Spirituality & Mysticism

This study offers a brief analysis on some biographical works on Imām al-Ghazāli and his view on the issue of faith and good deeds through examination of various relevant literature. Imām al-Ghazāli has been regarded as one of the world's most influential thinkers as well as the greatest scholar Islam has ever produced. The life, teaching and thought of al-Ghazāli have attracted the attention of many scholars, both Western and non-Western. The influence of al-Ghazāli is not limited within his own tradition, but is felt both in the East and the West, reaching Jewish and Christian traditions. This study is theoretical in nature, and it involves bibliographic/library research. It surveys and offers a brief analysis of some literatures-mostly in English-that are relevant to al-Ghazāli's biography and his view on the issue of faith and good deeds. This study found that although there are some critical assessments and misunderstandings of al-Ghazāli's life and views, majority of literature consulted acknowledge his great scholarship and contributions in many aspects. Al-Ghazāli did not remain indifferent but indeed ardently refuted the various interpretations related to the issue of good deeds which he considered as heretical. The research also shows that not only al-Ghazāli always emphasised the observance of religious commandments, but he also breathed spirituality and gave deeper content and insight into the religious life.

Despite John's distinctive and theological character, however, it still renders an independent memory of Jesus of Nazareth deserving full consideration in any effectively critical quest for the historical Jesus. The question is how do to so adequately, given the unique origin and development of the Johannine tradition. If John represents a self-standing Jesus tradition with its own points to make, however, differences with Mark and the Synoptics might contribute to a sense of history rather than diminishing it.

Until the 1960's evidence for psi-dreaming (including precognitive dreams, telepathic dreams, clairvoyant dreams and mutual dreams) consisted mostly of anecdotal reports. However, at that point researchers at Maimonides Dream Laboratory (1) took the next step, and in a series of controlled scientific studies demonstrated that subjects could repeatedly tune into randomly selected external targets in their dreams. A meta-analysis of post-Maimonides studies of psi-dreaming by other researchers confirmed this effect (2).

In a related area, research since the 1970’s in remote viewing has demonstrated that human beings in general have the ability to tune into designated targets outside of the range of their physical senses. In 1995 the CIA hired Dr. Jessica Utts, a professor of statistics at the University of California, Davis, to evaluate a series of remote viewing experiments done at the Stanford Research Institute. She concluded: "Using the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that psychic functioning has been well established. The statistical results of the studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance. Arguments that these results could be due to methodological flaws in the experiments are soundly refuted." (3) And it seems generally agreed that spontaneous dream-state psi occurs much more easily and often than waking-state psi.

For theories on the nature of dreaming, the validation of dream-psi seems the equivalent of the Michelson-Morley experiment in physics, with the exception that few have realized the profound implications. For example, psi-dreaming has made strictly subjective, solipsistic theories of dreaming outdated and untenable. We need to change how we think about dreams, and to understand that dreaming involves a kind of perception.

In order to better cope with the pressures and stresses of the current day, modern psychology is anxiously seeking to find new therapies to address the increasing disorders within the human psyche. In the process new fields of research, such as humanistic and transpersonal psychology, curiously appear to borrow more and more from the wisdom of the ages. This volume, containing eighteen articles by noteworthy expositors of the perennial philosophy such as Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, presents the spiritual psychology of the wisdom traditions as a much-needed antidote to the current impasse in modern psychology.

Some Endorsements for Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy:

“[Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy] is more than an anthology. It is a wisely crafted collection of classic and contemporary scholarship noting that what many are seeking is what has always been, a perennial philosophy, that remains foundational. As one of the authors, Tage Lindbom, properly notes, ‘Secularization is a fish in troubled waters.’ This book claims the waters and is essential reading for all those who may have forgotten or are simply ignorant of the rich foundation provided by the perennial philosophy.”
—Ralph W. Hood, Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, past president of the Psychology of Religion division of the American Psychological Association, co-founder of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion and co-author of The Psychology of Religion

“A necessary and bracing critique of the assumptions and limitations of contemporary Western psychology, this generous volume is also a passionate call and learned guide towards a truer perspective that embraces man's spiritual nature.”
—Gabor Maté, M.D., and author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“Knowing the nature of the mind is perhaps the most difficult undertaking, especially in today’s world. To comprehend the nature of mind one needs to turn to the domain of religion and spirituality. Yet the truth of the mind and its complexity cannot explicitly be defined in words. Inner or transcendent wisdom sees the mind’s own nature without the duality of the seer. Suchness (tathatā) of mind is only experiential and not expressible. The words used to describe thought are themselves a product of thought, which is conditioned and limited. Thus, differences and contradictions are unavoidable. Therefore, a comparative study of different viewpoints and commentaries is immensely important to awaken the inner intelligence to see the mind as it is. Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: Studies in Comparative Religion edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is an outstanding effort in this direction.”
—Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, author of Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Today’s World

“The rise of psychology has impacted the study and practice of spirituality, the experiences and attitudes relevant to ultimate human values that transcend ordinary behavior. Each chapter of this remarkable book demonstrates this interaction in a unique and provocative way. But rather than using psychology to reduce and ‘psychologize’ spiritual topics, its authors demonstrate how directives from the spiritual traditions can enhance and even illuminate the enduring importance of psychology in the 21st century.”
—Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University, co-author of Spiritual Dimensions of Healing

“The work at hand is a thinking and debating man’s delight. If you have any interest at all in attempting to include an educated and enlightened view of man’s higher functions in your purview of the world, you will learn from and enjoy this collection of essays. If you already have some knowledge in this area, brace yourself: you may see some of your favorites sharply criticized. A thought-provoking work.”
—Bruce W. Scotton, University of California, San Francisco, co-editor of Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology

“This book, superbly edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, is a masterful critique of the field of psychology and its loss of the sacred ground in which it once was rooted. It offers depth psychologists an opportunity to contemplate timeless truths echoed through the centuries by perennial philosophers who have always claimed psyche is subordinate to Spirit. Although ignored in depth psychology’s early years due to prejudice and lack of understanding, this is a message today’s psychotherapists must take seriously. Human beings need a deeper and wider transpersonal vision of who and what we are, which the saints and sages of the world’s spiritual traditions have always pointed to. In psychotherapy with a therapist committed to such a vision, patients penetrate into their unconscious depths and not infrequently awaken to the Ground of all Being. Their suffering itself occurred because they had turned away from Spirit. Above all, this volume passionately calls upon depth psychology to remember its origin in the perennial wisdom at the core of the great religions. There is something of a polemic in these pages. It deserves to be considered by depth psychologists of all persuasions.”
—Bryan Wittine, Transpersonal psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst

“This anthology from Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is a must reference for anyone who is interested in psychology and its relationship to spirituality, and in developing an inclusive dialogue between disciplines that favor an integral outlook on the person and his or her potential. Selections in this anthology will inspire us to reexamine the metaphysical underpinnings of psychology, and remind us how important it is to rise above science’s attempt to reduce the human being to an epistemic object.”
—Sangeetha Menon, National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bangalore, India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Beyond Experience: Consciousness in Bhagavad Gita

“This anthology has some of the most discerning essays and reviews on spirituality and psychology, which provide much-needed care and caution to all those engaged in bringing them together or who wish to do so in future. Therefore, it is a must-read for all those who teach, research, consult, or study in such frontier areas as transpersonal psychology, states of consciousness, mind-body relation, holistic health, Indian psychology, and so on. It will be an invaluable textbook for courses in these and other related areas. I congratulate the editor of the book.”
—Kiran Kumar K. Salagame, University of Mysore (India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Psychology of Meditation: A Contextual Approach

