Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ethical mysticism'

The thought and writings of Catholic ethicist John Paul II (1920-2005) concerning sexual ethics, the value and dignity of life, and the bond of a man and woman in marriage highlights the theological value of the body in Catholic thought. While John Paul II belongs to a religious tradition that holds conservative and counter-cultural ideas concerning sexuality, his work marks a fundamental shift in the tradition of Catholic nuptial mysticism. Catholic teaching has always prioritized the critical significance of mystical or spiritual marriage of the soul/Church and God over the importance of marriage between a man and woman. This hierarchical ordering of the spiritual nuptial union over the human does not continue with the work of John Paul II. The latter argues for the value of the body in the immanent world as a good in itself as well as offering a deeper theological valorization of the experience of nuptial sexuality than his predecessor and mystic, John of the Cross (1542-1592). John Paul's understanding of conjugal union is based on the latter's egalitarian rendering of the spousal relation between God and humanity: when man and woman unite intimately, they are two equals. Human dignity and equality is fully realized in the intimate act of love. Through an analysis of two of John Paul II's major studies, Theology of the Body and Love and Responsibility, one comes to the conclusion that the latter valorizes the human body and sexuality by arguing for the incarnation of mystical nuptiality in conjugal union. In so doing, John Paul II adopts a new and positive theological affirmation of the meaning of the human body and conjugal union. Finally, John Paul's view of the female body in particular sheds even greater light on his innovative approach to the (female) body: John Paul II's theology of the body is focused on male/female embodiment, equality, identity and dignity. His nuptial mysticism offers an interesting trajectory for Catholic feminist theory, that is more tangible than the contributions of classic female mystics and visionaries such as Julian of Norwich ( 1342-1416) or modern Catholic mystics such as Teilhard de Chardin ( 1881-1955).
Jean Paul II (1920-2005), un homme aux pensées Catholique et avec un grand intérêt pour l'éthique sexuelle, a de nombreuses écritures concernant la valeur de la vie, la dignité humaine ainsi que l'union matrimoniale de l'homme et la femme. Les pensées de cet homme ont augmentées la valeur du corps humain dans la pensée Catholique. Malgré le fait que Jean Paul II a des pensées conservatrices concernant la sexualité, ces écritures marquent un changement important dans la tradition du mariage mystique. La pensée Catholique a toujours enseignée la valeur supérieure du mariage mystique en comparaison à la valeur du mariage entre une femme and un homme. Cette hiérarchie ne continue pas avec la pensée de Jean Paul II. Ce dernier juge la valeur du corps humain à être aussi importante dans la relation intime entre un homme et une femme qu'entre Dieu et l'être humain. Ceci est encore plus évident quand on compare la pensée de ce dernier aux écritures Jean de la Croix, un mystique Espagnol du seizième siècle. La pensée de Jean Paul II est basée sur l'égalité de l'homme et la femme, surtout dans une relation intime qui est à l'image de Dieu et de l'esprit humain, qui sont aussi de valeur égale. Après avoir analysé deux des travaux importants de Jean Paul (Théologie du Corps et Amour et Responsabilité), nous pouvons conclure que ce dernier valorise le corps humain et la sexualité en défendant l'incarnation du mariage mystique sous la forme de la matrimoine humaine. Ainsi, Jean Paul II adopte une nouvelle philosophie, c'est-à-dire, une pensée positive concernant la sexualité humaine. Finalement, sa pensée sur le corps féminin renforce le fait qu'il a une pensée positive concernant la valeur du corps humain, l'égalité de l'homme et de la femme ainsi que la valeur de a sexualité humaine. Ses pensées offrent un trajet philosophique pour la pensée féministe encore plus intéressante et tangible que les contributions de Dame Julian of Norwich (1342-1416), mystique et contemplative, ou Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), théologien et homme de science.

