Methodological background

An analysis and interpretation of Haľamova´s poetry will be carried out by means of the application of the concepts expressed in the following termi-nology⁷: spirituality – transcendence – religiosity – spirituality – spiritualema,

5 Unlike pantheism in which everything is identical with God, panentheism states that everything is in God (Vide: Z. Plašienková, J. Kulisz, Na ceste s Teilhardom de Chardin. Dobrá kniha, Trnava 2004, p. 78).

6A volume of studies by young scholars from Presov University includes an article by M. Birosikova entitled Maria Halamova and Her Transcendence which reaches a conclusion that some of the spiritu-al motives of her poetry are only an expression of time lexis without any spirituspiritu-al intention. These findings are supported by the lack of spiritual faith (vide: M. Birošiková, Maša Haľamová a jej tran-scendencie, [in:] 8. študentská vedecká konferencia. Zborník plných príspevkovi, eds. M. Ološtiak, M. Chovanec, Prešovská univerzita, Prešov 2013, p. 1061-1062).

7 Our main arguments are based on the research of Z. Plašienková, M. Stríženec, J. Komorovský, J. Sabol employing interdisciplinary aspects. Vide: J. Komorovský, Psychologický typ „homo religi-osus“. [In:] Duchovný rozmer osobnosti: Interdisciplinárny prístup. ed. by M. Stríženec, Ústav expe-rimentálnej psychológie SAV, Bratislava 1997, p. 15-21; Z. Plašienková, Duchovnosť človeka v kon-texte filozofických reflexií, [in:] Duchovný rozmer osobnosti: Interdisciplinárny prístup, ed. M. Stríže-nec, Ústav experimentálnej psychológie SAV, Bratislava 1997, p. 1-14; J. Sabol, Teória literatúry.

Základy verzológie, Rektorát Univerzity P. J. Šafárika, Košice 1983, pp. 185; idem,

Lingvisticko-ized within ontologically differentiated scale: “homo religious”, “homo spiritualis”

and homo s/Spiritus”⁸.

The selected methodology draws on interdisciplinary areas (such as philos-ophy, psychology, theology, religion, linguistics and semiotics) which makes it possible to examine spiritual/meta-empirical aspects of literary texts.

Spirituality as an anthropological constant can be according to Zlatica Plašienková⁹ defined as an existential attitude of a man (i.e. preparedness towards a certain type of behaviour, acting, thinking and general direction in life), based on intuitive knowledge of one´s personal experience and full acceptance of Sum-mum Bonum. Spirituality is understood as a process, during which we aim to “touch eternity”. Its main signal can be emotional expressions of respect, awe, adoration, empathy and so on.

Transcendence is defined by Zlatica Plašienková¹⁰ as the ability of a person to overcome oneself and to be open to everything that transcends her/him (other people, being, God). With reference to transcendence leaning on the philosophy of P. Teilhard de Chardin¹¹, she points out the concept of a spiritual growth, in which a man by means of Transcendence can become a mature personality overcoming the limitations of the profane and sacred.

She distinguishes between „grand“ Transcendence, the term she uses to re-fer to personal or impersonal, theistic, pantheistic but also panentheistic God, and a “small” transcendence as a sphere which goes beyond the worldly reality and to which we can “open”, however it is not focused on God. Therefore, spiritual-ity can be religious or non-religious and thus we should differentiate between vari-ous forms of spirituality¹².

semiotické pohľady na biblické texty, [in:] Studia Academica Slovaca, 31, Prednášky 38. letnej školy slovenského jazyka a kultúry, Stimul, Bratislava 2002, p. 198-207; J. Sabol, O. Sabolová, J. Sersenová, Spiritualéma, “Verbum”, year 21: 2010, No. 1, p. 92-97; M. Stríženec, Spiritualita a jej zisťovanie,

„Človek a spoločnosť (internetový časopis pre pôvodné, teoretické a výskumné štúdie z oblasti spolo-čenských vied)“ [Spoločenský ústav SAV, Košice], year 8, 2005, No. 1, [online] URL:

http://www.saske.sk/cas/archiv/1-2005/strizenec.html [Access: 18. 01. 2016]. Vide: Slovník spirituality, zost. Stefano de Fiores a Tullo Goffi, Karmelitánské nakladatelství, Kostelní Vydří 1999, pp. 1295.

8 See more in: I. Hajdučeková, Metodologické východiská vo výskume spirituality a metaempirickej dimenzie literárnej skutočnosti, „Religious and Sacred Poetry: An International Quarterly of Religion, Culture and Education“, ed. by Marek Mariusz Tytko, year 1: 2013, No. 4 (4), p. 59-82, [online] URL:

http://religious-and-sacred-poetry.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/RASP-2013-no-04-4.pdf [Access: 18. 01. 2016].

9 Plašienková Z., Duchovnosť človeka v kontexte filozofických reflexií, op. cit., p. 1-14.

10 Ibidem, p. 12.

11Z. Plašienková deals with the interpretation of P. T. de Chardin´s philosophy in more details in her monograph – vide: Z. Plašienková, J. Kulisz, Na ceste s Teilhardom de Chardin, op. cit., ibidem.

