Contemplation of the divine contexts and imagery in Old English Boethius Kontempliacijos vaizd iai ir kontekstai Boetijaus Filosofijos paguodos vertime sen j angl kalb.docVIP

ISSN 0258–0802. LITERAT?RA 2007 49 (4) CONTEMPLATION OF THE DIVINE: CONTEXTS AND IMAGERY IN OLD ENGLISH BOETHIUS1 R?ta Zukien? Doctoral student at the Medieval Studies Department, Central European University, Budapest The Fatherland is there whence we have come elements qui ne sont pas séparés: connaissan- and there is the Father. ce de Dieu supérieure, mais générale et confu- What then is our course, what the manner of se, et amour très précieux, mais irraisonné, l’un our flight? This is not a journey for feet... et l’autre directement verses par Dieu dans you must close the eyes and call instead upon 2 l’ame.” ) On the other hand, the earlier tradi- another vision which is to be awakened within you. Plotinus, Ennead I.6.8. tion of Christian thinking that I am investiga- ting here contains much less of the passionate religious experience and more of the conscio- There are different varieties of mystical expe- us intellectual cognition of the divine, which rience and of contemplation of the divine; the- very often finds its expression in rather cold refore, it is important to know what precisely intellectual and philosophical terms, so much is taken as the object of research in this paper. so that, as in the case of Augustine, Dom Cut- Theologians often describe mysticism in the hbert Butler finds it valid to ask, whether it is medieval West in terms of religious experien- not the “language of an exalted Platonism desc- ce that manifests itself through a passive re- ribing only the higher operations of the intel- ception of the overwhelming flow of divine lect? In other words, the question has to be fa- grace. Le Dictionnaire de Spiritualité defines 3 ced: is it Mysticism, or is it Platonism?” In- mysticism as consisting of two inseparable ele- deed, the Christianity of Late Antiquity and ments, the penetrating knowledge, or vision, subsequently that of the early Middle Ages of God and the passionate love of Him,