This thesis traces how, in the decades following the Second World War, dissatisfaction with prevailing ethical philosophies led several novelists to turn towards mystical concepts in order to recover an understanding of goodness as a property that exists separately from individual acts of will and rational reasoning. In Iris Murdoch’s 1970 essay ‘Existentialists and Mystics’ she argued that the major writers of the early twentieth century – Camus, Sartre, Lawrence, Hemingway, Amis – subscribed to a philosophical system that considered human agency and will to be the sole source of morality. She suggested that, by the mid-1950s, this dominant belief was challenged by the novels of writers – she names, among others, William Golding, Patrick White and Saul Bellow – who were possessed by ‘genuine intuitions of an authoritative good,’ and who suffered from ‘the uneasy suspicion that after all man is not God.’ Each of these novelists believes in the existence of a transcendent God or Good, which cannot be approached through rational means; instead, goodness is encountered by attempting to move beyond selfhood through acts of attention that suppress intellectual or egoistic forms of thought. This thesis analyses this mystical-ethical concept within the novels of Murdoch, Golding, Bellow and White. The central concern is how this moral philosophy affects the novel form: how a writer attempts to approach an ineffable reality through language, and how this endeavour contributes to the moral dimension of literature.

My dissertation, "Voiding Distraction: Simone Weil and the Religio-Ethics of Attention," was motivated by my recognition of our contemporary culture of distractedness, which I thought was largely enabled by our idolization of technology and the attendant media delivered to the masses. Through examining Simone Weil's writings on attention, I came to realize that our distractedness could not be divorced from a fundamental misunderstanding of attention as well. A Weilienne conception reveals that attention is not just an intellectual capacity to be analyzed only in frameworks of psychology, sociology, or neurology, and something simply threatened by competing stimuli, but it is an ethical issue at base. Under this revision, to be attentive is to empty the self of attachments, expectations, and any self-satisfying consolations that preclude openness, patience, and humility. The resultant ethic is an asymmetrical one, involving an orientation to an impersonal order of love, justice, and self-renunciation--what Weil calls a "supernatural" orientation--that transcends the relative, personal, and "natural" ethics of competing rights, benefits, and duties, usually writ in the language of the marketplace. This radical ethic is inherently pedagogical, too, as an orientation that is the exemplification and socialization of a quest for truth characterized by humility. Therefore an effective antidote to a distracted culture will be found in coming to terms with this revised notion of attention through the impersonal exemplarity of it.

In this paper, we explore mystical experiences and knowledge through the application of Miranda Fricker's framework of epistemic injustice. Focusing on experiences in which the usual division between Self and Other temporarily dissolves (brought about spontaneously, through contemplative or religious practice, or through the ingestion of psychedelics), we examine the knowledge gained from these experiences in its multiple forms and discuss how the mystic, when attempting to share the knowledge she has gained, may face challenges to effective testimonial exchange which constitute testimonial injustices. Similarly, due to a cultural privileging of the rational and objective, we imagine how the mystic’s interlocutor in an exchange may lack the necessary epistemic resources to understand an account of the mystic’s experience and its epistemic fruits as knowledge, thus subjecting the mystic to a hermeneutical injustice. Exploring the possibility of an anti-mystical bias, we present a new realm for the application of Miranda Fricker’s concepts.

This essay is focusing on Dag Hammarskjöld´s influences from Christian mysticism and modern criticism of metaphysics. Meister Eckhard is a well-known reference in Markings which in this study will be set as an example of mysticism i Hammarskjöld´s thinking. Not so associated to Hammarskjöld is the philosofer Axel Hägerström, though he will be an example of influences of modern thinking in Markings. To achieve a more specific view about how mysticism and modernity is converging and diverging in Markings, three subjects are more deeply discussed. These subjects are Jesus, Man and Metaphysics. In the matter of Jesus Hammarskjöld, Hägerström and Eckhart is sharing a lot of common understandings. When it comes to Man it is more complex diverging views between them all. Considering the metaphysics, Hammarskjöld´s and Eckhart´s view is diverging fundamentally from Hägerström´s. The result of this essay is leading to a discussion about some question this research has indicated and is setting focus on the meaning as an ontological resource, some problems with negative theology and Schweitzer´s ethics.

