Introduction:

This comprises non-essential reading as far as the content of the hermeneutic is concerned. It is probably of more interest once the main argument has been grasped.

1. The Messianic Miracles And Their Precedent:

This first essay is preparatory to a full-length study of what is probably the earliest of the four gospels, of which stories of miracles account for approximately one third. The study selects Mark's almost complete series of 'messianic events', the series of non-healing miracles, and argues for the inclusion of the first miracle story of John in order to complete the form and intention inherent in this cycle. It considers the relation of the Eucharist to this series. These seven events correspond both logically, that is, in terms of the form of the propositions they contain, and referentially, to the story of the week of 'beginning' - Genesis 1.1.-2.4a. Thus the study defers immediately to the Genesis narrative. This, the P creation narrative is interpreted as accounting for the universe in terms of  three analogously related categoreal 'forms of unity': space-time, mind-body and male-female. This interpretation stresses the significance of the formal contours of the narrative, explicit in the numerical ordering of its components. It is interpreted as the locus classicus of the biblical doctrine of 'Trinity'. The real emphasis of the Genesis text accrues to the Christological event, mind-body, as the story's continuous repetition of the light-time motif suggests. This means that the real import of these three (or six) entities or conceptual forms, concerns their role in (human) consciousness (mind) as the 'image and likeness of God'. That is, the inflection of the creation story is Christological-epistemological. The meaning of the three part analogy is examined prior to the consideration of the messianic events.

2 The messianic miracles:

We embark on the journey through Markan metaphysics, emphasising the doctrine of Mind, which is tantamount to the doctrine of the Son. This study concentrates firstly upon the three 'Eucharistic' (feeding') messianic miracles and the Eucharist which complement ('end')  the story of 'beginning'. The structure of this relation of 'beginning and end' is examined analogously to the paradigm transcendence : immanence.  After a brief look at the role of perception in the healing miracles, which recapitulate the form and content of the messianic events,  and an introduction to the 'semiotic forms' which expound the various numerical details given in the Eucharistic miracles, we formulate a Christian theory of perception. Hence the body, the occasion of sense perception, no less than the mind, is considered from the point of view of the imago Dei, the 'image and likeness of God'. The two narratives centres of creation and salvation, of 'beginning and end' together propose a fully articulated doctrine of humankind; a theory of mind; and a Christology. Once again, the analogous relation between the three modes of percipience is examined.

3 Epilogue:

After a review of the four categories basic to Markan metaphysics, we consider some of the implications of the hermeneutic: the New Testament theology of creation, the Pauline adoption of the second creation story, the two great Christological miracle stories: the miracle of Transformation Of Water Into Wine, and Transfiguration. Finally, in preparation for future studies, we investigate  some of the philosophical confusions surrounding the idea of mind.

 MIND AND TIME

THE THEOLOGY OF SEMIOTIC FORMS

1 Prologue:

This essay builds on the former study, adding to discussion of the stories of beginning and end, the creation narrative and the messianic series, The Apocalypse. The reason for which is that the formal evidence alone suggest the three texts be considered as a synthesis. There are four sevenfold series in the last book of the New Testament, which bear obvious intertextual rapport with the two series of Genesis and the gospel, creation and salvation. We establish the basis of the contextual integration of the three cycles, proposing that each is inclined in virtue of one of the three phenomenal modes of sentience: the creation account shows a marked predilection for the acoustic; the messianic and healing miracles for the haptic, and The Apocalypse for the optic. This too serves to co-ordinate the narratives. It suggests also the basis of a Christian theory of semiotics and or language, and a theology of revelation itself. Each of these three narrative cycles is verbal, and Christological in keeping with Johannine Christology of 'the word', and so they further the doctrine of Christ, hence the doctrine of mind.

We briefly consider the  Pneumatological story of The Flood and its relation to the theology of creation, noting references to colour, time, and the dove ('Jonah'). We move to the Epilogue of John, which categorises the three immanent messianic miracles as 'Eucharistic' in intent, in keeping with the Christological introduction of The First Letter Of John, given the previous hermeneutic of these narratives. John 21 provides important information about the temporal sequence of the Eucharistic miracles. It also orders the series of conceptual forms of the Genesis story, since these are taxonomised analogously to the messianic series as a whole. The order of the seven creation-salvation events will be understood in relation to the theology of the semeioptika, the subject of the story of The Feeding Of The Four Thousand, which encodes them, the conceptual and perceptual radicals of mind, relatively to time. It so prepares for the eschatological and visionary final member of the canon.

We postulate the diurnal/nocturnal temporal sequence of the messianic events just as prompted by the role of the 'Day' in the creation story. This will be later supplemented by reckoning with the equally paradigmatic annual temporal cycle, with its four cardinal point-instants: the two equinoxes and two solstices. These are then adopted as not only intrinsic to religious consciousness, but viewed as emblematic of the structure inherent in the fourfold form of the gospel. Such a hermeneutic is justified by the recurrence of this same paradigm within the eschatology of The Apocalypse, confirmatory of the visions of Ezekiel 1 and 10, a classical Pneumatological text in the Hebrew Scriptures. We next assess the implications of this hermeneutic for the two central themes of this essay, mind and time. From there, we begin the move into the Christian understanding of intentionality, the doctrine of consciousness essential to understanding the concept of the logos. We propose specific modes of intentionality vis-a-vis time, taking both the diurnal/nocturnal dyad and the structure of the four cardinal points of the annual cycle, as templates for the two orders of consciousness, the conscious and the aconscious.

