Cullan Joyce | University of Melbourne (original) (raw)
Papers by Cullan Joyce
Contemplative nature engagement practices to support individuals and communities facing ecological distress., 2024
Macaulay, R., Joyce, C., Jones, S., Johnson, K., Lanyon, A., McCawley, B., Martin, S., Rhydwen, ... more Macaulay, R., Joyce, C., Jones, S., Johnson, K., Lanyon, A., McCawley, B.,
Martin, S., Rhydwen, M., Rowntree, C., Stone, J., Thomas, J. M.,
Vella-Brodrick, D., Walker, I., Ward, M., and Williams, K. (2023).
Contemplative nature engagement practices to support individuals and
communities facing ecological distress.
Religions, 2024
Colonisation, genocide, ecocide, and climate derangement are ongoing, unfurling, global tragedies... more Colonisation, genocide, ecocide, and climate derangement are ongoing, unfurling, global tragedies. In so-called Australia, spiritual practitioners can respond to these crises by deepening their engagement with Aboriginal perspectives/practices. This paper contends that some Eurocentric habitual categorisations subtly misinterpret Aboriginal experiences of the sacred, such as identifying creation myths as beliefs comparable to post-Enlightenment representations of the sacred and identifying the performance of sacred activity with similar characteristics to separateness and priesthood. This leads to erroneous characterisations of Aboriginal ritual practices as being based on a strong hierarchy, distinctive castes, and esotericism. We argue that an embodied and practice-based sense of sacredness guides Aboriginal spirituality. As a living culture, Aboriginal ongoing care for Country provides an enfleshed, real, palpable enactment of human spirituality. We argue that Aboriginal spirituality has been fetishised to the neglect of a call to care for Country in the most ‘mundane’ sense of tending to food, water, air, etc., as embodied religious experiences. Delving into dadirri and death, we elucidate contemporary cases of practical care for Country that illustrate how being on, in, and with Country can be a contemplative experience. We conclude by outlining how caring for Country ‘layers’ the various expressions of Aboriginal religious experience socially, psychologically, interpersonally, and ritually.
Forum Philosophicum, 2015
This paper explores how Heidegger's discussion of experience as topos (place) can illuminate some... more This paper explores how Heidegger's discussion of experience as topos (place) can illuminate some elements of Maximus' writings. In Heidegger's later work, the experiencing subject emerges from, and experiences only within, place. Experience is only ever constituted when the conditions of its emergence come together concretely, which is to say, somewhere. Topos, a place, such as a city or my home, is a unity of the elements that make it up. The essay first examines how Heidegger sees philosophical inquiry as a drawing out of the different elements that constitute the unity of experience as place. Many works of Maximus the Confessor, including his ascetic writings, examine how the subject experiences within the world. Using the topological account of experience described by Heidegger, the paper examines several distinctions that emerge from Maximus' ascetic thought. Using examples, the essay suggests it is possible to see Maximus' analyses as being engagements with an understanding to the effect that experience emerges with a unity, in topos. The essay suggests that reading Maximus through topos helps explain why it is that so many structures can arise interdependently through his engagement with experience.
Australian Ejournal of Theology, 2006
Religions
The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement has grown rapidly in the past two years. In popular media,... more The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement has grown rapidly in the past two years. In popular media, XR has sometimes been described using religious terminology. XR has been compared to an eco-cult, a spiritual and cultural movement, and described as holding apocalyptic views. Despite XR lacking the distinctive religiosity of new testament and early (pre-150ACE) Christianity, the movement resonates with the early Christian experience in several ways. (1) A characterization of events within the world as apocalyptic. (2) Both feel vulnerable to the apocalypse in specific ways, though each responds differently. (3) Both experience the apocalypse as a community and develop community strategies in response to the apocalypse. The paper sketches certain features of new testament Christianity and compares some of these to XR. The main difference between the two movements is that XR makes decisions to actively become vulnerable, whereas new testament Christianity was more often passively vulner...
Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation that engage... more Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation that engages non-judgementally with experiences can help transform a person’s attitudes. By responding to experiences in a non-judgemental way, negative behavioral patterns lessen. In this way, mindfulness has demonstrated a positive effect on mental health, physical pain, and even improves community resilience. Meditative traditions that emerge from religious contexts, on the other hand, often have quite complex worldviews, concepts, and attitudes. These structures inform how a person responds to experiences that arise in meditation. In this paper, I discuss how Maximus the Confessor’s (580-662) Ambigua 7 describes the creation and the world we experience which provides a framework for an attitudinal shift toward receptivity. Cosmology and worldview play an important role in Maximus’ redefinition of attitude away from a more active engagement with experience to a more receptivity attitude. I sugge...
China perspectives, 2020
The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement is dynamic, evolving and radical in its attempt to disrupt... more The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement is dynamic, evolving and radical in its attempt to disrupt the political, cultural and behavioural processes that cause the climate crisis. However, people have criticised some of the aspects of the movement. Is XR too radical? Is it violent? Is it too disruptive to people's lives and our cities? This article reflects on civil disobedience and examines what nonviolent resistance feels like and where nonviolent movements arise from. I interpret these movements as arising from the experience of being bodily, rather than ideologically, threatened. I'll then discuss how the vulnerability of civil disobedience has changed my experience of God.
Studies in Spirituality, 2018
Summary – Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation t... more Summary – Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies
have identified how a meditation that engages non-judgementally with
experiences can help transform a person’s attitudes. By responding to
experiences in a non-judgemental way, negative behavioral patterns
lessen. In this way, mindfulness has demonstrated a positive effect on
mental health, physical pain, and even improves community resilience.
Meditative traditions that emerge from religious contexts, on the other
hand, often have quite complex worldviews, concepts, and attitudes.
These structures inform how a person responds to experiences that arise in meditation. In this paper, I discuss how Maximus the Confessor’s
(580-662) Ambigua 7 describes the creation and the world we experience which provides a framework for an attitudinal shift toward receptivity. Cosmology and worldview play an important role in Maximus’ redefinition of attitude away from a more active engagement with experience to a more receptivity attitude. I suggest that receptivity can be understood as a way of encountering experiences in meditation.
Religions , 2020
The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement has grown rapidly in the past two years. In popular media,... more The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement has grown rapidly in the past two years. In popular media, XR has sometimes been described using religious terminology. XR has been compared to an eco-cult, a spiritual and cultural movement, and described as holding apocalyptic views. Despite XR lacking the distinctive religiosity of new testament and early (pre-150ACE) Christianity, the movement resonates with the early Christian experience in several ways. (1) A characterization of events within the world as apocalyptic. (2) Both feel vulnerable to the apocalypse in specific ways, though each responds differently. (3) Both experience the apocalypse as a community and develop community strategies in response to the apocalypse. The paper sketches certain features of new testament Christianity and compares some of these to XR. The main difference between the two movements is that XR makes decisions to actively become vulnerable, whereas new testament Christianity was more often passively vulnerable. Elements of new testament Christianity provide a context for understanding XR as a response to an apocalypse.
Forum Philosophicum 20 no. 2, 183–200, 2015
This paper explores how Heidegger’s discussion of experience as topos (place) can illuminate some... more This paper explores how Heidegger’s discussion of experience as topos (place) can illuminate some elements of Maximus’ writings. In Heidegger’s later work, the experiencing subject emerges from, and experiences only within, place. Experience is only ever constituted when the conditions of its emergence come together concretely, which is to say, somewhere. Topos, a place, such as a city or my home, is a unity of the elements that make it up. The essay first examines how Heidegger sees philosophical inquiry as a drawing out of the different elements that constitute the unity of experience as place. Many works of Maximus the Confessor, including his ascetic writings, examine how the subject experiences within the world. Using the topological account of experience described by Heidegger, the paper examines several distinctions that emerge from Maximus’ ascetic thought. Using examples, the essay suggests it is possible to see Maximus’ analyses as being engagements with an understanding to the effect that experience emerges with a unity, in topos. The essay suggests that reading Maximus through topos helps explain why it is that so many structures can arise interdependently through his engagement with experience.