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FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais
Este trabalho se propõe a pesquisar a resistência à mística em Emmanuel Lévinas. A resistência à mística adquire porte de argumentação filosófica tendo como ponto de partida o tema da subjetividade e atingindo seu ápex no contexto da reflexão acerca da linguagem e do desejo metafísico. A originalidade da argumentação que surge da resistência levinasiana à mística é que esta contribui para a confluência entre metafísica e ética. A quebra com as categorias primazes da metafísica da mística levou Lévinas a elaborar uma ética para além dos moldes das filosofias influenciadas pela mesma. O afastamento de Lévinas em relação à mística, então, não se insere nas suas obras por um acaso, uma vez que sem esse afastamento seria impossível traçar uma separação radical entre o “eu”, o infinito e outrem. Em Totalité et Infini, Autrement qu´être ou au-delà de l´essence e De Dieu qui vient à l´idée, a ética é separada da mística. Para Lévinas, não há regresso ao, participação no, e união com o Uno. Há, em vez disso, a revelação do infinito à guisa de um brilho ambíguo no rosto humano.
The aim of this research is to investigate Emmanuel Levinas’s resistance toward mysticism. The Levinasian argument regarding mysticism acquires the character of a philosophical argumentation starting from the theme of subjectivity and reaching its apex within the context of the reflection about language and metaphysical desire. The originality of the discussion that arises from the Levinasian resistance toward mysticism is that it has contributed to the confluence between metaphysics and ethics. Lévinas´s rupture with the main categories of the metaphysics of mysticism led him to elaborate an ethics beyond the modes of philosophies influenced by it. Lévinas´s distancing himself from mysticism in his major philosophical works plays an essential role within his philosophical thought because, without this distance, it would be impossible for him to trace a radical separation between the “I”, the infinite and others. In Totalité et Infini, Autrement qu´être ou au-delà de l´essence, and De Dieu qui vient à l´idée ethics is separated from mysticism. For Lévinas, there is neither a return to, nor participation in, nor union with the One. There is, instead, revelation of the infinite in the manner of an ambiguous shine in the human face.

Dans la philosophie de Derrida, " déconstruction " signifie, entre autres, découverte de l'autre, négligé, oublié ou poussé à la périphérie. Derrida tient que la justice et le " messianique ", en tant que clés d'une transcendance vers tout autre, ne peuvent pas être déconstruits. Cette approche lui permet de traiter d'une manière radicalement nouvelle des thèmes conventionnels comme le pardon, le don, l'hospitalité, etc., souhaitables et impératifs dans un monde déchiré par des divisions de toutes sortes, soutenues par des oppositions binaires où le premier élément de chaque binôme exerce sa domination sur le second. Il est étonnant de découvrir que la tradition sivaïte tamoule que l'on croit remonter au IIe siècle avant J.-C., et qui commença à se formuler philosophiquement au VIe siècle, a un même objectif : un monde ouvert dépassant les frontières. Déjà à l'époque classique de la littérature philosophique tamoule (l'époque du sangam, du IIe siècle), Kanniyan Poonkonranar exprima ce désir sous forme poétique: " Yadhum ouré; yavarum kélir ", " nous sommes tous du même village et de la même famille ". Cette vision radicale qui veut briser l'horizon est bien développée par Tirumular, saint shivaïte tamoul (saiva siddha) du VIe siècle, dans son Tirumantiram (prières sacrées) composé de 3000 poésies. Cependant, en soulignant qu'il est important de dépasser les frontières, Tirumular ne cesse d'affirmer le rôle central d'une expérience mystique de l'immanence dans la conscience par les chemins du yoga. Une telle vision " au-delà des frontières " est notamment un point de convergence entre la pensée philosophique de Derrida et celle de la tradition philosophique du sivaïsme tamoul, et particulièrement celle de Tirumular. Cette idée d'un monde ouvert est-elle une utopie ou une invitation à la sagesse ? L'issue serait-elle la " déconstruction " ? Quel pourrait être, en la matière, le rapport entre la tradition indienne et la philosophie occidentale dans sa version contemporaine ? Notre tâche consiste à pénétrer la réflexion philosophique occidentale, en interrogeant la pensée de Derrida touchant cette ouverture. Cela nous permet d'entrer dans les traditions qui l'ont formé et celles qui ont été initiées par sa pensée. Cette recherche est aussi un approfondissement de la philosophie de Tirumular. C'est une étude comparative entre deux pensées, l'une occidentale et l'autre indienne

