Speaking of the unspeakable – The schoene schîn in mysticism
Promises of salvation are omnipresent in modern aesthetics. Those looking for them do not even have to soar to the lofty heights of abstract theories or invoke the key phrase ‘Religion of Art’ (‘Kunstreligion’), which has become prominent since the Romantic era.
Every day we encounter promises of salvation in aesthetic productions: whether promises of happiness and eternal beauty in advertising, museums whose domes are reminiscent of sacred buildings, mass ecstasies at rock concerts or the ecstatic audience in a classical concert hall – everywhere you come across vocabulary and reactions that you would more likely expect in the context of religious, even mystical experience.
But where does this contiguity between art and religion come from, where does the close connection between aesthetic promise and so-called mystical experience come from? Is this a real relationship or just an apparent one?
Speaking of the inexpressible
We address such questions by looking at examples from the history of Christian mysticism. In doing so, perspectives of theology and literary studies come together in an innovative way to explore how art and religion, aesthetic and religious meaning, communicate with each other in texts of medieval mysticism.
Consider two prominent texts of medieval mysticism as examples: The Flowing Light of the Godhead, which is attributed to Mechthild of Magdeburg (presumably ca. 1207–1282), and the vernacular sermons of Meister Eckhart (ca. 1260–1328). In The Flowing Light of the Godhead, revelations, visions and, again and again, the mystical experience of the rapturous unity of love with God are described. In his sermon texts, the professor and pastor Eckhart reflects on how unity with God can arise. In both texts, light is a central motif.
Light has always been associated with questions of religion and salvation, the origin and purpose of all existence. In Christian theology, too, light plays a very special role in these contexts: light is an aesthetic phenomenon and, as a condition for any visibility, transcends everything visible. Because light is the epitome of visibility and yet never becomes directly visible itself, it is related to God in the Flowing Light of the Godhead and in Eckhart’s sermons. In this connection between light and God, the aesthetics of light in the mystical texts becomes a form of ‘different’ aesthetics – an aesthetics that is not fulfilled in itself, but refers to the unobtainable God. In mysticism, aesthetic and religious experience truly intertwine.
