A meditáció a hitgyakorlásban és az irodalomban
Meditation in the Spiritual Life and in Literature

Summary/Abstract: The study involves methods of literary, theological research and experiences in the history of spirituality. First it defines the term meditation as an individual practice of the spiritual life, where contemplation on a special theme also involves a decision: to act in accord with the values brought to light during the reflection. The written form of the meditation may be considered as one of the specific genres of ecclesiastical literature, with a great number of works from 17th century Hungarian literature being written in this genre. The second part of the paper deals with the Jesuit meditation, putting in focus Mátyás Hajnal’s Booklet of the Heart published in 1629 in Vienna. The work is a sequence of 18 emblems, each of them followed by a meditation and a prayer. Its theme is the functioning of divine grace and the process of justification. The viewpoint of the analysis is a complex one: the theological problem is presented in literary form through the use of popular genre and language.

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