In this series so far we have looked at the vows from the perspective provided by Edmund Husserl’s account of phenomenology. Specifically we have used his concepts of intentionality and givenness to highlight aspects of the vows in general and poverty in particular. Intentionality means that thought is always of something, it is not just thought. Givenness means the thing thought is thought as it is given, in a particular way. The thing determines the way we think it. So we might sum up Husserl’s account as “Thought is about something as something.” Almost a tautology, but when interpreted along the above lines a profound reflection on our grasp of reality. In discussing the vow of chastity, I would like to add another important aspect of Husserl’s phenomenology to our tool kit: phenomenological bracketing.
Phenomenological bracketing, or bracketing for short, is an
essential element to Husserl’s project, and it means something similar to its
grammatical root. To bracket something is to “put it aside” in a way, to keep
it out of consideration for the moment. For Husserl, Phenomenology is able to
work with the concepts of intentionality
and givenness because it brackets
certain things out of consideration, thus phenomenological
bracketing (or epoche, to use
Husserl’s fancy Greek term). What does he bracket?
“The phenomenologist…must practice an epoche. He must inhibit every ordinary objective ‘position,’ and partake in no judgement concerning the objective world. The experience itself will remain what it was, an experience of this house, of this body, of this world in general, in its particular mode. (Phenomenology).”
James Watson and Francis Crick at the lab |
Bracketing is the attempt to get behind the “natural
attitude” of the world that we all have in everydayness. The “natural attitude”
is the basic attitude of the scientist in the lab: the world is one of objects
to be categorized and used in experiments; it is a world of utility. Husserl sees this as a fine
attitude for science but he thinks it is not about reality in its entirety but if we want to know reality as reality, as it is, than we need to bracket the “objective” facts of the
objects we see and attend closely to how we receive them in our experience of
consciousness, in particular under the aspects of intentionality and givenness.
All this is fine and good in a course on Husserlian
phenomenology, but what does it have to do with the vows, in particular the vow
of chastity? I think it is of immense value for understanding this vow especially
in the current modern climate. Let me explain.
Of the three vows I think it is obvious that chastity (shorthand
for celibate chastity for the religious) is the most difficult to understand in
the modern world: It just doesn’t seem to make sense to most people on the
street. It seems unnatural to refuse to
marry. The great Dominican moral theologian Servais Pinckaers, OP makes this difficulty
clear:
“The natural inclination to marriage is universal. Every human person has it, and it is the basis of an inalienable right. It is also the basis of natural law… Yet some may be called to renounce marriage and the exercise of sexuality (Sources of Christian Ethics, 448).”
I submit that the vow of chastity, at first glance, looks a
lot like the process of phenomenological
bracketing: both seem to be radical denials of the world and surely on the
wrong track to understanding and living in the world. If we want to understand
the world in itself, bracketing it from consideration surely does not seem to
be the right thing to do. Just so, if we want to live a life of love in the
world to the fullest, surely renouncing the most basic of human interpersonal
inclinations is not the way to do it!
Fr. Servais Pinckaers OP |
“The ideal of virginity received its legitimate status from nature itself, not indeed from the inclination toward generation but from the yearning for knowledge of divine truth, seen as humanity’s highest good. The choice of virginity or perfect chastity was therefore not opposed to the task of marriage, since it was motivated by the fulfillment of another task, which we might say was even more natural: the progress in the knowledge of truth and goodness for the benefit of all society (SCE, 448).”
The Dominican Constitution says something similar in terms
of loving God “with an undivided heart:”
“The brothers who promise chastity ‘for the sake of the kingdom of heaven’ follow in the footsteps of Saint Dominic who for the love of God preserved unblemished virginity throughout his life…We ought to value our profession of chastity as a special gift of grace, by which we unite ourselves more readily to God with an undivided heart, and are more intimately consecrated to him (LCO 25-26).”
Now, to be sure, the vow of chastity also allows a friar to
better love all those around him:
“Dominic was so much on fire with zeal for souls that ‘he receive all in a broad embrace of charity and since he loved them all he was loved by all in return, spending himself fully in the service of his neighbor and with compassion for the afflicted’… Impelled by our apostolic vocation we are wholly dedicated to the Church, and thus to love humanity more fully (LCO 25-26).”
St. Dominic and his Friars Fed by Angels - G. Sogliani |
“The power of the Gospel ideal of virginity enlivened by the charity of Christ is manifested notably by its ability to call forth new types of communities, consecrated to the evangelical life through renunciation, contemplation, and devotion. It is the proof, founded on facts and a long history, of the supernatural fruitfulness of Christian virginity (SCE, 452).”
*see also: