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G. R. S. Mead is an important but neglected historical personality of the British fin-de-siècle occult, Theosophical, and post-Theosophical milieu. While previous scholars of Theosophy have portrayed the Theosophical movement as quite cohesive in nature, I argue that it might have been a lot more pluralistic, with ostensibly key Theosophical concepts being open for debate. By a careful study of Mead’s editorial activity, his debates with other Theosophists in leading occultist journal over the period 1890s through 1910s, I illustrate that Mead held alternative views of key Theosophical concepts. This gives us a clue as to how the movement of Theosophy can be characterized differently. I suggest that we speak of many different “Theosophies” rather than one singular “Theosophy” to better capture the seemingly diverse makeup of the Theosophical movement. I look at three areas wherein Mead’s views differed from those of other important Theosophists: the concept of “the Masters” as spiritual authority, which sources to turn to and how to interpret them, and the question of whether occultism should be understood primarily in theoretical or in practical terms. I propose that by seeing Theosophy as a debating ground where many different Theosophists competed over the definition of their particular kind of Theosophy, we might also better account for why so many post-Theosophical currents emerged. Lastly, Mead’s concept of “Gnosis” might have served as a bridge between his Theosophical and post-Theosophical periods, as the concept’s meaning, along with Mead’s spiritual outlook, does not appear to have changed over time. This gives some consequences to how we conceive of post-Theosophy, since he does not fit neatly within that category.

Reprendre contact avec les réalités de l’âme, rouvrir la source où l’être rejaillit éternellement : tel est l’idéal occulte, inavouable, d’où procède la poétique d’Hubert Aquin. Depuis sa jeunesse, Aquin s’emploie clandestinement à défaire les mailles de la conscience et à rebrousser chemin vers les arrière-plans ténébreux du Moi, vers le Plérôme de la vie nue. Il manœuvre pour se mettre au service de l’intentionnalité impersonnelle inscrite au plus profond de sa psyché, pour devenir l’instrument du vouloir aveugle « qui opère en lui comme une force d’inertie ». Son œuvre ne s’accomplit pas dans le texte, mais à rebours du texte, voire à rebours du langage ; elle se déploie sur le terrain d’une confrontation enivrée avec le Négatif — avec la Parole sacrée issue de l’abîme. En d’autres termes, elle prend la forme d’une Gnose, c’est-à-dire d’un exercice de dé-subjectivation, de destruction de soi, consistant à réaliser la connaissance participative de l’empreinte imaginale scellée derrière les barreaux de la finitude. Essentiellement consacrée à l’analyse de la dimension gnostique de l’œuvre d’Hubert Aquin, cette thèse vise à montrer que la connaissance du hiéroglyphe mystérieux gravé au fond de l’âme n’est pas une sinécure. Il s’agit plutôt d’un opus contra naturam qui comporte bien des risques (en tout premier lieu celui d’une inflation psychique). Pourtant, ce travail est aussi, aux yeux de l’auteur, le seul véritablement digne d’être accompli, celui qui donne à l’homme le moyen de se soustraire à l’engloutissement de la mort et la possibilité de renaître. Comme l’écrit Aquin dans un texte de jeunesse, l’ouverture inconditionnelle au Négatif (la destruction de soi) est « une façon privilégiée d’expérimenter la vie et un préalable à toute entreprise artistique » ; elle correspond à « un mode supérieur de connaissance », à un savoir « impersonnel » qui offre immédiatement le salut. / To reestablish contact with the realities of the soul, to reopen the source from which Being eternally resurges: such is the occult and unspeakable ideal from which Hubert Aquin’s poetics proceeds. From his youth onwards, Aquin secretly seeks to unravel the mesh of consciousness, in order to retrace the path leading back towards the dark nether regions of the Self, towards the Pleroma of the naked life. Thus he operates exclusively in the service of the impersonal intentionality inscribed in the depths of his psyche, as the instrument of the blind will that acts inside of him “like an inertial force”. His work does not fulfill itself in the text, but rather runs counter to the text, even counter to language itself; it deploys as an exhilarating confrontation with the Negative, with the sacred Word issuing from the abyss. In other words, Aquin’s work takes the form of a Gnosis: an exercise in de-subjectivization and self-destruction that consists in attaining participative knowledge of the imaginal seal imprinted behind the bars of finitude. This thesis, principally devoted to an analysis of the gnostic dimension of Hubert Aquin’s œuvre, aims to show that to decipher the mysterious hieroglyph engraved in the depths of the soul is no simple task: it is rather an opus contra naturam, involving great dangers (of which the first is the risk of psychic inflation); yet, to the author’s eyes, only this task is really necessary and truly worthy of being undertaken, for only by this means can the human being escape from engulfment in death – by being reborn. As Aquin writes in an early work, to open oneself unconditionally to the Negative (i.e., self-destruction) is “a special way of experiencing life and a prerequisite to any artistic enterprise”; it is equivalent to “a superior mode of knowledge” of an “impersonal” kind, promising immediate salvation.

