Stichwort: Spiritualität

Autor, Quelle: Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Titel: Reinheit - Welt

Index: Imaginationen der Unfreiheit: Kampf des "Einsiedler", nicht des Weltmenschen

Kurzinhalt: Devils do not bother us when we are in the world, and this is because they think that, if we are not attacked there, we will continue to stay with worldly-minded people. The place of temptation is the place where ...

Text: 179d Some solitary monks, as I have said already, have to face vastly more dangerous attacks from the demons. And no wonder, since these are the places where the devils choose to lurk, because the Lord, out of concern for us, has driven them to desert places1 and to the dark reaches of hell. The devils of fornication launch vicious attacks on solitary monks. They try to drive them back into the world, by making them think that their time in the desert has been wasted. Devils do not bother us when we are in the world, and this is because they think that, if we are not attacked there, we will continue to stay with worldly-minded people. The place of temptation is the place where we find ourselves having to put up a bitter fight against the enemy, and wherever we are not involved in a struggle is surely the place where the enemy is posing as a friend. (Fs) (notabene)

Stichwort: Spiritualität

Autor, Quelle: Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Titel: Reinheit - Unterscheidung (Kirchenväter)

Index: Unterscheidung: Herausforderung, Sich-Einlassen, Zustimmung, Versklavung, Kampf, Habitus (provocation, coupling, assent, captivity, struggle, habit)

Kurzinhalt: Among the discerning Fathers, distinctions are recognized between provocation, coupling, assent, captivity, struggle, and the disease called passion, which is in the soul.

Text: 181d Among the discerning Fathers, distinctions are recognized between provocation, coupling, assent, captivity, struggle, and the disease called passion, which is in the soul.1 These blessed Fathers say that provocation is a simple word or image encountered for the first time, which has entered into the heart. Coupling is conversation with what has been encountered, whether this be passionately or otherwise. Assent is the delighted yielding of the soul to what it has encountered. Captivity is a forcible and unwilling abduction of the heart, a permanent lingering with what we have encountered and which totally undermines the necessary order of our souls. By struggle they mean force equal to that which is leading the attack, and this force wins or loses according to the desires of the spirit. Passion, in their view, is properly something that lies hidden for a long time in the soul and by its very presence it takes on the character of a habit, until the soul of its own accord clings to it with affection. (Fs) (notabene)

192a The first of these conditions is free of sin, the second sometimes, and the condition of the soul determines whether or not the third is sinful. Struggle can earn a crown or punishment. Captivity is judged in different ways, depending on whether it happens at the time of prayer or at some other time, whether it happens in regard to what is unimportant or in the context of evil thoughts. But passion is unequivocally denounced in every situation and requires suitable repentance or future punishment. From all of which it follows that he who regards the first encounter with detachment cuts off with one blow all the rest that follow. (Fs) (notabene)

Stichwort: Spiritualität

Autor, Quelle: Climacus, John, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Titel: Reinheit - pararripismos

Index: pararripismos; Unruhe des Geistes

Kurzinhalt: In a moment, without a word being spoken or an image presented, a sudden passionate urge lays hold of the victim. It comes faster than anything in the physical world and is swifter and more indiscernible than any spirit.

Text: 192b The most exact of the spiritual Fathers point to another more subtle notion, something they call pararripismos, or disturbance1 of the mind. What happens is this. In a moment, without a word being spoken or an image presented, a sudden passionate urge lays hold of the victim. It comes faster than anything in the physical world and is swifter and more indiscernible than any spirit. It makes its appearance in the soul by a simple memory, which is unconnected with anything, independent of time and inexpressible, and in some cases comes without the person himself realizing the fact. Someone who has been able to detect such a subtlety, someone with the gift of mourning, may be able to explain how with the eye alone, with a mere glance, by the touch of a hand, through a song overheard, the soul is led to commit a definite sin of unchastity without any notion or evil thought. (Fs) (notabene)

183a Some say that it is the thought of fornication that introduces passion into the body, while others deny this, insisting that evil thoughts derive from the capacity of the body to experience things sensual. The former declare that if the mind had not taken the lead, the body would not have followed.2a But the latter maintain that their view is proved by the depravity of bodily passion, for, very often, a pleasing sight, a touch of the hand, the scent of perfume, or the sound of sweet voices can be enough to generate evil thoughts. If anyone can do so in the Lord, let him explain what really happens. It would greatly benefit those living actively to understand this, though this problem need not really concern those practicing virtue with simple hearts. Still, not everyone has the necessary degree of understanding and not everyone possesses the holy simplicity that is a breastplate against the cunning of evil demons. (Fs)