No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
A Mysticism Of Open Eyes: Compassion For A Suffering World And The Askesis Of Contemplative Prayer
Abstract
One of the principal truths of Christianity a truth that goes almost unrecognized today, is that looking is what saves us.
One of the prominent turns in contemporary theology has involved the call for a renewed relationship between Christian spirituality and socio-political concerns. This renewal has been described in various ways in terms of the unity between mysticism and politics (Edward Schillebeeckx), contemplation and prophecy (Gustavo Gutierrez), mysticism and resistance (Dorothee Soelle), the mystical and prophetic (David Tracy), in terms of being a contemplative in liberation (Leonardo Boff) or a contemplative in action for justice (Ignacio Ellacuría).1 Each of these pairings represents an attempt to bring traditional resources of Christian spirituality into conversation with urgent social, political, and economic issues in the world today. The German political theologian, Johann Baptist Metz, has also contributed to this discussion insisting on the importance of both the “mystical and political”2 in Christian spirituality and has described a “face seeking mysticism”3 or a “mysticism of open eyes”4 as the proper Christian response to a suffering world. Writing from El Salvador, Jon Sobrino has argued that “mysticism and politics, the transcendent and the historical, can and must converge” and that this convergence occurs in the cultivation of a spirituality that is honest with the reality of oppression and unjust suffering in the third world.5
In this essay, I consider the theologies of Metz and Sobrino as attempts to cultivate a mysticism of open eyes in response to a suffering world.6 According to Metz, a mysticism of open eyes “sees more and not less. It is a mysticism that especially makes visible all invisible and inconvenient suffering, and—convenient or not—pays attention to it and takes responsibility for it . . .”7 This mysticism involves both awakening to the reality of suffering in the world and
Mental Health in Asia, © John Stanmeyer/VII
responding to this suffering in terms of a praxis of responsibility for those who suffer unjustly. Metz and Sobrino utilize the parable of the Good Samaritan as the paradigmatic example of the mysticism of open eyes in which the Samaritan responds to the wounded victim lying on the side of the road with compassion (Metz) or mercy (Sobrino). Because Metz and Sobrino describe the response of the Samaritan as visceral and immediate, I also explore the critical question of which embodied practices or spiritual exercises enable a person to see a suffering world and respond to it with compassion. Specifically, I analyze the practice of silent, wordless prayer as an often overlooked, but nevertheless important resource for the development of this open-eyed mysticism by engaging the work of Sarah Coakley and Simone Weil. Weil’s reflections on the relationship between prayer and socio-political action are particularly relevant for this essay because, as David Tracy has observed, “she was the foremost predecessor of all the recent attempts—in political and liberation theologies and more recently in many other new forms of Christian thought—to reunite the mystical and prophetic strands of the Christian tradition into a coherent mystical-prophetic philosophy and theology.”8
The argument of this essay proceeds in three sections. First, I describe the encounter with experiences of suffering in history that led both Metz and Sobrino to focus their theologies on the problem of suffering and call for an open-eyed or awake spirituality. In the second section, I examine Metz’s and Sobrino’s analyses of the significance of the parable of the Good Samaritan as a description of an authentic Christian response to suffering in the world. In the third section of this essay I analyze the significance of contemplative prayer as a spiritual exercise which possesses the capacity to cultivate this mysticism of open eyes by examining the reflections of Sarah Coakley and Simone Weil on the socio-political implications of prayer. The end purpose of this essay is to affirm the centrality of the mysticism of open eyes, while also pointing to the significance of a mysticism of closed eyes as a resource for political and liberation spiritualities.
Metz and Sobrino...
... While Metz worked on political theology, he did not develop a liturgical and sacramental focus. Scholars such as (Morrill 2000) and (Eggemeier 2012) have taken up this lacuna in Metz, proposing other authors to complement Metz. Houselander, on the other hand, focused greatly on liturgy and sacramental life while saying much less on political theology. ...
The German theologian Johann Baptist Metz (1928–2019) called for a spirituality that sees more suffering, not less, the more liberated it is; he has described this as a “mysticism of open eyes.” This theological vision involves all people, living and dead, becoming free to stand as subjects before God. Caryll Houselander (1901–1954), an English author, developed a liturgically infused mysticism focused on seeing Christ in each person. Her vision of Christ in others was rooted in creatively portraying the particularities of human life in the great “rhythm” of the Christ-life lived in the Mystical Body and expressed in the liturgy. This article proposes that juxtaposing these two authors reveals a “liturgical mysticism of open eyes,” playing off Metz’s initial phrasing. The work of Metz and Houselander together presents a fruitful liturgical theology for Christian communities during and in response to the pandemic as they engage questions of suffering, justice, and responsibility. By rooting our decisions about liturgical and social lives in a “liturgical mysticism of open eyes,” the church may remain rooted to a liturgical spirituality, while also recognizing and being open to the suffering of individuals and communities while liturgies are altered, moved online, or postponed altogether.