Submitted by Mariana Dornelles Vargas (marianadv) on 2015-06-01T18:04:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 transformacoes_historicas.pdf: 1011941 bytes, checksum: 37a0bc0e045ed1b52cceb172eb2e055b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-01T18:04:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 transformacoes_historicas.pdf: 1011941 bytes, checksum: 37a0bc0e045ed1b52cceb172eb2e055b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Nenhuma / O budismo, uma das grandes religiões mundiais, conheceu um processo de expansão para o Ocidente desde o século XIX, ao mesmo tempo em que, no Oriente, viu-se ameaçado pela redução do número de adeptos e pela proibição de sua prática por regimes ditatoriais instalados nos países asiáticos nos períodos do colonialismo e do pós-guerra. A partir de 1950, passou a manifestar uma nova característica, de engajamento social e político, expressa em projetos sociais budistas que surgiram em diferentes continentes e países. Essa nova configuração, entretanto, ainda se baliza em conteúdos típicos da tradição milenar asiática, tais como a meditação, a não-violência, a compaixão, a não-identidade e a ênfase na vida humana preciosa e na interdependência. Tais concepções entraram em contato com a cultura racional e individualista da modernidade ocidental. Nesse contexto, as ações de engajamento, sustentadas em uma teoria social budista própria, interpelaram a percepção sociológica clássica a respeito do budismo, no sentido de constituir uma religião introspectiva, de renúncia contemplativa do mundo. Diante dessas questões, esta tese buscou verificar como a evolução histórica do budismo, em particular o budismo engajado, tem acarretado alterações na natureza dessa religião e como, em contrapartida e dentro de novos termos, o budismo engajado tem preservado e promovido a cultura e os valores budistas no mundo moderno. Em paralelo ao estudo do budismo engajado no mundo e no Brasil, uma pesquisa em instituição budista brasileira, por intermédio da pesquisa participante, buscou caracterizar essas práticas, identificar seus efeitos sobre seu público-alvo e avaliar sua contribuição para as iniciativas de promoção social. Concluiu-se que, a partir dos efeitos da colonização, modernidade e globalização, as instituições budistas vêm manifestando maior envolvimento social. O budismo, caracterizado por Weber como uma religião de renúncia contemplativa do mundo, assumiu uma feição de engajamento no mundo. Os projetos sociais budistas conciliam os elementos gnósticos milenares típicos do budismo com a ação social budista, que seguem as orientações do dharma budista aplicado ao campo social. Esse encontro do gnóstico com o racional pode trazer contribuições e inovações ao campo das ciências sociais aplicadas e também promover a preservação e ampliação do budismo. / Buddhism, one of the world?s great religions, met an expansion to the West since the nineteenth century, while in the East was at risk by a reduction on the number of followers and the ban on its practices by dictatorial regimes installed in the Asian countries during the colonialism and postwar periods. From 1950, it began to manifest a new feature of social and political engagement, expressed in Buddhist social projects that have emerged in different continents and countries. This new configuration, however, is still based in typical ancient Asian tradition, such as meditation, nonviolence, compassion, non-identity and focus on precious human life and interdependence. These concepts came into contact