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'The turn to experience in contemporary theology' by d.s. Koonce. Notion of experience in ancient Greeks defined by cluster of terms built upon root peir-. Peirao is used to mean to try, to make a trial, to attempt, to assay. Empeiria is used disapprovingly to designate practices which he denies to be skills or crafts.
'The turn to experience in contemporary theology' by d.s. Koonce. Notion of experience in ancient Greeks defined by cluster of terms built upon root peir-. Peirao is used to mean to try, to make a trial, to attempt, to assay. Empeiria is used disapprovingly to designate practices which he denies to be skills or crafts.
'The turn to experience in contemporary theology' by d.s. Koonce. Notion of experience in ancient Greeks defined by cluster of terms built upon root peir-. Peirao is used to mean to try, to make a trial, to attempt, to assay. Empeiria is used disapprovingly to designate practices which he denies to be skills or crafts.
Required course in dogmatic theology, Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum Academic Year 2013-2014, second semester
PART I The Fragmentation of Experience: From Antiquity to the Modernist Crisis
LECTURE 2. THE NOTION OF EXPERIENCE: FROM THE ANCIENT GREEKS TO AUGUSTINE February !" #$% 1. The notion of experience in Ancient Greek culture and philosophy. 1
There is scarcely a term in philosophy or theology that does not feel the influence of Ancient Greece, and the word experience is no exception. For the ancient Greeks, the notion of experience was defined by a cluster of terms, both nouns and verbs, built upon the root -, such as the verbs and , as well as the nouns , , and especially . Among poets and writers, from Aeschylus onward, the noun is used to mean a trial, experiment, attempt. The phrase , equivalent to attempt something, or to make trial of a thing or a person, is a common one in secular authors, such as Xenophon, Plato, Josephus, Aelian, and Polybius. The corresponding verb was common in Greek writings from Homer onward, in the sense of to try, to make a trial, to attempt, to assay. In post-Homeric usage, often appears with the accusative of a person, with the meaning of to test, to make trial of someone, to put someone to the proof, in order to know someones mind, sentiments, and temper. 2
Among the philosophers, the language of experience began to revolve around various notions associated with the [henceforth transliterated as empeira]. In the dialogues of Plato, the word empeira is used disapprovingly to designate practices which he denies to be skills or crafts because they lack a theory; hence, in the Gorgias (463b), Socrates attacks rhetoric as practice based on experience, rather than a skill (ouk estin techn all'empeira kai
1 One of the most complete yet concise surveys of lexigraphical usage of both secular and Biblical authors, which was of indispensable value in researching this section is the old but still reliable volume of J.H. THAYER, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Harvard University, Cambridge 1889 2 See, for instance, cf. PLUTARCH, Brutus, 10 in cf. B. PERRIN, Plutarch's Lives, VI., Loeb Classical Library 98, Macmillan, New York 1914-1926. Lecture 2. The notion of experience: From the Ancient Greeks to Augustine
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trib), while in the Laws, (857c), it is used of those physicians who practice medicine relying on experience instead of a rational basis (iatros ton tais empeiras aneu logou ten iatriken metakheirizomenon). 3 Despite Platos scorn, in the field of medicine some physicians readily accepted the name empeirikoi in opposition to the dogmatic and methodical schools of medicine; hence Sextus Empiricus was a skeptic in philosophy and an empiricist in medicine. 4
Aristotles use of empeira does not correspond exactly with modern senses of the term experience. In Aristotles thought, it is possible to distinguish the process by which empeira is formed and the product which results. Aristotle locates the formation of empeira in the imagination (phantasa), which lies between sensations and perceptions, on the one hand, and intellectual thought, on the other. Experience is one step removed from perception, for just as many sensations make up a perception, many perceptions constitute empeira. Experience, therefore, is a product of time, resulting from many perceptions, yet it is more than simply the sum of repetitions; it implies the acquisition of a new mental habit that comes about from a privileged and frequent association with some special order of facts. 5
