetics as both fundamental to Catholicism and life. Chapter one focuses on Pardo Bazán's Franciscan worldview, based mainly on her work San Francisco de Asís (1882). The Franciscanism she envisions is contemplative, socially active, feminist, and concerned with artistic beauty. The Third Order, to which Doña Emilia herself belonged, did not require a vow of celibacy or strict mendicancy and was, therefore, particularly attractive to women who did not want to sacrifice their family lives to follow the spiritual path. Pardo Bazán also argues that Franciscanism offers a solution to social inequality in its advocacy for the communal sharing of wealth. She claims that if society chose to eschew the path of Catholic charity, socialism and communism would gain ground as the only viable alternatives to address widespread poverty. Pardo Bazán's presentation of Leo Tolstoy's "anti-Franciscan" spiritual conversion is the subject of chapter two. She was particularly concerned with Tolstoy's renunciation of his craft as a novelist. She viewed it as a rejection of a charism, or gift, from the Holy Spirit. Moreover, by rejecting his literary talents, "[t]he Russian writer sacrificed aesthetics, luxury, and the arts and thus sinned against beauty and truth" (94). Pardo Bazán also criticized Tolstoy's condemnation of art, learning, and civilization as an erroneous exaltation of the man of nature in the vein of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Finally, she rejected the Russian author's condemnation of erotic love as unnatural and misogynistic and characterized his religious practices as rooted more in pride than in true spiritual humility. Chapter three explores Pardo Bazán's pilgrimage to Italy for Pope Leo XIII's jubilee, a journey initially recounted in installments on the pages of El Imparcial and later collected in Mi romería (1888), and her trip to Belgium chronicled in Por la Europa católica (1901). In the former work she recounts the pope's confirmation of her literary vocation as a gift from God and again portrays Catholicism's advocacy of social justice and charity as an antidote to the abuses of capitalism and as a moral alternative to socialism and communism. In the latter work, it is made clear that her embrace of Catholicism was not a repudiation of modernity. Instead, holding up Belgium as a model of an advanced Catholic nation, she asserts that Catholicism was uniquely equipped to unite a diverse and divided people and to move nations forward. Also of significant import in this work is her visit to the Ghent Museum that houses Van Eyck's [End Page 248] altarpiece the "Mystic Lamb" as it comes to represent the "poetic vision of her ideal: unity achieved by the body and blood of the Mystic Lamb" (173). Following up on this idea, the final chapter, chapter four, is titled "Toward the Lamb with the Lamb," representing Pardo Bazán's idea that every person should try to progress towards the lamb in spiritual perfection, while simultaneously accepting God's grace throughout the process. DuPont explores how Pardo Bazán emphasized this message in three plays Cuesta abajo (1906), El becerro de metal (1906), and Juventud (1905-06), in her praise of dancing charities such as "garden-parties," and in...

Religious Knowledge, Mystical Experience and the Personal Mission of Muhyi-d-Din Ibn ‘Arabi

The article intends to shed light on the importance of mystical experiences encountered by the Sheik al-Akbar, the great religious theologist Ibn ¢Arabi, the great spiritual leader of Sunni Islam. Following the perfect illumination by the revelation of his own personal mission in Muslim Andalusia, the Sheik al-Akbar started to preach the exoteric lessons of Islam, based on the Quran, Hadith, and Shari¢a. However, he did not limit his knowledge and lessons to exoteric elements, but deeply immersed himself into the metaphysical esoteric truth of the Haqiqa and engaged into the narrow path of Tariqa, the spiritual path leading to realization of the Supreme Truth. By constantly teaching his disciples and by travelling across the Muslim realm, the Sheik al-Akbar reinvigorated and consolidated Sunna, while unravelling the ultimate mystery of divine perfection one can achieve. By the willingness to obey the revelations and to submit his personal will to the Divine injunction, he served the Muslim community and led the path of esoteric and exoteric knowledge and teaching.

Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism by Atif Khalil

Reviewed by: Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism by Atif Khalil Ali Hassan Zaidi (bio) Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism. By Atif Khalil. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2018. Pp. xi + 260. Paperback $32.95, ISBN 978-1-34384-6912-6. Is translation of a particular concept from one religious-linguistic tradition into another possible? If so, how much precision and nuance is possible in translation? Even if the problem of translating between religious-linguistic traditions is removed, we are still confronted with the question of how a particular concept is understood differently across vast stretches of time and space within a particular tradition. Atif Khalil's Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism addresses these fundamental questions in a particularly salient manner. Khalil's object of analysis is the commonplace human experience of contrition, repentance and atonement and the consequences of transgression. More specifically, he examines the concept of tawba in the Islamic, and especially early Sufi¸ tradition and the way in which the term "repentance" is an inadequate translation to capture the full range of meanings of "tawba", though in the final analysis "repentance" does capture the essence of it. The notion of tawba is so commonplace that scholars of Islam have perhaps taken it for granted such that, according to Khalil (p. 2), prior to his book no book-length academic treatment of it has been published. Whereas the notion of repentance is commonplace, especially in the Abrahamic religions, Khalil's analysis is anything but commonplace. The book is divided into two parts. Part I (Chs. 1-2) provides a lexical and semantic analysis of tawba as used in the Quran. Part II (Chs. 3-7) delves into how the early Sufis from the late-7th c. to the 11th c. CE approached tawba as a practical and necessary component of a spiritual path. Through an internal analysis of Quranic references to tawba, Part I provides a detailed and meticulous lexical and semantic survey of how tawba connects the human being to God and vice versa. Readers familiar with the work of the Japanese Islamicist and philosopher of language Toshihiko Izutsu (d. 1993) will find Khalil's application of Izutsu's method insightful for Sufism's conceptualization of the Divine-human relationship. Khalil convincingly demonstrates that when the Quran instructs human beings to engage in tawba it is not only referring to [End Page 1] feelings of contrition and remorse, as the term "repentance" denotes. Instead, the Quran is instructing human beings to turn to God and to turn away from the sinning act. But that is not all. Khalil's analysis really comes into its own when he points out that the Quran uses the same root (t-w-b) and its cognates of the word for tawba to refer to God as turning to human beings. Khalil argues that clearly God's tawba refers not to His repentance, for God is without sin, but to His always already turning toward the human being (i.e. God as al-tawwab, The One Who Turns [to human beings]). The interplay between Divine tawba and human tawba leads to a mutual relation between the Divine and human beings. Thus, it is possible to speak about Divine and human tawba in the Quran, but not to Divine and human repentance, for repentance as remorse, contrition and acts of expiation apply only to the human being. In this sense, repentance is an inadequate translation of the Quranic notion of tawba since repentance is restricted to a one-sided act by the sinful human being. By contrast, the dual usage of the same root of tawba leads later Sufi writers and theoreticians to emphasize the co-creation of human destiny: human beings partake as cocreators in Divine activity. In a particularly salient passage, Khalil eloquently describes this dialectical relationship as depicted in different verses in the Quran in which God and the human being jointly partake of a process of turning and re/turning to one another: "God turns to the human being in tawba, after he falls, through an act of mercy; the human being responds...

АССОЦИАТИВНЫЙ МОНТАЖ КАК ИНСТРУМЕНТ АВТОРСКОГО ЗАМЫСЛА В ФИЛЬМЕ Х. ВАЛЬ ДЕЛЬ ОМАРА "ГРАНАДА В ЗЕРКАЛЕ ВОДЫ" (1955)

The article analyzes how the Spanish film director J. Val del Omar, with assistance of associative montage of symbolic and allegorical images, created a complete narrative with a specific storyline in the film “Water-Mirror of Granada” (1955). The storyline is interpreted by the author of the article as a visualization at the figurative and metaphorical level of the initiatory spiritual path of human being. It is noted that such an approach formally unites the montage method of J. Val del Omar with principles of the Soviet montage school of the 1920s and 1930s. In contrast to the clearly expressed political and ideological orientation of Soviet cinema, the content of the works of J. Val del Omar has an ambiguous religious and symbolic character, due to both the personal preferences of the film director and the censorship requirements of the era of the authoritarian Franco regime. The article also analyzes the role of the systems of film sound accompaniment and multi-screen film projection invented by J. Val del Omar, which allow to “wake up” the viewer’s personal memory, providing with possibility to supplement the author’s semantics with own interpretation, thereby enhancing the effects of associative montage

ОБРАЗНЫЕ СРЕДСТВА ВЫРАЖЕНИЯ АВТОРСКОГО ПРИСУТСТВИЯ В ДРЕВНЕРУССКОМ ТЕКСТЕ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ „СЛОВА О ЗАКОНЕ И БЛАГОДАТИ” МИТРОПОЛИТА ИЛАРИОНА, „СЛОВА НА АНТИПАСХУ” И „СЛОВА НА ПАСХУ” КИРИЛЛА ТУРОВСКОГО)

The article is devoted to the analysis of traditional figurative symbols and ways of their creative rethinking in the works of Metropolitan Hilarion and Cyril of Turov. The study is of a comparative nature and is aimed at identifying the original and traditional in the works of these writers, as well as the way they transformed the literary canon. The author of the article proceeds from the fact that traditional images-symbols, by falling into the context of the original work as a special coordinate system with interaction and correlation of elements inherent in them, actualize in them additional values, necessary to the literator in order to solve his artistic problems. The works in question belong to the older period of Old East Slavic literature, they are written in the same genre, and created on the basis of a single opposition of the Old and New Testament. Both literators describe this opposition in the form of the images of biblical characters: the Hagar and Sarah from the Old Testament in the works of Metropol- itan Hilarion, and the Evangelical Peter and John in the works of Cyril of Turov. The focus of both literators is on the spiritual path of mankind, on the opposition of the man of the „old” („ветхааго”) and the man of the „new” („новааго”). The characteristics of representation of key images in these works are determined by creative precepts of literators: Metropolitan Hilarion strives towards division and analyticism, and Cyril of Turov strives towards interpre- tation and clarification of biblical symbols, towards the synthesis of „conceivable” and „tan- gible”. The figurative system of Metropolitan Hilarion is more canonical and traditional than that of Cyril of Turov. In the works of Hilarion the biblical symbolism is enriched through the construction of associative series, through the disclosure of semantic nuances of each word-image; on the other side, Cyril of Turov enriches the biblical symbolism by opposing different meanings of polysemantic words and creation of atypical phrases.