Papers by Gloria Maité Hernández
Savoring God
While the notion of theopoetic is modern, the concept existed long before the term was coined by ... more While the notion of theopoetic is modern, the concept existed long before the term was coined by twentieth-century theologians. Chapter 1 introduces in detail John of the Cross’s notion of gustar a Dios (to savor God) and the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava concept of madhura bhakti rasa—“the sweet savor of divine love”—as analogous models of theopoetic. Each of these sixteenth-century theologians deploys the term “savoring” within his own context, and does so toward two ends: to describe the all-encompassing relationship between the person and the divine illustrated in the poetry; and to prescribe a mode of interpreting the verses that leads readers into a similar experience. In both cases, the poems’ commentaries not only explain the theological meaning of the poems but also recreate their metaphorical language. This use of poetry to communicate theological meaning is identified as the practice of theopoetic. The first chapter closes with an elucidation of the book’s methodology.
Savoring God
The second chapter initiates the comparative readings by examining the dynamics of absence and pr... more The second chapter initiates the comparative readings by examining the dynamics of absence and presence through the lenses of poetry and theological meaning. Read together, the Cántico and Rāsa Līlā bring into focus the capacity of poetry to evoke the presence of God. But in the two poems most of such evocations take place not through descriptive narratives but through intimations of God’s presence when he is not obviously there. The two sections that comprise this second chapter—“Singing the Absent God” and “Looking for God in Nature”—examine the means by which the Cántico’s female lover (the Amada) and Kṛṣṇa’s lovers (the gopīs) search for their hidden lovers and invoke his presence. In their commentaries, John and the Gauḍīya theologians explain God’s absence and presence as the two sides of the coin of God’s love.
Savoring God, Sep 16, 2021
Savoring God, 2021
The last comparative chapter attends to the poetic imagery of merging used to describe the meetin... more The last comparative chapter attends to the poetic imagery of merging used to describe the meeting of the divine lover and the beloveds. The first section, “Together,” examines how the Amada and her lover drink together and how the gopīs dance with Kṛṣṇa by the Yamunā River. The main question of the theological commentaries is how much the divine and his lovers actually turn into each other, and how this manages to occur even as a gap is retained for the sake of the enjoyment and for allowing the love to flow between them. The second section, “Secretly,” dwells on the secret of how God loves and is loved, as disguised in the intricate metaphors of the poetry. The commentaries on both sides resort to the theopoetic strategy of constructing metaphorical layers that simultaneously reveal and occlude the meaning of God’s love.
Savoring God, 2021
While the site of inquiry for a theopoetic comparison of “savoring” is language, in mystical text... more While the site of inquiry for a theopoetic comparison of “savoring” is language, in mystical texts one cannot extricate language from embodiment. Chapter 3 brings into focus the sensorial imagery of the poetry asking how these images, often erotic, are interpreted by the commentators. This chapter is composed of two sections, “Sight” and “Sound,” dealing with the two most prominent senses in the poems, which function synesthetically—incorporating the activity of the other senses. Being more subtle in the Cántico, and more obvious in Rāsa Līlā, the sensorial exchange in both cases is never completely direct. The commentators are tasked with explaining images of reflection and refraction, sounds and harmony, that represent the simultaneous absence and presence of God. Readers are invited to understand the sensorial, embodied, and spiritual dimensions not as separate, but as participating on their own terms in the experience of savoring God.
Oxford University Press, Sep 16, 2021
The Introduction chapter starts by evoking the first encounter of the author with the compared te... more The Introduction chapter starts by evoking the first encounter of the author with the compared texts. Keeping in mind that most readers might not be equally familiar with both texts and their traditions, the chapter continues by presenting the Cántico espiritual and Rāsa Līlā within their larger religious and cultural-historical contexts. Then, the Introduction outlines the main resonances between the texts and their traditions that will be explored in the subsequent chapters. Next, it delineates the book’s comparative methodology, and establishes its dialogue with the work of other comparative scholars. To close, the Introduction offers an overview of the main topics and subtopics of each of the four chapters that comprise Savoring God.