with the rational and individualistic culture of Western modernity. In this context, the actions of engagement, sustained in a Buddhist social theory itself, have approached the classical sociological perception about Buddhism of an introspective, contemplative renunciation of the world religion. Given these issues, this thesis sought to determine how the historical development of Buddhism, particularly the engaged Buddhism, has caused changes in the nature of this religion and how, in new terms, the engaged Buddhism has preserved and promoted, by contrast, culture and Buddhist values in the modern world. In parallel with the study of engaged Buddhism in the world and in Brazil, a research in a Brazilian Buddhist institution, through participant research, sought to characterize these practices, identify their impact on your public and evaluate their contribution to the initiatives of social promotion. It was concluded that, from the effects of colonization, modernity and globalization, the Buddhist institutions are showing greater social involvement. Buddhism, characterized by Weber as a religion of contemplative renunciation of the world, assumed a face of engagement in the world. The Buddhist social projects concile the typical ancient gnostic elements of Buddhism with Buddhist social action, which follow the guidelines of the Buddhist dharma applied to the social field. This meeting of the gnostic with rational may bring contributions and innovations to the field of applied social sciences as well as promote the preservation and expansion of Buddhism.

This thesis is a study of the Russian religious philosopher Nikolai Berdiaev (1874-1948). The aim of the thesis is to re-examine the alleged gnostic subtext in Berdiaev’s thought by exploring a number of interrelated motifs in his world outlook, teaching on man and theory of knowledge. The method employed is a close reading of Berdiaev's philosophical and autobiographical writings. In order to establish which motifs should be examined, how they are to be understood and the manner in which they are interconnected, a scrutiny is made of Hans Jonas’s phenomenological elucidation of ancient Gnosticism. A synthetic conception labelled Jonasian Gnosticism is proposed as the interpretive framework, in order to provide a unitary and consistent heuristic tool with which to investigate the topic, and to distinguish the specific proposed representation of Gnosticism from other existing ones. A chapter is devoted to an analysis of the concept of gnosis as employed by Berdiaev. Another key notion taken from the Jonasian framework is that of demundanization, which denotes among other things a rejectionary attitude towards the world grounded in a negative experience of evil and suffering. Varieties of dualism as well as Berdiaev’s doctrine of the human spirit’s otherworldly origin and non-belonging in the world, constitute other issues that are examined. In addition, both Berdiaev’s assessment of historical Gnosticism and his view of a gnostic return in modern times are examined. The study demonstrates the complexity of Berdiaev’s attitude towards the classic Gnostics, and his attempt to denounce Gnosticism while at the same time making a case for a Christian gnosis. The results suggest both affinities and divergences in the relationship between Berdiaev’s thought and Jonasian Gnosticism. Even though the doctrinal standpoints diverge on crucial points, it is argued that a suggestive affinity nevertheless exists in the shared existential attitude towards self and world.

