Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.4324/9781315828725-10
R. Wheeler
The Christian desert tradition is undeniably male-centred. How the absent feminine paradoxically “appears” in stories and sayings of the tradition can, however, provide an antidote to the otherwise male-centred character of this literature. This article explores how the author, a female researcher of this tradition, has grappled with the tradition’s male-centred character. It demonstrates a hermeneutic of charity requiring creativity to retrieve value from the literature associated with this tradition. It also acknowledges an inspirational encounter with Carmelite spirituality scholar Kees Waaijman that initiated a deepening of the researcher’s commitments to work that matters personally and to others. This article further shows that reading the literature of the Christian desert tradition, alongside contemporary naturalists, reveals ways in which the desert and women’s lives, in particular, have been used, then and now, to reflect on experiences of vulnerability, loss, and discernment of vocation.
{"title":"In love with the desert","authors":"R. Wheeler","doi":"10.4324/9781315828725-10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315828725-10","url":null,"abstract":"The Christian desert tradition is undeniably male-centred. How the absent feminine paradoxically “appears” in stories and sayings of the tradition can, however, provide an antidote to the otherwise male-centred character of this literature. This article explores how the author, a female researcher of this tradition, has grappled with the tradition’s male-centred character. It demonstrates a hermeneutic of charity requiring creativity to retrieve value from the literature associated with this tradition. It also acknowledges an inspirational encounter with Carmelite spirituality scholar Kees Waaijman that initiated a deepening of the researcher’s commitments to work that matters personally and to others. This article further shows that reading the literature of the Christian desert tradition, alongside contemporary naturalists, reveals ways in which the desert and women’s lives, in particular, have been used, then and now, to reflect on experiences of vulnerability, loss, and discernment of vocation.","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70452674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.2
Arthur Holder
As Kees Waaijman has shown, biblical spirituality engages Holy Scripture in relation to human experience, always with a view toward personal transformation. This article considers various ways in which the relationship between religious experience and sacred text has been construed in the Christian tradition. Beginning with biblical theophanies that represent religious experience in the sacred text, the article moves to early Christian reading practices that foster experience of the text, and then to medieval accounts of mystical revelations that treat experience as a text. Finally, the article turns to the problematic issue of religious experience beyond the sacred text. In some historical instances, experience was supposed to render the text unnecessary, or to sit in judgement over it. But the Book of Revelation implies that the sacred text will no longer be needed, only because its promises have been fulfilled by direct experience of the divine presence.
{"title":"Religious experience and sacred text","authors":"Arthur Holder","doi":"10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.2","url":null,"abstract":"As Kees Waaijman has shown, biblical spirituality engages Holy Scripture in relation to human experience, always with a view toward personal transformation. This article considers various ways in which the relationship between religious experience and sacred text has been construed in the Christian tradition. Beginning with biblical theophanies that represent religious experience in the sacred text, the article moves to early Christian reading practices that foster experience of the text, and then to medieval accounts of mystical revelations that treat experience as a text. Finally, the article turns to the problematic issue of religious experience beyond the sacred text. In some historical instances, experience was supposed to render the text unnecessary, or to sit in judgement over it. But the Book of Revelation implies that the sacred text will no longer be needed, only because its promises have been fulfilled by direct experience of the divine presence.","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68185320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.14
Michael O’Sullivan
This article presents research on spiritual experience in childhood and aims to illustrate the foundational effects of such experience on adult lives, using the qualitative data of several testimonies. The latter highlight that researchers in spirituality need to pay more attention to what is happening at a spiritual level in childhood and to the hermeneutical lens it provides for interpreting the lives of adults, including themselves, who once were children. They will also illustrate the role religious socialisation plays in spiritual experiences in childhood. The stories are explained in terms of the spirituality framework of the foundational desire for authenticity in the subjectivity of the child interacting with the child’s lived historical situation and how this interaction continues to play out in the life of the adult. They are evidence of the self-implicating character of research in spirituality as the researcher was also once a child. The researcher regards authentic subjectivity as a form of mystagogical method, a method about which Kees Waaijman has written eloquently.
{"title":"The foundational influence of early spiritual experiences on adulthood","authors":"Michael O’Sullivan","doi":"10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.14","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents research on spiritual experience in childhood and aims to illustrate the foundational effects of such experience on adult lives, using the qualitative data of several testimonies. The latter highlight that researchers in spirituality need to pay more attention to what is happening at a spiritual level in childhood and to the hermeneutical lens it provides for interpreting the lives of adults, including themselves, who once were children. They will also illustrate the role religious socialisation plays in spiritual experiences in childhood. The stories are explained in terms of the spirituality framework of the foundational desire for authenticity in the subjectivity of the child interacting with the child’s lived historical situation and how this interaction continues to play out in the life of the adult. They are evidence of the self-implicating character of research in spirituality as the researcher was also once a child. The researcher regards authentic subjectivity as a form of mystagogical method, a method about which Kees Waaijman has written eloquently.","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68185259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.7
B. McGinn
Mystical handbooks, or how-do-it books describing the path to union with God, was a genre that arose in Western Europe in the 12 th century and lasted into the Early Modern period. These works, though rarely original, have often been overlooked, but they played an important role in disseminating mystical teaching to an increasingly broad audience. Many religious writers contributed to the genre: Benedictines, Cistercians, Carthusians, Dominicans, and so on. This article concentrates on the Franciscan friars, who played a major part in the production and spread of the handbooks.
