First tab: the Homo Religiosus
From: http://rorate.com/vnieuws/nieuws/19-vlaanderen/41110
Published on Friday, December 28, 2007 13:15
André T’Jampens was Pastor Emeritus of Ouwegem and passed away in Deinze on December 24, 2007. He was born in Nazareth on September 8, 1922, and ordained a priest in Ghent on April 13, 1947. E.H. T’Jampens, holder of a degree in Philosophy, was successively a teacher at the college in Oudenaarde (April 14, 1947) and curate in Destelbergen (January 31, 1954), and Ghent Sint-Macharius (September 10, 1962). Subsequently, he served as pastor in Destelbergen Pius X (September 30, 1965) and in Ouwegem (October 27, 1967). He retired on April 3, 1978.
The editors of this website further add that he was also a lecturer in philosophy and logic at the ‘HIVO’, the Higher Institute for Educational Sciences in Antwerp, starting in 1957. In June 2000—when he was 78 years old—he gave his last lecture there.
What made him so unique was not only his vast erudition and his profound insights into many life problems, but above all the fact that, like a true “Ebed Yahweh,” he could take upon himself the ailments (cancer, sciatica, diabetes…) of his fellow man. That fellow man would then recover in a remarkable manner, usually to the great astonishment of the medical world. In the most literal sense of the word, he himself would be quite ill from it, but he recovered faster. He always helped people selflessly and “without distinction of person.” “There is a problem and it must be solved,” he stated, regardless of the life philosophy of the fellow man who needed to be helped. He always said that the energy required for healing came from the Trinity.
It all had to happen in silence. Our culture indeed has laws prohibiting such practices. Even if medical science claims to be powerless, the beneficial use of such healing energies is still not permitted. This is due to the numerous abuses that undeniably exist as well. Such a lack of distinction continues to give pause for thought.
From: De Standaard,
of Saturday, January 31, 2008.
Two great teachers
A few days ago, Jozef Mertens was buried. Not long before him, another retired priest, André T’jampens, passed away in Nazareth. They were both licentiates in philosophy. They lived to be over 80 years old. Their image is still very close to my mind.
It was a different university back then, with barely more than 4,000 students. We considered that a very large number at the time, just imagine. I had come from the Aalst Athenaeum to study law and philosophy in Ghent with great interest, a true child of the first generations of the democratization of education. The ideological differences at the university, among the students, were, in my view, more powerful and sharper than they are now, even significant. One was either secular or Catholic; many showed this by wearing a black or a red student cap. And even within the secularists, it wasn't simple: liberals, socialists, left-wing radicals, communists... And then there were the Flemish nationalists – myself included – and the Francophiles...
Back to our two dead. One must imagine the so-called student parish, the age-old St. Thomas Society, the KUC as it was called. I had ended up there, even though I came from the pre-university, carried mainly by my mother due to my ambivalent religious background. And I entered a kind of philosophical world where André T’jampens and Jef Mertens managed to captivate hundreds of students over the years with their evening classes and afternoon lectures. No sermons at all, no devotion at all.
But they did talk about Nietzsche, about Freud, about the psychology of religion, about the sociology of religion, about Martin Heidegger… The hall was full, week after week, at least twenty times a year. And that hall, there on Kortrijksepoortstraat, close to Schreiboom’s silent chapel, was large. I remember the discussions that followed, in the Rotonde, the café on the corner, with my lifelong friend Paul Bauters, later a justice of the peace and one of our few mill experts, with whom the favorite themes were revisited. About freedom, about inner peace through philosophical thought, about fundamental options in life… And with many others, with Etienne Vermeersch, who by then had also deviated from the straight path of Catholicism, just as I would do shortly afterwards…
Jaap Kruithof was my most important philosophy professor at the university. I remember the enormous contrast between those two philosophical worlds: André T’jampens and Jef Mertens on the one hand, and Jaap Kruithof and many others like him on the other.
All this demonstrates that an intense intellectual interest prevailed in those pre-May ’68 years, a great debate that was constantly present. Although, of course, we did not forget that the student café and the dance hall – even then – were of equal importance.
I will always remember those two teachers now that the angels have led them to paradise.
an anonymous testimony from a former student
Second Tab : Books
After the tab ‘the religious man’, the second tab of this site, titled ‘books’, offers you, on the one hand, the complete text of the book “Homo religiosus”. Mr. T’Jampens would have liked to write this book himself, but no longer found the time. Therefore, we wanted to make a modest attempt to commit the religious vision that comes to life from his courses, texts, and the many conversations we had with him, to ‘digital paper’ ourselves. On the other hand, you will also find the text of the book “Elements of Natural Logic”. This, too, is intended as a modest attempt to summarize his many logic courses to some extent. It may perhaps surprise you, but whoever reasons logically validly also reasons conscientiously. And conversely, acting conscientiously is also a logical matter. Hence the connection between logic, morality, and religion.
Third tab : Courses
The third tab provides a list of many courses that Mr. T'Jampens has 'typed' together on his old typewriter or even written down by hand over the course of his life. It was still the time of the alcohol duplicator, later of 'stencils', and later of the copy machine that we are all familiar with.
He always put together his courses with great conscientiousness. They testify to his enormous reading, insight and wisdom. But above all, they show a metaphysics that, through Ancient Greek thought, patristics, scholastics and neo-scholastics, constantly pays attention to everything that is higher and that transcends us humans, of a “philosophia perennis”, an eternal philosophy. They are imbued with ethical and religious values that sometimes stand in stark contrast to the overly materialistic mentality of our time. He was also familiar with the world of manticism and magic like no other and had almost prophetic insights. He supplemented the ideas of world-renowned authors such as M. Eliade, N. Söderblom, W. Kristensen and even improved their texts with regard to hieroanalysis.“They only 'see' the profane side, not the sacred side,” he said again and with some concern, “and it is time to also look at these things from an 'internalistic' point of view.”
Fourth tab : texts
In addition to ‘courses’ for his students, he also wrote ‘texts’. These texts cover a great many religious and philosophical themes related to his comprehensive pastoral task, or served as preparation for his numerous discussion evenings to which everyone was welcome. Indeed, he wanted people to go home with a solid syllabus each time. And remarkably, he subsequently revised his own text, noting down many additions and reflections alongside and between his printed pages. We have not wished to withhold these latter additions from the reader here either.
Throughout the years, we see an evolution in what he commits to paper for us. The paranormal is initially treated quite matter-of-factly, but gradually he leads us into that unusual world and also warns us of its many dangers. The texts that were handed to us posthumously bear witness to this, in particular. In fact, anyone reading them without the necessary prior knowledge and required axiomatics might all too easily dismiss them as implausible. However, anyone fortunate enough to see him at work, and the rather unusual way in which he assisted people with problems, realizes all too well the reality and gravity of such testimonies.
The texts and courses referred to here comprise more than ten thousand pages in total. They have all been digitized. The intention is that the reader can simply consult, download, or print them here. Our concern: Mr. T’Jampens’ religious thought seems to us so important, so unique, and so far-reaching that it certainly must not be lost.