Encountering God (theophany) is depicted as an experience
that guarantees death. For instance the two episodes of Gideon (Judges 6:22-23)
and Manoah (Judges 13:22), in both cases subjects fear for their lives,
"you are not going to die," or "we shall surely die, for we have
seen God." What is interesting to observe is both Gideon (Judges 6:17-18)
and Manoah (13:17;22) wishes a repeat audience with the visitor even though
already in the first encounter they sense the unearthly nature of their guest.
And it is only after the second encounter they voice out their fear of death.
This attempt to come back, to retain the presence (numinous) and the resulting
anxiety of death is very interesting to note.
There is a danger in reading these texts and decidedly fall
into a trap of paradox about the nature of God, as to whether his presence
gives life or death? Initial reading might give an impression that the subjects
were crying out of fear of death. But, let us consider it from another angle,
what if the cry is out of ecstasy, a release and moment of pure love which
longs for death. Dissecting the encounter into two parts such as the longing to
repeat the experience and the latter as fear of death as result of the
experience.
The former aspect, to repeat the experience, can be studied
initially through R. Otto's Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans from his book The idea of the Holy. The latin
phrase could be translated loosely as "Awesome divine mystery." More
clearly the phrase indicates a kind of drive within the homo religiosus
whenever he encounters the holy. Meaning the drive is to get a peek into the mysterium
yet at the same time filled with fear or filled with "element of
overpoweringness" (tremendum) and still holds an "unutterable"
ecstasy (fascinans). This gives us a clear view on how the urge to repeat the
experience holds sway within the subjects. The experience is terrifyingly
ecstatic, hence the drive to repeat. For instance, the peek into the ark of God
(1 Sam 6:19) and the resultant death of seventy men and also the death of Uzzah
when he touched the ark was instantly killed (2 Sam 6:6), here the point to
demonstrate the urge of peeking behind the curtain or inside the box as an act
of Mysterium Tremendum Fascinans. Another variant of the repeat audience is
Moses' request (Exodus 33:18;20), which was curtly denied "for man shall
not see me and live."
Secondly, this fear of death at the presence of God can be
looked through Freud's One Love and Death Drive. Begins firstly as a
realisation of the mortality in the conscious, as Freud suggests, "In the
unconscious everyone of us in convinced of his own immortality." Secondly,
as he also suggests that the death-drive's aim "is to reduce living things
to an inorganic state." This inorganic state or 'undoing the connections'
with organic, could be a very vital insight. Bringing together these two, one
can interpret, that the fear of death at the presence of God, primarily brings
to our consciousness the finitude in the presence of plenitude and to the total
unhinging of the self to the elements of the world (organic) towards true
annihilation (inorganic) wherein the self longs to be disintegrated in this
presence and wishes the non-material existence of the other.
But we could further than Otto in affirming that the fascinans
happens not only affects the subject but also the numinous. For example, Moses'
encounter of the un-burning bush. We see encountering God always lingers in the
liminal. The beckoning from the un-burning bush is always resisted by the
insistence of leaving something behind. Come closer, but not too close, the
transaction and the mobility in the presence is filled with tension of how
close is close and how close can one carry oneself into the other. This
impossiblity in the proximity without affecting the subject ultimately fails
the transaction abruptly. This is only one part of the episode the other part
is the affect from the numinous itself. In the other part of the episode the numinous
pursues the subject. This episode where, "the Lord met him [Moses] and
sought to put him to death" (Exodus 4:24) is truly enigmatic. This
enigmatic episode could be looked at as the affect of the numinous to take over
the subject. It is here we can go beyond Otto saying that the it is here the numinous
itself is drawn to the other, the fascinans is what makes Lord to put Moses to
death, that is, numinous wishes to take over the subject once the subject
touches the numinous deeply, the love and the experience touches both. 'No one
can see me and live' are the words of love from the numinous and not words of
terror and violence.
If "Holy" is a feeling of Mysterium Tremendum et
Fascinans that is, a feeling of repulsive attraction, I feeling of want and
fear of death not only in the subject but also on the side of the numinous as
we looked earlier. But this moment as "Holy" becomes "set
apart" from the other events in time. This moment when the holy is
encountered the holy is the "whole" (etymology) and the fullness of
the life encountered. That numinous
feeling is the sacred moment and a whole moment of life and is completely set
apart. This moment becomes saturated with life and brings a conscious of death
as a satisfactory release and ecstasy. This moment is so holy that if life
continues the sacredness of the life is tainted by the profanity and the moment
is lost, in order to preserve the moment, release is the only way. Every
theophany resulted in cry for death, Isaiah's cry of "Undone" (Isa
6:5), Ezekiel and John.
Only in Jesus the effect of theophany clearly unfolds. The
cry from the cross "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
(Matthew 27:46) is the cry of death as the result of encountering
"God." Thomas Altizer rightly points out that in all the gospels only
here Jesus address his Father as God. It is here Jesus encounters in total
otherness the presence of God. And this encounter is so fearful that he
"cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit"
(Matthew 27:50). This is a true encounter of the holy and there is no survival
after that. Jesus died because his encounter with the divine was truly
fulfilling experience. It was not because of the wrath of God that death in
Jesus occurred but because of the torrent of Love that filled Jesus in encountering
the presence of God. It was in love and ecstasy that Jesus died after
encountering God and not because of sin and wrath.
WOW!!! Glorious.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... Reminds me of what Bataille says about the overlap between sex/orgasm and death/destruction. This deep connection seems to be at the root (spirit/heart) of our human existence. The sexual and the spiritual seem to be inseparable! That is why theology and morality can never be neatly set apart. Most of the poor theology is due to the failure to realize how our sexuality affects everything we believe/think/say about GOD.
I love the way you bring together biblical passages and contemporary philosophy. I guess the only thing missing is to bring in an element of your own personal experience and/or cultural artefact that further illustrates/embodies the idea being explored...
But here again, I can't help referring to pornography (from my experience) - isn't there a link also between the ecstatic and the forbidden?? Even a theophany (manifestation of the divine) is taboo (Freud), just as the exposure of human nakedness is. "Forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest!". Why is that??
This could be grist for another series of (your) future blog posts...
Hi Immanuel Joseph,
DeleteFirst let me thank you for taking time to read through the post, I really appreciate it and it means a lot to me. Secondly, thank you again for taking time to respond to the post, which is very kind of you. I think you have the heart of my post laid out in your comment very cleary, that is, the connection between sexuality and spirituality which is fantastic.
About including my own personal experience, it is not that I dont want to include, but, I should admit my inability to do so. Which I will try to learn. Finally, thanks agains for giving me an another critical view on my post and a topic to work on. I will try to work on it as well.