Nomos 75/76

W numerze:

Wiesław Bator, Fenomenologia religii Geo Widengrena. Blaski i cienie pewnej idei.

Andrzej Korczak, Rozważania o metodologii Mircei Eliadego.

Anna Książek, Wojciech Żurek, Neofenomenologia religii Jacques’a Waardenburga.

Marcin Łukasz Makowski, Geneza Bractwa Kapłańskiego św. Piusa X oraz jego postawa wobec Soboru Watykańskiego II.

Andrzej Migda, Marcin Luter – dłużnik mistycyzmu.

Katarzyna Nowikowa, Fenomenologia personalistyczna Edyty Stein.

Małgorzata Sacha, Od emocji do religijnej ekstazy. O pewnym szczególnym sposobie

konstytuowania religijnych światów.

Natalia Zawiejska, Religia a praktyka sztuk wizualnych w Afryce subsaharyjskiej.

Wiesław Żyznowski, Martin Heidegger i czas światoobrazu.

SUMMARIES

Wiesław Bator

                         GEO WIDENGREN AND HIS PHENOMENOLOGY OF RELIGION

                                           LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF AN IDEA

This article has a twofold aim: a comprehensive overview of Geo Widengren’s flagship book titled Religionsphänomenlogie, and an attempt to answer the question about the usefulness of phenomenology for a student of the history of religions. Taking a critical approach when presenting the content of each chapter of Widengren’s book, the author intends to show not only the lights and shadows of phenomenology of religion as understood by the Swedish scholar, but also the intellectual climate of the milieu of the religious studies school of “myth and ritual,” whose leading exponent was Geo Widengren. For this reason, prior to the overview of Widengren’s book, the significance of phenomenology of religion and the school of “myth and ritual” in religious studies are discussed. The author concludes that of the two great interpretations of phenomenology of religion, namely those of Gerardus van der Leeuw and Geo Widengren, the latter is more useful for historical research. Nevertheless, it must be said that Widengren’s approach is not entirely free of weak points. This is due to the fact that the described “phenomena” were selected and described by the researcher, who was subject to three conditionings: 1) The scientist’s own culture and his affiliation to a particular cultural circle; 2) his psychological makeup, always seeking a corresponding school of research, and 3) the scientist’s own research specialization, which enormously increases his detailed knowledge, but at the same time narrows the comparative horizons at a general level. For the above-named reasons, no student of religious studies is able to free him or herself from these three conditions. Moreover, there is no way that one could build a fully objective and universal phenomenology, and this has been proved by Geo Widengren and his work.

Andrzej Korczak

                               DISCUSSION ABOUT MIRCEA ELIADE’S METHODOLOGY

This paper discusses various charges against the research methods of Mircea Eliade. One of the question concerns the source of his methodological stance: to what extent does his methodological standpoint coincide with phenomenology of religion, history of religion or psychology? Is phenomenology of religion somehow distinguished from among these research tools? I argue that Eliade’s Indian experiences had a decisive influence on his research method. While accentuating his anti-reductionism, I also challenge Eliade’s method on the grounds that it does not allow distinguishing religion from quasi religion.

Anna Książek, Wojciech Żurek

                              NEOPHENOMENOLOGY OF JACQUES WAARDENBURG

This paper presents the work of a prominent Dutch scholar, who still is little known in Poland. A short biographical introduction to Waardenburg will help the reader become familiar with this scholar, who devoted his entire work to fathoming Islam from a new perspective. The paper also briefly presents the most important aspects of his neo-phenomenology and provides a comparison of this approach to classical phenomenology. One of the important questions raised in the text pertains to the issue of what phenomenology really is and how to properly define this issue within the methodology of religion.

Marcin Łukasz Makowski

                     ORIGINS OF THE SOCIETY OF ST. PIUS X AND ITS ATTITUDE TOWARD

                                                    THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

Few movements in Church history were as strongly linked to their founder as was the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). The article addresses the issue of the ideological choices which led Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to the ordination of four bishops in 1988. This action, which contradicted the will of the Pope, was designed to assure the continuation of SSPX after Lefebvre’s death. To answer the question about the cause of the schism, one must take into consideration both Lefebvre’s biography and the broad historical context, including changes taking place in the heart of the Church in the 1960s. Our analysis shows that on the forefront

of the SSPX concern were such issues as loss of the deposit of faith, opposition to the desacralization of the Mass after the introduction of the revised Roman Rite, and the establishment of “dangerous” ecumenical reforms (e.g., the decree Unitatis redintegratio). Accordingto the SSPX, after the Second Vatican Council the Church entered a road leading to Protestantism.

