In a religious context, the practice of contemplation seeks a direct awareness of the divine which
transcends the intellect, often in accordance with
prayer or
meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...
.
Etymology
The word ''contemplation'' is derived from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
word ''contemplatio'', ultimately from the Latin word ''templum'', a piece of ground consecrated for the taking of auspices, or a building for worship. The latter either derives from the
Proto-Indo-European root ''*tem-'' ("to cut"), on notion of "place reserved or cut out", or from the root *''temp''- ("to stretch, string"), thus referring to a cleared (measured) space in front of an altar. The Latin word ''contemplatio'' was used to translate the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
word ''θεωρία'' (''
theōría'').
Greek philosophy
Contemplation was an important part of the
philosophy of
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
; Plato thought that through contemplation, the soul may ascend to knowledge of the
Form of the Good
"Form of the Good", or more literally "the idea of the good" () is a concept in the philosophy of Plato. The definition of the Good is a perfect, eternal, and changeless Form, existing outside space and time. It is a Platonic ideal.
Uses in '' ...
or other divine Forms.
Plotinus
Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher wa ...
as a
(neo)Platonic philosopher also expressed contemplation as the most critical of components for one to reach
henosis
Henosis ( grc, ἕνωσις) is the classical Greek word for mystical "oneness", "union" or "unity". In Platonism, and especially Neoplatonism, henosis is unification with what is fundamental in reality: the One ( Τὸ Ἕν), the Source, ...
.
To Plotinus the highest contemplation was to experience the vision of God, the
Monad
Monad may refer to:
Philosophy
* Monad (philosophy), a term meaning "unit"
**Monism, the concept of "one essence" in the metaphysical and theological theory
** Monad (Gnosticism), the most primal aspect of God in Gnosticism
* ''Great Monad'', a ...
or the One. Plotinus describes this experience in his works the
Enneads
The ''Enneads'' ( grc-gre, Ἐννεάδες), fully ''The Six Enneads'', is the collection of writings of the philosopher Plotinus, edited and compiled by his student Porphyry (270). Plotinus was a student of Ammonius Saccas, and together th ...
. According to his student Porphyry, Plotinus stated that he had this experience of God four times. Plotinus wrote about his experience in Enneads 6.9.
Judaism
A number of sources have described the importance of contemplation in Jewish traditions, especially in
Jewish meditation
Jewish meditation includes practices of settling the mind, introspection, visualization, emotional insight, contemplation of Names of God in Judaism, divine names, or concentration on philosophical, ethical or mystical ideas. Meditation may accom ...
. Contemplation was central to the teaching of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who taught that contemplating God involves recognizing moral perfection, and that one must interrupt contemplation to attend to the poor. Contemplation has also been central to the
Musar movement
The Musar movement (also Mussar movement) is a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Lithuania, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term (), is adopted from the Book of Proverbs (1 ...
.
Islam
In Islamic tradition, it is said that
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
would go into the desert, climb a mountain known as
Mount Hira, and seclude himself from the world. While on the mountain, he would contemplate life and its meaning.
Bahai Faith
Baha'u'llah and
Abdu'l-Baha wrote about contemplation and meditation in regards to reflecting on beauty, the Kingdom of God, science, and the arts. Abdu'l-Baha stated that "the sign of the intellect is contemplation and the sign of contemplation is silence... he cannot both speak and meditate".
Christianity
In
Eastern Christianity, contemplation (
theoria) literally means to see God or to have the Vision of God. The state of beholding God, or union with God, is known as theoria. The process of
Theosis which leads to that state of union with God known as theoria is practiced in the
ascetic tradition of
Hesychasm. Hesychasm is to reconcile the heart and the mind into one thing (see
nous).
Contemplation in Eastern Orthodoxy is expressed in degrees as those covered in St
John Climacus'
Ladder of Divine Ascent
''The Ladder of Divine Ascent'' or ''Ladder of Paradise'' (Κλίμαξ; ''Scala'' or ''Climax Paradisi'') is an important ascetical treatise for monasticism in Eastern Christianity, written by John Climacus in AD; it was requested by John, Abb ...
. The process of changing from the old man of sin into the newborn child of God and into our true nature as good and divine is called
Theosis.
This is to say that once someone is in the presence of God, deified with him, then they can begin to properly understand, and there "contemplate" God. This form of contemplation is to have and pass through an actual experience rather than a rational or reasoned understanding of theory (see
Gnosis
Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge ( γνῶσις, ''gnōsis'', f.). The term was used among various Hellenistic religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. It is best known for its implication within Gnosticism, where it ...
). Whereas with rational thought one uses logic to understand, one does the opposite with God (see also
Apophatic theology).
