Spiritual exercises, with their undeniable antecedents in the ancient, notably, Greek philosophical schools, have long been seen as an important religious method and ascetic practice for the perfection of individual selves, their sensibilities and capabilities. Only rarely have they been given their due as generic and also strangely generative features of social and public life, indeed, of political agency and militancy, more broadly. By way of a few telling examples, the lecture will explore the paradoxical nexus between instances of mystico-metaphysical disengagement, conversion or contemplation, on the one hand, and the no less deep pragmatic forms of critical re-engagement, described in terms of reform, revolution, and struggle, on the other. Distinct from all too subject-centered soul searching and self-care, spiritual experiences and practices find their original meaning and ulterior ambition in nothing short of a cosmic consciousness, whose historical and material terms remain to be envisioned anew.
*Event set-up will begin at 4pm, lecture will begin at 5pm.*