Referring to the immutable Tradition of the Church and the teaching of the 19^th century anti-modernism popes, Marcel Lefebvre paints a picture of the crisis, which affected contemporary Catholicism. According to the SSPX, the only way leading to salvation is the pronouncement of Jesus Christ as the King, not only within the Church but also in the area of national legislation.

Andrzej Migda

                                MARTIN LUTHER – A DEBTOR TO MYSTICISM

The present paper is an attempt to fill a gap in a topic related to Christian mysticism. This task is particularly difficult since it refers to the most intimate relationship with the sacred. The research focuses on Martin Luther, whom the author attempts to present from a new perspective. When discussing the critical consideration of Luther’s legacy, the paper presents innovative views about his religious depiction, heretofore absent in Polish literature. In order elucidate Martin Luther’s understanding of mysticism, the study sheds some light on the spirituality of his era and on the intellectual roots of the Reformation. Traditionally, it has

been questioned whether Luther’s spiritual experience was also a mystical experience. Emil Brunner, the eminent 20th-century theologian, argued that in Luther’s theology it is not the mystical experience but rather the meeting (extra nos) with the external word that has the power of change.

Katarzyna Nowikowa

                           PERSONALISTIC PHENOMENOLOGY OF EDITH STEIN

The mystery of the human person was the focus of phenomenological reflections of Edith Stein – a philosopher and a Catholic saint. In her works, she intends to describe the human person by means of the phenomenological method. For this purpose she resorts to the notion of „empathy” (Einfühlung), which reflects the original and immediate nature of human perception. For Stein, the origin of the human person is conscience; it is conscience that gives comprehension, leading us to the knowledge of essences. Stein asserts that the perception by empathy is a special form of interpersonal relationship which later develops into relation with God (a supernatural person) by means of the mystical experience. The analysis of Stein’s thought allows us to see common features of phenomenology and religious perception, especially the mystical one. Both phenomenology and mysticism can open us to the truth and return us to the origins of sense and existence. Justification for this statement can be found in Edith Stein’s philosophy taken in its full evolution from phenomenology to mysticism.

Małgorzata Sacha

                                      FROM EMOTIONS TO RELIGIOUS ECSTASY.

                  A PARTICULAR MANNER OF CONSTRUCTING RELIGIOUS WORLDS

The paper discusses the relationship between emotional experiences and intense religious experiences. Referring to the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Abhinawagupta, the author considers certain concepts defined in a particular manner by both philosophers: emotion, imagination, visualization, intuition, knowledge, and unconscious. The discussion focuses on the issues of emotion and imagination. The latter category is seen as crucial for the understanding of the relationship between modes of continuing aesthetic and religious meanings, and hence of capturing the specificity of intense religious experience and the resulting cognition. The theoretical discussion of these concepts is illustrated by references to the phenomenon of Bengal mystics, and, in particular, to Ramakrishna’s mystical path.

Natalia Zawiejska

                    RELIGION AND PRACTICE OF VISUAL ARTS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The process of loosening links between art and the universalizing forces of religion occurred in Africa much later than in European art, where the domination of sacred in art has already been in decline since the Renaissance. In the case of African art, a new phase of the art-religion relationship falls within the 20th century. A large role in this process was played by interactions between European and African world of art world -- infiltration of modernism into the African continent – but also by the changes that occurred within European and American art. Also of significance were the redefinition of art and the emergence of the avantgarde in the neo-avant-garde period. At present, the interpretive framework for contemporary African art is determined by the afropolitanism of Achille Mbembe and the trans-culturalism of Wolfgang Welsch. In this context, religion is one of the elements that can be used by the artist in the creative process.

Wiesław Żyznowski

                             MARTIN HEIDEGGER AND THE AGE OF THE WORLD PICTURE

This article discusses the foundations of the theory of world picture, which according to Martin Heidegger has played an important role in the history of the human spirit. With this concept Heidegger introduces a new quality of thinking about the world picture and the understanding of modernity. By juxtaposing the notions of world and picture with “the worldpicture“, we perceive not so much a representation of being in fullness, as world itself, being in its entirety, such as it is, authoritative to us and obliging; but rather the world conceived as picture, meaning world translated or reduced to picture. The “world-picture” replaces the world. Not being able to conceive the world, a modern subject wants to place it before himself/herself; hence the subject replaces the world with the picture which can be grasped. In his The Age of the World Picture, Heidegger, by means of “the world-picture,” expands his philosophy of worldview. The world-pictures lie at the basis of human worldview. Worldviews are somehow secondary to the world picture in human mental structure, while the moment of the emergence of “the world-picture” represents a breakthrough in the history of human spirit. By analyzing the concept of “the world-picture” Heidegger adheres to historical perspective. On the ontological level the world picture substitutes the real world, without denying its existence.

Translated by Stanisław A. Wargacki