On Becoming God: Late Medieval Mysticism and the Modern Western Self (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)

Do we have to conceive of ourselves as isolated individuals, inevitably distanced from other people and from whatever we might mean when we use the word "God"? On Becoming God offers an innovative approach to the history of the modern Western self by looking at human identity as something people do together rather than on their own, as a way of managing and keeping at bay the impulses and experiences associated with the word "God." The "self" is a way of doing things, or of not doing things, with "God." The book draws on phenomenology (Heidegger), gender studies (Beauvoir, Butler), and contemporary neuroscience. It surveys existing approaches to modern selfhood (Foucault, Charles Taylor) and proposes an alternative account by investigating late medieval mysticism, in particular texts written in Germany by Meister Eckhart and others. It concludes by exploring the parallel between late medieval confessors and their spiritual charges, and late-nineteenth-century psychoanalysts and their patients, in search of a vocabulary for acknowledging and nurturing our everyday commitments to others and to our spiritual longings Do we have to conceive of ourselves as isolated individuals, inevitably distanced from other people and from whatever we might mean when we use the word God? On Becoming God offers an innovative approach to the history of the modern Western self by looking at human identity as something people do together rather than on their own. Ben Morgan argues that the shared practices of human identity can be understood as ways of managing and keeping at bay the impulses and experiences associated with the word God. The self is a way of doing things, or of not doing things, with God. The book draws on phenomenology (Heidegger), gender studies (Beauvoir, Butler) and contemporary neuroscience to present a new approach to the history of modern identity. It surveys existing approaches to modern selfhood (Foucault, Charles Taylor) and proposes an alternative account by investigating late medieval mysticism, in particular texts written in Germany by Meister Eckhart and others in the same milieu. Reactions to the condemnation of Meister Eckharts teaching for heresy in 1329 offer a microcosm of the circumstances in which something like the modern self arises as people change their behavior toward others, toward themselves, and toward what they call God. The book makes Meister Eckhart and his contemporaries appear as our contemporaries by changing the assumptions with which we approach our own identity. To make this change requires a revision of current vocabularies for approaching ourselves, and in particular the vocabulary and habits inherited from psychoanalysis. The book finishes by exploring the parallel between late medieval confessors and their spiritual charges, and late-nineteenth-century psychoanalysts and their patients. The result is a renewed vision of the Freuds project of finding a vocabulary for acknowledging and nurturing our everyday commitments to others and to our spiritual longings. Contents 9 Acknowledgments 11 Introduction 15 PART I Clearing the Ground 23 Some Recent Versions of Mysticism 25 Empty Epiphanies in Modernist and Postmodernist Theory 38 The Gender of Human Togetherness 51 Histories of Modern Selfhood 74 PART II A Brief Prehistory of the Modern Western Self 97 Meister Eckhart鈥檚 Anthropology 99 Becoming God in Fourteenth- Century Europe 115 The Makings of the Modern Self 139 PART III Alternative Vocabularies 163 Taking Leave of Sigmund Freud 165 Everyday Acknowledgments 214 Notes 237 Bibliography 291 Index 311 Perspectives in Continental Philosophy 316 Content: Some recent version of mysticism -- Empty epiphanies in modernist and postmodernist theory -- The gender of human togetherness -- Histories of modern selfhood -- Meister Eckhart's anthropology -- Becoming God in fourteenth-century Europe -- The makings of the modern self -- Taking leave of Sigmund Freud -- Everyday acknowledgments. An account of modern ideas of selfhood that juxtaposes the relation between confessor and woman mystic in late medieval texts with examples from the early history of psychoanalysis (Freud/Breuer) to show the importance of taking into account human connectedness, gender and religious practices when studying the history of modern identity. Do we have to conceive of ourselves as isolated individuals inevitably distanced from other people and from whatever we might mean when we use the word 'God'? This title offers an innovative approach to the history of the modern Western self by looking at human identity as something people do together rather than on their own