In a world of intensifying challenges, creativity has never been more essential—or less understood. Thought of merely as that which produces the “new” and “different,” it has become emptied of meaning. Ironic, then, is the proposition that reclaiming such meaning requires looking to the concept of kenosis, Greek for “an emptying.” Through philosophy and theology, this book locates creativity’s grounding in kenosis, and then concretises that grounding through architecture—a primal expression of human creativity. No claims are made to processes by which creativity can be mastered. Instead, the author opens-up a way of thinking about creativity and our readiness to be creative, which is a way of thinking about our capacity to respond to a dynamic world. Part One introduces the underlying premise and uncovers both ancient and contemporary foundations on which a thinking about kenosis necessarily rests. Building on those foundations, Part Two opens up a thinking about kenosis through architecture by critically examining, for the first time, the kenotic instantiations of eminent, international projects; works by Louis Kahn, I. M. Pei, Tadao Ando, and Daniel Libeskind. And, in a final turn, Part Three opens up a thinking about architecture through kenosis, exploring the very nature of architecture and the possibilities of its own kenosis. Drawing on Western and Eastern philosophy—that of Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida, Vattimo, Nishida, Nishitani, and others—each part expands the argument that, if human responsiveness to “place,” to our world, is taken seriously, then an understanding of kenosis is essential, because kenosis is the emptying that allows the creativity that allows the appearance—the manifestation—of proper response.
Mysticism has often been regarded as an esoteric, lofty occupation for the religiously earnest and those with spare time on their hands. Associated with gazing upwards and inwards, few have considered that it might also turn us outwards. This chapter, however, suggests that mysticism opens up possibilities for creative individual and communal responses to trauma—particularly collective trauma inflicted upon people through policies and laws—and that it can bolster resilience, spurring political and social resistance to the causes of pain. Drawing on the work of two contemporary feminist mystics, Dorothee Soelle and Gloria Anzaldúa, the essay explores the possibilities that a mystical path might open up for both the oppressed and their privileged allies to engage with trauma profoundly and hopefully.
This essay seeks to explore the evolving discourses of spirituality and mysticism. It review how theories of the essence of mysticism have differed depending on whether mysticism is regarded as the perennial and intimate transformation of consciousness in the encounter with holy mystery, or the articulation of that encounter is time-bound expressions or the embodied knowing of transcendence. In a similar manner the evolving understanding of spirituality as the cultivation of awakened personal presence is discussed. In practice settings it is noted that an encounter which is suffused with presence may lead to those involved experiencing a physical, emotional and spiritual surge of energy, even in spite of whatever challenging circumstances may surround the encounter – poverty, hunger, grief, homelessness, etc. It is proposed that into the future mysticism and spirituality, will neither be adjunct, parallel or embedded concepts. Instead they are in the process of mutating into a new field of academic studies, which is already making its presence felt on some campuses – contemplative studies. Contemplative Studies is distinguished by its capacity to recognizes the importance of both third-person and critical first-person approaches in the study of religious experience; in particular its capacity to make space for direct personal experience with specific forms of practice – both from mysticism and spirituality.
When considered in the light of the description of divine darkness among ancient ascetical writers, the contemporary discussion of “negative theology” occasionally has a foreign ring. At the very least, it seems imbalanced. While it is true enough that a common antagonism to idolatry unites apophatic writers past and present, the problem in traditional texts is never merely—or even primarily—an intellectual one. Rather, apophaticism is always bound up with a problem of desire. The particular problem is one that might be called “graspingness,” the desire to have or to know God as a possession, in a way that does not require one’s own transformation. Intellectually problematic accounts of the divine are symptomatic of this more basic problem of desire—and to treat the symptom without treating the underlying condition is to achieve nothing—it is to reestablish graspingness in a new form. True apophasis occurs only as a result of what Gregory of Nyssa calls a “washing of one’s eyes” and what Gregory Palamas refers to as “purification.” Such achievements, these writers allege, require potentially long practice in the virtuous life, the result of which is the transformation of one’s very being, its increasing fittedness for communion with God. More important still, Gregory of Nyssa in particular presents apophasis as that which occurs to a person as part of this transformation as often as he presents it is as a strategy or method undertaken to achieve it. Gregory’s Moses finds himself amid darkness after ascending the mountain of God he arrives at through pursuit of the perfect life. He does not necessarily invite it. The bride in Gregory’s commentary on the Song of Songs experiences the absence of the bridegroom until she gives up her desire to possess him—and the process of giving up that desire is for her neither quick nor without pain.