Reprendre contact avec les réalités de l’âme, rouvrir la source où l’être rejaillit éternellement : tel est l’idéal occulte, inavouable, d’où procède la poétique d’Hubert Aquin. Depuis sa jeunesse, Aquin s’emploie clandestinement à défaire les mailles de la conscience et à rebrousser chemin vers les arrière-plans ténébreux du Moi, vers le Plérôme de la vie nue. Il manœuvre pour se mettre au service de l’intentionnalité impersonnelle inscrite au plus profond de sa psyché, pour devenir l’instrument du vouloir aveugle « qui opère en lui comme une force d’inertie ». Son œuvre ne s’accomplit pas dans le texte, mais à rebours du texte, voire à rebours du langage ; elle se déploie sur le terrain d’une confrontation enivrée avec le Négatif — avec la Parole sacrée issue de l’abîme. En d’autres termes, elle prend la forme d’une Gnose, c’est-à-dire d’un exercice de dé-subjectivation, de destruction de soi, consistant à réaliser la connaissance participative de l’empreinte imaginale scellée derrière les barreaux de la finitude. Essentiellement consacrée à l’analyse de la dimension gnostique de l’œuvre d’Hubert Aquin, cette thèse vise à montrer que la connaissance du hiéroglyphe mystérieux gravé au fond de l’âme n’est pas une sinécure. Il s’agit plutôt d’un opus contra naturam qui comporte bien des risques (en tout premier lieu celui d’une inflation psychique). Pourtant, ce travail est aussi, aux yeux de l’auteur, le seul véritablement digne d’être accompli, celui qui donne à l’homme le moyen de se soustraire à l’engloutissement de la mort et la possibilité de renaître. Comme l’écrit Aquin dans un texte de jeunesse, l’ouverture inconditionnelle au Négatif (la destruction de soi) est « une façon privilégiée d’expérimenter la vie et un préalable à toute entreprise artistique » ; elle correspond à « un mode supérieur de connaissance », à un savoir « impersonnel » qui offre immédiatement le salut. / To reestablish contact with the realities of the soul, to reopen the source from which Being eternally resurges: such is the occult and unspeakable ideal from which Hubert Aquin’s poetics proceeds. From his youth onwards, Aquin secretly seeks to unravel the mesh of consciousness, in order to retrace the path leading back towards the dark nether regions of the Self, towards the Pleroma of the naked life. Thus he operates exclusively in the service of the impersonal intentionality inscribed in the depths of his psyche, as the instrument of the blind will that acts inside of him “like an inertial force”. His work does not fulfill itself in the text, but rather runs counter to the text, even counter to language itself; it deploys as an exhilarating confrontation with the Negative, with the sacred Word issuing from the abyss. In other words, Aquin’s work takes the form of a Gnosis: an exercise in de-subjectivization and self-destruction that consists in attaining participative knowledge of the imaginal seal imprinted behind the bars of finitude. This thesis, principally devoted to an analysis of the gnostic dimension of Hubert Aquin’s œuvre, aims to show that to decipher the mysterious hieroglyph engraved in the depths of the soul is no simple task: it is rather an opus contra naturam, involving great dangers (of which the first is the risk of psychic inflation); yet, to the author’s eyes, only this task is really necessary and truly worthy of being undertaken, for only by this means can the human being escape from engulfment in death – by being reborn. As Aquin writes in an early work, to open oneself unconditionally to the Negative (i.e., self-destruction) is “a special way of experiencing life and a prerequisite to any artistic enterprise”; it is equivalent to “a superior mode of knowledge” of an “impersonal” kind, promising immediate salvation.

Par-delà la dispersion thématique et aphoristique de l’œuvre du philosophe colombien Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913-1994), un spectre hante sa pensée : le spectre du gnosticisme. Quel lien ce courant religieux ou para religieux né au sein de l’Empire romain entre le Ier et le IIIe siècle de notre ère, peut-il avoir avec notre monde moderne ? Quel rapport entretien ce courant avec la philosophie ? En effet, la connaissance philosophique est totalement différente de la « connaissance » gnostique (gnosis). Alors que la philosophie, d’une part, se fonde sur une recherche de la vérité à partir d’un questionnement sur la réalité, la gnose est étroitement liée à une expérience de révélation, de sorte que la réception de la vérité, par illumination intérieure, remplace la théorie et l’argument rationnel. D’autre part, elle a pour objet la voie du salut, sans enseignement théorique, par transformation ou destruction de la réalité. On ne peut donc que s’interroger sur les coïncidences