Abstract:
Meaning is formed where an evocative object and the unconscious meet. Such an object
can be a thing, a person, a place, art, word, sound or atmosphere. This way of forming
meaning does not depend on thinking. Psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas calls it the
unthought known. It is a form of knowing that is perceived through imagination –
that capacity that mediates between thinking and sensing. The aim of the article is
to explore worship as transformational object in discussion with Johan Cilliers’ A
space for grace: Towards an aesthetics of preaching. In a worship event a rich variety
of elements can contribute to aesthetic experience: from space and architecture to art,
colour form and symbols, to sound, music and singing, bodily participation, and the
spoken word. The article explores how these can function as evocative objects that have
the capacity to affect the psyche and transform the self.