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES
In this research we seek to show the influence of massive religious phenomenon of Post modernity on the traditional reformed Protestant churches as the Presbyterian. The main goal of this work was: Analyze relations of Christians with the sacred in the discursive, practical utilitarian and spectacular conceptions of postmodern religiosity in a traditional Presbyterian Church Protestant Christian. The subject of this survey, which was qualitative, were the leaders of this religious institution, especially pastors and priests. We verify, by interviews and observations, which many followers of Presbyterian Church are involved or are contradictory in the acceptance of spectaculars practices and of utilitarian mysticism in its religious experience. In summary, they practice postmodern religiosity by the fact they think and live the religion as a consumer product. This influence of the massive religious about them has led us to see the frequent breaking of religious ethics established within the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Internal Constitution of Presbyterians from many followers of this institution. We start from the classic work of Weber (1998), the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism and resorted to other theorists as Bauman (1997), Lipovetsky (2007), Frankl (1994 and 1997), Pierucci (2006), Prandi and Pierucci (1996), Eliade (1978 and 1992), Debord (1997) and others who have inspired us in this research.
Neste trabalho de pesquisa buscamos mostrar a influência do fenômeno religioso massificado da pós-modernidade sobre as igrejas protestantes reformadas tradicionais como a Presbiteriana. O principal objetivo deste trabalho foi: Analisar as relações dos cristãos com o sagrado nas concepções discursivas, práticas utilitárias e espetaculares de religiosidade pósmoderna em uma igreja cristã protestante tradicional Presbiteriana. Os sujeitos desta pesquisa qualitativa foram os líderes desta instituição religiosa, especialmente os pastores e presbíteros. Constatamos pelas entrevistas e observações, que muitos adeptos da Igreja Presbiteriana estão envolvidos ou se mostram contraditórios na aceitação das práticas espetacularizadas e de misticismo utilitário em sua vivência religiosa. Em resumo, eles praticam a religiosidade pósmoderna pelo fato de pensar e vivenciar a religião como produto de consumo. Esta influência da massificação religiosa sobre eles nos levou a perceber a quebra frequente da ética religiosa estabelecida na Confissão de Fé de Westminster e na Constituição Interna dos Presbiterianos por parte de grande número de adeptos desta instituição. Partimos da obra clássica de Weber (1998), A ética protestante e o espírito do capitalismo e recorremos também a outros teóricos como Bauman (1997), Lipovetsky (2007), Frankl (1994; 1997), Pierucci (2006), Prandi e Pierucci (1996), Eliade (1978; 1992), Debord (1997) e outros que nos inspiraram nesta pesquisa.

Ändamålet med föreliggande rapport har varit att undersöka åtta personliga skildringar för att ta reda på hur deras livsåskådning ser ut efter att ha brukat psykedeliska substanser, samt undersöka huruvida något möte med Gud eller någon annan ”högre makt”, förekom under rusningstiden. För att besvara ändamålet har rapporten brutits ner till två frågeställningar, där den första hanterar vad som händer med livsåskådningen och det andra gudsmötet. För att besvara frågeställningarna har en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med förbestämda kodscheman och analysenheter använts som metod. Undersökningen teoretiseras och stärks dessutom med hjälp av den tidigare forskning som har gjorts på området från John Hopkins universitet, men även med hjälp av teoretiska begrepp som b.la. mysticism, livsåskådning och shamanism. Denna undersökningens resultat stämmer väl överens med tidigare forskning och visar att psykedeliska substanser tenderar att påverka eller förändra en människas livsåskådning till att börja uppskatta andlighet mer än det materiella och att de flesta upplevde någon form av ”högre makt”.