entre la gnose ancienne et ce que le philosophe austro-américain Éric Voegelin (1901-1985) a nommé « la modernité sans frein ». Ne pourrait-on pas voir dans les idéologies modernes (communisme, socialisme, nationalisme, libéralisme, etc.) à l’instar d’Éric Voegelin, des « religions politiques » ou, comme il le développera ensuite dans son œuvre une résurgence et excroissance du gnosticisme cherchant ici-bas le salut par la divinisation de l’homme ? C’est la thèse de Gómez Dávila qui radicalise celle de Voegelin en faisant de la gnose l’origine de la religion démocratique et de ses dérivations dans l’ordre théologico-politique (athéisme, progressisme, relativisme, étatisme et totalitarisme) et anthropologico-juridique (égalitarisme, jusnaturalisme et individualisme). / Beyond dispersion set of themes and aphoristic of the work of the Colombian philosopher Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913-1994), a spectrum haunts his thought: the spectrum of the Gnosticism. Which link this current religious or para religious born within the Roman Empire between 1st and the 3rd century of our era, can it have with our modern world? Which maintenance report this current with philosophy? Indeed, philosophical knowledge is completely different from gnostic “knowledge” (gnosis). Whereas philosophy, on the one hand, is based on a research of the truth starting from a questioning on reality, the gnosis is closely related to an experiment of revelation, so that the reception of the truth, by interior illumination, replaces the theory and the rational argument. In addition, it has as an aim the way of the salvation, without theoretical teaching, by transformation or destruction of reality. One can thus only wonder about coincidences between the old gnosis and what the Austria-american philosopher Éric Voegelin (1901-1985) named “modernity without restraint”. Couldn’t one see in the modern ideologies (communism, socialism, nationalism, liberalism, etc.) following the example of Éric Voegelin, “political religions” or, as it will then develop it in his work a resurgence and growth of Gnosticism seeking here below salvation by the deification of the man? It is the thesis of Gómez Dávila which radicalizes that of Voegelin by making gnosis the origin of the democratic religion and its derivations in the theologico-polical (atheism, progressism, relativism, statism and totalitarianism) and anthropologico-legal order (egalitarianism, jusnaturalism and individualism).

Quelle qualification morale peut-on attribuer aux criminels nazis ? Sont-ils des fous ? Peut-on leur imputer sans réserve la responsabilité de leurs actes ? Si on ne peut rendre le mal totalitaire imputable comme le mal gnostique, l’assimilation du totalitarisme à une récidive gnostique par Eric Voegelin invite à réfléchir à nouveaux frais à la problématique de la responsabilité des criminels de masse. D’une part, le "situationnisme", qui implique que c’est la situation qui transforme des individus en meurtriers de masse et le "dispositionnisme" qui désigne l’importance que peuvent revêtir les dispositions individuelles chez les criminels de masse, et d’autre part l’illusion et l’idéologie caractérisées, l’une et l’autre par la mise à l’écart de la réalité, rendent complexe la question de l’imputation des criminels génocidaires. Si ces derniers ne peuvent être disculpés, la complexité de la question de leur imputation est indéniable. Cette complexité est peut-être une invite à reconsidérer la cause sous-jacente à ce type de mal : le dualisme gnostique du bien et du mal dont le propre est de vouloir en finir avec le mal. Or la rage d’en finir avec le mal conduit souvent à la barbarie. / What moral qualification can be attributed to Nazi criminals? Are they crazy? Can we blame them unreservedly for their actions? If we can not make totalitarian evil imputable like the gnostic evil, the assimilation of totalitarianism to a Gnostic recidivism by Eric Voegelin invites us to think freshly about the problem of the responsibility of mass criminals. On the one hand, "situationism", which implies that it is the situation that transforms individuals into mass murderers and "dispositionalism" that designates the importance that individual dispositions can have for mass criminals, and On the other hand, the illusion and the ideology characterized, both by the exclusion of reality, make the question of the imputation of genocidal criminals complex. If the latter can not be exculpated, the complexity of the question of their imputation is undeniable. This complexity is perhaps an invitation to reconsider the underlying cause of this type of evil: the gnostic dualism of good and evil, whose own is to want to put an end to evil. But the rage to end evil leads often to barbarism.