It is 'through' experience, according to Aristotle, that humans acquire art (techne) and science (episteme). Accumulating experience is largely a matter of holding in habit what one has done and holding in recall what one has observed and heard others report. What constitutes science, on the other hand, is a grasp of the systematic structure (katholou, according to the whole) which it is possible to discern in experience, the structure which makes it possible to explain why things are the way they are. 6
Concerning the product that is formed, Kenneth L. Schmitz identifies three clusters of meaning of the word empeira in Aristotle: the sapiential, the evidential, and the probative. 7
The first cluster of meanings, the sapiential, has an intimate connection with the process of forming empeira, in which a kind of thinking is already distilled which is first of all practical, tending towards the practice of some skill or a directive for action. For Aristotle, as for Plato, empeira is characterized by the absence of a reasoned grasp of the principles and causes of why a thing is one way and not another. For this reason, Aristotle says that those who are experienced (mpeiroi) know only the simple fact (t ot) but not the reason for it. 8
Nevertheless, Aristotle attributes to persons of experience a sureness of judging and acting in the practical order by virtue of some skill or practical wisdom. 9 Hence, in ethics, one should attend to the unproved sayings and beliefs of the experienced and the wise, for through their
3 cf. J.O. URMSON, The Greek Philosophical Vocabulary, Duckworth, London 1990, 52.For a further discussion of Platos treatment of empeiria in the Gorgias, see: C. JANAWAY, Arts and Crafts in Plato and Collingwood, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 50/1 (Winter, 1992), 47-48. 4 cf. J.O. URMSON, The Greek Philosophical Vocabulary, 52. 5 cf. K.L. SCHMITZ, St. Thomas and the Appeal to Experience, CTSA Proceedings 47 (1992), 2- 3. Although the focus of Schmitzs paper is experience in St. Thomas, as the title suggests, he nevertheless offers valuable insights into Aristotles use of empeira. As Schmitz himself states, When treating philosophical terms in Thomas, it is well to begin by checking in Ibid., 2. 6 J.E. TILES, Experiment as Intervention, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 44/3 (Sep., 1993), 464, cf. ARISTOTLE, Metaphysics, 981b 6. 7 cf. K.L. SCHMITZ, St. Thomas and the Appeal to Experience, 4. 8 cf. ARISTOTLE, Metaphysics, 981a. 9 cf. K.L. SCHMITZ, St. Thomas and the Appeal to Experience, 3. Lecture 2. The notion of experience: From the Ancient Greeks to Augustine
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experience, they have an eye and see correctly. 10 Furthermore, Aristotle leaves no doubt that in practical affairs experience without reasoned grounds is superior to the bare thought of rational principles empty of the experience required to apply them appropriately. 11 Empeira is thus a kind of know how, and for that reason Aristotle does not hesitate to associate it with wisdom (sopha) and prudence (phronsis). 12 The sapiential sense of empeira covers a range of activities, including technical expertise, political shrewdness, ethical discernment, and the general wisdom acquired from the lessons of life. 13
Whereas Plato scorns empeira for lacking a grasp of the reason why things are so, Aristotle sees in this very same imperfection a guarantee of the integrity of empeira as a source of evidence. Precisely because empeira is a stage in the process leading towards conceptualization and properly intellectual activity, it is the starting point for more general understanding, furnishing the evidence from which intelligence draws its concepts and frames its judgments. Unlike the moderns, Aristotle does not contrast experience with thought; for him, thought is the completed experience of objects, but since experience does not grasp its own unity, remaining within the confines of production, practice, and science, experience remains simply a source, or material element for a fixed body of knowledge that surpasses experience. 14 This, then is the foundation for the evidential sense of empeira. The third sense of empeira in Aristotle is the probative sense, and it is derived from association of empeira with the verb peiro, meaning to pierce through. 15 To experience in this sense, then, is to make proof or trial of someone or something by a probe that penetrates. 16
