obsessio

These five worlds are identified by unique experiences of what Jones calls obsessio and epiphania.

Experimental Theology 2009

Put another way, an obsessio is whatever threatens to deadlock Yeses with No. It is one horn that establishes life as dilemma … The etymology of the word says it well: obsessio means "to be besieged."

Experimental Theology 2009

Jones's distinction between the experiences of obsessio and epiphania are helpful as they allow us to examine the relative balance between the experiences.

Experimental Theology 2009

While the dynamic of obsessio and epiphania is universal, for some individuals, the emphasis falls heaviest on obsessio; for others, on epiphania … There is reason to believe that such temperaments become established at an early age. iii.

Experimental Theology 2009

If obsessio is experienced as the predicament or brokenness of existence, then epiphania is experienced as resolution, answer and salvation (pp. 28, 37, emphases in original):

Experimental Theology 2009

An obsessio is whatever functions deeply and pervasively in one's life as a defining quandary, a conundrum, a boggling of the mind, a hemorrhaging of the soul, a wound that bewilders healing, a mystification than renders one's life cryptic.

Experimental Theology 2009

To quote Jones (p. 27, emphases in original), the obsessio is:

Experimental Theology 2009

Peace and contentment are the experiences when ephiphania has more intensity than obsessio.

Experimental Theology 2009

Whatever inadequate words one might choose to describe it, an obsessio is that which so gets its teeth into a person that it establishes one's life as plot.

Experimental Theology 2009

It is Jones's general formulation of obsessio and epiphania, rather than the specific and unique formulations of his five theological

Experimental Theology 2009