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THEOSIS; TRANSFIG. CONTEMPL.; MEDIT'.; HESYCH.; PRI. REVEL; APOKAT.; ESCHAT.; SPIR-PRACT; APOPHAT-KAT.; LIT. PRAYER; PRE-CHRISTIAN; PATRISTIC; MEDIEVAL; SPIRITUALISM
IN the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Elizabeth Livingstone offers the following definition:
In modern usage “mysticism” generally refers to claims of immediate knowledge of Ultimate Reality (whether or not this is called “God”) by direct personal experience; “mystical theology” is used to mean the study of mystical phenomena or the science of the mystical life.
WHILE the term “mysticism” is both variously-defined and controversial, the term “mystical theology” has been used in Christian theology since the time of the sixth-century, pseudonymous author, Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite. A definition of mystical theology suggested by bishop Kallistos Ware is based on a much repeated phrase by Athanasius:
3. FOR HE WAS MADE HUMAN THAT WE MIGHT BE MADE GOD;156 De Incarnatione, 3. |
54.3 Αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐνηνθρώπησεν͵ ἵνα ἡμεῖς θεοποιηθῶμεν· |
Bishop Ware suggests that the first part of the saying is the matter of systematic or dogmatic theology, while the second concerns mystical theology
This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 2012