A Jehannian-Thérèsian Model of French Catholic Spiritual Renewal
La réduction française philosophique de Sainte Jehanne d'Arc
La réduction française philosophique de Sainte Jehanne d'Arc
La réduction française philosophique de Sainte Jehanne d'Arc is a transcendent, systematic model of the French royal hearts of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux developed through the influence of the life of St. Joan of Arc, Thérèsian Carmelite spirituality, and the philosophical lens of Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross). Its aim is Faith, Hope, and Love "on earth as it is in Heaven" through the majesty of French Catholic spirituality and True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Its means is personalized, phenomenological devotion to the combined hearts and spirituality of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
The Jehannian-Thérèsian Model
A form of Jehannian-Thérèsian spirituality through the lens of Edith Stein's philosophy
"The world is inseparable from subjectivity and intersubjectivity, and the task of phenomenology is to think world, subjectivity, and intersubjectivity in their proper connection."
~ Zahavi, Dan. Phenomenology: The Basics (p. 67). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.
"Philosophy aspires after truth to the greatest possible extent and with the greatest possible certainty. If faith makes accessible truths unattainable by any other means, philosophy, for one thing, cannot forego them without renouncing its universal claim to truth. Furthermore, it cannot forego these truths without risking that falsehood will creep even into the body of knowledge left to it, since, given the organic interrelationship of all truth, any partial stock, when its link to the whole is cut off, can appear in a false light. One consequence, then, is a material dependence of philosophy on faith.
Then too, if faith affords the highest certainty attainable by the human mind, and if philosophy claims to bestow the highest certainty, then philosophy must make the certainty of faith its own. It does so first by absorbing the truths of faith, and further by using them as the final criterion by which to gauge all other truths. Hence, a second consequence is a formal dependence of philosophy on faith."
~ Stein, Edith. Knowledge and Faith (The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 8) . ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.
Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) developed her mature, unique philosophy by reconciling her background in Phenomenology with Medieval Thomist scholasticism. By leveraging both under the mentorship of Edith Stein, I have brought to life, by the grace of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and through the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, a philosophical form from within Stein's unique genus that gave birth to my spiritual model I call Royaume France. An intersubjective blend of Jehannian-Thérèsian spirituality and Steinian philosophy yielded a systematically structured science, which is the foundation of Royaume France.
We live in a dogmatic world both in terms of physics and faith. The material world is a-theoretical; it simply is-to-me without any reflection on my part. The faith world is chosen-by-me subjectively based on a particular giveness of the dogmatic faith form itself. The ensuing intersubjectivity between the material and faith worlds develops my unique particular truth from within the domain of all general dogmatic truths. St. Thérèse understood this through the metaphor of being a "little flower" amongst majestic roses in a panoramic meadow making up a divinely ordered whole.
Yet, is it "uniquely mine"? Our being-in-the-world is more than being an isolated object in the world. Our being in the dogmatic world also is subjective, intersubjective with others, and therefore empathic in response to the giveness of others. Empathy is at the event horizon of divine love. The purpose, the end to which our journey through subjectivity, intersubjectivity, and empathy leads is through that event horizon. What, and more to the point, who is beyond it? Beyond the event horizon between natural and supernatural spirituality and philosophy is our "seventh day" of rest in the Kingdom. Here we are drawn in abandonment to divine Providence, for there is no more the natural can accomplish. The metaphor in my model is an intersubjective, empathic Walking the The Trail of the Dogmatic Creed with St. Joan and St. Thérèse to, and then through, that event horizon.