“One of the finest collections of essays on the Perennial Philosophy—a must-read for all psychologists who are engaged with spirituality and transpersonal psychology. The essays which critique modern psychology (including transpersonal psychology, and the framework of Carl Jung), in the light of the Perennial Philosophy are a revelation and make compelling reading. The book serves as a corrective to the excesses of modern psychology, and to this end Sotillos has done a commendable job. I for one will include the book in some of the graduate courses that I teach.”
—Suneet Varma, University of Delhi, co-editor of Foundations of Indian Psychology

“To its credit modern science by-and-large is becoming more cognizant of the essential connection between spirituality and psychological health and well-being and most of all its positive implications within the field of psychology. While there is ample data to document this in a plethora of academic journals and books, this new book Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy adds a novel contribution to the dialogue between psychology and spirituality, which captures many nuances that for the most part go unnoticed within these discussions, and last but not least, it provides a keen eye of discernment to understand this intricate relationship on a deeper level that is crucially needed. This work will be a valuable asset to students and long term mental health practitioners and professors alike who seek to better understand the relationship between psychology and spirituality.”
—Harold G. Koenig, Duke University, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, co-author of The Handbook of Religion and Health

Most of extensive research in the field of Biblical Studies on the Gospel of John in recent times has been characterized by its historical critical approaches with attention to its historical value, its relationship to other gospels, its sources and its literary character. Recently a number of scholars began to read the Gospel in terms of its Spirituality and specifically its mystical nature. This trend reflects the increasing attention being paid to Biblical Spirituality and contemporary Hermeneutics that stressed that a Biblical text is not only informative in nature, but also transformative. Specialists like Sandra Schneiders have already read parts of John’s Gospel convincingly in this way, whilst Kees Waaijman published major work on the mystical interpretation of Biblical texts. These new and now established insights, as well as the research on Biblical mysticism by other leading scholars like Meeks and Dunn have not yet been applied to John 15. The groundbreaking work by Kanagaraj and DeConick are alos further explored. The text of John 15 contains mystical imagery and contents which contribute decisively to the understanding of the mystical nature of John’s Gospel. The research focused on menein (indwelling) which has a clear mystical meaning, is central to the passage and binds together the different images in the chapter.

1. «dio mi ha rimproverato la grande pusillanimità ch'io ebbi di non dire alla Maestà Vostra quello che mi sentivo di dirle e l'anima del defunto rimprovera in certa maniera Vostra Maestà che si abandona al dolore». Con queste parole la carmelitana Maria degli angeli, dal monastero di santa Cristina a torino, il giorno successivo alla morte del primogenito di Vittorio amedeo II di savoia, si rimproverava per non aver riferito al sovrano di aver previsto il tragico evento, e nello stesso tempo lo redarguiva per essersi abbandonato a un eccessivo dolore 1 .

