Dooyeweerd's view of Enstasis
as an entering into temporal reality.
By J Glenn Friesen
(The following is an extract from 'Enstasy, Ecstasy and Religious Self-Reflection: A History of Dooyeweerd’s Ideas of Pre-theoretical Experience' by Dr J Glenn Friesen.)
As we have seen, Dooyeweerd says that it is only humans who can enter enstatically into the temporal cosmos. For Dooyeweerd, enstasis involves our supratemporal selfhood (our I-ness) entering into temporal reality:
Dooyeweerd speaks of the relation of our supratemporal selfhood to the temporal systasis in several ways. First, Dooyeweerd refers to our being “fitted into” [ingesteld] temporal reality (WdW II, 401). We are simultaneously supratemporal beings as well as beings who have been “fitted into” temporal reality. It is only because we both transcend time and are fitted into it that we can perform the theoretical act of synthesis of meaning (Dooyeweerd 1931, 103). The temporal reality into which we are fitted is a fallen reality. We enter into temporal reality, in order to help redeem it and to fulfill it (Friesen 2009, Theses 75 and 77 and references).
Note Dooyeweerd’s emphasis on the entering of our selfhood into the “cosmic temporal coherence of experience.” For Dooyeweerd, ‘cosmic’ always refers to the temporal world, and does not include our selfhood, which is beyond time. We could have no true sense of time if we did not go above time in the deepest part of our being. (Dooyeweerd 1940, 181). Cosmic time is not the only kind of time; it is distinct from the aevum, the created eternity in which our supratemporal heart is situated. And both cosmic time and the aevum are distinct from God’s eternity. These distinctions of cosmic time, the supratemporal and the eternal, have their roots in Baader’s distinctions between time, the supratemporal, and the eternal.
Note also that it is our naïve intuition that allows our selfhood to enter into the temporal. We will discuss intuition in more detail later.
As we have seen, Dooyeweerd says that it is only humans who can enter enstatically into the temporal cosmos. For Dooyeweerd, enstasis involves our supratemporal selfhood (our I-ness) entering into temporal reality:
In pre-theoretical thought, my I-ness enters enstatically by means of its naïve intuition into the cosmic temporal coherence of experience. Only humans can do this. Other beings are ex-statically absorbed by their temporal existence (WdW II, 415; NC II, 479-80).For Dooyeweerd, our selfhood or I-ness is supratemporal. Dooyeweerd refers to the temporal coherence of experience as a ‘systasis.’ So enstasy involves the relation of our supratemporal selfhood to the systasis of temporal reality. I will discuss systasis in more detail below. For the moment it is sufficient to emphasize that enstasis is the entry into the temporal systasis.
Dooyeweerd speaks of the relation of our supratemporal selfhood to the temporal systasis in several ways. First, Dooyeweerd refers to our being “fitted into” [ingesteld] temporal reality (WdW II, 401). We are simultaneously supratemporal beings as well as beings who have been “fitted into” temporal reality. It is only because we both transcend time and are fitted into it that we can perform the theoretical act of synthesis of meaning (Dooyeweerd 1931, 103). The temporal reality into which we are fitted is a fallen reality. We enter into temporal reality, in order to help redeem it and to fulfill it (Friesen 2009, Theses 75 and 77 and references).
Note Dooyeweerd’s emphasis on the entering of our selfhood into the “cosmic temporal coherence of experience.” For Dooyeweerd, ‘cosmic’ always refers to the temporal world, and does not include our selfhood, which is beyond time. We could have no true sense of time if we did not go above time in the deepest part of our being. (Dooyeweerd 1940, 181). Cosmic time is not the only kind of time; it is distinct from the aevum, the created eternity in which our supratemporal heart is situated. And both cosmic time and the aevum are distinct from God’s eternity. These distinctions of cosmic time, the supratemporal and the eternal, have their roots in Baader’s distinctions between time, the supratemporal, and the eternal.
Note also that it is our naïve intuition that allows our selfhood to enter into the temporal. We will discuss intuition in more detail later.
The above text is an extract (page 46) from
'Enstasy, Ecstasy and Religious Self-Reflection:
A History of Dooyeweerd’s Ideas of Pre-theoretical Experience'
by Dr J Glenn Friesen.
Download this entire article (PDF 125 pages)
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