{"title":"Mystical handbooks of the late middle ages","authors":"B. McGinn","doi":"10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.7","url":null,"abstract":"Mystical handbooks, or how-do-it books describing the path to union with God, was a genre that arose in Western Europe in the 12 th century and lasted into the Early Modern period. These works, though rarely original, have often been overlooked, but they played an important role in disseminating mystical teaching to an increasingly broad audience. Many religious writers contributed to the genre: Benedictines, Cistercians, Carthusians, Dominicans, and so on. This article concentrates on the Franciscan friars, who played a major part in the production and spread of the handbooks.","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68185110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.11
P. D. De Villiers
The Imitatio Christi of Thomas á Kempis reflects the transformative contribution of the Devotio Moderna as a reform movement from the 14 th to the 16 th century to the religious discourse up to modern times. This contribution focuses on the theme of peace in the Imitatio Christi 4.25 as a key to Thomas’ spirituality and the Devotio Moderna. The first section of this article scrutinises the unique aesthetical nature of the text in terms of its spiritual impact and its contribution to an adequate understanding of the chapter. The article then analyses the two main aspects of peace that emanate from an aesthetic analysis of the chapter, namely its divine nature as spiritual gift. A second section analyses the interiorising of peace as the human response to the divine gift and, finally, examines the mystical quality of the chapter in its discussion about the heart of peace as resting in God.
{"title":"Peace in the spirituality of Thomas á Kempis. An aesthetic perspective on the Imitatio Christi 4.25","authors":"P. D. De Villiers","doi":"10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.11","url":null,"abstract":"The Imitatio Christi of Thomas á Kempis reflects the transformative contribution of the Devotio Moderna as a reform movement from the 14 th to the 16 th century to the religious discourse up to modern times. This contribution focuses on the theme of peace in the Imitatio Christi 4.25 as a key to Thomas’ spirituality and the Devotio Moderna. The first section of this article scrutinises the unique aesthetical nature of the text in terms of its spiritual impact and its contribution to an adequate understanding of the chapter. The article then analyses the two main aspects of peace that emanate from an aesthetic analysis of the chapter, namely its divine nature as spiritual gift. A second section analyses the interiorising of peace as the human response to the divine gift and, finally, examines the mystical quality of the chapter in its discussion about the heart of peace as resting in God.","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68185120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.10
Míċeál O’Neill
{"title":"Contemplation and liturgy: The experience of St. Mary Magdalene De’ Pazzi (Florence, 1566-1607)","authors":"Míċeál O’Neill","doi":"10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.10","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68185086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.12
Fernando Millán-Romeral
This article introduces the three main inspirational figures that were very important in the spiritual journey of Titus Brandsma during the last months of his life in the numerous jails and concentration camps where he was imprisoned. These three “models” form the spiritual background of the Carmelite and explain his fraternal, evangelical, and elegant way of dealing with everybody in that hell of the concentration world. The three elements are the spirituality of Teresa of Avila, in which Titus Brandsma was a real expert and the translator of her works into Dutch; the spirituality of the passion of Christ, as expressed in the Way of the Cross of the expressionist Belgian artist Albert Servaes, and the work of Gert Grote, considered founder of the Devotio Moderna. In conclusion, the author links this background with both the Italian novelist Mario Debenedetti and Zoran Muši č ’s famous paintings.
{"title":"Three influences on the spiritual experience of Titus Brandsma in the Lager","authors":"Fernando Millán-Romeral","doi":"10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.12","url":null,"abstract":"This article introduces the three main inspirational figures that were very important in the spiritual journey of Titus Brandsma during the last months of his life in the numerous jails and concentration camps where he was imprisoned. These three “models” form the spiritual background of the Carmelite and explain his fraternal, evangelical, and elegant way of dealing with everybody in that hell of the concentration world. The three elements are the spirituality of Teresa of Avila, in which Titus Brandsma was a real expert and the translator of her works into Dutch; the spirituality of the passion of Christ, as expressed in the Way of the Cross of the expressionist Belgian artist Albert Servaes, and the work of Gert Grote, considered founder of the Devotio Moderna. In conclusion, the author links this background with both the Italian novelist Mario Debenedetti and Zoran Muši č ’s famous paintings.","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68185131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.13
Anne-Marie Bos
“Can I help it that in all things God gives witness to himself?” This quote of Titus Brandsma shows his concept of God. This article reflects on the way in which Blessed Titus Brandsma gave witness to God from three perspectives: his mystical theology, his social engagement, and his way of the cross. Brandsma defines mysticism as a particular unification of God and man, whereby the latter becomes conscious of God’s presence and, on his part, also unifies himself with God. His writings highlight three key aspects of mysticism that are closely related: mysticism is two-sided, nearby, and embodied. Titus Brandsma was primarily active in the fields of education and journalism. He analysed the contemporary social and political situation and was very critical of national socialism, especially because its basic values were in conflict with the Christian value of love. He regarded the spiritual crisis as more fundamental than the social and economic crises. He offered a new concept of God, which was founded on God’s presence in the core of everybody, as a reply to individualism and social exclusion. Finally, this article gives some examples showing the way in which Brandsma gave witness of God during the final months of his life. Brandsma was imprisoned because of his effort for the resistance of the Catholic press against national socialism. Testimonies show that Brandsma could experience God’s presence nearby. This remain strong spiritually.
