Pleroma
The pleroma ( Greek , πλήρωμα pléroma "abundance") is the sea of shine and light for the Gnostics , as the seat of the deity from where all good flows out. Very similar ideas can be found among other terms in Tengrism .
In the Gospel of John John 1.16 EU it is written: "And from his fullness (translated from ancient Greek πληρωματος pleromatos ) we have all received, grace for grace."
For the gnostic Valentinus , pleroma is the realm of divine-spiritual fullness, vitality, the force-infused world of being in contrast to kenoma , the material emptiness. According to von Ostheim (2013), the originally Christian Valentinus took over the term from the editor of the fourth gospel.
From the writing adversus haereses by Irenaeus of Lyons and from the apocryphon of the apostle John it emerges that the Gnostics also regarded plerom as the fullness of time and thus is synonymous with Aion, as the transliteration of the Greek word αἰών for eternity , cf. → Aeon (philosophy) . The Gnostic felt uncomfortable in this world. He found the limited time of his life due to death a challenge to see this time as doom.
According to Gershom Scholem , the throne world of Hechalot in Kabbalah is the equivalent of the pleroma. Erich Neumann understands the term pleroma as the divine fullness in its “pre-worldly” state. The “actual state of the world” is determined precisely by this not-yet-entry of God. The desired connection to this divine fullness can only be achieved in a mystical way.
New ethics
Erich Neumann (1905–1960) uses the term pleroma to address the collective upheaval of modern man. By this, Neumann does not only mean the externally and objectively ascertainable catastrophes of the First and Second World Wars and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan - here, of course, other historical upheavals in the modern era should also be mentioned - he primarily wants to refer to the individual psychological constitution of the modern People enter. He understands this constitution as an interrelationship between physical, economic, political and historical circumstances. The modern insecurity of the individual find u. a. its expression in mass psychology . The upheaval of the individual is also due to a historical inflation of the ego since the Renaissance and to that extent should be understood as a countermovement. The traditional consciousness is shaped by the motto: "Where there is a will, there is a way." This maxim has proven to be questionable today. While in earlier times adherence to morality was able to protect the individual from collective interventions, measures and influences, today this can no longer be taken for granted. This earlier morality was said to have been awareness- raising. Conversely, today individual consciousness is shaped by the experience of collective insecurity. This new consciousness demands a new ethic .
According to Neuman, there are basically two possibilities as questionable ways out of this worrying situation:
- the materialistic-pessimistic worldview , which is to be understood as deflationistic , d. H. relativizing the self-consciousness and on its dependence on external, u. a. also referring to physical conditions,
- the pleromatic-mystical worldview. This is characterized by connection with eschatological elements. This means a state of salvation that is anticipated in a utopian way , since otherwise it would usually be postponed to the end times. This is a solution that Neumann describes as inflationary with regard to the individual's ego , since the ego is one with the primordial spirit, the deity, etc. In this way, all the contradictions in this world are bypassed illusionistically , cf. → enantiodromy . Psychologically speaking, this also avoids the shadow problem. As a concrete example of this pleromatic view, Neumann mentions Christian Science . Neumann sees the danger in recollectivization in the sense of mass psychology, in that this relieves the individual of his responsibility.
According to Neumann, neither of the above solutions can represent a solution to the challenge of modern man. A fundamentally required New Ethics should not circumvent the challenges ideologically, but must accept them as they are and integrate them into an individual action plan.
Individual evidence
- ^ Meyer's Lexicon
- ↑ Martin R. von Ostheim : Self-redemption through knowledge. The Gnosis in the 2nd Century AD Schwabe, Basel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7965-2894-1 , p. 22
- ↑ Wolfgang Schultz : Documents of Gnosis. With essays by Georges Bataille and Henri-Charles Puech . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-4839-1 , pp. 28, 33
- ^ Irenaeus of Lyons : Adversus haereses. I, 17, 2
- ↑ a b Erich Neumann : Depth psychology and new ethics. Fischer, 1985, ISBN 3-596-42005-9 , pp. 79-84 ( Geist und Psyche series )