Thus, to summarize, in Ancient Greek culture and philosophy, the notion of experience was primarily associated with knowledge acquired by trial and testing. Plato held such knowledge in low esteem, even in practical affairs, because it merely obtained results without attaining the reason for achieving such results. Aristotle held a more favorable view of experience as an initial stage in the process of knowledge. In all cases, experience is a chiefly cognitive category, usually pertaining to practical affairs, or to practical wisdom concerning persons or things acquired through trial and testing. Thus peira and empeira are antecedents of the modern notion of the objective experiment, rather than the subjective experience. Thus, the semantic usage of these two Greek words is narrower than the modern notion of experience; consequently, for a more complete vision of ancient notions of what is now referred to as experience, further research should be done on other semantic fields. 2. The witness of experience in Sacred Scripture The witness of experience in Sacred Scripture can be seen from two points of view, one semantic and the other conceptual. Both can prove fruitful; furthermore, precisely because of
10 cf. J.O. URMSON, The Greek Philosophical Vocabulary, 52. cf. ARISTOTLE, Nicomachean Ethics, 1143b 11. 11 K.L. SCHMITZ, St. Thomas and the Appeal to Experience, 3-4. 12 cf. Ibid., 3. 13 cf. K.L. SCHMITZ, St. Thomas and the Appeal to Experience, 3. 14 cf. K. LEHMANN, Experience, 307. 15 cf. K.L. SCHMITZ, St. Thomas and the Appeal to Experience, 4. 16 Ibid., 4. Lecture 2. The notion of experience: From the Ancient Greeks to Augustine
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the limited meanings of and related words, the semantics of experience should be supplemented by a conceptual or thematic study. As in secular Greek usage, the noun is used to mean a trial, experiment, attempt, though the derivative verb form is found far more frequently in the Bible, meaning to try whether a thing can be done, to attempt, or to endeavor, as when Saul attempted to join the disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26). More commonly is used as to try, to make trial of, to test someone, usually for the purpose of ascertaining his quality, or what he thinks, or how he will behave. Such testing can be done for good intentions, as Jesus tests Philip in John 6:6, though more frequently it is done for malicious intentions (cf Mt 16:1; 19:3; 22:18,35; Mk 8:11; 10:2; 12:15; Lk 11:16; 20:23; Jn 8:6). Sometimes, the testing of someones faith, virtue or character comes by way of the enticement to sin; thus, in some contexts is the equivalent of to solicit to sin, to tempt, such as in the temptations of Jesus in the desert (Mt 4:1,3; Mk 1:13; Lk 4:2) as well as in other passages (cf Jas 1:13; Gal 6:1; Rv 2:10; 1 Cor 7:5; 1 Thes 3:5); for this reason, the devil is often referred to as , the tempter (Mt 4:3; 1 Thes 3:5). Picking up on an Old Testament theme, such as the testing of Abraham (Gn 22:1), of the people of Israel (Ex 20:20, Dt 8:2, Wis 11:10; Jdt 8:25), and of the just (Wis 3:5), is used in the New Testament of God permitting trials to befall someone in order to prove the steadfastness of his faith or of his character; thus, the author of Hebrews recognizes that because Jesus was himself tested, he is able to help those who are being tested (cf. Heb 2:18) and is able to sympathize with human weakness (cf. Heb 4:15); likewise, Paul exhorts the Corinthians to bear with trials, for God will not allow them to be tested beyond their strength (cf 1 Cor 10:13), and in Revelation, Jesus promises the angel of the church of Philadelphia to keep him safe in the coming time of trial (cf. Rv 3:10). Men, on the other hand, put God to the test ( ) when they exhibit distrust, when by wicked or impious behavior they test Gods patience and justice, or when they challenge him to give proof of his perfections, as the people of Israel in the desert (cf. Ex 17:2,7; Nm 14:22; Ps 78(77):41, 56; Ps 105(106):14, etc). In the New Testament, the stubbornness of Israel is seen as an example of behavior to be avoided (cf. Heb 3:9; 1 Cor 10:9); Peter reproaches Sapphira for testing the Spirit of the Lord (cf. Acts 5:9), and he accuses the Judaizers of putting God to the test by requiring the Gentile converts to observe the Law (cf. Acts 15:10). Corresponding to the verb is the substantive , rendered by the Vulgate as tentatio, and which can mean an experiment, attempt, trial, proving. The range of meanings is similar to that of , and referring especially to the trial of mans fidelity, integrity, virtue, constancy, , as in 1 Pt 4:12, or in the sense of a temptation as an enticement to sin, arising from either external circumstances (as in Lk 8:13, 1 Cor 10:13, and Jas 1:12), from internal impulses (cf. 1 Tm 6:9), of from the promptings of the devil (cf. Lk 4:13). It too can refer to a trial sent or allowed by God for the purpose of proving ones faith, character or holiness, as well as to a trial of God by men, amounting to a rebellion against God. The noun empeira, experience, does not appear in either the Septuagint or the Greek New Testament. Lecture 2. The notion of experience: From the Ancient Greeks to Augustine
