‘Natos ex verbo’: Martin Luther and the ‘Mysticism of the Word’
Jason T. Eslicker
Reformation & Renaissance Review September 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1080/14622459.2024.2426079 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Key points | Argues that Luther's decisive revision of medieval mysticism rests on his theology of the Word of God: Luther locates the soul's union with God in radical trust in God's spoken promises rather than in a process of inner preparation, purgation, and reoriented love. What appears to be a denial of God's immediacy is, on the author's reading, a reframing and intensification of that immediacy in the spoken Word. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT The question of whether Martin Luther’s theology warrants the epithet ‘mystical’ has generated rival and divergent responses. Tracing developments in Luther’s thought concerning the verbum increatum, this essay argues that Luther’s decisive alteration to medieval mysticism rests on developments in his theology of the Word of God. Luther locates the soul’s union with God in an act of radical trust in God’s spoken promises, rather than in a protracted process of inner preparation, purgation, and the re-orientation of human love, and in doing so he effectively proposes a novel understanding of divine agency, presence, and mediation. What on the surface appears to be Luther’s denial of God’s immediacy in mystical experience is rather a reframing and intensification of God’s immediacy in the spoken Word. The evangelical mystic does not understand Christ being begotten in the innermost depths of her being, but as herself being generated of the Word of God.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |