Vol. 73 No. 1 (2024): SPECIAL ISSUE: PHILOSOPHY AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE Pre- and post-Christian Challenges of Subjectivation, Truth and Knowledge
The journal publishes articles considered of relevance for those interested in the field of philosophy and is addressed both to the Romanian and international philosophical community, with a special accent on East- and Central-European area.
Full Issue
Articles
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PHILOSOPHY AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE EDITORIAL
Abstract
Unprecedently in the entire human history, we live in a world of abundance of information, instantaneously accessible with a few clicks on our devices. What seemed to be in the past an exclusive privilege for a limited number of educated, is now taken for granted and open to everyone who has access to the Internet and programs of artificial intelligence.
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PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY AND SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
Abstract
The resurgence of practical philosophy can be seen as a contemporary attempt to bridge the apparent gap between philosophy and spirituality. Philosophy, in its search for wisdom, misses its primary goal since the theoretical solutions do not lead to the transformation of philosophers’ lives. This article offers a view of the resurgence of practical philosophy in the first chapter and, in the second, the connection of practical philosophy with spiritual exercises, presented in Pierre Hadot’s writing. The underlying
assumption, in both practical philosophy and in Pierre Hadot’s reflection, is a desire of the philosopher to engage in something life-transforming. The authenticity of the transformation depends on one’s willingness to transcend their initial subjective position.
The third chapter refers to Socrates as the eminent teacher of dialogue, presented as a spiritual and intellectual journey of transformation. Socrates’ dialogical method remains the inspiring paradigm, adopted by many scholars of philosophy and spirituality in search of wisdom, which has to be theoretical, practical, and spiritual. -
SOPHIA PHILIA AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Abstract
Philosophy can be understood as a spiritual practice because the purpose of philosophizing is the cultivation of the spiritual in man, of what can be subject to improvement, and change through reorientation and purification through the recurring act of intervention-cultivation. The effect of the practice of philosophy is not a mere improvement of the inner life, but a radical reorientation of the intentions under which it takes place. Philosophy, as a daily replayed act, means reworking inner paths, repetitively but not in the same way.
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SPIRITUALITY AS PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICE
Abstract
In this essay, I shall use Hadot’s critical framework for considering the uneasy modern relationship between philosophy and the Christian spiritual tradition, rooted as it is in the ancient forms of spiritual exercise. I will begin with a brief sketch of this relationship,
paying particular attention to some ways that Christian spirituality influenced philosophy in early modernity. From there, I shall turn to the work of Bernard Lonergan in order to develop a proposal for a contemporary spirituality of discernment as a philosophical practice. Lonergan, a Jesuit trained in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, built his philosophical project on the template of those exercises, inviting people to practices of self-appropriation for the purpose of exploring how discernment in a community can transform societies, reversing decline and promoting patterns of growth. Lonergan’s method, I shall argue, offers a way of coming to understand the spirituality of discernment as a form of philosophical practice that heals the problems that Hadot diagnoses in modern philosophy. -
SELF-KNOWLEDGE AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: ONTOLOGICAL SELF BETWEEN PLOTINUS AND GREGORY PALAMAS
Abstract
In this paper, I aim to evaluate the meaning of Gregory Palamas’ ontology of the self in the context of the semantic itinerancy between Plotinus, the first one to propose the ontological dimension of the self, and the patristic horizon. I will survey the semantic
re-semanticization of terms that can be found from Plotinus to the fourteenth century, the time of Gregory Palamas’ anthropological perspective. The corresponding concepts in modern languages have accumulated connotations linked to the horizon of modernity,
resulting in semantic alterations or alienations. This confusing interpretative approach is linked, no less, to paradigms of modern sources, as in the case of understanding the Neoplatonic self on the scheme of Cartesian dualism. -
THE BEAUTY – FIRST WAY OF KNOWING: SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE ROLE OF THE AESTHETIC IN ACCURATE COGNITION AND IN THE PRACTICE OF CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY
Abstract
Human cognition functions best when it traces a path across the three Socratic transcendentals in the unfolding sequence of Beauty, then Goodness, then Truth. I therefore describe the ideal approach to knowledge as “Beauty-First.” By analogizing the epistemological progression underlying the classical Trivium, the Eastern Orthodox Philokalia, and the method that made science truly modern, and then noting that this structure seems to be corroborated by the neuroscience of Iain McGilchrist, we seem to confirm the hypothesis that Beauty, Goodness, and Truth must be appropriated in this sequence in a concentric unfolding of human attention.
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THE SELF-AWARENESS OF “SPIRITUAL” IMAGISTIC PHILOSOPHY
Abstract
Drawing on a variety of philosophers from Plato to Ricoeur, the authors suggest that philosophy based on poetry or image can be intellectually valuable in the following ways: They show how an intentional approach to imagistic, spiritual philosophy can promote consideration of beauty, engage the productive imagination, and ultimately alter one's engagement with the human predicament. This spiritual mode of philosophy does not stop in an aesthetic (the appetites) frame, but works through it productively.
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LISTENING TO THE GROANING OF MOTHER EARTH. A CHALLENGE AND AN INVITATION TO MOVE BEYOND ECOLOGY, THROUGH ECOFILIA TO ECOSOPHY – THE NECESSITY FOR A RELEVANT SPIRITUALITY TODAY
Abstract
All over the world there is a great concern about Global Warming, migration, wars, poverty, inhumanity, etc. In addition, there is a great concern about Mother Earth as it is being exploited for the sake of profit for a few, and denying opportunities and necessities to the vast majority. In this paper our concern is very much similar because, if we have to build up a relevant spirituality it should be in this context eco-centred which also means humanity-centred. Perhaps, the rich of the Earth have become too selfish that their humaneness seems to have disappeared, and believe only in manipulation and exploitation, and Mother Earth is the greatest victim, which in turn affects the whole humanity. Hence, as Raimon Panikkar says an Ecology which is a pure science is not enough, but we need Ecofilia (friendship with the Earth) and Ecosophy (wisdom of the Earth); we need to learn from the wisdom of Mother Earth, which is sadly lacking today. The effects of the great exploitative wonder Globalization have been disastrous, especially for the developing and underdeveloped nations, and rich countries made use of it for economic colonisation, thus bringing a big majority under thorough economic exploitation. It is here that a new counter-culture and a thoroughly radical spirituality need to evolve, and if need be on the basis of a revolution. We need prophets of such spirituality who will denounce the existing exploitative structures and announce the coming a new society established in peace, justice, and harmony – a new Heaven and a new Earth. The sad fact is that such prophets are extremely lacking being afraid of the ruling parties they do not want to risk their lives. We shall not be proclaimers of doom but prophets and proclaimers of hope that a new society can be built through our commitment to justice, equality, and liberty. Let us take up this mission.
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BULGAKOV AND THE JESUS PRAYER
Abstract
The issue surrounding the Name Controversy on Mount Athos in early 20th century provoked a long and systematic response from Father Sergius Bulgakov in defense of the hesychastic prayer in the Name of Jesus. Two remarkable aspects of the response deserve attention. The first is the self-conscious identification of his defense with that of St Gregory Palamas’ in the 14th century, also involving the prayer life of the hesychasts and the Jesus Prayer. The essay argues for the Bulgakov’s working within the framework of Palamite doctrine, wishing to “further” it. The second has to do with this furtherance via a creative reworking modern German philosophy within the perspective of the dogma of consubstantiality in order to establish the ontological character of the Name and especially the one invoking Jesus.
