U2 - Promenade

1. Earth sky sea and rain Is she coming back again Men of straw sneak a whore Words that build or destroy Dirt dry bone sand and stone Barbed-wire fence cut me down I'd like to be around In a spiral staircase To the higher ground And I, like a firework, explode Roman candle lightning lights up the sky In the cracked streets trampled under foot Sidestep, sidewalk I see you stare into space Have I got closer now Behind the face Oh...tell me... Charity dance with me Turn me around tonight Up through the spiral staircase To the higher ground Slide show seaside town Coca-cola football radio radio radio... U2 - Promenade

2. Mysticism • Direct contact, or union, with the divine/sacred • Experiential • Spiritual virtuosity

3. Mysticism and Eros Bernini’s sculpture of St. Teresa of Avila in Ecstasy

4. William James’ Four Qualities of Mystical Experiences • Ineffability • Noetic Quality • Transience • Passivity

5. Ineffability • An experience can be described as ineffable when words are unable to express its essence and/or complexity. It has two shades of meaning. • Something which is ineffable may exceed the capability of language to describe it (“oh, wow!” moments) • Something which is ineffable may also be a spiritual secret which is demeaned by sharing it wantonly with others (why we disapprove of those who “kiss-and-tell”). • Ineffability, or claims thereof, may be an elaborate subterfuge, or a highly coded, esoteric use of words. Paradox and apparent contradiction are literary techniques employed to achieve ineffability even in the midst of volubility.

6. Consider the two meanings of ineffability in this excerpt from the African Methodist-Episcopal preacher Jarena Lee (ca. 1810, writing this account in 1847): “a new rush of the same ecstasy came upon me, and caused me to feel as if I were in an ocean of light and bliss. During this time I stood perfectly still, the tears rolling in a flood from my eyes. So great was the joy, that it is past description. There is no language that can describe it, except that which was heard by St. Paul, when he was caught up to third heaven, and heard words which it was not lawful to utter.” (Mysticism a.k.a. “oceanic feelings” in the psychology of religion) Reference to 2 Corinthians 12

7. Noetic Quality • Noetic, related to gnosis (Greek), Inanna (Mesopotamian), jñana (Sanskrit), and our word “knowledge” • Technically the word means something apprehended by, or pertaining to, intellect • Mystical experiences generate a specific kind of knowledge - cosmological insight. They generally claim to reveal a/the truth about how the universe is organized.

8. Transience • Mystics do not (at least to our knowledge) attain and then permanently retain this intensity of experience (you know how they warn you against “erections lasting more than four hours” on Viagra commercials? It’s like that). • The temporary quality of the mystical experience makes it quite suitable to literary treatment, either in the distilled form of poetry, or as a key episode in the life of a fictional character in prose.

9. Transience and Action • The transience of mystical states can also be interpreted, and often is by mystics in ethically-motivated religious traditions, as necessitating a return to the world, to share your insights and to live the truth you’ve glimpsed/grasped. McGinn notes how Richard of St. Victor extends bridal mysticism’s metaphors to childrearing: the mystic “abandons ecstatic union to return to service to others,” willing even to surrender the presence of the Beloved.

10. Passivity • Passivity is used by James to describe the ways in which the mystical experience occurs, in its greatest intensity, without the active will of the mystic (no matter how actively they have prepared for this moment). • Loss of clear ego-boundaries on the part of the mystic would be another way of expressing this dimension. • Emerson describes it thus: “All mean egotism vanishes.”

11. The Rivalry Between Decorum and Chaos • Religions build themselves around powerful experiences, and experiences of power. • Religions make a cosmological decision to embrace sexuality as an ally, or regulate it as a potential enemy or rival.

12. Decorum • Some synonyms for decorum: stately – majestic – dignified – solemn – respectful – staid – sober – formal. • Many (but not all) religions that stress decorum have a strong emphasis on ritual. • Religions concerned with decorum are often trying to mirror the transcendence, majesty, and dignity of the divine. • Religions concerned with decorum are often suspicious of the sensual and the sexual.

13. Chaos • Some synonyms for chaos: emotional – feeling – expression – immediacy – urgency — momentous — sensual — energetic — letting loose • Many (but not all) religions that stress chaos use ritual as a gateway to other experiences • Religions concerned with chaos are often trying to enter into the energy of the divine. • Religions concerned with chaos are often allied with the sensual and the sexual.

14. Hadewijch (mid 13th century) • Hadewijch wrote in her vernacular language of Flemish • She was likely a member of the Beguines, a group of Christian women who pursued spiritual progress as a group without being nuns.

