Sojourn of the Sylvan Fringe: Receptivity to Mystery and Curricular Ruminations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/1916-4467.40845Keywords:
mystery, existential experience, hermeneutic phenomenology, sojourn, sylvan fringe, metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, physis, presence and absence, receptivity to mystery, curriculum theory, ontological curriculumAbstract
This retrospective of an extended inquiry into the phenomenon of mystery addresses three questions:
- What is mystery?, revealing through hermeneutic phenomenology an unknown flower within a forest resuscitating metaphysics as physis, a definition of mystery founded on secrecy and incomprehensibility, and a conception of mystery as the enigma of the counterplay between the ontological movements of presencing and absencing (Caputo, 1986; Heidegger, 1927/1962);
- Why distain toward mystery?, where, through a literature review, a typology of senses of mystery problematizes this distain and expands awareness towards mystery. Openness to mystery begins through awareness, which heightens the senses and emotions, kindling poetic knowledge, a foundational mode of being. Mystery also serves as a measure for our lives, through our consonant comportments and conceptions. The comportment of humility, among others, is highlighted as nurturing mystery; and
- How may receptivity toward mystery inform curriculum theory?, where the consideration of “what should be learned” (Petrina, 2004), supports a conception of education in which future generations recognize metaphysics as presence, while awakening to metaphysics as physis.
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