Actas Del I Congreso Ibero Asiatico De Hispanistas Siglo De Oro E Hispanismo General Biadig Biblioteca Aurea Digital V 6 2011 Isbn 84 8081 216 8 Pags 295 306, 2011
Descubre tu presencia y máteme tu vista y hermosura; mira que la dolencia de amor, que no se cura... more Descubre tu presencia y máteme tu vista y hermosura; mira que la dolencia de amor, que no se cura sino con la presencia y la figura. Cántico espiritual (v.11) 1 ोजजनाितर् हन ् वीरयोिषताम ् िनजजनःमयध्वं सन िःमत भज सखे भवित्कङ्करीः ःम नो जलरूहाननम ् चारु दशर् य।।३१।६।। vrajajanārtihan vīrayoṣitām nijajanasmayadhvaṁsana smita/ bhaja sakhe bhavatkiṅkarīḥ sma no jalarūhānanam cāru darśaya/ ¡Oh, destructor del dolor de Vraja! ¡Oh héroe cuyas sonrisas desvanece el orgullo de las mujeres! ¡Oh amigo!, acepta a tus esclavas y muestra tu rostro de loto. ¡Oh hermoso! Rāsa Līlā (Capítulo 31, v. 6) 2 La revelación del amado divino ante los ojos es el deseo más profundo de estos versos, los segundos tomados del texto sánscrito Rāsa
Literature Compass, 2014
This article compares the Castilian Medieval Libro del Conde Lucanor alongside its eldest predece... more This article compares the Castilian Medieval Libro del Conde Lucanor alongside its eldest predecessor in the storytelling tradition, the Sanskrit Panchatantra, attributed to the Indian sage Viṣṇu Śarma and dated around the eighth century. Observing how the Conde Lucanor and the Panchatantra dwell upon questions of governance, trust, and textual ambiguity makes evident that both works represent the transferring of knowledge as means to support imperial power. The comparison examines the dynamics of auctoritas – concerning authorship – and authority – concerning power – through which Don Juan Manuel appropriated the stories of the Panchatantra and integrated them into his own cultural domain, thus complying with the demands of conquest and colonization at play in the thirteenth and fourteenth-centuries Christian Kingdom of Castile.
Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, 2012
This book compares two mystical works central to the Christian Discalced Carmelite and the Hindu ... more This book compares two mystical works central to the Christian Discalced Carmelite and the Hindu Bhakti traditions: the sixteenth-century Spanish Cántico espiritual (Spiritual Canticle), by John of the Cross, and the Sanskrit Rāsa Līlā, originated in the oral tradition. These texts are examined alongside theological commentaries: for the Cántico, the Comentarios written by John of the Cross on his own poem; for Rāsa Līlā, the foundational commentary by Srīdhara Swāmi along with commentaries by the sixteenth-century theologian Jīva Goswāmī, from the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava school, and other Gauḍīya theologians. The phrase “savoring God” in the title conveys the Spanish gustar a Dios (to savor God) and the Sanskrit madhura bhakti rasa (the sweet savor of divine love). While “savoring” does not mean exactly the same thing for these theologians, they use the term to define a theopoetics at work in their respective traditions. The book’s methodology transposes their notions of “savoring” to adv...
<p>The last chapter explores some insights taken from the comparisons as they address quest... more <p>The last chapter explores some insights taken from the comparisons as they address questions crucial to modern readers and humanity scholars. John of the Cross and the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theologians had in mind an "ideal reader" who would invest all her emotions and intellect into the act of reading. For John, this is a reader who knows how to "savor" the text and the "divine truths" contained within it. The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theologians envision a reader who reads "with the heart," a <italic>sahṛdaya</italic>. Although these expectations may differ from those of modern readers who approach these texts through a comparative theopoetic lens, we can still ask what the qualities of a modern "ideal reader" are. What could today's scholars and teachers learn from these Early Modern ways of reading and teaching how to read? And how might their practices of theopoetic impact the way we read and compare texts?</p>
An engaging critical review is offered of scholarly works on Spanish mystical literature during t... more An engaging critical review is offered of scholarly works on Spanish mystical literature during the twentieth and early twenty-first century in Europe and the Americas. Bringing together for the first time an ample variety of sources, and letting the scholars’ own voices be heard, this study asks how their writings were influenced by their particular notions about mysticism and Spain’s relationship with the Orient. A thematic survey like this one illustrates how ideas are created and re-created throughout time, resulting in the production of a more diverse scholarship. Readers will be enriched with a renewed sense of disciplinary awareness.
This essay proposes a twofold endeavor. While using Agamben's ideas as a lens through which to re... more This essay proposes a twofold endeavor. While using Agamben's ideas as a lens through which to read the mystical poem Cántico espiritual, by the sixteenth-century Spanish poet and theologian John of the Cross, I deploy John of the Cross's mystical poetics to reexamine Agamben's thoughts about the function of enjambment and the end—or the many ends—of a poem. Even though Agamben maintains a strict philosophical-literary perspective, he also acknowledges the theological foundation of poetic language, the "unquestionable bond of speech and life" inherited by Western literature from Christian theology. In examining what is meant theologically by the end of a poem, this essay reframes Agamben's philosophical inquiry into the realm of theopoetics at which he points.
AbstractThis article compares the Castilian Medieval Libro del Conde Lucanor alongside its eldest... more AbstractThis article compares the Castilian Medieval Libro del Conde Lucanor alongside its eldest predecessor in the storytelling tradition, the Sanskrit Panchatantra, attributed to the Indian sage Viṣṇu Śarma and dated around the eighth century. Observing how the Conde Lucanor and the Panchatantra dwell upon questions of governance, trust, and textual ambiguity makes evident that both works represent the transferring of knowledge as means to support imperial power. The comparison examines the dynamics of auctoritas – concerning authorship – and authority – concerning power – through which Don Juan Manuel appropriated the stories of the Panchatantra and integrated them into his own cultural domain, thus complying with the demands of conquest and colonization at play in the thirteenth and fourteenth-centuries Christian Kingdom of Castile.
Books by Gloria Maité Hernández
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Papers by Gloria Maité Hernández
Books by Gloria Maité Hernández