In one sense, this book is about the contemporary dialogue between science and spirituality, and more specifically, ways in which they do not "talk" well to each other—I offer a remedy for bridging that gap. One approach is to explore how metaphysical/mystical thinking and rational/logical thinking manifest as modes of meaning-making within human consciousness—within your consciousness. That is, by getting to know these two modes of thinking within the individual psyche and within mundane experience, we find an opening to supporting society's dialogue between, and integration of, these modes of discourse.
There have already been many attempts to integrate these two domains. For example: using quantum mechanics to explain consciousness; showing how stale science can be re- enchanted through a captivating story of the evolution of the cosmos; doing a statistical analysis of religious beliefs in a population; or fMRI measurements of the brains of meditation adepts. Yet spiritual thinking and scientific thinking are rarely integrated. Or to put it another way, the metaphysical claims and esoteric experiences of spirituality have an uneasy relationship with logical or "rational" modes of meaning-making. It is a given that science and rationality are important, both in their proven products in a technologically advanced society, and also in their ability to critique and sanitize the "irrationality" within metaphysical, religious, dogmatic, and emotion-laden thought. But the role of pre-rational making-making is less well appreciated; and when it is acknowledged, it is through its more romantic characteristics. One thing I will argue is that the pre-rational mind (its magical and mythical layers) is actually an essential foundation upon which all rational (including scientific) thought is built. The pre-rational layers, often maligned in modernity, contain life-and-meaning generative capacities that are sorely need. But that is getting ahead of our story.
Here what I want to point out is what scientific (or hyper-rational) and spiritual (or religious and metaphysical) modes of discourse tend to have in common: the certainty or confidence of their claims. This text is, in one sense, a deep critique of how certainty is performed in both spiritual (or metaphysical) and scientific (or modern hyper-rational) circles—actually in all realms of thought and belief. I will argue for the increasing importance of "negative capability"—i.e. for humility, tolerance for uncertainty, and openness to multiple perspectives. —And for an appreciation of the (now proven) fundamental limitations of reason, logic, theoretical models, and even the foundational flaws in the ability for language and concepts to capture reality.
That knowledge is incomplete and fallible and that beliefs tend to be biased—these are well-oiled aphorisms. But to develop a transformative and actionable understanding of personal meaning-making and social knowledge-building processes one needs a deep
understanding of exactly how belief and knowledge are fallible. And it is a transformative or radical understanding that is called for. For most of humanity's history the main social "project" was about understanding and taming nature. We have entered a new era wherein the vast majority of human problems are caused by human nature, and so the most important inquiries now should be into self-understanding to allow the self- transformation and self-liberation that might, if we are lucky, reverse, or at least adapt to, the ultimately tragic ends that human "reason" has wrought through modern technologies and social structures.
"Know thyself" has become more than a philosophical and ethical imperative—it has become a species-existential one. And our focus here will be on knowing how and what we don't know—i.e. on unknowing. In another sense our exploration will be about the importance of reducing or releasing complexity in the psyche and in socio-cultural structures—at a time in which it might seem that we cannot avoid increasing complexity.

This article presents a manuscript that significantly enriches the textual corpus of ›Helfta Mysticism‹ with a series of hitherto unknown writings. Aside from this, it contains what is by some distance the oldest copy of the ›Legatus divinae pietatis‹, in the form of a ›special edition‹ that consists of excerpts from the known text as well as new material. This is preceded by a prologue and a florilegium which is marked in an epilogue as Gertrude’s own work. We argue that the epilogue of the florilegium, the prologue and the ›special edition‹ itself were probably composed by ›Sister N‹ of Helfta herself. The article provides a full description of the manuscript (Ms 827), a breakdown of the new ›special edition‹ of the ›Legatus‹-text, and an edition, translation, and close reading of the prologue.

Im Folgenden soll eine Handschrift vorgestellt werden, die die Textbasis der Helftaer Mystik mit einer Reihe von bislang unbekannten Schriften bereichert. Außerdem enthält sie die mit Abstand älteste Abschrift des ›Legatus divinae pietatis‹ in Form einer ›Sonderausgabe‹, die aus Exzerpten aus dem bekannten Textcorpus und aus weiterem bislang nicht bekanntem Material besteht. Dieser geht eine Vorrede und ein im Epilog als Gertruds Werk ausgewiesenes Florilegium voraus, Texte, die wie die ›Sonderausgabe‹ selbst von Schwester N von Helfta stammen dürften. Die vorliegende Studie bietet eine Beschreibung von Ms 827, die Aufschlüsselung der ›Sonderausgabe‹ des ›Legatus‹ sowie Abdruck, Übersetzung und inhaltliche Analyse der Vorrede.

The mystical technique of imagery, i.e. visualizing an imaginary picture, found already in the earliest stages of Kabbalah, reached its peak in the teachings of R. Kalonymous Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of Piazecna (1889-1943). Academic interest in exploring mystical phenomena solely within their historical, social and political contexts has increased in recent years. This article challenges the exclusive quest for historicization in the study of Jewish mysticism, using R. Shapira's remarkable mystical-imagery techniques as a case study. Through employing the concepts of “empowerment” and “intensification” as a lens for the study of mysticism in world religions, this article argues that R. Shapira used imagery techniques as a method for empowerment in ritual, both nomian and anomian, in order to transform normative religious acts into mystical experiences. These imagery exercises are not simply one technique among many. Nor do they just function as an alternative to the experiences made possible by secularism in the early twentieth century, as have been claimed in studies based on historical readings of his works. Historical research that negates a phenomenological perspective impedes the scholar from observing a variety of important insights. R. Shapira used imagery techniques as a powerful tool for intensifying all religious practices, transforming ordinary rituals into encounters with the Divine.