12 Z. Plašienková, Duchovnosť..., op. cit., ibidem, p. 13-14.

Religiosity was defined by Michal Stríženec (2005)¹³ as a personal and positive relationship of a man to religion (God). It is demonstrated in thinking (in a religious belief), in the experience (religious emotions) but also in the activity (cults, rituals and activities of a religious community). We can also add that it is related to the affirmative relation towards particular religion, organized church or religious institution“.

Spirituality is, according to Michal Stríženec¹⁴,

a „multidimensional psychological construct“,

and therefore it cannot be separated from an existing human being. The pe-culiarity of a Christian spirituality is a belief in the trinity of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, while the mystical experience is its highest form.

While religiosity is marked by collective experience and dogma, spirituality is marked by individuality and personal experience with the sacred (subjectivity).

The mutual relation between spirituality and religiosity is defined by Michal Stríženec as follows: spirituality is an inseparable part of religiosity, but it exceeds it and the connection between the two is acknowledged by the meta-empirical di-mension of reality.

Spiritualema is a sign-aesthetic unit. Ján Sabol defines it as

“semiotic guardian angel”, “who codes the blessing of mystery”¹⁵.

Later he specifies that it is

“a semiotic guardian angel who keeps an eye on man´s goodness and the values in lan-guage”¹⁶.

According to Sabol, the spiritualema has its own

“connotative energy of higher transcendental legacy”¹⁷.

It designates spirituality as a processual phenomenon extending the dimen-sion of text sign. Spiritualema is connected with the category of time, as it runs in time as “chronos” with its vertical dimension (“Kairos”). The distinctive sign of spiritualema is its interiority. Other signs are: fidelity, humility, generosity,

13 M. Stríženec M., Spiritualita a jej zisťovanie..., op. cit., ibidem.

14 Ibidem.

15 J. Sabol, Lingvisticko-semiotické pohľady na biblické texty..., op. cit., p. 203.

16 J. Sabol, O. Sabolová, J. Sersenová, Spiritualéma, op. cit., ibidem.

17 Ibidem, p. 92.

thy, pity, kindness, sensibility, justice, conscientiousness, selflessness, truthfulness, perseverance, mercifulness, modesty and so on¹⁸.

Spirituality and religiosity as anthropological concepts are well captured by the term “homo religiosus” by Ján Komorovský¹⁹. It designates a religious person who created religious values and structures them through his intellect and imagination. “Homo religious” is a person who is deeply oriented on the infi-nite Transcendence with regard to sacredness and “sensus numinis” (a term by R. Otto), while religion has become the central part of his life. He asserts reli-gious ideas and ideals, possesses an apostle’s kind of enthusiasm but he is also ascetic and humble. His way towards deep spiritual experience is marked by trials, crises and conversions. In order to specify the term „homo religious”, Ján Komo-rovský says that religiosity does not necessarily always grow: it can also stagnate or die out. Within the scope of religious dynamism he puts forward the variations of individual religiosity (according to the Polish author Józef Pastuszka):

A) intellectual type (understands religion as a problem of truth which needs to be known),

B) voluntary type (religion represents a set of values guiding man´s behav-iour while each act of will is determined by adequate act of intellect),

C) affective type (religion is subordinated to emotional experience of what we know as intuition. He distinguishes between euphoric, melancholic and aesthet-ic modifaesthet-ication),

D) harmonious type (represents an equal relation of all psychic abilities in-volved in religious life).

The main starting point of our research is his final thesis: “a man becomes homo religiosus” when he achieves understanding of transcendental Being and establishes a personal contact with it. Only then when he participates in God´s life, is he ontologically connected with God and acts upon his “presence” and thus we can claim that “he is homo religiosus, integral part of God-man ideal”²⁰.

Based on our own literary research and understanding the need to differen-tiate spirituality within a poetic text²¹, we make distinction between the terms “ho-mo religious”, “ho“ho-mo spiritualis” and also “ho“ho-mo s/Spiritus”, which enables us to create a differentiated scale of modalities. Their meaning is defined as follows:

“Homo spiritualis” – is a phenomenon of a spiritual capacity of a human being and his ability to perceive meta-empirical dimension of reality which is pri-marily determined and initiated by auto-transcendence (a characteristic sign of a spiritual awakening is the act of enlightenment). Religious form is one

18 See more in: ibidem, p. 95-96.

19 J. Komorovský, Psychologický typ „homo religiosus“..., op. cit., p. 15-21.

20 Ibidem, p. 21.

21 See more [in:] I. Hajdučeková, Metodologické..., op. cit., p. 59-82.

of the forms of its realisations (distinguishing between “small” or “big” transcend-ence);

“Homo spiritus / Spiritus” – marks the phenomenon of spiritual maturity (enlightenment) characterized by an individual spiritual experience in the intentions of Christian spirituality acknowledging God´s Trinity. Its typical feature is an active answer to God´s initiative by accepting the gifts of mercy, therefore the result of Holy Spirit in the life of an individual is creative-evolutionary being. In this sense we can talk about the degree of spiritual maturity which has the so called “numi-nous form”.

The methodological points of interest represent a strategy, which makes it possible to decode spiritual legacy of the artistic text in its multidimensional static and dynamic form, i.e. in the process of spiritualization²².