Text in English / Summary: This work aims at establishing Jung's importance as a Nietzsche commentator. Although Jung's work is generally unacknowledged by the mainstream of Nietzsche scholarship, a number of philosophers have joined him in recognizing the relevance of Iranian religious lore to Nietzsche; the visionary nature of Nietzsche's experiences of Zarathustra; and the link between these experiences and his criticism of ethics. Jung sees Nietzsche as something of a kindred spirit, "and refers to that philosopher again and again throughout his writings. In his seminar on Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra, Jung analyzes that work much as he would a patient's dream. While this approach allows Jung to project his own views onto Nietzsche, it also succeeds in restoring essential aspects of Nietzsche's thought which other, less foolhardy commentators fail to capture. Nietzsche and Jung both speak of going "beyond good and evil" (jenseits von Gut und Bose) as an integral part of their respective conceptions of human fulfillment. The notion that we ought to try to transcend the distinction between good and evil, rather than obstinately cling to the good, potentially constitutes an immense, fundamental challenge to our ordinary beliefs about ethics. At the same time, Jung's elaboration of this into a more general form of nonduality suggests a solution to that most basic problem of ethics--which Nietzsche raised most forcefully--namely that of how ethical standards might be justified without falling prey to such basic obstacles as the "is/ought" problem. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Philosophy)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcos Fleury de Oliveira.pdf: 1739750 bytes, checksum: bdede1f9fae46b5453477a6e8f542e27 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-30 / The main objective of this study is to deepen the religious thought of C. G. Jung as a possible expansion of knowledge in the field of Religious Science. Within the subdiscipline of Psychology of Religion, Jung can be considered as one of its main representatives and its most significant theoretical contributions covered a wide field of dialogue with philosophy, Christian theology, mythology and history of religions. However, his work needs further studies so that we can overcome a range of misunderstandings, besides interdisciplinary, theoretical and epistemological disputes. To achieve this end, we propose here to investigate the distinct layers of meaning of religious experience - the object of this work - in order to reflect the uniqueness and centrality of this notion in his theory and his worldview. Our hypothesis is that there is in Jungian thought a significant theoretical development from the time that Jung deepens the study of religions, which would allow us to recognize a new level in reference to what is traditionally called a religious experience, particularly within the Christian tradition. Jung seeks to move away from the atheistic reductionism of Freud, and also from the opposite position of the "omnipotence" and "omniscience" of theological discourse, trying to create a reserved niche of "knowledge" (gnosis / science) about the religious experience. In other words, Jung proposes and seeks to demonstrate that one could speak of the experience of God, validly and efficiently, without the corsets of metaphysics and theology. In support to our research we resorted on the canonical work of Jung, the work of commentators and letter-writing materials available / O objetivo principal deste trabalho é o aprofundamento do pensamento religioso de Carl Gustav Jung como possibilidade de ampliação do conhecimento no campo das Ciências da Religião. Dentro da subdisciplina da Psicologia da Religião, Jung pode ser considerado como um de seus mais expressivos representantes e seus aportes teóricos cobriram um amplo campo de diálogo com a filosofia, a teologia cristã, a mitologia e a história das religiões. Contudo, sua obra ainda precisa ser mais estudada a fim de que possamos superar uma gama de mal-entendidos, controvérsias interdisciplinares, teóricas e epistemológicas. Para tanto, propomo-nos, aqui, a pesquisar em sua obra os sentidos da experiência religiosa objeto deste trabalho de modo a tentar refletir a especificidade e a centralidade dessa noção dentro de sua teoria e de sua visão de mundo. Nossa hipótese é de que há no pensamento junguiano um significativo desenvolvimento teórico a partir do momento que Jung aprofundou-se no estudo das religiões, o qual nos permitiria reconhecer um novo patamar em referência ao que tradicionalmente se chamou de experiência religiosa , sobretudo no âmbito da tradição cristã. Jung procurou afastar-se do reducionismo ateísta de Freud, afastando-se, também, da posição contrária da onipotência e onisciência do discurso teológico, tentando, assim, criar um nicho reservado de saber (gnose / ciência) acerca da experiência religiosa. Em outras palavras, Jung propôs e procurou demonstrar que seria possível falar da experiência de Deus, de forma válida e eficiente, sem os espartilhos da metafísica e da teologia. Para fundamentar nossa pesquisa recorremos à obra canônica de Jung, ao trabalho de comentadores e ao material epistolar disponível