*Winner of the Peter C. Rollins Prize for Best Book of the Year from the Northeast Popular Culture Association*
An investigation of the irrational and the unconventional currents swirling behind the Bauhaus's signature sleek surfaces and austere structures.

The Bauhaus (1919–1933) is one of the twentieth century's most influential art schools, celebrated as the archetypal movement of rational modernism and famous for bringing functional and elegant design to the masses. In Haunted Bauhaus, art historian Elizabeth Otto liberates Bauhaus history, uncovering a movement that is vastly more diverse and paradoxical than previously assumed. Otto traces the surprising trajectories of the school's engagement with occult spirituality, gender fluidity, queer identities, and radical politics. The Bauhaus, she shows us, is haunted by these untold stories.

The Bauhaus is most often associated with a handful of famous artists, architects, and designers―notably Paul Klee, Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy, and Marcel Breuer. Otto enlarges this narrow focus by reclaiming the historically marginalized lives and accomplishments of many of the more than 1,200 Bauhaus teachers and students (the so-called Bauhäusler), arguing that they are central to our understanding of this movement. Otto reveals Bauhaus members' spiritual experimentation, expressed in double-exposed “spirit photographs” and enacted in breathing exercises and nude gymnastics; their explorations of the dark sides of masculinity and emerging female identities in design; the “queer hauntology” of certain Bauhaus works; and the school's communist period (1928–1932), when Bauhäusler put their skills into the service of the revolution―even as Nazism emerged and entered the Bauhaus itself.

With Haunted Bauhaus, Otto not only expands our knowledge of a foundational movement of modern art, architecture, and design, she also provides the first sustained investigation of the irrational and the unconventional currents swirling behind the Bauhaus's signature sleek surfaces and austere structures. This is a fresh, wild ride through the Bauhaus you thought you knew.

Attributed to Master Heinrich of Constance, a sculpture of the Visitation from the convent of St. Katharinenthal in the Lower Rhine Valley (ca. 1310­20) portrays Mary and her cousin Elizabeth with two quartz cabochons inserted into their torsos, rock crystal representations of their wombs, which nurture the fetal Christ and John the Baptist. These crystals make the ​Visitation a strikingly unique devotional object in the eyes of the modern viewer, but when considered in the context of the fourteenth­century German Dominican convent, they also provide insight into the devotional practices of their users, cloistered nuns. In this thesis, I explore the nature and function of this unique object of devotion in the context of the Katharinenthal convent specifically in addition to the wider Middle High German spiritual milieu, particularly Rhenish Mysticism. ​I take a multidisciplinary approach to the study of this medieval artwork by making use of a wide range of sources: works from this same period found at Katharinenthal and other convents around the Rhine valley, theological treatises concerning the Incarnation (and, therefore, the Marian womb) the visionary accounts of Henry Suso and other Rhineland mystics, and the work of such medieval art historians as Jeffrey Hamburger, Caroline Walker Bynum, and Jacqueline Jung. Jung in particular describes the bodies of Mary and Elizabeth in the ​Visitation as “exuberant,” “thrusting the evidence of [their] virtues outward toward beholders and rendering them visible through the body’s materiality rather than through any internal motifs.” (“Crystalline Wombs and Pregnant Hearts,” p. 234). In this thesis, I use Jung’s analysis of the sculpture as a starting point to propose a new, though not mutually exclusive, model for interpreting the function of these crystal wombs.
In the first main section of the thesis, I examine the convent of Katharinenthal itself, a highly enclosed and communal female monastic environment, together with many of the surviving devotional objects from the convent around 1300 that formed Katharinenthal’s visual and material culture. The following section examines in closer detail the crystal wombs of the Visitation, considering both their theological connotations and their significance to medieval perception of the female body. The final section addresses the devotional function of Mary and Elizabeth’s crystal wombs by placing the ​Visitation within the context of both late medieval Euc​haristic theology and Rhenish mysticism. I conclude that the ​Visitation’s crystal wombs functioned as meditational foci, serving as “windows” into the visionary experience. These wombs, with their emphasis on transparency and interiority in their enclosed, conventual context, ultimately serve as a catalyst for mystical union with the divine.

