234 pages

English

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The Secret of the Christian Way , livre ebook

State University of New York Press - Jean Borella ,
traduit par G. John Champoux

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234 pages

English

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Gathering key writings from the French religious philosopher Jean Borella's works, this book moves the reader from the immediacy of the physical world to a world deep within ourselves. Throughout Borella's writings, there is a "resurrectional" power to his words, a way of seeing things that "makes all things new," that endows us with an ability to look anew on Christ and his Body the Church. Translator and editor G. John Champoux has used a selection from Saint Bonaventure's The Soul's Journey into God to preface each of Borella's writings and to show how these insights can take us from our ordinary surroundings into our innermost world.

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments

Prologue
The Gnosis with a True Name

The First Stage
Contemplating God through His Vestiges in the Universe

1. Trinity and Creation

The Second Stage
Contemplating God in His Vestiges in the Sense World
2. The Inevitable "Failure" of Nicholas of Cusa
3. The Essence of the Symbol

The Third Stage
Contemplating God through His Image Stamped upon Our Natural Powers
4. The Constitution of Man According to the New Testament

The Fourth Stage
Contemplating God in His Image Reformed by the Gifts of Grace
5. Love and Gnosis in the Crucified Mediator
6. The Human Ternary and the Opening of the Heart in the Old Testament

The Fifth Stage
Contemplating the Divine Unity through Its Primary Name which Is Being
7. Love of Self and Love of God

The Sixth Stage
Contemplating the Most Blessed Trinity in Its Name which is Good
8. The Trinitarian Functions of the Hypostases

The Seventh Stage
The Sabbath of Rest and Ecstasy
9. The Essence and Forms of the "Body of Christ"
10. The "Body of Christ" and the Work of Salvation
11. The Metaphysics of the Eternal Exposition

Endnotes
Select Bibliography
Name and Theme Index
Scriptural Index

Sujets

Religion

Christianisme

Catholic Church

Mysticism

Informations

Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	01 février 2001
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780791491188
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1648€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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CHAPTERTITLE

The Secret of the Christian Way

PARTTITLE

SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions David Appelbaum, Editor

CHAPTERTITLE

The Secret of the Christian Way

A Contemplative Ascent through the Writings of Jean Borella

Edited and Translated by G. John Champoux

State University of New York Press

III

PARTTITLE

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, N.Y. 12207

Production by Michael Haggett Marketing by Fran Keneston

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Borella, Jean. [Selections. English. 2001] The secret of the Christian way : a contemplative ascent through the writings of Jean Borella / edited and translated by G. John Champoux. p. cm. — (SUNY series in Western esoteric traditions) Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. Contents: The gnosis with a true name — Trinity and creation — The inevitable “failure” of Nicholas of Cusa — The essence of the symbol — The constitution of man according to the New Testament — Love and gnosis in the crucified mediator — The human ternary and the opening of the heart in the Old Testament — Love of self and love of God — The Trinitarian functions of the Hypostases — The essence and forms of the “Body of Christ” — The “Body of Christ” and the work of salvation — The metaphysics of the eternal exposition. ISBN 0-7914-4843-6 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-4844-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Spiritual life—Catholic Church. 2. Borella, Jean—Religion. I. Champoux, G. John, 1946- II. Title. III. Series.

B2430.B58761 C48 230'.2—dc21

2001

00-033838

Foreword Preface Acknowledgments

Contents

Prologue The Gnosis with a True Name

The First Stage Contemplating God through His Vestiges in the Universe 1 Trinity and Creation

The Second Stage Contemplating God in His Vestiges in the Sense World 2 The Inevitable “Failure” of Nicholas of Cusa 3 The Essence of the Symbol

The Third Stage Contemplating God through His Image Stamped upon Our Natural Powers 4 The Constitution of Man According to the New Testament

The Fourth Stage Contemplating God in His Image Reformed by the Gifts of Grace 5 Love and Gnosis in the Crucified Mediator 6 The Human Ternary and the Opening of the Heart in the Old Testament

vii xv xvii 1 5 29

33 41

45 55 71

75 89

103

CONTENTS

The Fifth Stage Contemplating the Divine Unity through Its Primary Name which Is Being 7 Love of Self and Love of God

The Sixth Stage Contemplating the Most Blessed Trinity in Its Name which is Good 8 The Trinitarian Functions of the Hypostases

The Seventh Stage The Sabbath of Rest and Ecstasy 9 The Essence and Forms of the “Body of Christ” 10 The “Body of Christ” and the Work of Salvation 11 The Metaphysics of the Eternal Exposition