Final Version in: Studies in Spirituality, 28, 301-330, 2018
Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation that engage... more Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation that engages non-judgementally with experiences can help transform a person's attitudes. By responding to experiences in a non-judgemental way, negative behavioural patterns lessen. In this way, mindfulness has demonstrated a positive effect on mental health, physical pain, and even improves community resilience. Meditative traditions that emerge from religious contexts, on the other hand, have often complex worldviews, concepts, and attitudes. These structures inform how a person responds to experiences that arise in meditation. In this paper, I discuss how Maximus the Confessor's (580-662) Ambigua 7 describes creation and the world we experience which provides a framework for an attitudinal shift toward receptivity. Cosmology and worldview provide a context for Maximus' redefinition of attitude away from a more active engagement with experience to a more receptivity attitude. I suggest that receptivity can be understood as a way of encountering experiences in meditation. Introduction:
Charlton's work on non-dualism not only provides a clear and readable survey of central exponents... more Charlton's work on non-dualism not only provides a clear and readable survey of central exponents of these theologies; it also demonstrates the necessity of understanding the approach if one wishes to engage in contemporary theology. The work describes historically, and demonstrates poetically, the theo-poetic explication of the intimate (perichoretic) love of God with creation that underlines 'non-dualism' in general. Charlton describes the conceptual character of non-dualism as a balance between transcendence and immanence.1 Yet, he shows that, for Eckhart, Julian and Traherne, non-dual-poesis is more than a tool of a conceptual sobriety. He describes how the ascetic practise of non-dualism involves the recognition that unveils the world in its true, divine light, incarnated in creation itself, Christocentrically. Charlton's main definition of what is common to the non-dualism in these three thinkers is that the non-dual consists of a collapsing of the structures assumed to exist within an 'objective' world into a world that is beyond determinations of name (concepts) and forms (physical phenomena).2 Yet there is ambiguity around where one places 'non-dualism' (is it poetic, allegorical, conceptual, practical, real etc.) which has been a source of derogatory labelling of such 'theologies' as non-conceptual or 'fluffy'. Although the philosophical critique of non-dualism is perhaps yet to be written, Charlton's insights demonstrate a growing awareness that non-dualism is an important location in and through which theological insights emerge. Charlton's presentation begins by examining the 17 th century theological poetry of Thomas Traherne. Charlton's exposition describes how Traherne explores the unification of subject and object, a problematic distinction at the best of times, yet the significance of the distinction for Traherne is how the knowing process, the soul, is revealed as unified with God, in non-duality.3 The exuberance of the poet Traherne emerges from this intimacy. Thus the 'act' of his poetry is a self-realisation of divinity within human consciousness and affection perichoretically.4 Charlton describes a tension within contemporary presentations of Traherne's work, which suffer from the tendency to regard subject/object distinctions as normative for the divine/human relation and therefore the object of theological critique.5 In contrast, Charlton's romantic interpretation of the process underlying Traherne's poetic approach provides intimations as to how the conditions of Traherne's exposition involve a standing in the non-dual divine. As such, if the non-dual can be described as a 'position' it is more like a 'place' from within which Traherne stands and creates. Of interest for a philosophical distinction is how, under this definition, non-dualism is only secondarily concerned with conceptual geographies. It also explains how it is possible that the creative act critiques and generates conceptual structures in relation to established religious meanings. As such, what the poet Charlton does and where he does it, shares tendencies with the contemplative non-dualist (Traherne). If this type of work expresses good theology then it poses a conceptual and methodological challenge to mainstream theologies which emphasise both a methodological dualism and theologies which can maintain dualistic tendencies. This, to my mind, is the most potent and challenging chapter of the work. The work progresses into a discussion of Mother Julian of Norwich who experiences God through the struggle to trust in naked intimacy. The divine generates and nourishes us even at a distance, but in the incarnation, the divine feeds us intimately and frequents every moment of life. Intimacy is thus literal. His more original engagement with the connection of divinity and creation comes through his use of Eastern (Ramana) terminology of self-hood, in which the divine spark of