In our waking lives, we usually assume that other people experience the world pretty much the way we do, even though under normal circumstances we rarely - if ever - check to see if this actually seems the case. But do we really? Studies on the reports of people who witness the same event, routinely show wide discrepancies with respect to both minor-and major details. And if this proves the case for people in physical reality, what might one expect to happen in dreams? Do the Dream Entities (DEs) that we encounter in dreams experience the same dreamscapes that we do? Of course, many western psychologists still believe that dreamscapes, and the DEs that dreamers encounter in them, derive entirely from the dreamer's mind, a view which makes the issue of consensus in this context nonsensical. Because of this underlying assumption, even today dreamworkers typically describe the entities that appear in their dreams as "characters," which conveys the impression that DEs not only lack any sort of independent consciousness, but that they seem akin to fictional characters appearing in a book. However, the validation of psi-dreaming (1,2) has made strictly subjective, solipsistic theories of dreaming outdated and untenable. Dreaming can clearly involve a kind of perception. (3) And evidential accounts of mutual dreaming, where two or more people encounter one another in dreams, confirmed later through consensually matching details, demonstrates that dreaming can have an intersubjective component as well. (4-6)

timelessness. We experience this oneness within the world and the world within oneness; we experience non-duality within duality and duality within non-duality. We are beings in the world. We can experience purity within polarities, love within hate, and hate within love. This is the true purity of appearance and eventually the purity of apparitionalness.

A question important to Christology today is one that, potentially, could spell the end of Christianity as we know it. Did the historical Jesus exist? Was there a man called Jesus who lived in 1st century Palestine, preached a unique message of compassion and love, gathered a following of faithful disciples, was arrested and then later crucified by Roman authorities. Is this so called Jesus of history genuine and easily supported by historical evidence? The purpose of this study is to look at the available evidence, both biblical and non-biblical, presenting original manuscripts, commentary and current scholarship. What does come through strongly is the inability to make a water tight case for the existence of an historical Jesus. Furthermore, the possibility that the Jesus story may be a reworking of ancient pagan mythologies is particularly challenging.

This study explores common ground and affinities between Christian Orthodoxy and Pentecostalism in theology, spirituality, cosmology, anthropology and the understanding of rites and sacraments. The focus is on the understanding and perception of the Holy Spirit, with regard to spiritual experience, personal transformation and the life of the Church. It also reflects on the African religious heritage of Christianity in the formation of these forms of spiritual experience and expression. The role and development of African Instituted Churches is taken into view, aware of their common heritage with Pentecostalism and of their distinctness. The context of ecumenical exchange between Pentecostalism and the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches in the 20th century is considered as background for the realization of convergences. The growing awareness in both Pentecostalism and Orthodoxy of their common ground, based in the hermeneutics and spirituality of early Christianity is recognized and recommended as field for further engagement. The common affirmation of both Churches of a spiritual world view in contrast to the positivistic ‘naturalistic’ world view of secular Enlightenment – as distinct from the spiritual branch of Enlightenment in which Pentecostalism is rooted through Pietism – is recognized as common ground for mutual understanding and critical difference to mainstream Western secularism. This study thus aims at fostering a better mutual understanding of Pentecostal and Orthodox Churches and of their epistemological agreements with regard to the challenges of secular cultures.

