The Fullness of the Logos in the Key of Life: Book II. Christo-Logos: Metaphysical Rhapsodies of Faith (Itinerarium mentis in deo) (Analecta Husserliana, 111)

This highly personal account of a lifetime's spiritual and philosophical enquiry charts the author's journey of faith through contemporary culture. Distinguishing between what she posits as the 'universal' and the 'rhapsodic' logos, Tymieniecka interrogates concepts as varied as creativity and the media, joy and suffering, and truth and ambiguity. She contemplates the possibilities and limits of communication between human beings, and outlines what she calls the 'transnatural destiny' of the human soul. The book asserts that unlike theory, which unfolds a logical continuity, and unlike dialogue, which is directed sequentially upward toward intellectual conclusions, the mode of reflection of the 'rhapsodic logos' imposes no limits or caps upon its understanding. Instead, the 'logoic' flow interlaces the rhapsodic cadences of our reflections on reality, in all their innumerable fluctuations, and sifts them to mold the intimate mind/soul inwardness that we experience as faith. The radiative meditations of this 'rhapsodic logos' weave their way through the entanglements of the mystery of incarnation, the constitutive archetypes, the inwardly sacred, the transnatural destiny of the soul, and finally ascend the rhapsodic scales toward culminating faith in the Christo-Logos. Read more... Abstract: This sequel to Analecta Husserliana Volume 100 proposes that the universal logoic flow gathers our rhapsodic cadences of reflection on reality in all their innumerable fluctuations, and sifts them to mold the intimate mind/soul inwardness that is faith. Read more... Table of Contents 6 Introduction 10 a. The Illusion of the Return to the Source 10 b. The Quest for ``True Reality'' and the Impasse Between Individual and Collective Effort 12 c. The Dilemma at the Heart of Creativity: Collective Heritage vis --vis Individual Existence 16 d. Phenomenology of Life (Philosophy of Life) 16 Pro-Logos 19 a. The Dominating Drive of Our Age 19 b. The Universal Logos 20 c. The Issue 22 d. The Rhapsodic Logos: Inward Orientation Toward a Sense of Fulfillment 22 Pars I 25 The First Sermon of Timothy the Dispossessed: the Quest the Quest 26 A Period of Preparation for Faith 27 1. Seeking Authentic Reality Behind its Media 27 2. The Conditions of Creativity as Seen Philosophically 30 3. The Radical Beginning: Limit Concepts and a New Pattern for the Mind 31 Pars II 34 The Second Sermon of Timothy the Dispossessed: Does God Speak to the Soul? 35 Glimmerings 36 1. Hope: The Goddess of Illusion -- No Hope but Desire for God (An Afterthought) 36 2. Joy and Suffering 37 3. The Life of Passion or of Stoic Reserve 38 4. The Impossibility of Truth and the Ambiguity of Being 39 Pars III 41 The Window upon the Absolute 42 1. Destiny 42 2. The Divine Scheme of Creation and the Transnatural Destiny of the Soul 43 3. The Window to the Absolute 44 4. The Transnatural Destiny of the Soul 44 5. The Paradox of Love 45 6. Waiting for God and the Spiritual Destiny of the Soul 50 7. Human Communion, the Existential Communication of the Philosopher and the Communication of Transnatural Destiny 51 Pars IV 54 Opening the Window to the Absolute 55 1. Is Human Communication Possible ? The Door to the Absolute 55 a. Mary and Elizabeth 55 b. The Communication of the Unique Treasure 56 c. The Unique Instant 57 Pars V 60 Retracing our Steps to the Cave, Illuminating IT 61 1. The Two-Way Reflection and Giving Meaning to Life 61 2. The Suffering of Living (le Mal de Vivre) 63 3. The Meaning of Life and the Ideal of Life 66 Pars VI 68 In the Pursuit of Truth 69 1. Human Knowing at Loose Ends 69 2. The Search for Personal Truth 70 3. The Broad Outlook and the Narrow Focus 73 4. The Struggle for Life 75 Pars VII 77 The Third Sermon of Timothy the Dispossessed : the Mystery of Incarnation 78 Embodiment: Our Inward Drama Situated within the World of Life, Nature, and the Cosmos 80 1. The Contingent Existence of Man within the Scheme of the Cosmos 80 2. Originary Evidence: The Antithetic Tension between Imminent Mobility and the Urge to Rest 80 3. Movement, Change, and the Tendency to Seek Rest the Antithetic Situation: Experience at the Crossroads of the Imminent 81 a. Originary Evidence -- Collective Experience 81 b. Argument: The Concern and Notion of Existence 82 4. The Individual and the World Context of Actual Existence 83 5. More on Originary Evidence 