Although the ‘death of God’ theology attracted considerable attention during the 1960s, in recent decades it has fallen into neglect. Nonetheless, the issues raised by the ‘death of God’ theology were important ones and it remains an interesting question whether the ‘death of God’ theologians were able to make substantial contributions to them. This thesis re-examines the work of the ‘death of God’ theologians. It argues that the popular view – that the ‘death of God’ theology represented a common tendency, or movement, towards atheism among certain prominent American Protestant theologians – is mistaken. Through a series of detailed studies of Thomas J.J. Altizer (chapters 3 and 4), William Hamilton (Chapter 5), Paul van Buren (Chapter 6), and Harvey Cox (Chapter 7), the thesis shows not only that the significance of the ‘death of God’ theologians has been widely misinterpreted, but that their work contains a number of features which have been under-emphasised or even overlooked. The aim of the thesis is to provide a more balanced contemporary reading of their work. The work of Altizer receives special attention and a case is made for the view that he should be read as a Protestant mystic of a peculiar sort.

While throughout the ages prominent thinkers have denounced for various reasons mistreatment and killing of animals for food or sacrifice, the dominant western view has been that only rational beings merit moral respect and value. Augustine developed, from Aristotle‘s thought of a hierarchy of souls as well as from the Stoic concept of animals‘ irrationality, the idea that animals share no fellowship with humans and thus are to be excluded from moral consideration. In Aquinas‘ thinking the difference between rationality and irrationality became the difference between immortal and mortal souls. This view furthered the development of an instrumental view of animals. The perception that lower species are created to benefit the higher species has become a dominant part of western Christian thought. The main aim of this study is to investigate whether a respectful attitude towards animals, as lived by Francis of Assisi and Albert Schweitzer, has a mystical basis (following the model of Evelyn Underhill), and subsequently to consider whether and how mystical qualities as lived by Francis and Schweitzer may contribute to an animal spirituality. In this thesis I explore the moral valuation of animals in the Christian biblical and spiritual tradition, and further present the outcome of this exploration as an alternative to an anthropocentric tradition and as a contribution to contemporary protectionist approaches. Franciscan sources and Schweitzer‘s oeuvre have been examined while applying Underhill‘s concept of various characteristics and stages of the mystic way. I conclude that both Francis and Schweitzer in their own unique ways qualify to be categorized as ‗mystics‘. Not through rationality, but through experience and feeling, both have achieved real contact with other beings and attained to the Mystery of life. Through their purified view they have been able to perceive animals in a non-instrumental way and through their mystical experiences of union they have sensed the common ontological basis and kinship between humans and animals—our interdependency, utility, aesthetic value and theophany. On the basis of scrutiny of biblical texts which touch upon the relations of humans and animals with God I observe that an animal-inclusive moral concern, as demonstrated by Francis and Schweitzer, finds biblical support. Each creature, as created and animated by God‘s rûaḥ (‗Spirit‘) is transparent to God‘s glory and therefore able to reveal something of the Creator. The Bible proclaims animals as God‘s property, with their own relation with their Creator, not as created to satisfy human wants and wishes. A non-instrumental understanding of animals, as found in biblical texts and as realized by Francis‘ and Schweitzer‘s awe for life, has ethical implications for human-animal relations. Francis‘ and Schweitzer‘s views call us to question our use of animals as our property, therewith sacrificing animal interests for our own. A spirituality in which animals are contemplated as God‘s creatures, with their own worth and their own relation to God, may lead to a different attitude towards animals. To the various elucidated positions in the contemporary animal debate, with its emphasis on rights and reason, Francis and Schweitzer may contribute through their example of an approach calling for empathy, sympathy and compassion as an alternative point of departure.
PhD (Dogmatics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in cooperation with Greenwich School of Theology, 2015

The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the work, Wittgenstein investigates the connection between ethics and the world by examining the nature of the proposition. In the Lecture on Ethics, Wittgenstein reinvestigates this connection more directly by explaining the nature of the ethical expression. I argue that the ethical point of the book is to help one to understand the ephemeral characteristics of ethics insofar as they cannot be articulated by demonstrating what can be articulated. In the Lecture, Wittgenstein also points to a deep challenge encountering the Tractarian pictorial language. Logic reminds us that we are held captive by pictorial language and could never get outside it. Ethics, on the other hand, is a constant attempt to get outside of it by usage of simile. Although this attempt seems to be hopeless, it is unavoidable and significant. It characterizes the human condition.