Nel secolo dei Lumi spicca il nome di Maria Gaetana Agnesi nelle discussioni sulla validità delle teorie newtoniane, sul calcolo infinitesimale di Leibniz e Newton, sull'istruzione femminile e sul ruolo della donna nell'indagine scientifica. Nel confronto a distanza con Algarotti, la scienziata milanese promuove un newtonianesimo, delle donne e non "per le donne", dai tratti marcatamente neostoici. La pubblicazione delle Instituzioni analitiche, che le procurò fama e prestigio in Europa, segnò poi una svolta. Ammirata da Goldoni e definita immortale da Pietro Verri, Agnesi volle costruire una propria identità di scienziata e di donna autonoma nella dimensione etica dell'impegno sociale e dell'esperienza di fede, influenzata dalla spiritualità teatina e dalla religiosità di Muratori.

In copertina: Filippo Morghen (1730-1807), Ritratto di Maria Gaetana Agnesi, incisione [realizzata da Francesco Pisante (1804-1889)], in «L'Omnibus pittoresco», Napoli 30 giugno 1842, anno quinto, n. 11 (collezione privata).
Aracne CADST 39 - 18,00 euro. Il "cannocchIale" dello storIco: mItI e IdeologIe / 39 Collana fondata da Achille Olivieri e diretta da Daniele Santarelli.

Par une analyse lexicale systématique il est possible de reconnaître dans l’œuvre de Nostradamus plusieurs éléments sémiologiques appartenant au registre d’un syndrome obsessionnel associé au domaine autistique. Une étude comparative des Prophéties avec sa Lettre XLI permet aussi de confirmer que cette œuvre est celle d’un personnage mystique souffrant de singularités psycho-linguistiques ayant rendu son expression incompréhensible pendant longtemps. Mais l’exploitation des dernières connaissances scientifiques en neuro-psychiatrie appliquée aux domaines littéraire, historique et religieux autorise maintenant une bien meilleure intelligibilité des obscurités nostradamiennes. Refuser d’emprunter ce chemin escarpé conduit aussi à préfèrer la magie à la science, l’illusion au raisonnement critique et l’erreur à la pertinence. L’auteur démontre aussi que le médecin apothicaire, ayant lui-même déclaré souffrir de comitialité, laisse supposer avoir eu recours à une pharmacopée anxiolytique encore inconnue pour calmer ses troubles obsessionnels avivés par les turbulences d’une époque violemment agitée. Concernant l’astrologie, il appert que l’expression littéraire de cette Lettre adressée à un ami alchimiste s’accorde précisément avec une sémantique allégorique obsessionnelle, et non pas avec un délire matérialiste et profane. Éprouvant l’infernale désunion du lien social spirituel, l’enfant de marranes pronostiquait son évolution selon un schéma déjà scénarisé depuis l’Antiquité par les historiens et les philosophes. De tout cela il apparaît également que les quatrains excessivement redondants des Prophéties n’ont recyclé qu’un très petit nombre de prédictions publiées antérieurement par des auteurs déjà connus.

In the biblical theophanies of Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3, divine condescension and human ascent constitute reciprocal ecstatic moves towards a divine–human encounter. The christological interpretation, widespread in early Christian reception history, further discerns in Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3 an anticipation of the radical condescension of the Logos-made-human and, conversely, an anticipation of the deifying ascent of humanity in Christ. Finally, the early Christian reading of Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3 as ‘christophanies’ – that is, as manifestations of the Logos-to-be-incarnate – also allows us a glimpse into the performative aspect and experiential claims of early Christian exegesis, broadly construed to also incorporate hymnography, iconography and ritual.

