Transcendence denotes the surpassing of the finite toward the unconditioned and absolute. It is a fundamental trait of the human spirit, operative in cognition, morality and religiosity. The person is not enclosed in finitude, but is able in her spiritual acts to surpass what is given and to open herself toward Absolute Being.
In the anthropology of Karol Wojtyła, transcendence together with integration forms the double principle of the personal act. Integration denotes the incorporation of all somatic and psychological dynamisms into the free act. Transcendence means the self-surpassing of the person in free action.
The human person experiences transcendence in the Third Dimension of her personhood: in the free turning toward the good, toward the other someone, and ultimately toward the Absolute. Transcendence thus points to the question of meaning and transcendence.
Ontological classification
Superordinate concept: Entity
Ontological relations:
- experienced by: Human Person
- complementary to: integration of the person
- points to: Absolute Being
Prayer
The personal turning toward the Absolute in the form of address. Prayer presupposes that the Absolute is personal — it is the expression of the I-Thou relation to the absolute person. As a personal act, prayer realizes the deepest possibility of self-transcendence: the person surpasses herself toward the Absolute and enters into an interpersonal relation with the ground of all that is.
Prayer belongs essentially to the Third Dimension of personal life, which Bexten describes following Wojtyła and Hildebrand. In this dimension the person stands in relation not only to herself (First Dimension) or to other finite persons (Second Dimension), but to the Absolute itself. Prayer is the paradigmatic realization of this dimension: it is address — and thus essentially different from mere meditation or self-reflection. By saying “Thou” to the Absolute, the person performs an act that raises interpersonality to its highest level (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 244—250).
As a personal act, prayer presupposes the full personality of the one who prays: cognition (the person cognizes the Absolute as personal), free will (the turning is free), and affectivity (the address is borne by reverence, trust and love).
At the same time, prayer points to holiness as the calling of the person. In prayer the person responds to the call of the Absolute and realizes her deepest destiny. Prayer is thus not a merely religious supplement to personal life, but its completion.
Ontological classification:
- Superordinate concept: Personal act
Ontological relations:
- is addressed to: Absolute Being
- presupposes: the personality of the Absolute, free will, cognition
- realizes: Third Dimension, self-transcendence
- is an expression of: interpersonality
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: Personhood (German), Chapter 5: Oblivion of the Person (German)
See also: Person, Absolute Being, Interpersonality, Third Dimension, Holiness, Self-transcendence, Personal act, Reverence, Affectivity
Religious experience
Religious experience is a genuine form of spiritual experience in which the person encounters the Holy. It is irreducible to merely psychological states or subjective feelings: what is grasped in it has the character of objective givenness (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 128 ff.).
Dietrich von Hildebrand emphasizes that religious experience constitutes an adequate value-response to the Holy — a response that seizes the whole human being in his body-soul unity. Max Scheler distinguishes it as an independent source of cognition from sensory and purely rational cognition. Pascal speaks of the “coeur” as the organ that grasps God immediately — beyond mere rational demonstration, but not against reason.
What is decisive: religious experience presupposes the transcendence of the person — her capacity to be open beyond herself toward an unconditioned.
See also
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.
Further sources:
- Wojtyła, Karol (1969): Osoba i czyn. Kraków (German: Person und Tat, Freiburg: Herder, 1981). (Transcendence and integration as the double principle of the personal act)
- Hildebrand, Dietrich von (1973): Ethik. In: Gesammelte Werke, vol. II. Regensburg: Habbel. (Third Dimension and value-response)
- Pascal, Blaise (1670): Pensées. (The heart as the organ of the cognition of God)
- Spaemann, Robert (1996): Personen. Versuche über den Unterschied zwischen „etwas” und „jemand”. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. (Self-transcendence of the person)