15. Beguines • Women, usually of upper-class and/or educated status, who chose to live religiously-directed lives, but not as nuns. The lived in houses together, where they also taught and earned their livings. Because they were often not under official church oversight, they were sometimes treated with suspicion. • Demographic imbalances of women to men existed because of extended warfare and the ill-conceived Crusades. • Origin and meaning of name not fully understood.

16. Outline of Hadewijch’s Life • She was a leader and teacher in her Beguine community • Her leadership was resented by others, both inside and outside the community. • She was accused of quietism, the heresy that one need take no action (and likely should not), but be passive before God’s will. • She was likely exiled from her community and her beloved students. • Well-read, she knew the works of Richard of St. Victor, Origen, and Bernard of Clairvaux.

17. Persecution of Beguines • A Beguine contemporary of Hadewijch, Aleydis, and some of her followers, were executed for heresy after an Inquisitorial trial in 1236. Their heresy involved a belief in the power of God’s Love to be internal and immanent. • Marguerite of Porete was executed in Paris in 1310, for circulating, and not renouncing, her original mystical writings.

18. “Bridal Mysticism” • Given the physicality of the Incarnation in Christianity, the trope of mysticism as a romantic union of the mystic with God likely would have arisen even without the Song of Songs. Orthodox Christian Icon of Christ the Bridegroom

19. Melody and Song 1 I wish to devote all my time To noble thoughts about great Love. For she, with her infinite strength, So enlarges my heart That I have given myself over to her completely, To obtain within me the birth of her high being. But if I wish to take free delights, She casts me into her prison! 2 I fancied I would suffer without harm, Being thus fettered in love, If she willed to make me understand All the narrowest paths of her requirements But if I think of reposing in her grace, She storms at me with new commands. She deals her blows in a wonderful way: The greater he love, the more crushing her burden!

20. 3 This is a marvel difficult to understand— Love’s robberies and her gifts; If she gives me any consolation to taste, It becomes fear and trembling. I pray and invite Love That she may incite noble hearts To sing in tune the true melody of Love In humble anxiety and high hope 4 Consolation and ill treatment both at once, This is the essence of the taste of Love. Wise Solomon, were he still living, Could not interpret such an enigma. We are not fully enlightened on the subject in any sermon: The song surpasses every melody! That springtime of eternity I continually long for Keeps in store for me the reward.

21. 5 Yearning, delaying, and long awaiting This springtime, which is Love itself, Makes us despise associations with aliens And shows losses and great gains. The pride of Love counsels me to hold So firmly to her that I may encompass Union above comprehension: The melody surpasses every song! 6 When I speak of the melody that surpasses every song, What I mean is Love in her might. I say a little, yet it serves not to enlighten The alien hearts that are cold And have met small suffering for the sake of Love: They do not know that Love reveals Her glory to the noble-minded, who are bold And are cherished in Love.

22. 7 Love’s invincible might Is unheard of by our understanding: It is nearby when we are lost, and far away when we grasp it; It is a peace that disturbs all peace: A peace that is conquered in love, By which he who sets his whole mind of Love Is cherished by her consolation, And thus she loves him with love in love. 8 He who wishes thus to progress in love Must not fear expense, or harm, Or pain; but faithfully confront The strictest commands of Love, And be submissive with faultless service In all her comings and in all her goings: Anyone who behaved thus, relying on Love’s fidelity, Would stand to the end, having become all love in Love.

23. Unloved By Love 1 The season is dark and cold: On this account, bird and beast grow sad. But sufferings of a different kind envelop hearts Who know Love’s proud nature And that she will remain out of their reach. Whoever ascends, I stay in the valley, Robbed of rich consolation, Continually burdened with heavy loads. 2 The load is all too heavy for me, And is never laid down, though need be great. How could a heart keep on When it must endure as many deaths As one experiences who knows that he Is ever unloved by Love, And that everyone she receives is refused Help and consolation and confidence?

24. 3 If Love will not admit me to favor as her loved one, Why was I ever born? If I am thus ill-starred before Love I am lost and no mistake; So I can complain bitterly, All my time from now on I hope for no prosperity, Since Love will thus be out of my reach. 4 I showed Love my pains; I prayed her to have pity on them; By her behavior she gave me to understand That she had neither inclination nor time. What becomes of me is all the same to her. How she ever showed herself favorable to me, Her strange fickleness has put out of my head. Therefore I must live in night by day.

25. 5 Whereabouts is Love? I find her nowhere. Love has denied me all love. Had it ever happened to me by Love That I lived for a moment In her affection, supposing I did, I would have sought amnesty in her fidelity. Now I must keep silence, suffer, and face Sharp judgments ever anew. 6 I am brought to ruin by these decrees That Love must thus remain out of my reach. Even if I wished to secure her affection, I have no good fortune or success in the attempt. Disheartenment has so set itself against me, I cannot receive any comfort That may ward off from my heart This unheard-of adversity.