The Trail reveals subjective insights developed through a lived relationship with the dogmatic a-theoretical material world and a dogmatic chosen faith world. The Dove and Rose is the descriptive spiritual representation of the intersubjectivity between Joan, Thérèse, and myself that orders my subjective insights to the dogma. In my lived experience, the a-theoretical world collapsed around me, as described in Journey to Christendom, while a new worldview emerged, as described in the March of Hope. With Thomist and Augustinian theology (the chosen-faith world) as the guardrails on the Trail, Joan and Thérèse guide me on my journey, as described in The Dove and Rose, whereby my intersubjective relationships with the two of them reveal what before has been hidden from me, namely, my subjective destiny in Thérèse’s metaphorical panorama of meadows, flowers, rivers, and snow-capped mountains. This destiny is Le Royaume, the Kingdom Blessed of St. Joan and St. Thérèse, who together as a bed of flowers make up "the most beautiful colors in the Heavens."
The Jehannian-Thérèsian Philosophy
The Royaume France Definition of Philosophy
Many years of research and writing have led me to conclude the following as a definition of philosophy. The sequence of discovery was spirituality through theology to philosophy. This definition of philosophy is the result of my journey; it is that which I am left to conclude. Metaphor and analogy are the necessary literary tools. The hashes demarcate axioms from which whole theorems have been developed in my writings explaining the deeper meaning of that particular order of words.
The definition of philosophy:
The proper arrangement of words (syntax)/ resulting in a science of thought/ that opens the heavens/, allowing the waters of grace to fall on earth/, refreshing the flowered meadows/, guiding us along pathways softly lit in the night/, and filling the clear blue tributaries in the landscape of souls.
The analogy to music:
The proper order of words resulting in true philosophy as defined are to the philosopher what notes on paper are to the composer. The visible manifestation of properly ordered words brings transcendent life to the person just as properly ordered notes on paper bring transcendent life to the music.
The purpose of philosophy:
When pursued in the manner defined, true philosophy becomes the natural disposition for participating in, and for the reception of, the supernatural divine order yielding the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven; the Kingdom for which we were taught to pray, and which we are instructed to seek first.
The relationship of philosophy to theology:
In the eyes of Edith Stein, there necessarily is a complementary relationship between philosophical and theological reasoning. Both seek the same truth; therefore, both are dependent on and enrich each other.
The Jehannian-Thérèsian Spirituality
Jehannian-Thérèsian Monarchism
I still have the image in my mind of the high plains outside of my childhood home of Guymon. I'm talking about Guymon of long ago, the one that has almost faded into the mist of my aging memory. The land and the sky both were as big and wide as the whole earth, at least it seemed. Occasionally, big dark clouds would form way out in the distance, and you could see the shadow beneath them made up of the rain falling over some distance acreage. The occasional flash of lightning would result in a low rumble maybe five seconds later. The clouds were ominous but not threatening, as they were miles away.
In my life story, the land and these experiences infused into me the spiritual model I would come to actualize over the course of my life. The land's "giveness" as Edith Stein would call it, was a sense of divine order. My response was a Steinian form of "empathy" with that land. I received it as it was "in itself," all the while remaining "myself" (an important Steinian distinction).
Later this empathy was catalyzed through St. Thérèse of Lisieux' descriptive metaphor of spirituality as a panoramic landscape. Through her I was introduced to Joan of Arc who, I discovered, had the exact "giveness and empathy" relationship with her land that I did with mine, only hers was at a much more profound level. This led to an immediate sense of kinship and to what I call, again under the mentorship of Edith Stein, an "empathic devotion" to Joan of Arc, whom I trusted could develop and fully actualize this panorama in my soul. I could trust no other at her level in the created order (another important distinction). Only she could lead me, and this by command of the Divine Will.
This empathic devotion with Joan led to an understanding through her eyes of the Monarchy as a representation and incarnation of this divine order. Just as Stein's philosophy was for me at the event horizon between natural and supernatural knowledge, Royalty, through Joan, became for me the event horizon between Heaven and earth in this divine order.
And that is how I became a Jehannian-Thérèsian Monarchist, a term I use to describe my particular form of devotion to the royal blood. The objective nature of this devotion came about through "intersubjective" (a principle of Phenomenology) sharing with the French heroines, Joan and Thérèse. God writes straight using crooked lines as the saying goes, or, more accurately, using intersubjectivity between empathic minds.