We begin the theology of semiotic forms by examining the reference to time and colour in Matthew 16.1-4, relating this to the first messianic event recorded in the synoptic gospels, The Stilling Of The Storm, and we account for its implicit and explicit links with the 'sign of Jonah' saying, all of which ratify the value to theology of semiotic forms. From there, we introduce the doctrine intentionality, the doctrine of consciousness, and how it manifests itself in each of the four gospel vis-a-vis time, in order to later arrive at the understanding of four elemental modes of conscious and aconscious intentionality operative specifically within each of the gospels, and which guide the specificity of their soteriologies. The conscious intentional modes are: desire, knowing, willing and belief. The first to be discussed will be desire, in relation to the gospel of Luke, following the order of the messianic miracle series itself, whose first sign is The Transformation Of Water Into Wine At Cana (John 2.1-11).


2 Mind, Conscious And Aconscious In The Gospel And Genesis

Both creation narratives, the P story, Genesis 1.1-2.4a, and that of J, Genesis 2.4b-3.24, are examined in keeping with the messianic miracle stories and some of the healing miracle narratives in the exposition of the first two of a total of four conscious intentional modes. These are desire and will, both conative forms of intentionality which act as foundational to the specific theological and soteriological concerns of two of the gospels Luke and Matthew respectively. We next examine the two cognitive conscious modes, knowing and believing, which are the governing intentional modes of Mark and John respectively. These establish the basis of the further description of mind according to its division into two orders, conscious and 'aconscious', corresponding to the binary division of the temporal cycle in the annual template. The 'sign of Jonah' saying will be reviewed in the description of the aconscious because of its eschatological allusions. The aconscious is to be understood in terms of the normativity of the conscious. That is, the existence of components of mind describable as those of 'virtual transcendence' and those of 'virtual immanence', the forms of imagination of the messianic series, and forms of unity of the creation series, are best understood in relation to the first level taxonomy which acts normatively for what is meant by 'transcendence and immanence', or 'heavens and the earth'. Such that the four forms of the aconscious are referred to by means of the same terms applied to the conscious. These four aconscious modes of intentionality are introduced briefly in the following order: desire-to-know, will-to-believe, belief-in-desire, knowledge-of-will. They are operative in the gospels of John, Mark, Luke, and Matthew respectively, corresponding to the conscious forms of intentionality. Their relationship to the four series of events in The Apocalypse is discussed in the same context.

The 'sign of Jonah' saying, the passion predictions, and other sayings relating to the 'three days and three nights', are discussed in relation to the six categories which comprise the aconscious. The latter is further examined in relation to both series, creation and salvation, the leatter including the healing miracle narratives as well as the messianic miracles. We then consider the difference regarding the sixfold and fourfold templates, opting for the latter, due to its simplicity and in preparation for the first of the gospels to be studied a propos of the doctrine of intentionality:

3 Luke




'Faith seeking understanding' is the classic definition of theology, and as far as that is concerned, this site is theological. It is aimed at the Anglophone member of the literate public sufficiently interested in religion generally, and in the Christian tradition in particular, and willing to further his/her understanding of the same, through studying the gospel of Mark, according to the above description.Its basis is in the first instance biblical. Additionally, it contains significant references to a variety of philosophical and religious traditions of the world. We recognize that those religious traditions which continue to claim the allegiance of millions of humans today - the various forms of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam - also have much to teach us. The use of the word 'mandala' in the name of this site testifies to my belief that certain aspects of Mark's doctrine can be best appropriated by adopting some of the theories and practices common to these other religions, which have been largely left out of account in classical Christian theism to its detriment. The broad-ranging ambitions of this site however, do not end there. They encompass what may be deemed some of the best efforts of western philosophy. The embrace of such perspectives as these, far from being extraneous, is intrinsic to the intent of Mark's gospel.

The word biblical indicates a cross referencing between both testaments, the Hebrew Scriptures or Tanakh, and the New Testament. Within the New Testament, the gospel of Mark remains central to this study. That is because it is very probably the earliest of the four gospels in the opinion of the  majority of contemporary scholars. Mark, it will be argued, best offers a systematic integration of the Old Testament,  satisfying the  requisites implied in the term biblical.

The practical outcomes of this study focus on the practice of meditation, nevertheless it remains a theory of biblical metaphysics or philosophy as well as a praxis. Christianity already offers traditions of meditation both longstanding and varied. Few if any of these accept the gospels as their foundation; few incorporate either philosophical or alternative religious traditions, and none contain a fully articulated and coherent doctrine concerning human nature, more specifically, a consistent theory of mind. Such as these concerns are reflected in the use of the word 'mandala' as a description of the gospel of Mark.

All quotations from the Old Testament are from the NET Bible, except for citations from Genesis. For these, I have used the translation by John J. Scullion of Westermann's translation of Genesis contained in his commentary: Westermann, Claus, Genesis 1-11, A Commentary, Translated by John J. Scullion S. J., SPCK, Great Britain and Augsburg Publishing House USA, 1984; (German Edition first published in 1974 by Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn). All quotations from the New Testament are from The Nestle-Aland Greek-English New Testament, The Eighth Revised Edition, 1994.

The site uses Greek and Hebrew fonts, SPIonic and SPTiberian which can be downloaded from the Scholars Press Non Roman Fonts website: http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/fonts/

The following sites contain useful copies and translations of the scriptures:

Tanakh Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (fully vocalised and cantillated version): http://tanakhml2.alacartejava.net/cocoon/tanakhml/sitemap.htm

Septuagint

Greek New Testament (N.A. 26)

           
Contact me: markanmandala@netbay.com.au
 

This page was updated on 22 January 2012.

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