This thesis investigates the role of practical activity in the union of the soul and God in Meister Eckhart. Since Eckhart’s attitude toward temporal works is highly inconsistent, the thesis begins by examining the complex and intimate relationship between God and the temporal order in Eckhart’s discussions of creation in principio. Next it considers the creation of man and how he, through the natural function of the intellect interacting with the created order, is transformed into the image of God. Finally it examines the relationship between the intellectual and practical acts and considers the possibility of a union between God and the soul which takes place in practical activity in Eckhart’s thought. Throughout, the thesis makes reference to Eckhart’s creative use of the term indistinctum (indistinct) and its Middle High German equivalents with respect to God, the soul, and the union between the two.

The concept of compassion has recently held a controversial role in political thought. Critics have tied it with the condescension and latent self-interest of pity, while proponents have asserted it as the ethical posture from which to approach the suffering of others. This thesis looks at the role of compassion in the political sphere, arguing that political compassion involves a decentring of oneself as the primary subject of political action, looking instead to forego one’s own desire and to replace it with the desire of another. It pays particular attention to the thought of Hannah Arendt, who excludes this self-sacrificing compassion from the political sphere, due to the importance of speech to political action, and in turn, the importance of muteness to compassion. To Arendt, political speech intends to performatively bring one’s uniqueness into the world, whereas compassion performatively denies this subjectivity and is fundamentally unpolitical. She asserts that not only do public displays of compassion destroy their very value, but moreover, that a focus of compassion and suffering in the political sphere overshadows the need for cool, sober discourse between equals. I argue that, even in accepting Arendt’s definition of the political, there is space for compassion as a political labour. While Arendt asserts the need for speech and action in the political sphere, she conflates the free will involved in the plurality and uniqueness of the content of speech with the uniform, natural will to speak. Her articulations of the political realm, which require one to make oneself heard among equals, invoke at that same moment an immediate need for the labour of others foregoing their own desire to speak and act, to instead passively listen. Instead of being a realm exclusively to manifest one’s will, the political instead requires a reciprocity of desire, and its abnegation.
Graduate
0615
0422
0681
charlebois@u.northwestern.edu

The subject of spirituality is growing in popularity within the field of mental health. A major aspect of our human experience includes striving for meaning, hopefulness and purpose - this process can be understood as a spiritual experience. Another aspect of our shared human experience includes psychological distress and alienation. This is understood in most contemporary mental health literature as mental disorders. In our contemporary era mental health has addressed the latter. Spirituality, as an integral component of human experience, involves tapping into the innate need for integration while paving the way forward towards a transformative experience. The present research explores important interpretive issues related to spirituality and mental health from within a historical perspective. The present research suggests that holistic trends in mental health cohere with contemporary, phenomenologically rooted trends in spirituality.
Christian Spirituality
M.Th. (Christian Spirituality)