Ingram's short work is a complex amalgam of concerns. Chapter One suggests a pathway for dialogue... more Ingram's short work is a complex amalgam of concerns. Chapter One suggests a pathway for dialogue between religious traditions and natural sciences. Chapter two describes the history of this dialogue by Christianity and Buddhism. The third chapter describes projects of Christian Buddhist dialogue which have bought about conceptual revisions in each tradition. Chapters three and four examine issues of the dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity on the question of social engagement and the contemplative dialogue respectively. The final chapter describes the benefit of religions dialoguing with science and other religions, pointing out how each can grow from the process. Overall the book offers the author's reflection on a recent history of the dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity, blending insights from science and religious beliefs, to suggest that dialogue can renew the expression of traditional faiths. Chapter One has two themes: Ingram's modified pluralism and his methodology. In the first part Ingram outlines his pluralism by describing how multiple approaches to meaning as a fact basic to contemporary life. This is balanced with an historical conscience informed by the damage performed by exclusivist claims 1. He then clarifies his definition by arguing that pluralism challenges us to take an active participation, rather than passive acceptance of the other. The methodology of the work fuses an explanation of how scientific theories function, with Ingram's explanation of religiosity. He understands that science and religion are responsible first to the phenomena they seek to describe and secondly to themselves. He adopts Lakatos' description of a scientific research program which describes a science as consisting of core and auxiliary theories. According to Ingram, Lakatos describes a scientific theory as having data (experience and evidence), 'auxiliary hypotheses' which can change depending on historical circumstances and the 'hard core' or fundamental principles or core realities underlying the science. Ingram adapts Lakatos into a description of how religion consists of an essential 'sacred' at its core, and then the auxiliary cultural and specific religious traditions of human history. The sacred is a cooperation between Hick's Real, and Eliade's 'Scared'. The auxiliary modes of a religious tradition refer to the changes in expression which occur through its history in the ongoing attempt to offer a clearer picture of the sacred. Ingram uses this approach to support the intuitive relation between religion and the sacred and his claim that the historical expressions of the sacred are falsifiable. Whilst the approach is a little unwieldy given the variety of influences (Whitehead) and criticisms Ingram makes (Cobb and Kant), he basically argues that humans can know the world, change their views, and construct their theories so as to develop greater understanding and expression. As such, although his readings of the various sources are disputable, his starting point is modest. His purpose is to pose religious traditions as a kind of falsifiable experiment of attempting to understand and 1 Paul O. Ingram, The Process of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, Cambridge MA, James Clark & Co, 2010. 25.
Early paper examining the role of Christ and Christology in Maximus' process of understanding.
An examination of the context of Justin Martyr and some speculation on the structures of interrel... more An examination of the context of Justin Martyr and some speculation on the structures of interreligious dialogue provided in his dialogue with Trypho.
Drafts by Cullan Joyce
Maximus the Confessor and F.W.J. Schelling both contribute to speculations concerning the relatio... more Maximus the Confessor and F.W.J. Schelling both contribute to speculations concerning the relationship between Divine creation and the world of experience. This paper specifically examines sets of concepts: of perichoresis Interdependence between contexts (Maximus Confessor) and diastole and systole Expansion and Contraction (Schelling) that enable initial and subsequent moments interact together to create an idea of experience as being a combination of multiple contexts. The essay does not attempt to harmonise these two thinkers, nor does it attempt to critique their conceptions of time or space or the problem of ordering archaic principles as such. It makes a generic classification of the formal shape of divine creation: divine creation allows for the organic emergence of new contexts. Moreover, within that development, each context can be markedly different from the other without causing conflict with each other or the creator. The culmination of these cosmologies and the interdependent relations that make them up create the structure of experience which is a unity that consists of multiple contexts interacting.
An implication drawn from the paper, but not extensively explored, is how contextual interdependence is demonstrable by showing how an analysis of even a subjective determination can lead into other, previously undisclosed, contexts.
This paper examines some similar structural features of a Christian ascetic writer and a Chan Bud... more This paper examines some similar structural features of a Christian ascetic writer and a Chan Buddhist. Though there are interesting technical similarities in the quieting of the senses and meditation when looking toward the supermundane, the two thinkers depart in ways that reveals their understanding of the ultimate reality.