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In the theological vision of the Bible, the semantic field represented by and its derivatives has a positive connotation only when the subject of the verb is God, who puts man to the test, but is predominantly negative when man tries to put God to the test, to make God an object of experimentation. 17 In a striking parallel to Platos critique of empeira as lacking reason, logos, the biblical authors share a common reproach of peira and its derivatives as a rebellious human attitude against faith. Emblematic of the contrast between faith and rebellious human efforts is the passage of Hebrews 11:29: By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted it () they were drowned. Does this mean that the Bible takes a negative approach to experience, and therefore, that the theme of experience and theology is a non-starter? The answer is negative, for the current notion of experience is broader than that of mere experimentation. Experience, in the sense of an immediate contact with reality, includes a range of psychosomatic functions that find ample resonance in the Bible: tasting, smelling, touching, seeing and hearing, remembering, as well as the full range of human emotions, desires, and actions. All of these bear upon the theme of experience. 18
Sacred Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments, not only witnesses to lived experience, but appeals to the authority of such experiences. Without pretending to offer an exhaustive treatment of the theme in the manner of a biblical theology, a few illustrations will suffice to indicate the presence and importance of the theme. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses addresses men and women who have experienced Gods works, or are the sons and daughters of those who experienced his works, and he appeals to them to remain faithful to the covenant. Numerous psalms, such as Psalm 73, witness to insights from experience. The prophets, too, read the present experience of the people according to the patterns of past experience understood with the light of faith. All of these experiences lead Israel to profess its faith in God, whose qualities are known from their experiences of him (see, for instance, Psalm 145). In the New Testament, Jesus appeals to experience, calling attention to the works he performs as signs whose meaning should be understood as revealing his mystery. Paul, too, appeals to experience, reminding the Galatians of the shape of their experience when they received the Spirit (cf. Gal 3:2), while to the Philippians he witnesses to his own experience of the transforming power of Christs resurrection (cf. Phil 3:7-12). The author of the Letter to the Hebrews encourages his audience to recall their first experience and renew their fervor (cf. Heb 10:32-39). 19
3. The influence of Augustine A synthetic historical reconstruction like this one must necessarily rely not only upon the analysis of specialists, but also upon other, more extensive works of synthesis. If such prior
17 cf. K. HART, The Experience of the Kingdom of God, in K. HART - B. WALL (eds.), The Experience of God: A Postmodern Response, Fordham University Press, New York 2005, 76. 18 L.T. JOHNSON, Religious Experience in Earliest Christianity: A Missing Dimension in New Testament Studies, Fortress Press, Minneapolis 1998, 4-5. 19 For a similar treatment of the witness to experience in Sacred Scripture, see W.A. VAN ROO, Basics of a Roman Catholic Theology, 227-228. Lecture 2. The notion of experience: From the Ancient Greeks to Augustine
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work is lacking, only extensive analytical research can supply it. Thus it is that the theme of experience in the theology of the early Church Fathers is either not yet fully explored or awaits an initial synthesis. In either case, there is a gap that must be recognized but cannot now be supplied. So it is that, following Geybels, the course of this inquiry must turn to the start of the Middle Ages, and the first great theologian to be examined is Augustine. Augustine, like a colossus, straddles the divide between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Furthermore, he is the foremost representative of an extensive tradition in Latin Christianity emphasizing the intellectual component of religious experience. For Augustine, the concept of religious experience is connected with the search for the good and the beautiful, but it is especially connected to the search for the truth, which is ultimately revealed in Christ. His life and his work are driven by a restless search for truth. In the late Roman context of Augustine, though, the search for truth was more than an academic enterprise; it involved a way of life, and the conviction that the truth, once found, had practical, existential implications. 20
