THE SENSE OF THE ELEMENTALS: Lightning and Thunder in the Transfiguration on the High Mountain – a Hierotopy of Theomorfism

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The task of this paper is to search for the proper definition of the elemental engaged in the event of the Transfiguration of Christ on the high mountain, a paradigmatic place for the revelation in which God and man were transfigured. I would call this paradigmatic space, hierotopy of theo-morphism, respectively, of anthropo-morphism. In these events, the elementals participate in the externalization of the holy that marks with its presence the mountain’s horizon. But in what ways and how is the thunder and the lightning other than mere things (elements) of the sensible? How could they be apt to carry out the divine manifestation? What is it about them that distinguish them from mere sensible things? My argumentation in the attempt to answer these questions will follow the ancient Greek tradition of perception of the elementals, which was integrated in the Byzantine culture, along with the Judaic source. The elementals belong to nature, yet not entirely only to pure physical nature. They grant natural things an expanse in which they exceed mere natural things, as they show themselves to be manifestly irreducible to mere sensible things. Such is the expanse of the sky that exceeds the human horizon, the mortal perspective. The encompassing character of the elementals, in which one should include the encompassing horizon of the mountain, the thundering voice of God, and the dazzling light, makes them less distinctly objectifiable and individualized. (Sallis) This excess of vision makes them apt to convey the sublime perception of the unknown, that which is out of reach, which is the condition of the mystery. The revelation happens “like a sudden falling,” says Marion, “undoing everything with its impact,” in “the sense of the irruption of God into that which is finite, limited, and without holiness.” (Marion) Marion’s depiction of revelation has some affinity with Mircea Eliade’s concept hierophany, the term to define the manifestation of the sacred, the irruption of the holy in the profane geography. The mountain, the dwelling place of revelation is the expanse made room for the holy in the world without holiness in order to contain the uncontainable, the manifestation of God. The manifestation of God is that opening to the open region of Being. (Marion) While lightning splits the horizon by its flash exceeding by far the human field of perception, marking with a scar the high sky, thunder gathers everything. Thunder gathers all the elements, and the invisible, the apeiron. While lightning splits and reveals “the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning (Luke 9: 29), the thundering voice of God gathers all elements, earth, water, air, fire, into the elemental dwelling of the high mountain.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHoly Mountains in the Hierotopy and Iconography of the Christian World
Number of pages18
Place of PublicationMoscow
PublisherRussian Academy of Arts
Publication date2019
Pages158-175
ISBN (Print)978-5-91796-067-8
Publication statusPublished - 2019

    Research areas

  • Faculty of Humanities - hierotopy, chorography, elemental, thunder, lightning, sacred space

ID: 213885048