Contemplative nature engagement practices to support individuals and communities facing ecological distress., 2024
Macaulay, R., Joyce, C., Jones, S., Johnson, K., Lanyon, A., McCawley, B., Martin, S., Rhydwen, ... more Macaulay, R., Joyce, C., Jones, S., Johnson, K., Lanyon, A., McCawley, B.,
Martin, S., Rhydwen, M., Rowntree, C., Stone, J., Thomas, J. M.,
Vella-Brodrick, D., Walker, I., Ward, M., and Williams, K. (2023).
Contemplative nature engagement practices to support individuals and
communities facing ecological distress.
Religions, 2024
Colonisation, genocide, ecocide, and climate derangement are ongoing, unfurling, global tragedies... more Colonisation, genocide, ecocide, and climate derangement are ongoing, unfurling, global tragedies. In so-called Australia, spiritual practitioners can respond to these crises by deepening their engagement with Aboriginal perspectives/practices. This paper contends that some Eurocentric habitual categorisations subtly misinterpret Aboriginal experiences of the sacred, such as identifying creation myths as beliefs comparable to post-Enlightenment representations of the sacred and identifying the performance of sacred activity with similar characteristics to separateness and priesthood. This leads to erroneous characterisations of Aboriginal ritual practices as being based on a strong hierarchy, distinctive castes, and esotericism. We argue that an embodied and practice-based sense of sacredness guides Aboriginal spirituality. As a living culture, Aboriginal ongoing care for Country provides an enfleshed, real, palpable enactment of human spirituality. We argue that Aboriginal spirituality has been fetishised to the neglect of a call to care for Country in the most ‘mundane’ sense of tending to food, water, air, etc., as embodied religious experiences. Delving into dadirri and death, we elucidate contemporary cases of practical care for Country that illustrate how being on, in, and with Country can be a contemplative experience. We conclude by outlining how caring for Country ‘layers’ the various expressions of Aboriginal religious experience socially, psychologically, interpersonally, and ritually.
Forum Philosophicum, 2015
This paper explores how Heidegger's discussion of experience as topos (place) can illuminate some... more This paper explores how Heidegger's discussion of experience as topos (place) can illuminate some elements of Maximus' writings. In Heidegger's later work, the experiencing subject emerges from, and experiences only within, place. Experience is only ever constituted when the conditions of its emergence come together concretely, which is to say, somewhere. Topos, a place, such as a city or my home, is a unity of the elements that make it up. The essay first examines how Heidegger sees philosophical inquiry as a drawing out of the different elements that constitute the unity of experience as place. Many works of Maximus the Confessor, including his ascetic writings, examine how the subject experiences within the world. Using the topological account of experience described by Heidegger, the paper examines several distinctions that emerge from Maximus' ascetic thought. Using examples, the essay suggests it is possible to see Maximus' analyses as being engagements with an understanding to the effect that experience emerges with a unity, in topos. The essay suggests that reading Maximus through topos helps explain why it is that so many structures can arise interdependently through his engagement with experience.
Australian Ejournal of Theology, 2006
Religions
The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement has grown rapidly in the past two years. In popular media,... more The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement has grown rapidly in the past two years. In popular media, XR has sometimes been described using religious terminology. XR has been compared to an eco-cult, a spiritual and cultural movement, and described as holding apocalyptic views. Despite XR lacking the distinctive religiosity of new testament and early (pre-150ACE) Christianity, the movement resonates with the early Christian experience in several ways. (1) A characterization of events within the world as apocalyptic. (2) Both feel vulnerable to the apocalypse in specific ways, though each responds differently. (3) Both experience the apocalypse as a community and develop community strategies in response to the apocalypse. The paper sketches certain features of new testament Christianity and compares some of these to XR. The main difference between the two movements is that XR makes decisions to actively become vulnerable, whereas new testament Christianity was more often passively vulner...
Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation that engage... more Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation that engages non-judgementally with experiences can help transform a person’s attitudes. By responding to experiences in a non-judgemental way, negative behavioral patterns lessen. In this way, mindfulness has demonstrated a positive effect on mental health, physical pain, and even improves community resilience. Meditative traditions that emerge from religious contexts, on the other hand, often have quite complex worldviews, concepts, and attitudes. These structures inform how a person responds to experiences that arise in meditation. In this paper, I discuss how Maximus the Confessor’s (580-662) Ambigua 7 describes the creation and the world we experience which provides a framework for an attitudinal shift toward receptivity. Cosmology and worldview play an important role in Maximus’ redefinition of attitude away from a more active engagement with experience to a more receptivity attitude. I sugge...
China perspectives, 2020
The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement is dynamic, evolving and radical in its attempt to disrupt... more The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement is dynamic, evolving and radical in its attempt to disrupt the political, cultural and behavioural processes that cause the climate crisis. However, people have criticised some of the aspects of the movement. Is XR too radical? Is it violent? Is it too disruptive to people's lives and our cities? This article reflects on civil disobedience and examines what nonviolent resistance feels like and where nonviolent movements arise from. I interpret these movements as arising from the experience of being bodily, rather than ideologically, threatened. I'll then discuss how the vulnerability of civil disobedience has changed my experience of God.
Studies in Spirituality, 2018
Summary – Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation t... more Summary – Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies
have identified how a meditation that engages non-judgementally with
experiences can help transform a person’s attitudes. By responding to
experiences in a non-judgemental way, negative behavioral patterns
lessen. In this way, mindfulness has demonstrated a positive effect on
mental health, physical pain, and even improves community resilience.
Meditative traditions that emerge from religious contexts, on the other
hand, often have quite complex worldviews, concepts, and attitudes.
These structures inform how a person responds to experiences that arise in meditation. In this paper, I discuss how Maximus the Confessor’s
(580-662) Ambigua 7 describes the creation and the world we experience which provides a framework for an attitudinal shift toward receptivity. Cosmology and worldview play an important role in Maximus’ redefinition of attitude away from a more active engagement with experience to a more receptivity attitude. I suggest that receptivity can be understood as a way of encountering experiences in meditation.
Religions , 2020
The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement has grown rapidly in the past two years. In popular media,... more The Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement has grown rapidly in the past two years. In popular media, XR has sometimes been described using religious terminology. XR has been compared to an eco-cult, a spiritual and cultural movement, and described as holding apocalyptic views. Despite XR lacking the distinctive religiosity of new testament and early (pre-150ACE) Christianity, the movement resonates with the early Christian experience in several ways. (1) A characterization of events within the world as apocalyptic. (2) Both feel vulnerable to the apocalypse in specific ways, though each responds differently. (3) Both experience the apocalypse as a community and develop community strategies in response to the apocalypse. The paper sketches certain features of new testament Christianity and compares some of these to XR. The main difference between the two movements is that XR makes decisions to actively become vulnerable, whereas new testament Christianity was more often passively vulnerable. Elements of new testament Christianity provide a context for understanding XR as a response to an apocalypse.
Forum Philosophicum 20 no. 2, 183–200, 2015
This paper explores how Heidegger’s discussion of experience as topos (place) can illuminate some... more This paper explores how Heidegger’s discussion of experience as topos (place) can illuminate some elements of Maximus’ writings. In Heidegger’s later work, the experiencing subject emerges from, and experiences only within, place. Experience is only ever constituted when the conditions of its emergence come together concretely, which is to say, somewhere. Topos, a place, such as a city or my home, is a unity of the elements that make it up. The essay first examines how Heidegger sees philosophical inquiry as a drawing out of the different elements that constitute the unity of experience as place. Many works of Maximus the Confessor, including his ascetic writings, examine how the subject experiences within the world. Using the topological account of experience described by Heidegger, the paper examines several distinctions that emerge from Maximus’ ascetic thought. Using examples, the essay suggests it is possible to see Maximus’ analyses as being engagements with an understanding to the effect that experience emerges with a unity, in topos. The essay suggests that reading Maximus through topos helps explain why it is that so many structures can arise interdependently through his engagement with experience.