It is difficult to extract from Augustines work a clear, explicit and thematic treatment of religious experience. Rather, his notion of religious experience remains implicit, subtly present just beneath the surface of his mystagogical catecheses and especially of his Confessions. What, then, can be said about Augustines interpretation of religious experience? As Augustine matures in his faith, a pattern emerges in which the human experiences of dependency, mortality and sin become the occasion for a religious experience, interpreted within the framework of orthodox Christianity: Scripture and the authorities of Tradition clarify the meaning of common human experience. As a kind of corollary to this basic premise, for Augustine, religious experience is a means for acquiring knowledge of God, but it does not in itself contain knowledge of God; it is a way, not a destination. 21
The way of religious experience also implies a journey of self-knowledge in which the privileged vehicle for self-transcendence consists in reflective reading. Augustine took a journey of self-discovery, but in contrast to other ancient authors it was one in which the figure of the philosopher was complemented by that of the reflective reader. In the Confessions this contemplative figure engages in the reading of books and the rereading of a life narrative by means of memory. The lessons of philosophy are learned through reading; they are then applied to the reform of, as some would prefer, the rewriting, of a personal life. 22
Augustine marks a turning point in culture from oral debate to reflective reading. According to Brian Stock, Augustine lays the theoretical foundation for a reading culture, in
20 cf. H. GEYBELS, Cognitio Dei Experimentalis, 437-438. For a collection of essays and articles representing a cross-section of research on culture, society and religion at the time of St. Augustine, see: cf. P. BROWN (ed.), Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine, Faber and Faber, London 1972. 21 cf. H. GEYBELS, Cognitio Dei Experimentalis, 437-438. 22 B. STOCK, After Augustine: The Meditative Reader and the Text, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2001, 3. Lecture 2. The notion of experience: From the Ancient Greeks to Augustine
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which every act of reading can occasion a critical step in the mental itinerary from the outside world to the inside world, and then upward towards God. 23
Precisely because Augustine is driven by the search for truth, and in doing so pays great attention to the cognitive processes, his notion of religious experience is predominantly intellectual rather than emotional, and is therefore closely tied to his theory of knowledge. 24
In particular, Augustine accounts for knowing by positing a theory of divine illumination, in which man is in direct relationship with God. 25 The climax of religious experience is to discover the analogy between the Trinity and the human mind, which Augustine conceives to be in accordance with the Trinity. 26 In this way, Augustines approach to experience is markedly different both from that of Aristotle and from modern tendencies to identify experience, and particularly religious experience, with the sentiments. Augustine thus bequeaths a legacy for later generations that will be developed in its own way by the monastic meditation of Sacred Scripture, the heart and soul of monastic theology.
23 cf. B. STOCK, Augustine the Reader: Meditation, Self-Knowledge, and the Ethics of Interpretation, The Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA 1996, 1. 24 For more on the Augustines theory of knowledge, see: J. MORN, La teora del conocimiento en San Agustn: enchiridion sistemtico de su doctrina, Archivo Agustiniano, Valladolid 1961. E. BOOTH, Saint Augustine and the Western Tradition of Self-Knowing, The Saint Augustine Lecture 1986, Villanova University Press, Villanova 1989. cf. R. NASH, The Light of the Mind: St. Augustine's Theory of Knowledge, The University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, KY 1969. 25 For a full treatment of Augustines theory of illumination, and especially of Augustines notion of the inner man, see B. BUBACZ, St. Augustine's Theory of Knowledge: A Contemporary Analysis, Texts and Studies in Religion 11, The Edwin Mellen Press, New York 1981. 26 cf. H. GEYBELS, Cognitio Dei Experimentalis, 438-439.