26. 7 Love, you were present at the council Where God called me to become a human being. You willed me to exist in disquiet; All that happens to me, I impute to you! I fancied I was loved by Love; I am disowned, that is clear to me. My confidence, my high false assurance, Is all concluded in grief. 8 Sweet as Love’s nature is, Where can she come by the strange hatred With which she continually pursues me And transpierces the depths of my heart with storm? I wander in darkness without clarity, Without liberating consolation, and in strange fear. Give love to noble spirits, O Love, And perfect all you have begun in me!

27. 9 It is plain that Love has dealt with me deceitfully. From whom shall I now seek remedy? I shall seek it from Fidelity, if she will receive me And, for the sake of her high achievement, Lead me before Love, that I may give myself up Fully to her, in the hope she will show some concern. I do pray for her consolation or any remedy, But only that she may acknowledge me as hers. 10 Alas, Love, do all your pleasure! Your law is my best consolation; I will wholly conform myself to it, Whether I am a prisoner or liberated. I will abide above all by your dearest will, In torment, in death, in disaster. Grant, Love, that I may acknowledge you as Love: That is richness above all gain.

28. Sources • These two poems from Hadewijch: The Complete Works, translated Mother Columba Hart. New York: Paulist Press, 1980. • None of Hadewijch’s writings survives in original manuscript. • The Beguines were often accused of heresy. • She utilizes conventions of courtly love poetry.

29. Neo-Platonism • A panenhenic school of philosophic thought, launched by Plotinus (204-270 CE). • Neo-Platonism stresses the emanational sequencing of the universe, and strives for mystical union with the source of all existence Bust of Plotinus

30. Neo-Platonism You will find that Neo-Platonism is a gift that keeps on giving in this class. While it started from Pagan sources, Neo-Platonism has been influential in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, as well as the Italian Renaissance, hermetic schools of magic, Ralph Waldo Emerson and American Transcendentalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson

31. Plotinus and the Body • While Plotinus clearly does not see the body as ultimate, neither does he scorn it: • “Two people inhabit the one stately house; one of them declaims against its plan and against its Architect….the other makes no complaint, asserts the entire competency of the Architect, and waits cheerfully for the day when he may leave it, having no further need of a house….as long as we have bodies we must inhabit the dwellings prepared for us by our good sister soul in her vast power of labourless creation.” II. 9. 18

32. This world is not our ultimate home There is nothing wrong with this world Individuals are emanations of the One We are reincarnated, but without specific, detailed memories This world is not our ultimate home This world is polluted by sin Individuals are creations of God We have but one life, and we will be judged on what we have done Neo-Platonism & Christianity

33. This world is not our ultimate home This world is eternal Quiet contemplation is the way to truth God (a.k.a. The One) is beyond Being Emanation occurs as a logical necessity This world is not our ultimate home This world will be destroyed (apocalypse) Church organization mandated to apostles God is perfected Being God chooses to create Neo-Platonism & Christianity

34. A Visit to Hypatia’s WorldA Case Study in the Infinite Nuances of Sexism

35. Hypatia of Alexandria (ca. 360-415) • Daughter of Theon • A philosopher, teacher, astronomer, and leading citizen of a multi-cultural Alexandria • Practitioner of Roman paganism • Philosophically a neo-Platonist • Brutally murdered by a mob of Christian monks There is no known portrait of Hypatia; this one is often used because it shows a middle-aged woman of that time period.

36. Hypatia’s father, Theon • Hypatia was the daughter of the last head of the Library at Alexandria, the geometrician Theon (ca. 330-ca.405). Theon is most famous for editing the edition of Euclid that survived until modern times. The Library was closed by an edict of the Roman Emperor, meant to favor Christianity (which had become the official religion of the Empire in 315).

37. Emperor Theodosius and the Decree of Bishop Theophilus Emperor Bishop Theodosius Theophilus standing atop the ruins of the Serapeum • In 391 the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius declared all pagan temples must be destroyed • Bishop Theophilus used this order to destroy the Serapeum, a principal part of the Library of Alexandria

38. The Astrolabe • An instrument for mapping astronomical bodies in relation to earth • Known from ancient times, and used in navigation • Theon wrote a manual on how to use the instrument. • Hypatia is credited with technological advances in the instrument, by her student Synesius of Cyrene (ca. 373 - ca. 414).

