Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия (Dec 2021)
Spiritual pilgrimage in 14th century medieval english mysticism: cognitive schemes and narrative practices
Abstract
This article reconstructs cognitive schemes and narrative practices in medieval vernacular English mysticism of the 14th century through the conceptual metaphor of the pilgrimage of the soul. The two-part nature and methodological productivity of this metaphor determines the purpose and structure of the article. In the fi rst section, the legacy of the virtuosos of spiritual work is analysed in accordance with the hypothesis of spatial representation of form proposed by Lakoff and Johnson. The similarity of the doctrines of Roll, Hilton, the author of the “Cloud of Unknowing”, and Juliana of Norwich is determined by the kinesthetic scheme of the source-path-goal based on the experience of moving in space. It allows us to establish a correlation between the area of movement, the starting point of which is the fallen state of man, and the area of the goal, which is to restore the image of God in man. The orientation of this scheme along the time line is realised as a scenario of human transformation on the way to God. The difference in the types of introverted pilgrimage is explained by the combination of hierarchical ladder structures with the schemes of the part and the whole, of the centre and periphery, of a receptacle. This enables the spiritual pilgrim to discover the infi nity of soul in God. The second section examines the relationship between mysticism and society in the conceptual optics of Bourdieu and Foucault. English vernacular mysticism of the 14th century refl ects the changing ways of mediation between the individual and the generalised canons of traditional culture. It adapts traditional devotional monastic practices, i.e. Bible reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation to the needs of the laity. In this way, the “island version of modern piety” with its ideal of “mixed life” is formed. The lyrically reinterpreted “grammar of salvation” anticipates the proto-Renaissance concepts of human perfection, restored by the inexhaustible love of God the Father in the Son, and creates the conditions for proto-reformational reconfigurations of the religious fi eld.
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