There is no denying that apophaticism is at times put forward as a theological method or intellectual activity that one may pursue in order to produce within one the proper attitude toward God. Dionysius’ description of ascent to God by means of denial looms large here. At the same time, however, and often in the same texts, apophatic language is used to talk about the process of transformation itself, the happening to one of the healing of the graspingness that hinders one from receiving God into one’s life. As such, one could say that apophaticism—the denial of qualities to God, the silencing of speech, the entrance into darkness—is as much the result of an ongoing relationship as it is the carrying out of a plan, as much an account of the change one is said to undergo in the course of being united to God as it is the execution of a deliberate strategy. The line between the effort one makes to accustom one’s desire to the reality of God and the suffering of transformation one undergoes in relating to God is often blurred in the Christian ascetical tradition. Apophaticism refers both to the disposition that one adopts to encounter God truly and the effect within one of the life of God. I believe that the latter aspect is at times insufficiently emphasized in accounts of the strategy of negative theology.
The purpose of this essay is twofold: First, I will review some of the contemporary literature on the strategy of apophaticism, the active process of negating qualities of God most often associated with the topic. What this literature has done so well is to show that the apophatic strategy is not aimed at metaphysical precision or even the regulation of speech about God, but the cultivation within one of the receptivity necessary to live with God. It is, in other words, an ascetic discipline. But apophatic writers do not envision this discipline apart from the virtuous life. Scaling the mountain of God is inconceivable in isolation from the more pedestrian task of living well. Secondarily, drawing primarily on Gregory of Nyssa, I will argue that apophatic discourse cannot be fully understood apart from an emphasis on following God. To be apophatic, to live apophatically, entails a new way of receiving, which one does...
The article analyzes a threefold isomorphism between the realities of Galilee and El Salvador: (1) the two realities are subjugated by imperial powers (2) the isomorphism least mentioned by commentators - between Jesus and the Salvadoran martyrs; and (3) the isomorphism between Jesus and the crucified people understood as the Servant of Yahweh who brings salvation. The article then considers three central realities - mercy, hope, and following - in light of the cross, Jesus, and the people.
"In this exciting and important work, Wyschogrod attempts to read contemporary ethical theory against the vast unwieldy tapestry that is postmodernism. . . . [A] provocative and timely study."âMichael Gareffa, Theological Studies "A 'must' for readers interested in the borderlands between philosophy, hagiography, and ethics."âMark I. Wallace, Religious Studies Review
Karl Rahner and Liberation Theology " in The Way
- Jon Sobrino
Jon Sobrino, " Karl Rahner and Liberation Theology " in The Way, 43/4 (October
2004), 53–66, 61.
The Principle of Mercy, vii
- Sobrino
Sobrino, The Principle of Mercy, vii.
Wer steht für die unschuldigen Opfer ein? Ein Gespräch mit Johann Baptist Metz, " in Orienteirung, Nr. 13/14 72 See also, Johann Baptist Metz, Memoria Passionis: Ein provozierendes Gedächtnis in pluralistischer Gesellschaft
- Johann Baptist Metz
Johann Baptist Metz, " Wer steht für die unschuldigen Opfer ein? Ein Gespräch mit
Johann Baptist Metz, " in Orienteirung, Nr. 13/14 72. Jahrgang Zurich, 15/31. July
2008, 150. See also, Johann Baptist Metz, Memoria Passionis: Ein provozierendes
Gedächtnis in pluralistischer Gesellschaft (Verlag Herder: Freiburg im Breisgau, 2006),
177. All translations from this text are mine.
Christ: The Experience of Jesus as Lord
- See Edward Schillebeeckx
See Edward Schillebeeckx, Christ: The Experience of Jesus as Lord, (New York:
Seabury Press, 1980);
God Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, 1987) and We Drink From Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People
- Gustavo Gutierrez
- On Job Matthew
- J O Connell
Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job: God Talk and the Suffering of the
Innocent, Matthew J. O'Connell, trans. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 1987) and We
Drink From Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People, Matthew J. O'Connell,
trans. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 1984);
For representative usage, see Johann Baptist Metz, A Passion for God God: Against the Myth of the Eternity of Time, " in The End of Time? The Provocation of Talking about God
- Metz
Metz uses " mysticism of open eyes " throughout his corpus. For representative usage,
see Johann Baptist Metz, A Passion for God, 69 and 162–163, Johann Baptist Metz,
" God: Against the Myth of the Eternity of Time, " in The End of Time? The Provocation of Talking about God, J. Matthew Ashley, trans., (Mahweh: Paulist Press, 2004),
40; and Johann Baptist Metz, Memoria Passionis: Ein provozierendes Gedächtnis in
pluralistischer Gesellschaft (Verlag Herder: Freiburg im Breisgau, 2006), 167.
The Principle of Mercy 79; Sobrino, No Salvation Outside the Poor
- See Sobrino
See Sobrino, The Principle of Mercy, 2, 4–5, 79; Sobrino, No Salvation Outside the
Poor, 51–52.
On the authority of suffering see Metz, Memoria Passionis , 173; Metz, A Passion for God, 4; Metz, Love's Strategy, 170; Metz, The End of Time?
- Hope Metz
- Hope
Metz, Hope against Hope, 35. On the authority of suffering see Metz, Memoria Passionis, 173; Metz, A Passion for God, 4; Metz, Love's Strategy, 170; Metz, The End of
Time? 89–90; Metz Hope against Hope, 24.
For Jonas's analysis, see Hans Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility
- Quoted
- Memoria Metz
- Passionis
Quoted by Metz, Memoria Passionis, 166. For Jonas's analysis, see Hans Jonas, The
Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age, Hans Jonas, trans. in collaboration with David Herr (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1984), 131.
Dialogue with the Other: The Inter-Religious Dialogue (Grand Rapids
- David Tracy
David Tracy, Dialogue with the Other: The Inter-Religious Dialogue (Grand
Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990);
On the Way to a Christology after Auschwitz Who Do You Say That I Am? Confessing the Mystery of
- Johann Baptist See
- Metz
See, for instance, Johann Baptist Metz, " On the Way to a Christology after Auschwitz "
in John C. Cavadini and Laura Holt, eds., Who Do You Say That I Am? Confessing the
Mystery of Christ, J. Matthew Ashley, trans. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press, 2004), 147–155, 148–149. See also, Metz, A Passion for God, 69, 86.
Faith and the Future: Essays on Theology, Solidarity, and Modernity (Maryknoll: Orbis
- Johann Baptist Metz
Johann Baptist Metz, Faith and the Future: Essays on Theology, Solidarity, and Modernity (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1995), 41.
Is there a Future for Gender and Theology? On Gender, Contemplation , and the Systematic Task
- Sarah Coakley
Sarah Coakley, " Is there a Future for Gender and Theology? On Gender, Contemplation, and the Systematic Task, " Criterion Vol. 7 No. 1, (Spring/Summer 2009), 2–12,
6–7. Emphasis original.
See also, Constance Fitzgerald From Impasse to Prophetic Hope: Crisis of Memory
- Sarah Coakley
- Powers
- Submissions
Sarah Coakley, Powers and Submissions: Spirituality, Philosophy, and Gender (Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers, 2002), 38. See also, Constance Fitzgerald, " From Impasse to
Prophetic Hope: Crisis of Memory " in CTSA Proceedings 64 (2009), 21–42, 37–40.
See also Sobrino, Where is God? 46; Sobrino, No Salvation Outside the Poor
- In See
- Particular
See, in particular, Faith in History and Society, 97–114. See also Sobrino, Where is
God? 46; Sobrino, No Salvation Outside the Poor, 17.
Notebooks: I, 215, 238, 545 and Weil, Waiting for God
- See Weil
See Weil, Notebooks: I, 215, 238, 545 and Weil, Waiting for God, 139.
The Christ of the Ignatian Exercises " in Christology at the Crossroads: A Latin American Approach
- Jon Sobrino
Jon Sobrino, " The Christ of the Ignatian Exercises " in Christology at the Crossroads:
A Latin American Approach, John Drury, trans. (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1978),
396–424.
Love's Strategy, 175, The End of Time?
- See Metz
- A Passion
- God
See Metz, A Passion for God, 69, 163, Love's Strategy, 175, The End of Time? 41.
We Drink from Our Wells (Maryknoll
- Gustavo Gutierrez
Gustavo Gutierrez, We Drink from Our Wells (Maryknoll: Orbis Press, 2003).
For a brief reflection on the socio-political implications of meditation in the context of a prison, see Sarah Coakley Jail Break: Meditation as Subversive Activity
For a brief reflection on the socio-political implications of meditation in the context of a
prison, see Sarah Coakley, " Jail Break: Meditation as Subversive Activity " in Christian
Century 12 (2004), 18–21.