Final Version in: Studies in Spirituality, 28, 301-330, 2018
Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation that engage... more Among other things, contemporary mindfulness studies have identified how a meditation that engages non-judgementally with experiences can help transform a person's attitudes. By responding to experiences in a non-judgemental way, negative behavioural patterns lessen. In this way, mindfulness has demonstrated a positive effect on mental health, physical pain, and even improves community resilience. Meditative traditions that emerge from religious contexts, on the other hand, have often complex worldviews, concepts, and attitudes. These structures inform how a person responds to experiences that arise in meditation. In this paper, I discuss how Maximus the Confessor's (580-662) Ambigua 7 describes creation and the world we experience which provides a framework for an attitudinal shift toward receptivity. Cosmology and worldview provide a context for Maximus' redefinition of attitude away from a more active engagement with experience to a more receptivity attitude. I suggest that receptivity can be understood as a way of encountering experiences in meditation. Introduction:
Charlton's work on non-dualism not only provides a clear and readable survey of central exponents... more Charlton's work on non-dualism not only provides a clear and readable survey of central exponents of these theologies; it also demonstrates the necessity of understanding the approach if one wishes to engage in contemporary theology. The work describes historically, and demonstrates poetically, the theo-poetic explication of the intimate (perichoretic) love of God with creation that underlines 'non-dualism' in general. Charlton describes the conceptual character of non-dualism as a balance between transcendence and immanence.1 Yet, he shows that, for Eckhart, Julian and Traherne, non-dual-poesis is more than a tool of a conceptual sobriety. He describes how the ascetic practise of non-dualism involves the recognition that unveils the world in its true, divine light, incarnated in creation itself, Christocentrically. Charlton's main definition of what is common to the non-dualism in these three thinkers is that the non-dual consists of a collapsing of the structures assumed to exist within an 'objective' world into a world that is beyond determinations of name (concepts) and forms (physical phenomena).2 Yet there is ambiguity around where one places 'non-dualism' (is it poetic, allegorical, conceptual, practical, real etc.) which has been a source of derogatory labelling of such 'theologies' as non-conceptual or 'fluffy'. Although the philosophical critique of non-dualism is perhaps yet to be written, Charlton's insights demonstrate a growing awareness that non-dualism is an important location in and through which theological insights emerge. Charlton's presentation begins by examining the 17 th century theological poetry of Thomas Traherne. Charlton's exposition describes how Traherne explores the unification of subject and object, a problematic distinction at the best of times, yet the significance of the distinction for Traherne is how the knowing process, the soul, is revealed as unified with God, in non-duality.3 The exuberance of the poet Traherne emerges from this intimacy. Thus the 'act' of his poetry is a self-realisation of divinity within human consciousness and affection perichoretically.4 Charlton describes a tension within contemporary presentations of Traherne's work, which suffer from the tendency to regard subject/object distinctions as normative for the divine/human relation and therefore the object of theological critique.5 In contrast, Charlton's romantic interpretation of the process underlying Traherne's poetic approach provides intimations as to how the conditions of Traherne's exposition involve a standing in the non-dual divine. As such, if the non-dual can be described as a 'position' it is more like a 'place' from within which Traherne stands and creates. Of interest for a philosophical distinction is how, under this definition, non-dualism is only secondarily concerned with conceptual geographies. It also explains how it is possible that the creative act critiques and generates conceptual structures in relation to established religious meanings. As such, what the poet Charlton does and where he does it, shares tendencies with the contemplative non-dualist (Traherne). If this type of work expresses good theology then it poses a conceptual and methodological challenge to mainstream theologies which emphasise both a methodological dualism and theologies which can maintain dualistic tendencies. This, to my mind, is the most potent and challenging chapter of the work. The work progresses into a discussion of Mother Julian of Norwich who experiences God through the struggle to trust in naked intimacy. The divine generates and nourishes us even at a distance, but in the incarnation, the divine feeds us intimately and frequents every moment of life. Intimacy is thus literal. His more original engagement with the connection of divinity and creation comes through his use of Eastern (Ramana) terminology of self-hood, in which the divine spark of