Endnotes Select Bibliography Name and Theme Index Scriptural Index

115

119 131

135 149

153 163 173 181 205 207 213

Foreword

True to its title, this book confronts us with the “secret” of the Christian way; it “exposes” that secret, one might almost say, in the specifically Catholic sense of “exposition.” The subtitle, too, is accurate; we are taken on a journey through the writings of Jean Borella, which is moreover bound to be contemplative, given the aforesaid focus of the book. After all, it is only through an act of contemplation that one is able to behold a “secret,” a true mys-tery. From beginning to end, therefore, the book invites the reader to such acts; it brings out, if you will, the contemplative in us. The journey, finally, is directed; it proceeds from the external to the internal, toward the very heart of reality—and so it consti-tutes indeed an “ascent.” The course represents or replicates, in fact, the spiritual journey itself. The mystery, moreover, which confronts us at every stage, is also, and above all, a mystery of change, of transformation—of spiritual alchemy; indeed, it is ulti-mately “the secret of the Christian way.” Up till now Borella has not been well-known in the English-speaking world. To date only one of his books has been published in English (The Sense of the Supernatural,Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998). It seems that Borella is currently being “discovered” both in England and in the United States. For some years, to be sure, the French author had been known in these domains to a comparative few as one of the major intellectual figures of our time, a judgment with which, I believe, readers of this book will heartily agree. But what exactly is Borella? Is he a philosopher, first of all, or a theolo-gian? A professor of philosophy, he nonetheless is actually both. I would add that this should, by right, surprise no one, given that God is the first—and in a sense that needs to be clarified, theonly— reality. Even the scientist in quest of enlightenment is ultimately

vii

viii

THESECRET OF THECHRISTIANWAY

obliged to turn theologian. As Hans Urs von Balthasar has beauti-fully put it: “Our thought and love should penetrate the flesh of things like X-rays and bring to light the divine bones in them. This is why every thinker must be religious.” Now, Borella, most as-suredly, is among those whose “thought and love” does penetrate to the divine bones. We need however to ask ourselves what are the distinguishing features of this philosopher-theologian. The primary answer to this question is clear: Borella is, first and foremost, a Catholic. Yet I would add immediately that even in the restricted class ofCatholicphilosophers and theologians—I mean those who are truly such, truly “in the tradition”—Borella stands out by virtue of two salient characteristics: the striking depth and universality of his thought. A born philosopher, he is, by his own account, “in-stinctively Platonist.” It appears that at the age of fourteen he was already occupied with theMeditationsof Descartes, and by the time 1 he encountered the writings of René Guénon during his college years could discern that the latter was, in essence, expounding the 2 Platonic metaphysics “such as I discovered in myself.” Nonethe-less, the encounter with Guénon has doubtless had a decisive impact upon the young philosopher. One may presume that it helped im-mensely to clarify the metaphysical intuitions native to his intellect, and enabled him, at the same time, to acquire a profound grasp of Vedantic, Taoist, and Islamic doctrines, of an authenticity rarely to be met in the West. It is however important to note that Borella has never acquiesced to Guénon when it comes to Christianity, and has remained all along staunchly Catholic in his religious and theologi-3 cal orientation. Yet the contact with Guénon and with the Oriental traditions must have provided a powerful stimulus—a veritable im-perative—to deepen and universalize his understanding of the Catholic faith. It has thus prepared and empowered Borella to con-tribute effectively to the accomplishment of one of the major tasks confronting the Catholic Church today, which is to bring her teach-ing—timeless in its essence—into harmony with all that is true and profound in the doctrines of the East. Only by bringing this task to completion, I believe, can the Church realize and manifest her own God-given universality—her true “catholicity”—and thus fulfill her divinely appointed mission. Concerning Borella’s stand in regard to the Second Vatican Council and its aftermath, I will note that it is this question, pre-

Foreword

cisely, which has “provoked” his first book,La charité profanée (1979), a work that unmasks and definitively refutes the miscon-ceptions rampant to this day within the postconciliar Church. Whosoever has read the prologue to that treatise will likely agree that no more penetrating and poignant denunciation of the con-temporary betrayal has ever been penned. And yet—as is already suggested by what has previously been said—it would also be a mis-take to classify Borella as a “traditionalist” in the current sense. He exemplifies rather a balance and an openness to all that is right and true that precludes any partisanship or factional identification. In this respect, too, it seems to me that Borella is fulfilling a major task of our time. His is a voice that rises above the bias, schisms, and po-larizations that presently afflict “the one holy catholic and apostolic Church,” a voice that recalls to the fullness of the authentic Catholic tradition, and helps us, Deo volente, not only to under-stand, but above all tolivethe Catholic truth. I find his work remarkable as much for the breadth of its scope as for the unity of its message and focus. In a single critical survey, for instance, which commences with a penetrating inquiry into ancient and medieval cosmology, and proceeds, by way of Nicolas Cusanus, to Kepler and Galileo, and thence to Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, and Freud, and onto postmodernism, as represented by Levi-Strauss, Foucault, and Derrida—a survey occu-pying some three hundred pages—in this entire sweep, I say, Borella 4 is making a single major philosophical point. Such striking coher-ence, moreover, is altogether typical of Borella’s work, whether we take it book by book, or as a whole. One has the impression that the entire gamut of discourse, filling so many volumes and covering an immense range of topics, is held together as if by a single strand of thought, a single vision of truth. Now, I believe this underlying vi-sion—this veritable master key to the writings of Borella—has found its most direct expression in a metaphysics of symbolic reference, a philosophical doctrine of Platonist inspiration, which Borella on oc-casion termssymbolic realism. It is this philosophical doctrine that has earned Professor Borella the coveteddoctorat d’État,and more-over forms the basis of a trilogy, of which as yet only the first two 5 volumes have appeared. Let me add that the reader of the present book will catch a glimpse of that doctrine in chapter 3 (“The Essence of the Symbol”), which however may not be fully comprehensible by