Negativity—gaps, failures, and limits—offers a powerful lens for studying mysticism. This essay argues that a negative hermeneutics, centered on the continuous 'unsaying' and 'subverting' of traditional faith expressions, illuminates the dynamics of mystical practice and theology. The concept of travail of the negative connects practical and theoretical negativity in mystical texts. This approach encourages theology to take negation seriously as a fundamental feature, contributing to broader theological discourse by reframing how mystical experiences are interpreted.
The author argues that the accounts of beauty by Jean-Louis Chrétien and of art and aesthetic experience by Bernard Lonergan complement each other, together providing a philosophical account of the ontological, ethical, intellectual, and transcendent dimensions of art and aesthetic experience. Chrétien highlights the ontological dimension of aesthetic experience as one of 'call and response,' and his analysis of beauty's evocative character helps thematize a foundation implied but not thematized in Lonergan's work. Lonergan's reflection emphasizes the ethical, intellectual, and transcendental aspects, introducing distinctions that clarify these dimensions with force.
Rudolf Otto's religious theory, centered on 'the holy' and 'the numinous', is examined through a semantic lens inspired by Toshihiko Izutsu's philosophical semantics. Otto, a Lutheran theologian and philosopher of religion, argued that the numinous—a non-rational, felt experience of the 'wholly other'—is the essence of religion, irreducible to society or culture. His concept of the holy comprises both rational and non-rational dimensions, expressed through 'ideograms' that point toward transcendent meaning beyond ordinary language. The article contends that Otto's approach offers a phenomenology of religion that prioritizes lived religious experience and the depth of meaning, though his Christian theological orientation shaped his comparative studies of Hindu and Christian thought.