Ingram's short work is a complex amalgam of concerns. Chapter One suggests a pathway for dialogue... more Ingram's short work is a complex amalgam of concerns. Chapter One suggests a pathway for dialogue between religious traditions and natural sciences. Chapter two describes the history of this dialogue by Christianity and Buddhism. The third chapter describes projects of Christian Buddhist dialogue which have bought about conceptual revisions in each tradition. Chapters three and four examine issues of the dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity on the question of social engagement and the contemplative dialogue respectively. The final chapter describes the benefit of religions dialoguing with science and other religions, pointing out how each can grow from the process. Overall the book offers the author's reflection on a recent history of the dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity, blending insights from science and religious beliefs, to suggest that dialogue can renew the expression of traditional faiths. Chapter One has two themes: Ingram's modified pluralism and his methodology. In the first part Ingram outlines his pluralism by describing how multiple approaches to meaning as a fact basic to contemporary life. This is balanced with an historical conscience informed by the damage performed by exclusivist claims 1. He then clarifies his definition by arguing that pluralism challenges us to take an active participation, rather than passive acceptance of the other. The methodology of the work fuses an explanation of how scientific theories function, with Ingram's explanation of religiosity. He understands that science and religion are responsible first to the phenomena they seek to describe and secondly to themselves. He adopts Lakatos' description of a scientific research program which describes a science as consisting of core and auxiliary theories. According to Ingram, Lakatos describes a scientific theory as having data (experience and evidence), 'auxiliary hypotheses' which can change depending on historical circumstances and the 'hard core' or fundamental principles or core realities underlying the science. Ingram adapts Lakatos into a description of how religion consists of an essential 'sacred' at its core, and then the auxiliary cultural and specific religious traditions of human history. The sacred is a cooperation between Hick's Real, and Eliade's 'Scared'. The auxiliary modes of a religious tradition refer to the changes in expression which occur through its history in the ongoing attempt to offer a clearer picture of the sacred. Ingram uses this approach to support the intuitive relation between religion and the sacred and his claim that the historical expressions of the sacred are falsifiable. Whilst the approach is a little unwieldy given the variety of influences (Whitehead) and criticisms Ingram makes (Cobb and Kant), he basically argues that humans can know the world, change their views, and construct their theories so as to develop greater understanding and expression. As such, although his readings of the various sources are disputable, his starting point is modest. His purpose is to pose religious traditions as a kind of falsifiable experiment of attempting to understand and 1 Paul O. Ingram, The Process of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, Cambridge MA, James Clark & Co, 2010. 25.
Early paper examining the role of Christ and Christology in Maximus' process of understanding.
An examination of the context of Justin Martyr and some speculation on the structures of interrel... more An examination of the context of Justin Martyr and some speculation on the structures of interreligious dialogue provided in his dialogue with Trypho.
Maximus the Confessor and F.W.J. Schelling both contribute to speculations concerning the relatio... more Maximus the Confessor and F.W.J. Schelling both contribute to speculations concerning the relationship between Divine creation and the world of experience. This paper specifically examines sets of concepts: of perichoresis Interdependence between contexts (Maximus Confessor) and diastole and systole Expansion and Contraction (Schelling) that enable initial and subsequent moments interact together to create an idea of experience as being a combination of multiple contexts. The essay does not attempt to harmonise these two thinkers, nor does it attempt to critique their conceptions of time or space or the problem of ordering archaic principles as such. It makes a generic classification of the formal shape of divine creation: divine creation allows for the organic emergence of new contexts. Moreover, within that development, each context can be markedly different from the other without causing conflict with each other or the creator. The culmination of these cosmologies and the interdependent relations that make them up create the structure of experience which is a unity that consists of multiple contexts interacting.
An implication drawn from the paper, but not extensively explored, is how contextual interdependence is demonstrable by showing how an analysis of even a subjective determination can lead into other, previously undisclosed, contexts.
This paper examines some similar structural features of a Christian ascetic writer and a Chan Bud... more This paper examines some similar structural features of a Christian ascetic writer and a Chan Buddhist. Though there are interesting technical similarities in the quieting of the senses and meditation when looking toward the supermundane, the two thinkers depart in ways that reveals their understanding of the ultimate reality.