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Bezig met laden... Spiritual Titanism: Indian, Chinese, and Western Perspectives (Suny Series in Constructive Postmodern Thought)door Nicholas F. Gier
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A comparative philosophical consideration of the extremes of humanism, or "Titanism," this book critiques trends in Eastern and Western philosophy and examines solutions to them. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)291.2Religions Other Religions Comparative Religion; Mythology (No Longer Used) Theological Conceptions and Doctrines / Comparative religionLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: Geen beoordelingen.Ben jij dit?Word een LibraryThing Auteur. |
In all these points of general orientation, I find myself thoroughly at odds with Gier, and concurring instead with Feuerbach (a very apposite thinker whom Gier ignores), who wrote:
"It is theism, theology, that has wrenched man out of his relationship with the world, isolated him, made him into an arrogant self-centered being who exalts himself above nature. And it is only on this level that religion becomes identified with theology, with the belief in a being outside and above nature as the true God. Originally religion expressed nothing other than man’s feeling that he is an inseparable part of nature or the world." (Lectures on the Essence of Religion, 5th Lecture, p. 35)
Further, I can accept the utility, and in many cases, the wholesomeness of spiritual anthropocentrism, which Gier presents as a heinous theological shortcoming.
Nevertheless, while disagreeing about the valuations involved, I certainly share Gier's interest in the phenomenon of "titanism." His individual chapters are all thought-provoking. The comparison of the ancient Greek titans and Hindu asuras is interesting in its own right, even outside of the larger philosophical argument, and it constitutes a significant contribution to comparative gigantology, especially as undertaken by Thelemites for whom the TEITAN 666 is the Prometheus of a New Aeon.
Gier exonerates Nietzsche from charges of titanism, and on the whole, I was sympathetic to Gier's readings of Nietzsche, including comparisons to Taoist doctrine. The chapter "The Yogi and the Goddess" discusses Tantric goddess-worship as ameliorative to yoga titanism, and this particular argument suggests a way of redeeming Gier from what I take to be his relatively blinkered Anselmian theism, and putting his comparisons to work in the context of the model of attainment I prefer.
Ultimately, Gier himself admits that the spiritual titan is comprehensible as a developmental stage, particularly in the context of Nietzsche's Three Metamorphses (from Thus Spake Zarathustra), where the titan is the Lion, a stage finally transcended by the Child. This more initiatory perspective suggests the value in titanism per se, and reveals its connection to the sort of adeptship that Thelemites see as following from Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. But today's attainment is tomorrow's limitation, and the Adventure of the Abyss leads to the self-overcoming of the titan/adept in his marriage to Babalon. The failure in this regard is known in magical parlance as "black brotherhood," but might be called "terminal titanism" in Gier's lingo.