Lecture 4: Knowing God Mysticism and Personal Illumination

1. Lecture 4: Knowing GodMysticism and Personal Illumination Dr. Ann T. Orlando Sept. 25, 2008

2. 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?

3. 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.

4. 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

5. “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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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?

15. 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?

16. 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

17. 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?)

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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?

22. 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

23. “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)

24. 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 Iavailable 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 1-5and 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