Pneuma

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The Pneuma (from ancient Greek πνεῦμα pneũma "spirit", "breath", "air", "breath") has references to the spirit . So Hagion Pneuma can be translated as the Holy Spirit ( ancient Greek Ἅγιο Πνεῦμα ).

Religion and philosophy

The various concepts of the “breath of God” in which the “divine spirit” works have overlaps in their ideas, terms and theories. So the ancient Greek pneuma is not only related to the spirit, but more broadly. It also means something like vortex, wind or pressure and has references to similar concepts such as the Hebrew term rûaḥ (רוּחַ), the Chinese Qì (Chi) or the Indian Prana or the Indian Akasha , cf. also breathing soul .

In the ancient Greek world of ideas, the divine works everywhere, just as something that is not outside the cosmos, ( κόσμος kósmos , (world) order '). The cosmos is metamorphosed as a living organism, animated by the logos λόγος . In order for the logos to work, it would be materialized through the 'fire'. The 'fire' is a primordial substance ( four-element doctrine ) that forms the cosmos and determines a cycle of decline and emergence. If the 'fire' combined with the 'air', another primordial substance, it would become a warm breath or pneuma . The idea of pneuma goes back to Aristotle , who initially saw pneuma only as warm air. The Stoics developed this term pneuma and used it to explain all functions of a living organism. Through this pneuma , a connection of all things would arise and thus also the ability to communicate and to feel sorry for others. Everything is connected with each other and actually only a part of a bigger whole.

With the Stoics , pneuma is also used as a kind of “fiery breath of air” that penetrates everything and thus has cosmic power (a kind of fate).

Paul opposed the positively assessed pneuma as the essence of the spirit antithetically with the gramma , the ancient essence of the letter (e.g. in Rom 7,6  EU and 2 Cor 3,6  EU ).

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling developed as part of his philosophy of history the idea of a Pneumo patho logy (a lesson from the loss of the spirit and the associated decay). Eric Voegelin takes up this later. For Voegelin, this marks the break from a history of ideas to a history of order of symbols and myth, as it is first formulated in the New Science of Politics .

medicine

In the ancient medicine of the Mediterranean area (especially Greece, Egypt, Rome) the pneuma was imagined as a material life force that is responsible for physiological processes. It moved through the veins with the blood . According to Hippocratic doctors, the pneuma was located in the brain , while Sicelian doctors suspected it was in the heart . Diseases arose when the pneuma was obstructed by body fluids . Aristotle distinguished two types of pneuma: First, pneuma for maintaining body temperature that was inhaled from the outside. Second, congenital pneuma in the heart that has evaporated from the blood. Straton von Lampsakos assumed that the secretion of pneuma produced sleep. According to Erasistratos there was a life pneuma in the heart and a psychic pneuma ( psychikon pneuma ) in the brain. Erasistratos, like his teacher Praxagoras von Kos, suspected blood in the veins , pneuma in the arteries and psychic pneuma (soul pneuma) in the nerves .

Pneuma, imagined as an air-like substance and emanating from the heart, played an important role as an all-pervasive life force that was based on its substance between fire and air in the ancient medical school of the Pneumatics founded by Athenaios of Attalaeia and is also used by the Stoic Chrysippos of Soloi in Περἰ Ψυχῆς mentioned. The doctor Aretaios from Cappadocia , who was around 50, is also considered a pneumatist . The pneuma, like breathing, has been associated with innate warmth ( calor innatus ). According to Galen, the pneuma is nourished by the air that is breathed into the left ventricle and from there it reaches the brain, among other things (as soul pneuma).

The Byzantine doctor Johannes Zacharias Aktuarios wrote a treatise on the effects and effects of the psychikon pneuma at the beginning of the 14th century.

See also

Further and supplementary literature

  • Hermann Siebeck : The development of the theory of the spirit (Pneuma) in ancient science. In: Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft 12, 1880, pp. 361–407 and 480.
  • Marielene Putscher: Pneuma, Spiritus, Geist. Concepts of the drive of life in their historical changes. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1974.
  • Matthias Gatzemeier : Pneuma; Pneumatics. In: Jürgen Mittelstraß , Martin Carrier , Gereon Wolters (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science. 4 volumes, Mannheim, from volume 3 (1995) Stuttgart / Weimar (1980–) 1984–1996; corrected reprint for volumes 1 and 2, Stuttgart / Weimar: Metzler, 1995; Reprint Volumes 1–4, ibid 2004; Volume 3, p. 277 f.

Translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Philosophy of Antiquity
  2. ↑ Julia Annas : Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind. University of California Press, 1992, ISBN 978-0-5200-7554-2 , pp. 19 f
  3. ↑ On the “Pauline antithesis” cf. Gerhard Ebeling : Spirit and Letter . In: Religion Past and Present . Volume 2, Tübingen (3) 1958, Col. 1290 ff.
  4. ^ Diogenes Apolloniates: The fragments of the pre-Socratics.
  5. ↑ Guido Rappe: Archaic body experience: The body in early Greek philosophy and in non-European cultures. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-05007-087-2 , p. 430 f.
  6. ^ Hippocrates: De morbo sacro
  7. ^ F. Wehrli: The school of Aristotle. Texts and commentary. Basel 1967–1969.
  8. ↑ Galen: De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis .
  9. ↑ Jutta Kollesch , Diethard Nickel : Ancient healing art. Selected texts from the medical writings of the Greeks and Romans. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1979 (= Reclams Universal Library. Volume 771); 6th edition ibid 1989, ISBN 3-379-00411-1 , pp. 10 and 21.
  10. ^ Hans Georg von Manz: Athenaios von Attaleia. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 115.
  11. ↑ Jutta Kollesch, Diethard Nickel: Ancient healing art. Selected texts from the medical writings of the Greeks and Romans. 1989, p. 10.
  12. ↑ Jutta Kollesch, Diethard Nickel: Ancient healing art. Selected texts from the medical writings of the Greeks and Romans. 1989, p. 21 f.
  13. ↑ Jutta Kollesch , Diethard Nickel : Ancient healing art. Selected texts from the medical writings of the Greeks and Romans. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1979 (= Reclams Universal Library. Volume 771); 6th edition ibid 1989, ISBN 3-379-00411-1 , p. 21 f. and 67-69.
  14. ^ Wolfgang Wegner: Johannes Zacharias Aktuarios. In: Encyclopedia of Medical History. 2005, p. 703.