Finding our Way: the Source Domain WAY in Constructing Religious Concepts
CERES Palais, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13)
The DiF workshop attempts to scrutinize the role of the concept WAY in the construction and development of religious meaning in different Eurasian cultures and in different historical periods. The significance of WAY for the construction of religious meaning in this regard is twofold: On the one hand, WAY is strongly linked to the concept TRAVEL or can be regarded as its subdomain. Concept TRAVEL lends itself to the representation of TRANSCENDENCE, and by this, seems to be crucial for the representation of the transcendence-immanence-distinction, the central component of the CRC’s definition of religion. The importance of the source domain WAY is further shown by the fact that in several religious traditions (e.g. Daoism, Christianity), it becomes the target domain and therefore an abstract name to denote the transcendence. On the other hand, WAY is associated with metaphor because it links a departure point to a destination as conceptual metaphor maps a source domain to a target domain. The very concept of WAY, thus, seems to be an ideal candidate to scrutinize the metaphorization processes involved in the religious sense-making.
While metaphors pertaining to the source domain of WAY are present in many religions and religious texts, concrete conceptualizations might differ. The workshop is interested in all religious conceptualizations via the semantic source domain of WAY.
“Transience of the World” and “the Conceptual Domain of the Way” in Divan of Hafez
Samira Bakhtyari Nasab (Shiraz University)
09:40 – 11:00
Metaphor of WAY in Moulānā Rūmī’s Masnavi as Qur’anic Tafsīr. The Tale of The Parrot and the Merchant and its Metaphorical Significance
Nayereh Mirmousa (Beheshti Univ. Tehran) & Roman Seidel (A01)
11:00 – 11:20
Coffee Break
11:20 – 12:00
Bridge as a Way Which Can Make or Break the Connection to the Transcendence
Yusef Saadat (A04)
12:00 – 12:40
Weg-Metaphern im frühen Jainismus (Way Metaphors in Ancient Jainism)
Patrick Krüger (B04)
12:40 – 14:00
Lunch Break
14:00 – 14:40
Taking Thoughts as the WAY
Jan-Ulrich Sobisch (A03)
14:40 – 15:20
On the WAY to the Temple of Mens – The Metaphorical Setting of Cusanus‘ Idiota de Mente
Knut Martin Stünkel (C03)
15:20 – 15:40
Coffee Break
15:40 – 16:20
The World Travelled by Sea
Gina Derhard-Lesieur (Associated CRC member)
16:20 – 17:15
General Discussion
ABSTRACTS
“Transience of the World” and “the Conceptual Domain of the Way” in Divan of Hafez
Samira Bakhtyari Nasab (Shiraz University)
Hafez is an Iranian poet and mystic of the 14th century AD. It is known that he was aware of the divan of poets before him and enjoyed them. From the conceptual metaphor perspective, this means that he has well understood the metaphoric and thought system of the poets before him. Examining the conceptual metaphors of his divan also confirms this. One of the most important conceptual fields in his divan is WAY, which is combined with other conceptual fields to explain his thoughts about the concept of WORLD. Hafez understands love as a way from pre-existence to eternity and this world as a home amid this beginningless and endless path. A home whose most important feature is “transience.” To explain this transience, Hafez uses the conceptual field of WAY in two forms. In other words, from the influence of conceptual domains viewpoint, the concept of TRANSIENCE affects the conceptual domain of way in Divan Hafez in two forms:
1. The conceptual field of WAY expands in combination with the concept of TRANSIENCE; The metaphorical composition rāhzan-e dahr (the world's bandit) is the result of this kind of influence;
2. To explain other concepts related to TRANSIENCE, he combines the conceptual domain of WAY with other conceptual domains, such as WAR and DRUNKENNESS.
Metaphor of WAY in Moulānā Rūmī’s Masnavi as Qur’anic Tafsīr. The Tale of The Parrot and the Merchant and its Metaphorical Significance
Nayereh Mirmousa (Beheshti Univ. Tehran) & Roman Seidel (A01)
The Mas̱navi of Moulānā Rūmī is one of the most influential mystical works of poetry in the Islamic world. The WAY of the soul between the material and the spiritual world is among its central themes. The specific features of this WAY are portrayed in a sophisticated web of multilayered metaphorical images, that are based on both the Qurʾān as a Hypotext of the Mas̱navi and Moulānā’s mystical world view. In the Mas̱navi the WAY occur both on the level of target and source domain and is conceived as horizontal, vertical, and circular. In this talk, following a brief explanation in what way the Mas̱navi can be considered as a qurʾānic Tafsīr of its own kind, we shall discuss Moulānā’s understanding of the WAY based on an overview to the central characteristics of his Mysticism. We shall then illustrate his use of metaphors for WAY by taking a
closer look at some passages of one of the most famous stories of the Mas̱navi, the Merchant and the Parrot, and show how the WAY plays a central role in a variety of prominent conceptual metaphors in this Work.
Bridge as a Way Which Can Make or Break the Connection to the Transcendence
Yusef Saadat (A04)
According to a Zoroastrian eschatology, the Bridge Činwad leads from this world to hereafter and must be crossed by the souls of the departed. Some Middle Persian texts represents Činwad as a movable bridge. This evidence can consequently evince the existence of movable bridges in Iranian communities, even though the scholars couldn’t find trace of them in the historical and archaeological accounts. The paper discusses the implications of using this metaphorical picture for the representation of the “bridge” to the hereafter and searches for traces of movable bridges in history.
Weg-Metaphern im frühen Jainismus (Way Metaphors in Ancient Jainism)
Patrick Krüger (B04)
Early Jainism (ca. 500 BCE - 500 CE) is characterized by the textualization of previously orally transmitted doctrine and the consolidation of community structures. In contrast to later texts, the literature of this period contains numerous examples of path metaphors The paper shows how “paths,” “roads,” and “fords” are used in metaphorical terms in the literature of Jainism and also discusses the philological problems that arise in the analysis.
Taking Thoughts as the WAY
Jan-Ulrich Sobisch (A03)
In Buddhist Mahamudra practice one either directly perceives the nature of the mind, which puts an end to uncotrollable rebirth (=liberation), or, when one is of lesser capacity, one watches the arising of thoughts in one‘s mind and takes that as the WAY. The metaphor is also applied to other phenomena like “suffering,” “sickness,” and “death,” which can all be made “the path.” The metaphor of “taking ... Aas the path” constitutes one of the core metaphors of high level meditation practice in Mahayana Buddhism.
On the WAY to the Temple of Mens – The Metaphorical Setting of Cusanus‘ Idiota de Mente
Knut Martin Stünkel (C03)
In many cases, everyday metaphors have concrete objects, actions and persons as a source domain. In my presentation, I would like to explore the role and particularities of concrete and highly specified metaphors in the theological thinking of Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464). In his dialogue Idiota de mente from the year 1450, Cusanus employes the metaphor of the WAY in a significant manner, i.e. he uses a ‘real’ way as a metaphor to describe the mind’s progress toward the divine.
The World Travelled by Sea
Gina Derhard-Lesieur (Associated CRC member)
In late antique texts, religious conversion is often conceived as a journey on land or as seafaring. In my input, I would like to examine a treatise by Ambrose of Milan (4th c.), whose title de fuga saeculi (on the flight from the world) already mentions the source domain WAY. Within this treatise, the fuga saeculi is explained through the metaphor of a sea voyage, a metaphor that takes its origin in the very same domain of WAY.
