Research on Epiphany #2-- General Research

In my last "research on epiphany" post I went into some depth into our study of epiphany. I used an article that discusses the background to James Joyce to really get at epiphany, a term that is used abundantly in Joyce criticism, and the term epicleti-- Joyce's personal choice for what he referred to his stories as. Now, after going into depth with a specific, I would like to step back and really just pursue a broad understanding of the word epiphany. I may hit on some of the same points as in my previous post but I would like to explore them deeper.

The word epiphany has roots that run back to Greek. Etymologically, epi- means something like "forth"-- think of epicenter, epidermis, etc. The root phan- is "to appear" or "to show"-- for phan- think of words like phantom, phantasm, phantasmagoria, and some spellings phantasy. Thus, an accurate definition of epiphany could be understood as a showing forth. Traditionally this showing forth is typically understood through some sort of manifestation of the divine, thus giving the word its revelatory status-- a sudden manifestation of the divine through an unveiling.

The term epiphany in the Christian tradition refers to a holiday celebrating "the revelation of God made Man in the person of Jesus Christ" (Wiki). Apparently the celebration typically falls on January 6th or, in some faiths, the Sunday between January 2nd and January 8th. The western faiths typically commemorate the visitation of the magi to baby Jesus while eastern faiths focus on the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan by John. The holiday can also be called "Theophany"-- appearance of God.

It would appear that this religious understanding of epiphany as the "appearance of God" has even appeared in pop culture symbolical depictions of an epiphany-- most famously depicted as a light bulb popping on over someones head. There appears to be an obvious theme of ignorance as darkness and divine knowledge as light (consider how often churches light candles for Christ, or think of calling Christ the "light of the world" from John 8:12 or "light in the dark"). Also, in the western culture light and dark often are representative of good and evil respectively. From this understanding the epiphany can be understood as the manifestation of good and the supplant of evil. From these considerations we should consider the concept of illumination valuable to the understanding of epiphany. It would be very interesting to study epiphany in terms of bringing light to dark.

While I've tried to explore quite a bit here and in my last post I'm sure that there is plenty left to reveal! The more I consider the term, the more paths that I find myself being led down. It makes me extremely excited to really get going and do justice to the study of such a culturally important concept. In the great Hall of Epiphany the light I have shed only a small speck of a candle towards illuminating the darkness.