: A Philosophical Tale\u00a0<\/em>(Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009), where we\u2019re focusing on Professor Goodman\u2019s translation of a wonderful Andalusian text from the twelfth century.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In that previous entry, I introduced the text\u2019s distinction between learning about something, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, seeing something directly, which is something like the difference between\u00a0knowing about somebody and knowing somebody \u2014 corresponding, roughly, to the contrast between the German verbs wissen<\/em> and kennen<\/em>. \u00a0Ibn Tufayl, the text\u2019s author, uses terms like ecstasy<\/em> and intimacy<\/em> to describe the sort of direct experiential knowledge of the divine that he has in mind.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I quote now another passage from that text in which Ibn Tufayl addresses the person to whom he is ostensibly writing. \u00a0(That person may be a real individual or, alternatively, a fictional literary device not unlike \u201cWormwood,\u201d the junior tempter to whom the senior demon \u201cScrewtape\u201d writes his famous letters in C. S. Lewis\u2019s The Screwtape Letters<\/em> or, for that matter, like the \u201cTheophilus\u201d of Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1, who may have been an actual historical correspondent of Luke\u2019s, but whose name, Greek for \u201cFriend of God\u201d or \u201cLover of God,\u201d has always struck me as somewhat suspicious.) \u00a0Anyway, here is Ibn Tufayl:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
You may be asking what is actually seen by those who undergo the experience and reach intimacy. \u00a0If so, this is something which cannot be put into a book. \u00a0Whenever anyone tries to entrust it to words or to the written page its essence is distorted and it slips into that other, purely theoretical branch of discourse. \u00a0For, clothed in letters and sounds and brought into the perceptible world, it cannot remain, in any way, what it was. \u00a0Accounts of it, thus, differ widely. \u00a0Many stray into error by trying to describe it, yet presume others to have strayed who never left the path. \u00a0All this is because it is something vast, infinite \u2014 encompassing, but unencompassed.<\/span><\/p>\nBut on the other hand you may desire a discursive, intellectualized introduction to this experience. \u00a0And this \u2014 God honor you with His intimacy \u2014 is something that can be put into words and set down in books. \u00a0(98-99)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I think, in this context, of the experience that Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4, an ascension experience that, by the way, is symbolically and ritually represented (in my view) by certain elements of Latter-day Saint temple worship:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is not expedient for me doubtless to\u00a0glory. I will come to\u00a0visions\u00a0and\u00a0revelations\u00a0of the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\nI\u00a0knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the\u00a0body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the\u00a0third\u00a0heaven.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)<\/span><\/p>\nHow that he was caught up into\u00a0paradise, and heard\u00a0unspeakable\u00a0words, which it is\u00a0not\u00a0lawful\u00a0for a man to utter.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Note that there is a two-fold constraint on Paul\u2019s ability to tell us what he heard in paradise. \u00a0(The \u201cman\u201d to whom Paul refers is clearly Paul himself.) \u00a0The \u201cwords\u201d that he was given were not merely unlawful or impermissible for him to share (\u03bf\u1f50\u03ba \u1f10\u03be\u1f78\u03bd \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u1ff3 \u03bb\u03b1\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9)\u00a0but actually \u201cunspeakable\u201d or inexpressible (\u1f04\u03c1\u03c1\u03b7\u03c4\u03b1 \u1fe5\u03ae\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1).<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I mentioned the other day that among the classes that I\u2019m teaching this term is Middle East Studies (Arabic) 467R, which is also listed as Philosophy 360R. \u00a0The first book that we\u2019re reading for the class is\u00a0Lenn Evan Goodman,\u00a0Ibn Tufayl\u2019s\u00a0Hayy ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale\u00a0(Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2001,1998,3160,653,656,3163,2110,2010,641],"class_list":["post-69439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ascension","tag-ascent","tag-hayy-ibn-yaqzan","tag-ibn-tufail","tag-ibn-tufayl","tag-neoplatonism","tag-sufi","tag-sufism","tag-temple"],"yoast_head":"\n
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