Memory, Imaginary and Aristotelian Epistemology. On the Nature of "Apterous Fly" (Essay‪)‬

Memory and recollection have been pointed as important acts of religious belief ever since Mircea Eliade's concept of myth of eternal return was forged and there is an affinity with the Lost Paradise theme as well; both have profound grounding on some concept of memory and imagination. But whereas ancient and primordial myths have been deposited within some social or trans-individual imaginary, there is an increasing interest in exploring the importance of personal or individual imaginary for religious belief. Far from thinking to any regress to the psychoanalytic views, I suggest actually that individual memory and imagination, explored mainly from epistemological perspective in philosophy, have an important role in religion and could reveal illuminating conclusions for the researcher of religions. I totally agree that memory and imagination are not only factors of cohesion or religious communication but also individual ferments for structuring one's religious views, far from reducing the complexity of religion to superfluous affections but orienting and grounding authentic religious belief on one's life. One may notice the interesting approach of systematic interpretation of some contemporary authors' life focused on memory as restorative, integrative and redemptive (1). The individual memory and recollection in religion has been the starting point of Ioan Petru Culianu's book about Eros and magic in the Renaissance (2). His main idea is that the Arisotelian phantasma or faculty of imagination has been for centuries understood as the "place" of mental images that populated the imaginary world of religion. Modern censorship applied to the imaginary by the Reformation created modernity as an effort to adapt to an imaginary vacuum that had to be replaced by the techniques and sciences (3). The concept of phantasma discussed there is the Aristotelian individual imagery grounded more on epistemological and psychological insights. But the religious individuals assumed and connected to that concept of psyche thus resulting a culturally determined societal functioning.