"The most powerful Hasidic teachings made accessible--from some of the world s preeminent authorities on Jewish thought and spirituality.
Hasidism, a great movement of spiritual revival within Judaism, began in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe and continues to have great influence on Jewish life today. A key tool of this revival was the oral sermon, using novel mystical readings of the Torah to open people s minds to thinking more profoundly about the texts and how the wisdom relates directly to their own lives.
While Hasidic tales have become widely known to modern audiences, the teachings that stand at the very heart of Hasidism have remained a closed book for all except scholars. This fascinating selection--presented in two volumes following the weekly Torah reading and the holiday cycle, and featured in English and Hebrew--renders them accessible in an extraordinary way. Volume 1 covers Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus, and includes a history of early Hasidism and a summary of central religious teachings of the Maggid's school. Volume 2 covers Numbers and Deuteronomy and the holiday cycle, and includes brief biographies of the Hasidic figures. Each teaching is presented with a fresh translation and contemporary commentary that builds a bridge between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. And each teaching concludes with a dynamic round-table discussion between distinguished Jewish scholar Arthur Green and his closest students--the editors of this volume. They highlight the wisdom most meaningful for them, thus serving as a contemporary circle's reflections on the original mystical circle of master and disciples who created these teachings."

Hillel Zeitlin (1871-1942) was the leading figure of what may be called philosophical neo-Hasidism among Eastern European Jews in the pre-Holocaust era. A tireless author, journalist, and polemicist, he published constantly in both the Yiddish and Hebrew press, offering a bold new vision of contemporary spiritual life grounded in his reading of Hasidic sources. But Zeitlin sought to become an activist as well as a literary figure. He was especially concerned with the situation of the rootless Jewish youth. Throughout his career as a public figure, beginning shortly after World War I, he issued calls for a new organization of Jewish life. In a series of articles published in the 1920s he sought to form an elite Jewish spiritual fraternity to be called Yavneh, the most fully elaborated of his attempts at intentional community. The present study collects together Zeitlin’s Yiddish writings on the Yavneh fellowship, which are here re-printed and translated for the first time. Alongside these we present a newly discovered manuscript signed by Zeitlin, a single-sheet four-sided signed text in which he describes more succinctly and clearly the nature of the group and its intended function.

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The doctrine of the �addiq stands as the very epicenter of Hasidic spirituality. Described by Arthur Green as an axis mundi Hasidism's �addiqism is considered by many to be the most, perhaps only, truly innovative dimension of Hasidic mysticism. 1 Linking the �addiq with 'yesod'in both its literal and later kabbalistic meaningsbegins in rabbinic literature, reading the verse ve Saddik yesod 'olam ( .. .. and the Saddiq is the foundation of the world, Proverbs 10:25). This linkage continues as kabbalistic nomenclature (yesod marking the ninth sefirah) is applied to biblical verses and rabbinic dicta.2 • 2 I would like to thank Nathaniel Berman for our l;avruta in Koppel's writings See, Arthur Green, 'The Zaddiq as Axis Mun di' Journal of the American Academy of Religion 45 (1997), pp. 327-347. In terms of the doctrine of the saddiq as the only real innovation of Hasidism, see Mendel Pierkarz, Be-Yemei Zemikhat ha-lfasidut, Jerusalem' 1978, pp. 28-304 and idem, lfasidut Polin, .

Es ist wohl kaum übertrieben zu sagen, dass ganz Europa seit Montagabend unter Schock steht. Die schrecklichen Bilder der brennenden Kathedrale im Herzen der französischen Hauptstadt, welche viele Jahrhunderte das eigentliche Herz der abendländischen Kultur darstellte, haben sich bereits unauslöschlich in das historische Bewusstsein einer ganzen Generation eingebrannt und werden wohl ebenso wie die einstürzenden "Twin Towers" Symbol für das Ende einer Epoche sein: Dort das Ende der politischen Hegemonie der USA, hier das Ende der letzten Illusion christlicher Herrschaft über Europa. Ob analog zur Osterwoche aus dem Ende ein neuer Anfang wird?

The Christmas Eve devotional essay, published by the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust (pages 83-85 in A Book of Days: Christmas Reflections from the Northwest, Steven G. W. Moore and Richard Ganz SJ, eds.; Franklin, TN: Seedbed Publishing, 2014)