The Paper Deals with the Problem of Religious Meditation
Abstract
The attitude of the Catholic Church towards this matter has been briefly mentioned in the introduction. The main body of the article presents an attempt of philosophical (realistic) characteristic of the nature of religious meditation. Ontological pluralism and creationism have been found as one of the main metaphisical features of the world. However our main attention has been drawn to the antropological implications of the act of meditation.
In the article some works concerning religious meditation written by St. Thomae Aquinatis have been recolled. Not only for reasons however but mainly because of timless, realistic solution given there.
Meditation is shown as sensual-intellectual cognitive act when the thruth concerning God and the human being is considered. This truth, of natural and revelled kind, due to sensibilities are expressed in the impressions which have an impact to the intellect for further considerations. Cognitive operations are followed by an appetite constituted in acts of senses and mainly in acts of will.
The paper has also shown some further consequences of the obtained results. It has been pointed out that an act of religious meditation cannot be seen as one of difficult to explain structure, relies on drowning in unconceptualized atmosphere of God's presence. On the contrary, religious meditation appears to be a highly rational act, having objective foundations, understable (to some extend) for a human being.
References
Gilson E.: Tomizm. Wprowadzenie do filozofii św. Tomasza z Akwinu, tł. J. Rybałt, Warszawa: IW PAX 19982.
List do Biskupów Kościoła katolickiego o niektórych aspektach medytacji chrześcijańskiej Orationis formas [15.10.1989], [w:] W trosce o pełnię wiary. Dokumenty Kongregacji Nauki Wiary 1966-1994, tł. i oprac. Z. Zimowski, J. Królikowski, Tarnów: Biblos 1995, s. 337-352.
Thomae Aquinatis: Opera omnia issu impensaque Leonis XIII, t. 1-48, Romae 1882-1972.
Tomasz z Akwinu: Kwestie dyskutowane o prawdzie, t. I, tł. A. Aduszkiewicz, L.Kuczyński, J.Ruszczyński, Kęty: Wydawnictwo ANTYK 1998.
Tomaszz Akwinu: Suma teologiczna, t. 1-34, London: Veritas 1962-1986.
Tomasz zAkwinu: Traktat o człowieku. Summa teologii, I, 75-89, tł. i oprac. S.Swieżawski, Kęty: Wydawnictwo ANTYK 19982.
Witek S.: Teologia życia duchowego, Lublin: TN KUL 1989.
Copyright (c) 2002 Roczniki Filozoficzne
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.