83 a. The Sense-Bestowing Structure of Cognition and the Inexorable Changeability of Nature and the World Around Us 85 b. The Instantaneity of Consciousness and its Essential Fleetingness: No Intrinsic Point of Rest or Support 86 c. Collective Experiential Evidence 92 6. More on the Real Individual and the Context of Actual Existence 98 7. Constitutive Cognition: The Quest for Equipoise within Becoming 99 a. The Originary Experience of Mankind 99 b. The Sense-Bestowing Structure of Cognition and the Inexorable Changeability of the World Around Us 102 c. The Instantaneity of Consciousness 103 Notes 107 Pars VIII 109 The Constitutive Archetypes: The Image of God Emerging at the Furthest Borders of Conscious Dealings with our Primordial Condition of Contingent Existence 110 1.The Frontier between the Timeless and Timing 110 2. The Image of God 111 Pars IX 113 The Inward Sacred 114 1. The Sacred in Man 114 2. The Concrete -- The Diffuse at the Cross-Section of the Temporal and the Eternal 115 3. Ordo Amoris The Distinctive Human Dimension 118 4. The Arche-Lines of the Infinite and the Contingent, the Protohyle of the Intentional Lifeworld in the Texture of Language as Concern with the Sacred 119 5. Doubt and Certitude at the Spiritual Level of Experience 120 6. The Portent of the Sacred: The Radical Threshold of Real Actual Existence 122 7. The Instantiation of the Sacred within Intimate Personal Existence: Encounter with Christ as Portent of the Sacred 124 a. The Sacred 124 b. The Three Movements of the Soul 124 c. The New Turn the Quest Takes in the Destruction of Basic Patterns: The Vital Pattern 125 d. The Destruction of the Basic Moral Pattern 129 8. Progress Towards the Inward Sacred 133 a. ``Humility'' and ``Expiation'' 133 b. The ``Consecration'' of Our Being 135 9. The Unique Witness: The Fulfillment of the Act of Transcendence within the Uniquely Personal Self 136 10. God is Present to us When we are not Present to Ourselves 139 Pars X 142 The Transnatural Destiny of the Soul 143 1. The Role of the Individual 143 2. The Scheme of Creation and the Web of the Destinies of Souls 143 3. To Discover the Destiny of the Soul we have to abandon all hope ! Corollary to the Second Sermon of Timothy 144 4. Happiness 145 5. The Destiny of the Soul: The Unique Design, the Great Game of Divine Creation, and Personal Freedom 146 6. The Being of Man Envisaged in a Tripartite Scheme: Consciousness, Soul, and Body 150 7. The Act of Faith 152 a. The Act of Faith and the Instauration of the Inward Sacred 152 b. The Instauration of the Inward Sacred as the Definitive and Final Measure of Equipoise 153 c. The Act of Faith as Abandonment to the Ultimate 155 8. The Inward Sacred 156 9. Toward the Purity of Abandonment 157 10. Destiny, Invented or Discovered? 158 11. How Does God Speak to the Soul? 159 12. The Modality of ``Adoration'' in the Light of the Classic Controversy Over the ``Pure Love'' of God 160 13. Is the web of Generations the web of the Soul's Destiny? 161 14. The Dissolution of the Last Pattern of Personality in the Loss of Spiritual Posterity 163 15. The Transformation that is the Radical Turn 168 16. Our Transnatural Destiny 173 17. The Spiritual Destiny of St. Therese of Lisieux 175 18. How Does God Speak to a Soul? Shaping Different Destinies 180 19. The Great Chain 181 a. The Chain 181 20. Cipher Language and the Incarnation of the Human Being 182 21. Coda 184 22. The Farewell Sermon of Timothy: Christo-Logos 184 Name Index 187 Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-9 Pro-Logos....Pages 11-16 Front Matter....Pages 17-19 A Period of Preparation for Faith....Pages 21-27 Front Matter....Pages 29-31 Glimmerings....Pages 33-37 Front Matter....Pages 39-39 The Window upon the Absolute....Pages 41-52 Front Matter....Pages 53-53 Opening the Window to the Absolute....Pages 55-59 Front Matter....Pages 61-61 Retracing our Steps to the Cave, Illuminating IT....Pages 63-69 Front Matter....Pages 71-71 In the Pursuit of Truth....Pages 73-80 Front Matter....Pages 81-84 Embodiment: Our Inward Drama Situated within the World of Life, Nature, and the Cosmos....Pages 85-113 Front Matter....Pages 115-115 The Constitutive Archetypes: The Image of God Emerging at the Furthest Borders of Conscious Dealings with our Primordial Condition of Contingent Existence....Pages 117-119 Front Matter....Pages 121-121 The Inward Sacred....Pages 123-150 Front Matter....Pages 151-151 The Transnatural Destiny of the Soul....Pages 153-196 Back Matter....Pages 197-197