Abstract:In Ciro Guerra's film Embrace of the Serpent (2015), cultural exchanges between the central characters reveal the origin narratives and the curative power of plants valued by Indigenous cultures of the Amazon. This article analyzes how Embrace of the Serpent expresses Indigenous rationality in the origin narratives as the shaman Karamakate confronts Western travelers and scientists....
I am a historian of philosophy and theology, which is to say that the authors I work on are almost exclusively those who make doctrine. Moreover, a great deal of my work has been focused on Thomas Aquinas, the doctrine maker extraordinaire of the later Middle Ages. From that vantage point, it is interesting to consider the question of whether mysticism, by its nature, must necessarily conflict...
Abstract: According to the Zohar, the most important work of the classical Kabbalah, in prayer the soul of the mystic ascends through seven celestial halls or palaces as part of its quest to unify the male and female aspects of divinity, and thereby stimulates Ein Sof, the infinite aspect of divinity to pour down its bounty. As the soul ascends through the halls—diverse qualities of being,...