The Human Being in Exposure to Mystery: Phenomenological Foundations of a Mystical Anthropology
Angélica Morales Arizmendi
Religions February 26, 2026 DOI: 10.3390/rel17020173 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Mystical anthropology Exposure Miguel garcía-baró Juan martín velasco Teresa of ávila |
| Key points | Argues that mystical experience is not an exceptional event but the most lucid manifestation of the human condition, revealing that human beings are constituted by relation, receptivity, and responsibility. |
Abstract
This article develops a phenomenological foundation of mystical anthropology through a dialogue between contemporary Spanish philosophy and the sixteenth-century Castilian mystical tradition. Taking Juan Martín Velasco, Miguel García-Baró, and Teresa of Ávila as its main interlocutors, it explores the anthropological structure of the encounter with Mystery as an essential possibility of human existence. The study identifies the human being as a subject in exposure to Mystery—an existence that receives itself through a transcendent call to truth and goodness. The analysis shows that the mystical attitude converges with the philosophical one in their shared openness to the real and their ethical orientation toward truth and the Good. Both reveal that the human being is constituted by relation, receptivity, and responsibility. This synthesis redefines mystical experience not as an exceptional event, but as the most lucid manifestation of the human condition, offering a renewed anthropology capable of addressing contemporary nihilism and spiritual disorientation, understood as the loss of ultimate meaning and the weakening of desire that characterize many contemporary forms of human experience.
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