2017-11-01
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For the 20th century German theologian Paul Tillich, the ‘beyond’ cannot be captured in a description or theory. This raises the question: How can we possibly relate to such a reality?
Tillich answers in terms of 'symbols': Symbols can point to realities that lie beyond our descriptive knowledge. For instance, a religious symbol such as Jesus on the cross is only a symbol – there is no Jesus on the cross in heaven - but this symbol directs us toward divine reality which cannot be described in words or pictures. Similarly, the national flag points to the country's power and dignity. Poems and poetic imagery point to aspects of nature which cannot be objectified.
Symbols should be distinguished from signs. A traffic sign, for example, is a metal object that points to another thing, such as a nearby hospital, or the command to stop. A sign, like a symbol, points to something beyond itself. But whereas a sign functions by an arbitrary social convention (the ministry of transportation decided that this is what the sign means), a symbol does not depend on a convention. It has a life of its own in our hearts and lives. For example, we cannot arbitrarily replace the Christian mass with a dancing party and expect that the new ritual would mean the same thing.
This is because a sign is external to the object to which it points. A symbol, on the other hand, cannot be separated from the reality to which it points. A symbol is part of that reality. The national flag not only points to the country's pride, it is also part of it.
Most importantly, a symbol opens to us realities which we have no other way to experience. Conversely, it opens our inner being to those realities. In this double sense, a symbol opens a gateway between us and realities that are beyond the normal boundaries of our knowledge. It allows us to participate in them and experience them.
KARL JASPERS – TRANSCENDING THROUGH MY WAY OF BEING
The idea of transcendence (the ‘beyond’) plays a central role in the writings of Karl Jaspers, the German existentialist philosopher and psychologist. According to him, in everyday life we experience ourselves as living in an objective world – a world of stones and trees and stars. But we also encounter hints - or what Jaspers calls ‘ciphers’ – that point to what lies beyond objective reality, and beyond the boundaries of human knowledge.
We encounter these ciphers in everyday experiences, in nature, in communication with others, in religion, in art and philosophy. There is no technique or method that produces these experiences. We receive them like a gift. When we contemplate them, we get a sense of the limits of our knowledge. Ciphers then bring transcendent reality to our minds and bring us in contact with it. However, ciphers cannot give us any positive knowledge about the ‘beyond’. Transcendence is not an objective reality that can be captured by objective descriptions and theories.
For this reason, reading a cipher is not like looking at an object that is outside me and independent from me. The model of subject-object does not apply to transcendent reality, because the clear distinction between the two does not hold. I can read a cipher only through my own way of being, through my inner struggles to reach it. I can read it only by becoming my true self (or what Jaspers calls Existenz), through my authentic relation to myself and to life. Connecting to the beyond through ciphers is therefore an inner action. It cannot be verified and transmitted in an objective or generalized way.