Coakley repeatedly invokes Asad's comments, see for instance Deepening Practices: Perspectives from Ascetical and Mystical Theology
- Talal Asad
Talal Asad, " Remarks on the Anthropology of the Body " in Sarah Coakley, ed., Religion and the Body, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997). Coakley repeatedly
invokes Asad's comments, see for instance, Sarah Coakley, " Deepening Practices: Perspectives from Ascetical and Mystical Theology, " in Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass,
eds., Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in the Christian Life (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 78–93, 87.
Deepening Practices: Perspectives from Ascetical and Mystical Theology
- Coakley
Coakley, " Deepening Practices: Perspectives from Ascetical and Mystical Theology, " 80.
Contemplation in a World of Action (Notre Dame
- Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action (Notre Dame: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1999), 160–161.
See also The Emergent Church On adopting the view of the victims in Sobrino's theology, see Jon Sobrino
- Memoria Metz
- Passionis
Metz, Memoria Passionis, 166. See also, Johann Baptist Metz, The Emergent Church
(New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1981), 61. On adopting the view of the victims in
Sobrino's theology, see Jon Sobrino, Christ the Liberator: A View from the Victims, 8,
and Sobrino, The Principle of Mercy, 4, 11.
The Principle of Mercy: Taking the Crucified Down from the Cross (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books On the problem of theodicy, see in particular , Johann Baptist Metz Theology as Theodicy, " in A Passion for God and Jon Sobrino, Where is God? Earthquake, Terrorism, Barbarity, and Hope
- See Jon Sobrino
See Jon Sobrino, The Principle of Mercy: Taking the Crucified Down from the Cross
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1994), 27–48. On the problem of theodicy, see in particular, Johann Baptist Metz, " Theology as Theodicy, " in A Passion for God and Jon
Sobrino, Where is God? Earthquake, Terrorism, Barbarity, and Hope, Margaret Wilde,
trans. (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004), and Jon Sobrino, Christ the Liberator: A View
from the Victims, Paul Burns, trans. (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001), 268–274.
Witnesses to the Kingdom: The Martyrs of El Salvador and the Crucified Peoples (Maryknoll: Orbis Books
- Jon Sobrino
Jon Sobrino, Witnesses to the Kingdom: The Martyrs of El Salvador and the Crucified
Peoples (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2003), 126.
); and Ignacio Ellacuría " Fe y justicia
- Leonardo Boff
- Marginalized Existence
- Robert Barr
Leonardo Boff, Faith on the
Edge: Religion and Marginalized Existence, Robert Barr, trans. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis
Press, 1991); and Ignacio Ellacuría " Fe y justicia, " in Christus (August 1977), 26–33.
- Edith Wyschogrod
- Postmodernism Saints
Edith Wyschogrod, Saints and Postmodernism: Revisioning Moral Philosophy (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1990), 47.
Simone Weil: The Impossible The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil (Notre Dame
- David Tracy
David Tracy, " Simone Weil: The Impossible " in E. Jane Doering and Eric Springstead,
eds., The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil (Notre Dame: The University of Notre
Dame Press, 2004), 229–242, 229.
Toward a Christianity of Political Compassion Matthew Ashley, trans. in Love that Produces Hope: The Thought of Ignacio Ellacuría
- Johann Baptist See
- Metz
See, for instance, Johann Baptist Metz, " Toward a Christianity of Political Compassion, " J. Matthew Ashley, trans. in Love that Produces Hope: The Thought of Ignacio
Ellacuría (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2006), 250.
The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance
- Dorothee Soelle
Dorothee Soelle, The Silent Cry: Mysticism
and Resistance, Barbara and Martin Rumscheidt, trans. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
Witnesses to the Kingdom, 198. See also, Sobrino Ignacio Ellacuría, the Human Being and the Christian
- Sobrino Sobrino
Sobrino, Witnesses to the Kingdom, 198. See also, Sobrino, " Ignacio Ellacuría, the Human Being and the Christian, " 5, and Sobrino, The Principle of Mercy, 16, 18.
On Matthew 25, see Metz, A Passion for God God: Against the Myth of the Eternity of Time
- Love Metz
- Strategy
- Memoria Metz
- Metz Passionis
Metz, Love's Strategy, 172 and Metz, Memoria Passionis, 106. On Matthew 25, see
Metz, A Passion for God, 163, " God: Against the Myth of the Eternity of Time, " 46,
and Metz, Armut im Geiste/Passion und Passionen, 72.