scholarly journals “El entendimiento con el qual me conoscan”: Intellectual Mysticism in the Visión Deleitable

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Michelle M. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
Medieval Iberia ◽  
Mystic Experience ◽  
Divine Union ◽  
Active Intellect ◽  
Guide Of The Perplexed

Visión deleytable is a fictional tale based in the Aristotelian philosophical and Neoplatonic mystical beliefs of the Judeo-Arabic tradition of medieval Iberia. This fifteenth-century work of imaginative fiction, a “best-seller” among Iberian readers, tells of the ascent of the active intellect to the celestial spheres and an experience of God. In this narrative, knowledge of the Latin trivium and quadrivium are combined with that of the Arabo-Andalusi philosophic traditions. Particularly noteworthy is the author, De la Torre’s extensive use of Maimonides’ work, the Guide of the Perplexed, as a source for the wisdom revealed in the Visión deleytable. While Maimonides’ position on the mystic experience is debated by contemporary scholars, in the present study I explore how the concept of intellectual mysticism, applied to the Neoplatonic/Aristotelian model of the intellect’s conjunction with the divine as found in Maimonides’ work, also describes the goal toward which the protagonist (and reader) of the Visión deleytable strive. As such, the Visión deleytable reveals how this notion of human-divine union (most notably in the concept of the “prophet-angel”) from the Judeo-Andalusi tradition, transmitted in Arabic and Hebrew, was translated into Spanish and adopted into the Catholic and converso frameworks of the Visión deleytable in fifteenth-century Iberia.

scholarly journals Espírito, Liberdade e Mística em Nicolas Berdiaev e na Mística Feminina Cristã Medieval - DOI 10.5752/P.1983-2478.2014v10n17p62

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 62-78
Author(s):  
Maria José Caldeira Do Amaral
Keyword(s):  
Literary Production ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
Marguerite Porete ◽  
Mechthild Von Magdeburg ◽  
Mystic Experience ◽  
Human Spirituality

ResumoNeste artigo vamos desenvolver “um diálogo” entre espírito, mística e liberdade com base nos conceitos de Nicolas Berdiaev e nos relatos de Mechthild von Magdeburg e Marguerite Porete. O objetivo essencial é uma aproximação do sentido da mística da liberdade constituído no pensamento filosófico de Berdiaev e a expressão na mística feminina medieval cristã, na tentativa de apontar para o caráter supra confessional da experiência mística. A articulação das concepções filosóficas de Berdiaev e a hermenêutica de relatos das experiências de Deus nos quais a alma experimenta a verdadeira liberdade, na linguagem de Mechthild e, torna-se nada, na linguagem de Marguerite, sustentam os limiares de sentidos da espiritualidade humana e seus desdobramentos na perspectiva da experiência cristã. A consideração principal, nesse diálogo, é sustentar a dinâmica espiritual do conceito de liberdade a partir de alguns fragmentos da vida e obra dessas mulheres místicas medievais em consonância com o teor dos argumentos de Berdiaev, que desconstrói, assim como elas, o dualismo ontológico entre a alma humana e Deus, postulado pela teologia tradicional. Palavras Chave: Nicolas Berdiaev. Mechthild von Magdeburg. Marguerite Porete. Lliberdade. Mística. AbstractIn this article we will be developing a dialogue between spirit, mystic and freedom in Nicolas Berdiav, Mechthild von Magdeburg and MargueritePorete concepts.The essential intent is  suggest an approach dealing with the sense of the mystic freedom within Berdiaev’s philosophical thought and the expression of Medieval Christian Female Mystic in an attempt to point these concepts far removed from an exclusively  confessional character of mystic experience. The Berdiaev’s philosophical conception and the account of the hermeneutics of the experience of God that the soul experiences through the genuine freedom in  Mechthild’s language and where the same soul becomes nothing for Marguerite’s language, both support the course’s entrances of the human spirituality meanings and the its signification coming from a Christian perspective. The prime reason to consider this dialogue is to investigate the concept of freedom present in spiritual dynamic, from these medieval women’s life and their literary production, that agree with Berdiaev’s attempt to distance herself from onthological dualism between the human soul and God, postulated by traditional theology. Keywords: Nicolas Berdiaev. Mechthild von Magdeburg. Marguerite Porete. Freedom. Mystic.

The Articulation of Power in Medieval Iberia and the Maghrib

2014 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Final Section ◽  
North African ◽  
Religious Festivals ◽  
Medieval Iberia ◽  
The City

This volume explores how rulers in medieval Iberia and the Maghrib presented their rule and what strategies they adopted to persuade their subjects of their legitimacy. It focuses on the Naṣrids of Granada and the Marīnids of Morocco who both ruled from the mid-thirteenth to the later fifteenth century. One of the book's main arguments is that the legitimating strategies of these monarchs developed out of a common political culture that straddled the straits of Gibraltar. This culture was mediated by constant transfers of people, ideas and commodities across the straits and a political historiography in which deliberate parallels and comparisons were drawn between Iberia and North Africa. The book challenges a tendency to see the Iberian and North African cultural and political spheres as inherently different and, implicitly, as precursors to later European and African identities. While several chapters in the volume do flag up contrasts in practice, they also highlight the structural similarities in the Naṣrid and Marīnid approach to legitimation in this period. The volume is divided into several sections, each of which approaches the theme of legitimation from a separate angle. The first section contains an introduction to the theme as well as analyses of the material and intellectual background to discourses of legitimation. The next section focuses on rhetorical bids for legitimacy such as the deployment of prestigious genealogies, the use of religiopolitical titles, and other forms of propaganda. That is followed by a detailed look at ceremonial and the calculated patronage of religious festivals by rulers. A final section grapples with the problem of legitimation outside the environs of the city, among illiterate and frequently armed populations.

Introduction

1991 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Keyword(s):  
Way Of Life ◽  
Loving Kindness ◽  
Moses Maimonides ◽  
The World ◽  
Virtuous Life ◽  
Active Intellect ◽  
Guide Of The Perplexed ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Ideal

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Moses Maimonides’ discourse. Was the ideal of human perfection theoretical or practical? For Maimonides, it appears, the ultimate vision vouchsafed man is not a union with the active intellect, nor with the spiritual forms; it is contemplation of God’s governance in the world, of the orderly structure of the universe. True human perfection, then, is achieving, according to one’s capacity, apprehension of God and knowledge of his providence as expressed in creation and in his governance of the world. Having attained this apprehension, the way of life of this person will be assimilation to divine actions, and this comes about by always pursuing loving-kindness, righteousness, and judgement. Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed ends on this motif of assimilation to divine actions. Representing contrasting viewpoints and interpretations, this book discusses the contrast between Maimonides’ ideal of human perfection as intellectual fulfilment achieved in solitude and his extolling a virtuous life pursued within society.

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