The Paper Deals with the Problem of Religious Meditation

  • Magdalena Lasik Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Philosophy
Keywords: God, human being, intellect, meditation, prayer, religion, senses, Thomas Aquinas, will

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.

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Published
2020-10-15
Section
Articles