I write this because my model expands when I do, and expand it must. Without manifestation through further intersubjectivity in shared words, it gets lost like an echo over one of those meadows, remembered but never again heard.
Edith Stein - our Philosophy mentor
Edith Stein is our mentor for the philosophical foundations of Royaume France
The development of Royaume France was in accord with the following:
"For Thomas, the first axiom of philosophy—if we wish to use the word—is that God himself is the first Truth, the principle and criterion of all truth. From God proceeds any truth we can get hold of. The task of first philosophy follows from this fact: it must take God as its object. It must set forth the idea of God and the mode of his being and knowing.
Then it must establish the relationship to God of whatever else that exists, in its essence and existence, and the relationship to the divine knowledge of the knowledge of other knowing beings. We must bring to bear on these questions everything we can know about them, taking what we should not only from natural knowledge but also from revelation."
~ Edith Stein, Knowledge and Faith (The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 8, Kindle locations 818 and 821)
The Jehannian-Thérèsian Reduction
The Royaume France approach is uniquely reductive
I have written extensively on the subject of empathic devotion to St. Joan of Arc. Our Lord and Our Lady have transformed my life through this uniquely powerful relationship. The Holy Spirit has willed to provide the sanctifying grace I need in hierarchical fashion, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and then through St. Joan. I have been fascinated for over a decade as to the process and mode of this grace. It feels as though I am called to think it through for whatever mysterious purpose that thinking out, that modeling of the grace, serves the Kingdom of God.
The key aid has been Edith Stein, known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Here is why. The point of great importance in the model for which I seek is the interface between our natural philosophy and God’s supernatural grace. This seems to be my primordial point of focused interest. I contemplate the zero-point, the event horizon, between philosophy and grace. Where does our natural philosophical orientation meet grace, thus subsuming the former into the latter for our transformation into a member of the Kingdom? How are our minds transformed in congruous participation with the heart? As a philosopher saint, Edith Stein has proven invaluable in this endeavor.
Stein was a pre-conversion phenomenologist who, post-conversion, reconciled phenomenology with the scholasticism of the Church. The result has been a treasury of knowledge for my cause. Edith Stein integrated modern philosophical thought with the ancient tradition of the Church. She is modern without being a modernist, a spiritual talent sorely needed in contemporary society.
Her description of the philosopher’s need to engage a mentor, even across time and space, by studying their thinking from “grounds to conclusions” overwhelmed me as being most appropriate for understanding my own devotion to Joan, my mentor, and an introduction to Edith’s philosophy on empathy. It was my first reflection on empathy from Edith Stein’s perspective and the beginning of my articulation of “empathic devotion.” I began to realize that it was empathy, in the Steinian sense, that I felt with Joan of Arc, the very empathy Edith wrote upon extensively and described above.
The integration of Edith’s own model of empathy to ours, from the Holy Spirit’s voluntary Divine Glance of Grace, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and to our empathic devotion to Joan, led me to the following proposition on the issue of the zero-point between our natural philosophy and supernatural grace, that is, about the point where they meet. Repentance, with the goodwill assumed by it, is that zero-point. Repentance makes us willing to listen, to follow another from “grounds to conclusions.” Without repentance Joan inspires us naturally in our own lives as we seek our own way (emergent qualities), but we are not transformed supernaturally in sanctifying grace to see as Joan sees (reductive qualities). By repentance we enter Joan’s life empathically in grace, allowing her to teach and guide us with the aid of the Holy Spirit and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
For those who would ask how to prepare oneself to be transformed through devotion to St. Joan, I would say true repentance, an empathic willingness (goodwill) to see the world as Joan sees it, and the reductive act of surrendering all to Divine Providence through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This is the substance of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness that is our aim in inspiring others to seek a repentant, dogmatic confession of Catholic faith.