Henry Corbin a écrit qu’« un Maître Eckhart et un Jacob Boehme eussent parfaitement compris Ibn ʿArabî, et réciproquement. » Mais comment assurer ce dialogue et cette compréhension réciproque pressentie par Henry Corbin? Cette recherche porte essentiellement sur les conditions de possibilités de ce dialogue, puisque la comparaison entre Ibn al-ʿArabī et Böhme n’est encore qu’à ses balbutiements. En choisissant le prisme de l’imagination, le but est double : pouvoir traiter de manière non réductrice les phénomènes spirituels en parcourant et analysant la logique spécifique de l’imagination ; et, sous l’égide de la hiérohistoire, explorer le rôle de l’imagination dans la métaphysique et l’éthique d’Ibn al-ʿArabī et de Böhme. Il s’agit donc d’essayer de lire Ibn al-ʿArabī et Böhme comme ils lisaient eux-mêmes le Livre révélé de leur tradition respective. Au final, il appert que le théophanisme caractéristique tant de la métaphysique d’Ibn al-ʿArabī que de celle de Böhme est une riche terre d’accueil de l’imagination et de l’imaginal. Et que, si la comparaison strictu sensu entre Ibn al-ʿArabī et Böhme est impossible, l’esprit comparatif et transdisciplinaire de cette recherche, ainsi que la méthode phénoménologico-herméneutique, offrent de nouvelles avenues de réappropriation pour l’ensemble des phénomènes spirituels.
Henry Corbin wrote that a “Meister Eckhart and Jacob Boehme would fully understand Ibn ʿArabî, and vice versa.” But how can we ensure this dialogue and mutual understanding anticipated by Henry Corbin? This research is essentially on the conditions of possibilities of this dialogue, especially because the comparison between Ibn al-ʿArabī and Böhme is still in its infancy. By choosing the prism of the imagination, the goal is twofold: approach spiritual phenomena in a non-reductive way by browsing and analyzing the specific logic of imagination; and, under the auspices of the concept of hierohistory, explore the role of imagination in the metaphysics and ethics of Ibn al-ʿArabī and Böhme. It is therefore an effort to read Ibn al-ʿArabī and Böhme as they read themselves the revealed book of their respective tradition. Finally, it appears that the theophanism characteristic of the metaphysics of both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Böhme is a rich haven for imagination and imaginal. If the comparison between Ibn al-ʿArabī and Böhme is stricto sensu impossible, the comparative and transdisciplinary spirit of this research, as well as its the phenomenological-hermeneutic method, opens up new avenues of re-appropriation for all spirituals phenomena.

Tzava'at Ha-RIBaSH ve-hanhagot yesharot: The Influence of Non-Lurianic Kabbalah on East-European Hasidism of Modern Age Mgr. Antonín Šedivý This dissertation thesis consists of Introduction, three chapters, and Conclusion. Furthermore, it includes name index, list of traditional Jewish sources used in the second chapter, list of sources, literature and other relevant resources, and four supplements. The Introduction of this dissertation deals with several issues important for its research. First of all, the East-European Hasidism is introduced, then follows very thorough overview of current state of knowledge of Tzava'at Ha-RIBaSH ve-hanhagot yesharot, and the definition of goals, hypothesis, and methods of this dissertation, and finally, it also contains technical notes about the dissertation thesis. The first chapter "Tzava'at Ha-RIBaSH ve-hanhagot yesharot" is devoted solely to Tzava'at Ha-RIBaSH, which is the central point of my dissertation. It is divided into chapters that are dedicated to fundamental information about Tzava'at Ha-RIBaSH, to its content, to its place within Hasidic literary collection, and to its reflexion by the opponents of Hasidism. The second chapter "Translation and Commentary of Selected Texts of Tzava'at Ha-RIBaSH" contains translation and short commentary of fifty-one selected...

Medieval philosophy in the Arabic world has sought to harmonize the Greek philosophic tradition with the Islamic religion. Many rulers, scholars and theologians were against this intellectual approach and defend the Islam from the philosophers. The position of philosophy and its followers in the Arabic realm was therefore uneasy. Many scholars had to hide their opinions between the lines and avoid to doing philosophy publicly. Alongside the unfriendly environment, the position of philosophy in the Arabic society was also determined by common notion of scholars, that the revealing of the philosophical thoughts can be harmful for uneducated citizen, as well as influenced by mysticism. The aim of this thesis is to summarize the main philosophical approaches responding to the problematic position of philosophy in the Arabic world. Crucial will be the philosophy of solitary by Ibn Bajja, where the author seeks to bond tight the philosopher's life with the city and thus present a new role of philosopher in the Arabic society. Keywords Ibn Bajja, Rule of the Solitary, Al-Farabi, Political Regime, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Plato, The Republic, political philosophy, mysticism, ethics, philosopher, virtue, city, weeds, knowledge, governance, happiness