46 Spirituality Studies 3 Methodological Framework: A TheologicalPhenomenological Approach Following the methodological framework formulated by Jean-Luc Marion (2002) and, as a recent example of applying this approach, Matthias Huber’s (2026), this study situates itself within the fields of educational theology and phenomenology of religion. Similar to Huber’s model, which approaches philosophy and theology as “distinct yet interacting discursive practices” (Huber 2026, 2), this study utilizes theology not as a dogmatic imposition but as a “hermeneutical horizon that interprets” universal human structures (Huber 2026, 2). The distinction between this approach and a purely philosophical inquiry, or one within the philosophy of education, lies in their starting point. While a philosophical inquiry would require a systematic justification of its ontological premises regarding the existence of the divine (Marion 2002, 7–8), theological methodologies study religious traditions by positing as an axiom the existence of the Divine and His fundamental place (see, e.g., Marion 2002, 72, on the difference between revealed theology, sacra doctrina, and metaphysics). This study, then, adopts a theological stance. It posits the metaphysical-theological structure of the Ten Sefirot, as described in Jewish mysticism, as an a priori axiom. Furthermore, the methodology operates phenomenologically and hermeneutically (Marion 2002). Thus, rather than empirically describing, for example, how the belief in the Ten Sefirot is enacted in the lives of adherents to Kabbalah (what approaches grounded in the empirical social sciences and psychology would probably do), it investigates how these structures are “given” to consciousness (Marion 2002, 7). While in the sciences and in metaphysics, “it is a question of proving… grounding appearances in order to know with certainty… in phenomenology… it is a question of showing. To show implies letting appearances be received exactly as they give themselves” (Marion 2002, 7). Namely, this study investigates how a developing consciousness becomes aware of – receives, experiences, discloses, conceives – ten dimensions or mediums of Being accessible in principle to human consciousness. Usually, we would consider the phenomenological method as limiting the study to describing the structure of the Ten Sefirot not as an ontological divine schema, but as it is experienced, disclosed, and conceived within developing human awareness. Nevertheless, in line with the tradition of “realist phenomenology” and the Munich Circle (Embree 1998; Miron 2023), although this article does not directly engage in an ontological discussion, it regards these structures not as random subjective inventions but as mind-independent essences. This assumption regarding the mind-independent essence of the Sefirot is also methodologically justified by Marion’s concept of the “saturated phenomenon” (Marion 2002; Mackinlay 2010, 1–11) – the exemplar phenomenon that recharacterizes phenomenology. That is, a phenomenology that is not limited by the epistemological structure of the knowing subject but rather characterized by “understanding phenomena as pure givens and removing any rival principle or agent that might condition or limit their givenness in any way” (Mackinlay 2010, 33). In other words, the “phenomenology of the given” or “realist phenomenology” approach, which argues that phenomenology deals with essences that are independent of the knowing subject, functions as a bridge between the phenomenological description of the consciousness experience on the one hand, and the theological assumption of the independent existence of the meanings of the Ten Sefirot on the other. Thus, positing an independent essence of the Ten Sefirot is methodologically supported by this approach (for mind-independent possibilities and moral essences see Shafer-Landau 2003; Lowe 2008; Parfit 2011; Huemer 2008; Tahko 2023). It is also worth mentioning here William James’s (1897) classic The Will to Believe, which sees the turning point at which the real possibility of an independent essence and meaning becomes alive for a person through that person’s decision to believe. This is a decision that is no less rational than the decision to believe that there is no such possibility. Specifically, the phenomenological hermeneutics method used in this study involved a twofold interpretive act. First, it shifts from the traditional “top-down” theological description of divine emanation (Creation) to a “bottom-up” phenomenological description of a possible route for spiritual and consciousness growth. This bottom-up route of spiritual development of consciousness, or the soul, can meth-
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