39. Hypatia as a teacher • Hypatia conducted classes in philosophy and science, probably from her house, as was the practice then. • Christians, Pagans, and likely Jews were among her students • There is no evidence either way if her classes had men and women or were for males only; the students whose names we know are all men, but that could well be epiphenomenal to how history is recorded Scholarly re-imagining of one of the rooms of the Library of Alexandria, based on its recent (2004) rediscovery

40. Synesius of Cyrene (ca. 373-ca. 414) • Student of Hypatia’s • His admiring letters to her are a chief primary source for her life • He had been a Christian most of his life, but was still surprised when asked to serve as bishop of Cyrene; he had to get special papal dispensations to soothe his philosophic conscience. • He served as bishop during a time when Cyrene was under attack. • Most scholars think he died before Hypatia, because it is unimaginable that he would have kept quiet about her death (as other bishops did). The Palace of Apollonia, from which Synesius likely ruled as bishop

41. Hypatia as a Public Figure • Hypatia was friends with the various civic officials, called Prefects, who governed Alexandria • Her philosophy and scientific studies were intended for the upper-classes, which gave her politically significant contacts throughout the north African part of the Roman Empire. Eastern Mediterranean part of Roman Empire, showing Alexandria and Cyrene

42. Origen, Theophilus, and his nephew, Cyril of Alexandria Origen Cyril of Alexandria • As bishop of Alexandria, Theophilus was in a position of structural importance as a leader at a time when Christian doctrine was being officially articulated through a series of conferences. • He publicly opposed the Christian followers of the Neo-Platonic church father Origen (185-214) • He was aided by his nephew and eventual successor, Cyril of Alexandria

43. Cyril of Alexandria (ca. 378 - ca. 444) • Cyril became bishop of Alexandria upon his uncle Theophilus’ death in 412 in a partisan and combative election. • He quickly became embroiled in tense city politics. • He encouraged a quarrel between Christians and Jews that resulted in the exile of the Jews from Alexandria.

44. Orestes & Cyril • Alexandria’s Prefect, Orestes, objected to what he saw as Cyril’s power grab. • Modern scholars think that Orestes and Cyril represented two different parties, one moderate and the other more dogmatic, among Christians • Cyril praised Ammonius, a would-be assassin of Orestes, declaring him a saint after his execution. Ammonius had thrown a rock at Orestes. It hit the Prefect in the head. The Prefect survived, Ammonius did not…

45. Desert Monks The desert monks are romantically portrayed as old men. But most were highly volatile youthful men during the fourth & fifth centuries • Orestes had reason to be concerned about Cyril’s power, because the bishop had a rather large personal armed force at his disposal: students of Christian theology and desert monks who came to the city for major feasts. • Known as the parabola (parabolan/parabolia), they were nominally under the command of the bishop, but did not always wait for his orders.

46. The Conflict Thickens • By the spring of 415, Orestes was looking for a way to reconcile with Cyril, probably in time for the Easter season • Some sources allege that Hypatia, as a friend of Orestes, counseled him against any such rapprochement. He took this advice. • Hypatia likely did not trust Cyril. As an intellectual alive when the Serapeum was dismantled, she would have known that the bishop did not respect her interests, nor those of her class, or of her philosophy.

47. Bishop John of Nikiu, 7th century Christian Chronicler • John of Nikiu wrote of Hypatia: “she was devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes and instruments of music, and she beguiled many people through Satanic wiles. And the governor of the city honored her exceedingly; for she had beguiled him through her magic. And he ceased attending church as had been his custom….And he not only did this, but he drew many believers to her, and he himself received the unbelievers at his house.” • If Orestes was not attending church, he may not have known that Cyril preached against Hypatia.

48. A Horrifying Denoument • In 415, a gang of parabolia intercepted Hypatia when she was riding in her chariot. They dragged her to a church, stripped her, and murdered her by pulling the flesh from her body with tiles and/or shells. • The murderers were never apprehended or prosecuted, though their identity was well-known. Orestes and Cyril reached a public compromise. Orestes never mentioned the murder of Hypatia in any official document. • Cyril now had effectively elimated his religious, civil, and philosophic rivals. The famous Caesareum was likely the church where Hypatia was murdered. The site, too, of Cleopatra’s suicide, it would still have had the two tall obelisks, covered with hieroglyphics, which now have been taken to London and New York, today’s imperial centers

49. Ramifications of Hypatia’s Death • No other pagan philosophers are associated with the city after her death. • Her works were most likely destroyed; at the very least they are lost to us, with their titles alone being known. • Many, including Carl Sagan, feel that science itself was exiled from medieval Western culture with the violent death of Hypatia.

50. Ramifications of Cyril’s Victory • While Cyril backs off from endorsing street violence later in his career, he is known for pugnacious theological disputations, primarily at the First Council of Ephesus, where he triumphed with arguments against the Nestorian heresy in 431. • Nestorians believed that Mary was not the mother to the divine part of Jesus, therefore calling into question the doctrine that Jesus was always fully human and fully divine.