Lecture 4: Knowing GodMysticism and Personal Illumination

Dr. Ann T. Orlando

Sept. 25, 2008

Outline

The Theme of this lecture: personal growth and experience of the Divine Augustine

– Personal experiences of God– Rules of Spiritual Progress (how to prepare for divine illumenation)

Augustinian Orders Bonaventure Petrarch, Ascent of Mt. Ventoux Rousseau Modern readings of Confessions IX

– Derrida– Merton

Key issue: Is interior illumination important way of knowing? Is Augustine authoritative, sympathetic, ignored, rejected?

Confessions VIII - IX

End of Book VIII is story of a moment of illumination for Augustine in garden

– Story of Antony– Reading Romans

Book IX is story of Monica– Her life and struggles– Moment of divine illumination with Augustine– Her death

Note that Augustine’s story of his past ends with her life.

On True Religion

Written shortly before his ordination (390) Addressed to Romanianus, benefactor, and father of

his friend Licentius– Romanianus was a Manichee, benefactor to Augustine in

his student days in Carthage– Licentius was a student of Augustine in Milan and

Cassiciacum

Heavily influenced by neoPlatonism Givens steps on the ascent to truth and beauty

“Augustinian” Rule

Three texts associated with Augustine are referenced for his Rule:

– Regulations for a Monastery– The Rule– Reprimand and Rule for Quarreling Nuns (Letter 211)

The Regulations probably was not written by Augustine The Rule may have been written by Augustine Letter 211 was written by Augustine, but perhaps not as a Rule How to live to prepare oneself for divine illumination

Bishop Augustine and His Priests

What Augustine really wanted to do was live in a monastery with like-minded friends to study Scripture

He encouraged the priests of Hippo to live with him in community

He was distressed by the financial entanglements of some of his clergy and their heirs

Medieval Appropriation of ‘Augustine’s Rule’ for Reform

Gregorian Reform– Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073-1085) concerned about corruption of canonical

clergy – Looks to ‘Augustine’s Rule’ as a way of reforming clergy, relation to their

bishop and correcting some of the problems of lay investiture– Canons could not live in private homes or own property

Dominicans– St. Dominic (1170-1221) was already living the Rule as a canon– Founded Order of Preachers to live a mendicant life devoted to preaching,

used Augustine's Rule as the Dominican Rule.– Following decree of Fourth Lateran Council that new orders should use a

predefined Rule Other Orders using some form of Augustine’s Rule: Servites,

Premonstratenasians, Brigitines, Ursalines and Visitation Nuns Impact on early Franciscans: St. Anthony of Padua had been an

Augustinian; St. Bonaventure

Late Medieval ‘Augustinian’ Orders

Hermits– Independent groups of communities throughout Italy and France

formed in 13th C to live the ‘Augustinian Rule’– Pope Alexander IV in 1256 forced them into one organization with

a common hierarchy – Became ‘secular’ monks, i.e. not cloistered– Emphasis on education and preaching, especially against

Pelagianism (Gregory of Rimini, d. 1358)– Martin Luther was an Augustinian Hermit

Canons Regular– Goes back to the Gregorian Reform– Way of life for diocesan clergy, especially those working in

chancery– Erasmus of Rotterdam was a Canon Regular

St. Bonaventure (1217-1274)

Franciscan, Master General– “The Seraphic Doctor”

Most famous commentary on Lombard’s Sentences– Augustine the greatest of all the Latin teachers Sent. III, d. 3

Argued against Aristotelian use of matter and form in theology

Particularly drew on Augustine and divine illumination in spiritual journey to God

Itinerarium Mentis in DeumThe Mind’s Journey Into God

Written for University of Paris student retreat– Mimics pilgrimage itinerary– Approach God by leaving world behind

Seven steps, one goes from one to the next by being open to God’s grace

Importance of will One possible difference: Bonaventure strongly

apophatic– God unknowable– Augustine (perhaps) more that God is inexpressible

Meister Eckhart von Hockheim (1260-1329)

Born in Germany, entered the Dominican priory in Erfurt Studied in Paris on several occasions Became prior at Strasburg and Cologne

– Rhineland mysticism Preacher to Beguine houses

– Loose association of lay women religious– Viewed with some suspicion by some clerics

Charged with heresy for preaching that the creature is equal to the Creator and for encouraging lay movements out side of hierarchical Church

– Condemned by John XXII in 1329 shortly after his death

Eckhart’s Sermons

From his time in Strasburg and Cologne– Delivered primarily to lay people, some to Beguines

Encourages an apophatic spirituality Sermon on Eph 4:23 (Sermon 12, “Sinking Eternally

into God,” pp177-180) Sermon on Lk 6:33-42 (Sermon 30, “Be

Compassionate as your Creator in Heaven is Compassionate,” pp 417-428)

– Note recap of On True Religion

Petrarch (1304-1374)

‘Father of Humanism’ Studied as a lawyer, but emphasized reading

ancient classics Particularly influenced by Cicero and

Augustine Wrote Secretum, dialog with Augustine

Ascent of Mt. Ventoux

April 26, 1336 Note relation of Petrarch to his brother Opening the Confessions to a random

passage What is significance of Augustine to

Petrarch? How is it different from Bonaventure?– Is Augustine an authority and/or a sympathetic

companion for Petrarch?

