The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
February 25, 2020
John Arblaster
This chapter examines the subject of humanity as created in the image and likeness of God, a central theme in the Christian mystical tradition. Indeed, the imago Dei forms the foundation of much if not all Christian theological anthropology, and questions of the ‘nature’ and ‘structure’ of the human person are evidently central to questions of the mystical encounter between human persons and...
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
February 25, 2020
Louise Nelstrop
This chapter explores the place of erotic and nuptial image within Christian mystical texts. It outlines a shift in later mystical texts in which human corporeality, especially in terms of sensation and emotion, is embraced as part of what it means to love God. It is noted that this development is accompanied by an increasingly Christological focus. It is argued that there is much that...
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
February 25, 2020
Michael Barnes
This chapter asks what the Church has to learn from, and what it can offer to, the contemplative turn in contemporary culture. It begins with one particular aspect of this phenomenon, namely the interreligious spirituality of persons who find themselves caught up ‘between’ the wisdom of established traditions and their pursuit of an authentic personal practice. Thomas Merton and Swami...
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
February 25, 2020
Aristotle Papanikolaou
For certain Christians, the word theosis raises red flags. The very mentioning of theosis inevitably conjures up images of Zeus or Thor, as well as many other mythological themes and stories that blur the boundary between the divine and the human. A closer look at the history of Christian thought will reveal that theosis is very closely linked to the basic question that Jesus himself posed:...
February 25, 2020
M. Mcintosh
Believing that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, Christians have found themselves engaging in theology, conceived as faith in search of understanding, in order to reflect upon and better respond to God’s initiative. This chapter offers a theological account of why mystical theology is at the heart of the Christian theological life. Understood in its ancient expansive sense,...
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
February 25, 2020
Andrew Louth
This chapter argues that the heart of the ‘mystical’ in the Christian faith is inalienably liturgical. Despite the fact that modern use of the ‘mystical’, and especially ‘mysticism’, is concerned wholly with the experience of the individual, whether in the context of the sacramental life or outside it, the root meaning of the mystical in Christian understanding is bound up with the sacraments,...
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
February 25, 2020
Boyd Taylor Coolman
This chapter argues that the overarching Christian conception of the human is that of ‘pilgrim’ or ‘wayfarer’. But this notion has a particular history. Over the first fifteen centuries of Christianity, spiritual or mystical itinerancy emerged at the nexus of certain Judaeo-Christian assumptions about the world and its original, current, and final relationship with God, on one hand, and of...
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
February 25, 2020
Rik Van Nieuwenhove, William Crozier
This chapter considers mystical theology as a resource for theology of the Trinity today. It consists of two parts. The first part draws mainly on the Trinitarian theology of St Bonaventure to demonstrate that participation in the life of the Trinity is essential to begin to engage in theology of the Trinity: vision implies participation. The second part provides an example of how the writings...
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
February 25, 2020
Philip Sheldrake
Theological anthropology explores Christian understandings of human identity. In mystical theology, this broadly takes three forms. First, ‘positive’ or kataphatic anthropology focuses on what we may affirm about the various dimensions of human identity. In this chapter, this is illustrated with reference to Julian of Norwich. Second, ‘negative’ or apophatic anthropology emphasizes that the...
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology
February 25, 2020
Kevin L. Hughes
This chapter traces the pattern of reading and relating to the scriptural that was intimately woven into the fabric of mystical theology for more than a millennium of Christian practice. While the ‘spiritual interpretation of scripture’ is usually considered as a technical method of biblical exegesis, Henri de Lubac argued that it was less a literary technique than a spiritual itinerary. But...