The Figurativeness of the Language of Mystical Experience. Particularities and Interpretations

VÁZQUEZ BARNÉS, Antonio and Magda KUČERKOVÁ. The Figurativeness of the Language of Mystical Experience. Particularities and Interpretations. 1., elektronické vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2021, 278 pp. ISBN 978-80-210-9997-5. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI.P210-9997-2021.

Basic information

• Original name: The Figurativeness of the Language of Mystical Experience. Particularities and Interpretations
• Name in Czech: Obraznost jazyka mystické zkušenosti. Specifika a výklady
• Name (in English): The Figurativeness of the Language of Mystical Experience. Particularities and Interpretations
• Authors: VÁZQUEZ BARNÉS, Antonio and Magda KUČERKOVÁ.
• Edition: 1., elektronické vyd. Brno, 278 pp. 2021.
• Publisher: Masarykova univerzita

Other information

• Type of outcome: Editing of thematic compilation, editing of monothematic issue of professional journal
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: Čítárna Munispace
• ISBN: 978-80-210-9997-5
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI.P210-9997-2021
• Tags: Munipress

Abstract

The scientific and technical achievements of the last decades have enabled man to achieve an unquestionable life comfort. Paradoxically, however, they also stand behind his existential struggles, where the need to slow down the pace and restore one’s own emotional and cognitive resources, revive communication models based on immediate contact, be authentic, creative, stronger, and so on breaks through the surface. One way of looking for a personal way of life and its meaning is through a religious, more precisely, spiritual experience. We consider the mystical experience to be the modality of the spiritual expression or, more precisely, its autonomous part. We see it as a descent of man into his own interior, so called the centre, in which he acquires a pouring knowledge of the nature of God. Although it is an individual and spontaneous experience, it is characterized by some universal features: imagery as a means of conveying the inexpressible content and as an archetypal basis of spiritual tradition. The publication focuses on the literary-artistic forms of the mystical experience as well as the literary forms of mystagogy, that is the interpretation of the mystical experience of the mystic. Through individual analytical-interpretative contributions based on the works of the mystics of the Western Christian tradition, we will try to enter into a specific image of ineffability modelled (the language of mystical unification) and reflexively stimulated (the language of mystagogy) by mystical experience. This is a complex subject confirmed by its basic attribute (inexpressibility at the language level) and by its thought-initiated tensions (for example, interior vs. exterior, authentic vs. ritual, profane vs. sacred, natural vs. supernatural).

Abstract (in Czech)

Publikace „The Figurativeness of the Language of Mystical Experience. Particularities and Interpretations“ (Obraznost jazyka mystické zkušenosti. Specifika a výklady) je výstupem ze stejnojmenné mezinárodní konference, kterou společně uspořádaly Univerzita Konstantina Filozofa v Nitře a Univerzita Complutense v Madridu ve dnech 29.–30. 6. 2021. Sborník v anglickém jazyce tematizuje problematiku mystické zkušenosti – autorky a autoři publikovaných příspěvků se snaží přiblížit specifickou obraznost jejího jazyka, a tak přispět k literárně teoretickému prohloubení uvažování o tzv. poetice nevyjádřitelného. Předmětem jednotlivých výkladů a interpretací, vedených s ohledem na charakter tématu v mezioborovém dialogu (religionistika, psychologie, filozofie, teologie, uměnověda atp.) jsou literární díla s estetickou hodnotou, která vznikla a vznikají v kulturním kontextu Západu a spojuje je jejich jazyk mystického sjednocení, resp. jazyk mystagogie. Obě perspektivy nahlížení nabízejí uvedení do problematiky nevyjádřitelného jako odpověď na stále aktuální otázky o významu utrpení, konečnosti bytí či smyslu života.

Abstract (in English)

The scientific and technical achievements of the last decades have enabled man to achieve an unquestionable life comfort. Paradoxically, however, they also stand behind his existential struggles, where the need to slow down the pace and restore one’s own emotional and cognitive resources, revive communication models based on immediate contact, be authentic, creative, stronger, and so on breaks through the surface. One way of looking for a personal way of life and its meaning is through a religious, more precisely, spiritual experience. We consider the mystical experience to be the modality of the spiritual expression or, more precisely, its autonomous part. We see it as a descent of man into his own interior, so called the centre, in which he acquires a pouring knowledge of the nature of God. Although it is an individual and spontaneous experience, it is characterized by some universal features: imagery as a means of conveying the inexpressible content and as an archetypal basis of spiritual tradition. The publication focuses on the literary-artistic forms of the mystical experience as well as the literary forms of mystagogy, that is the interpretation of the mystical experience of the mystic. Through individual analytical-interpretative contributions based on the works of the mystics of the Western Christian tradition, we will try to enter into a specific image of ineffability modelled (the language of mystical unification) and reflexively stimulated (the language of mystagogy) by mystical experience. This is a complex subject confirmed by its basic attribute (inexpressibility at the language level) and by its thought-initiated tensions (for example, interior vs. exterior, authentic vs. ritual, profane vs. sacred, natural vs. supernatural).