Petrarch SecretumDialog with Augustine

Three books of dialogs between Petrarch and Augustine

Petrarch worked on this throughout his life– ‘Secret’ book, for his use only; his philosophical

diary

Optional: introduction– Where is God in this?

John Locke (1632 – 1704)

Studied medicine in England and philosophy in France

Worked against the establishment of an English absolute monarchy

Also concerned by skeptical philosophy of some 17th C continental philosophers

Empiricism as the way (only way) to know– Rejection of religious feeling– Rejection of innate ideas

Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Book IV, Chapter 17: Ways of knowing– According to reason (empiricism)– Above reason (public revelation)– Contrary to reason (private revelation)

Book IV.19, “On Enthusiasm”– Enlightenment opposition to divine illumination– Rejection of another way of knowing – Available at

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke1/Book4b.html#Chapter%20XIX

Augustine not mentioned by Locke (but then, why should he be?)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Born a Calvinist in Geneva, mother died in child-birth Father watchmaker, forced to leave Geneva because of pretensions

beyond his class– Lived in poverty– Jean-Jacques grew up with his uncle

Arrived in Paris in 1742 and became part of ‘philosophes’ Diderot, D’Alembert, Voltaire

– Age of Reason– Individual freedom– Opposed to authority, especially ‘altar and throne’

But Rousseau also considered ‘father’ of Romanticism, opposed to philosophes

– Importance of Nature (as inspiration to man, not subject of study)– Questioned the value of progress– Man naturally good, made bad by complex societies

Rousseau’s Confessions

First ‘modern’ autobiography Started writing in 1764 after he had read

Augustine, published after his death Theme was to write unvarnished truth about

himself and those around him– But without apology or desire for forgiveness

Probably written to counter attacks from philosophes, especially Voltaire and Hume

Rousseau’s source of illumination: Nature

Jacque Derrida (1930-2004)

French, Jewish, North African “There is no outside the text”

– Language does not express philosophy; language is philosophy

– Opposed to metaphysics

Each reader creates his own understanding; interpretation is fundamentally unstable

Violence comes from society’s efforts to enforce particular meanings

Circumfessions

Written in 1990 Derrida’s personal reading of Augustine's

Confessions Book IX But also Derrida’s response to Geoffrey

Bennington’s reading and attempt to systematize Derrida’s philosophy, Derridabase

Thus the work is two works Is Derrida a sympathetic reader or an ironic reader of

Augustine?

Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Born in France, educated in United States Convert to Catholicism Fathered an illegitimate child, which kept the

Franciscans from accepting him, but not the Trappists– However, editors removed this from the Seven

Storey Mountain

“The Sleeping Volcano”

Part of The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) Tells Merton’s inner conflict about his

vocation Note importance of Bonaventure, interiority Climbing a mountain (Petrarch) Leaving at school vacation (Augustine)

Assignment

Augustine, Confessions VIII.xii – IX.xii Augustine, On True Religion, 45-58 and 107-113 Bonaventure Itinerarium, http://www.franciscan-archive.org/bonaventura/opera/bon05295.html, Book I

and VII Meister Eckhart, Breakthrough, Meister Eckhart’s Spirituality in New Translation, Introduction and

Commentary Matthew Fox, (New York: Image Books, 1980). Petrarch, Ascent of Mt. Ventoux, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/petrarch-ventoux.html Petrarch, Secretum, available at http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/SECRET.HTM (optional) Rousseau, Confessions, Book I available at

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/r/rousseau/jean_jacques/r864c/book1.html Locke, http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke1/Book4b.html#Chapter%20XIX (Option) Derrida, Circumfession, in Jacques Derrida, Geoffrey Bennington and Jacques Derrida (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp 1-31 (Preface and Ch 1-5 and pp 220-223, Ch 42 of Circumfessions)

Thomas Merton, ”The Sleeping Volcano,” Seven Storey Mountain (Optional) Possible theme considerations

– Source of illumination– Role of family (especially mother) and friends– Relation of author to God