Case SAGES students discover “two faces of religion”
Apophatic Theology class explores mysticism
April 8, 2005 | For more information: Susan
Griffith 216-368-1004
 Florin Berindeanu has the challenge of teaching Case Western Reserve
University SAGES students a subject that is indescribable, beyond knowing
and a great mystery.
Threads of his subject—and title of his course, “Apophatic
Theology”—run through most of the major world religions.
Also known as negative theology or mysticism, it is the other side of
religion as it is generally practiced.
“Religion has two faces,” says the visiting assistant professor
of world literature and Italian in the department of modern languages
and literatures.
One face, Berindeanu says, appears in the public, communal gatherings
in churches, mosques, temples and synagogues where religious language
and ceremonies express a shared concept of divinity.
“Positive theology gives a sense of pretending to know who God
is,” he said. “In negative theology or apophatic theology,
the essence of God is unknown or hidden.”
The mystic defies being like a scientist who examines an object under
a microscope and then describes it, said Berindeanu.
Religion’s apophatic face surfaces at an emotional, private level
during meditation or in isolation. Many of the mystics associated with
this tradition, he said, have spent years in abbeys and monasteries
pondering their ideas and writing about the essence of divinity.
This unknown presence is so incomprehensible to humans in a material
world that to see this spiritual essence would be apocalyptic, explained
Berindeanu.
He noted that this is also the reason why it is blasphemous in many
religious cultures to depict the divinity, which by nature is beyond
comprehension and a dark mystery.
So how does he teach about divinity that defies description?
Berindeanu approaches apophatic theology through his background in
comparative literature. For his doctoral dissertation at the University
of Georgia, he examined metaphors for divinity in the works of philosophers
and poets as well as theologians.
“Apophatic theology is one of the most fascinating topics because
of its eccentricity,” said Berindeanu. “It also is interesting
because of its interdisciplinary nature that brings together religion,
rhetoric, literature and philosophy.”
The topic at first puzzled his students until Berindeanu provided
them with readings from the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite,
considered the father of mysticism; an anonymous English friar’s
The Cloud of Unknowing; and San Bonaventura’s Opuscoli mistici.
In addition, Berindeanu and his students visit the Cleveland Museum
of Art on the first and last Fridays of each month, exploring how artists
have used the language of the paint brush to depict human awareness
of a greater mystery in the universe. Berindeanu cites, for example,
the upward glance of Mary holding the Christ child in her arms.
The interdisciplinary nature of the course is characteristic of SAGES,
Case’s innovative, seminar-based approach to undergraduate education.
The program emphasizes active inquiry, writing and discussion as core
intellectual activities and interactions with the cultural and scientific
institutions of University Circle. SAGES also seeks to connect even
the most abstruse topics to students’ own experiences.
Berindeanu has asked the SAGES students to look for signs of mysticism
around them.
“The most interesting discovery I’ve made is that much
of what we see in our everyday lives as ‘sort of religious’ is
actually very religious from an apophatic point of view,” said
John Bear, a second-year aerospace engineering major from Springfield,
Ohio. “Movies, music and art all reflect the apophatic way of
thinking.”
Bear elaborated that he also see this form of theology in the worlds
of fantasy and music, where the communications comes through the imaginary,
unknown or unspoken.
“It is interesting to try to view the world through mystical
eyes,” said Michael Davis, a first-year student from Dover, Ohio. “Everything
becomes something that must be absorbed in search of spiritual value.
He added that he was “unprepared for such a radical change” in
his perception of mysticism and found that “every person’s
apophatic ‘truth’ will be unique.”
In their exploration of the roots of apophatic theology, they have
looked at a number of religions. In their exploration of Christianity,
Berindeanu points to Jesus as one of the first great mystics. While
organized and communal religion is based on equality within the group
gathering to praise the divinity, the mystic communes with the divinity
alone, as when Jesus went into the desert to mediate on his own and
think about God.
“In the early years of Christianity, people went to the woods
or isolated themselves from others to find this spiritual connection,” Berindeanu
said. “But many centuries after Christ appeared as the material
being that humans needed to have and see as proof of the greater divinity,
mystics sought to cloister themselves in monasteries and abbeys to commune
and express their thoughts about theology.”
Ehren Pfugfelder, a Case graduate student in English, and the class’ writing
instructor, said that “for the first couple of weeks, the students
were unsure” what apophatic theology was all about. “But
once they worked out what the metaphors mean and grappled with some
of the rhetoric, the discussions were great. They were hooked.”
“My worldview has changed,” said Bear. “I found
a way of thinking that encourages thought and meditation over action,
explained in the works of authors over a long period of time. This is
in contrast to pop culture philosophy of consumerism and action.”
About Case Western Reserve University
Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826
and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western
Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research,
service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally
recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering,
Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Work. http://www.case.edu.
|
