Recepcja Księgi Hioba w tradycji pism mistycznych. O gruncie pokory nazwanym Nic Stefana Kucharskiego
Reception of the Book of Job in the Tradition of Mystical Writings: O gruncie pokory nazwanym Nic (On the Ground of Humility Called Nothing) by Stefan Kucharski

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the reception of the book of Job in the mystical‑ascetical treatise On the Ground of Humility Called Nothing by the Polish Carmelite Stefan Kucharski (1595–1653). The author argues that the references to the book of Job found in this work are not merely superficial biblical embellishments but that they emerge from the tradition of Carmelite scripturalism. Therefore, they testify to a profound exege-sis of this biblical book and to Kucharski’s familiarity with the diverse traditions of Christian mysticism, ranging from Gregory the Great’s Moralia, through Rhenish mysticism, to the writings of St. John of the Cross.The comparative analyses undertaken in the article demonstrate that Kucharski developed an original image of Job as a figure of the human being progressing toward a perfect union with God. This image participates in the centuries‑long formation—within both Jewish and Christian mysticism—of the paradigm of Job as a mystic. The author further notes that this area of the reception of the book of Job remains insufficiently explored in existing scholarship. At the same time, drawing on Bernard McGinn’s research, the article underscores that Kucharski’s interpretation is part of the late‑medieval and early‑modern self‑critique of mystical language, which was subjected to radical denudation.Kucharski’s Job thus stands as one of the most notable examples of a distinct mystical tradition that no longer turns to imagery and the senses as analogies for the spiritual and immaterial. By renouncing all imagery in this way, the text enacts a keno-sis of thought, expressible not through the figurativeness of the Song of Songs but through the pure disinterestedness of the book of Job. The ultimate horizon here is the idea of a naked, fully non‑human language.

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