The anonymously authored 14th century English contemplative work ''
The Cloud of Unknowing'' makes clear that its form of practice is not an act of the intellect, but a kind of transcendent 'seeing,' beyond the usual activities of the mind - "The first time you practice contemplation, you'll experience a darkness, like a cloud of unknowing. You won't know what this is... this darkness and this cloud will always be between you and your God... they will always keep you from seeing him clearly by the light of understanding in your intellect and will block you from feeling Him fully in the sweetness of love in your emotions. So be sure to make your home in this darkness... We can't think our way to God... that's why I'm willing to abandon everything I know, to love the one thing I cannot think. He can be loved, but not thought."
Within Western
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
contemplation is often related to
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...
as expressed in the works of
mystical theologians such as
Teresa of Avila
Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; french: Thérèse) is a feminine given name.
It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') "to harvest or rea ...
and
John of the Cross
John of the Cross, OCD ( es, link=no, Juan de la Cruz; la, Ioannes a Cruce; born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez; 24 June 1542 – 14 December 1591) was a Spanish Catholic priest, mystic, and a Carmelite friar of converso origin. He is a major figu ...
as well as the writings of
Margery Kempe
'
Margery Kempe ( – after 1438) was an English Christian mystic, known for writing through dictation ''The Book of Margery Kempe'', a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. Her book chronicles Kempe's d ...
,
Augustine Baker
Fr. Augustine Baker OSB (9 December 1575 – 9 August 1641), also sometimes known as "Fr. Austin Baker", was a well-known Benedictine mystic and an ascetic writer. He was one of the earliest members of the English Benedictine Congregation ...
and
Thomas Merton.
Dom
Cuthbert Butler notes that contemplation was the term used in the Latin Church to refer to mysticism, and "'mysticism' is a quite modern word".
Meditation
In Christianity, contemplation refers to a content-free mind directed towards the awareness of
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
as a living reality. Meditation, on the other hand, for many centuries in the Western Church, referred to more cognitively active exercises, such as visualizations of Biblical scenes as in the
Ignatian exercises or ''
lectio divina
In Western Christianity, ''Lectio Divina'' (Latin for "Divine Reading") is a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's word. In the v ...
'' in which the practitioner "listens to the text of the Bible with the 'ear of the heart', as if he or she is in conversation with God, and God is suggesting the topics for discussion."
In Catholic Christianity, contemplation is given importance. The Catholic Church's "model theologian", St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "It is requisite for the good of the human community that there should be persons who devote themselves to the life of contemplation." One of his disciples,
Josef Pieper commented: "For it is contemplation which preserves in the midst of human society the truth which is at one and the same time useless and the yardstick of every possible use; so it is also contemplation which keeps the true end in sight, gives meaning to every practical act of life." Pope John Paul II in the Apostolic Letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae" referred specifically to the catholic devotion of the
Holy Rosary as "an exquisitely contemplative prayer" and said that "By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed."
According to Aquinas, the highest form of life is the contemplative which communicates the fruits of contemplation to others, since it is based on the abundance of contemplation (''contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere'') (
ST, III, Q. 40, A. 1, Ad 2).
See also
*
Attunement
*
Contemplative education
*
Contemplative prayer
Christian mysticism is the tradition of mystical practices and mystical theology within Christianity which "concerns the preparation f the personfor, the consciousness of, and the effect of ..a direct and transformative presence of God" ...
*
Henosis
Henosis ( grc, ἕνωσις) is the classical Greek word for mystical "oneness", "union" or "unity". In Platonism, and especially Neoplatonism, henosis is unification with what is fundamental in reality: the One ( Τὸ Ἕν), the Source, ...
*
Hesychasm
*
Interior life
*
Miksang (contemplative photography)
*
Prayer of Quiet
*
Quietism (Christian philosophy)
*
Religious experience
A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense ...
Notes
References
Further reading
*
Butler, Cuthbert. ''Western Mysticism: Augustine, Gregory and Bernard on Contemplation and the Contemplative Life''. Dover, Mineola, New York, 2003. second ed. (Originally published by E.P. Dutton, London 1926).
*
Lossky, Vladimir. ''The Vision of God''. SVS Press, 1997.
* Papanikolaou, Aristotle. ''Being With God''. University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.
*Plested, Marcus.''The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition''. Oxford Theological Monographs, 2004.
*
Spidlik, Tomas. ''The Spirituality of the Christian East: A Systematic Handbook''. Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo Michigan, 1986.
*
Staniloae, Dumitru. ''The Experience of God: Revelation and Knowledge of the Triune God''. Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Volume 1. Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2005.
*
Staniloae, Dumitru. ''The Experience of God: The World, Creation and Deification''. Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Volume 2. Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2005.
External links
Aristotle: Why the Contemplative Life is the Happiest(
Nicomachean Ethics 10.7). English and Greek.
* Philo of Alexandria
On the Contemplative Life
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Christian prayer
Concepts in metaphysics
Concepts in the philosophy of mind
Meditation
Metaphysics of mind
Philosophy of psychology
Philosophy of religion
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