{"title":"Titus Brandsma: Getuige van God","authors":"Anne-Marie Bos","doi":"10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.13","url":null,"abstract":"“Can I help it that in all things God gives witness to himself?” This quote of Titus Brandsma shows his concept of God. This article reflects on the way in which Blessed Titus Brandsma gave witness to God from three perspectives: his mystical theology, his social engagement, and his way of the cross. Brandsma defines mysticism as a particular unification of God and man, whereby the latter becomes conscious of God’s presence and, on his part, also unifies himself with God. His writings highlight three key aspects of mysticism that are closely related: mysticism is two-sided, nearby, and embodied. Titus Brandsma was primarily active in the fields of education and journalism. He analysed the contemporary social and political situation and was very critical of national socialism, especially because its basic values were in conflict with the Christian value of love. He regarded the spiritual crisis as more fundamental than the social and economic crises. He offered a new concept of God, which was founded on God’s presence in the core of everybody, as a reply to individualism and social exclusion. Finally, this article gives some examples showing the way in which Brandsma gave witness of God during the final months of his life. Brandsma was imprisoned because of his effort for the resistance of the Catholic press against national socialism. Testimonies show that Brandsma could experience God’s presence nearby. This remain strong spiritually.","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68185162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.3
Ad De Keyzer
This article describes the quest for a composition of the psalms. Vatican II proclaimed a wish in the constitution about liturgy. The hours of prayer had to be renewed, so that not only clergy and monastics, but also laymen would be able to join. Psalms formed the heart of these hours of prayer. After Vatican II, there was no liturgic translation in Dutch, nor any music, in order to sing it. In 1970, Kees Waaijman began putting together prayer celebrations. After roughly 50 years of experimenting, a form of prayer arose in which one psalm is central: the Psalm celebration. By now, the series of 150 Psalm celebrations is nearly completed. For the past ten years, Kees Waaijman and the author have sought a composition of the psalms that does justice to both the individuality of the psalm and the praying people of God. Although initially the psalmic stanza arrangement seemed to be a guidance, this gradually appeared not to work. The music drew too much attention at the expense of praying. It is all about facilitating the saying of the psalm verse, consisting of two half verses that are separated and connected by a meditative caesura.
{"title":"Ja, goed te deunen onze machtige (Psalm 147,1): De zoektocht naar een toonzetting van de Psalmen","authors":"Ad De Keyzer","doi":"10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.3","url":null,"abstract":"This article describes the quest for a composition of the psalms. Vatican II proclaimed a wish in the constitution about liturgy. The hours of prayer had to be renewed, so that not only clergy and monastics, but also laymen would be able to join. Psalms formed the heart of these hours of prayer. After Vatican II, there was no liturgic translation in Dutch, nor any music, in order to sing it. In 1970, Kees Waaijman began putting together prayer celebrations. After roughly 50 years of experimenting, a form of prayer arose in which one psalm is central: the Psalm celebration. By now, the series of 150 Psalm celebrations is nearly completed. For the past ten years, Kees Waaijman and the author have sought a composition of the psalms that does justice to both the individuality of the psalm and the praying people of God. Although initially the psalmic stanza arrangement seemed to be a guidance, this gradually appeared not to work. The music drew too much attention at the expense of praying. It is all about facilitating the saying of the psalm verse, consisting of two half verses that are separated and connected by a meditative caesura.","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68185182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.4
P. Decock
This article examines three distinct ways of reading Psalm 23(LXX 22), first in the Targum, then in the liturgy of early Christian initiation, and finally in Origen’s commentary on the Song of Songs. The Targum focuses on God’s protective presence in Israel’s history and looks forward to the salvation to come. Reading the psalm in the context of Christian initiation draws out the contextual possibilities of the text. In his interpretation of the Song of Songs, Origen seeks elements of spiritual progress after the stage of initiation. The “inebriating cup” points to a strongly affective dimension of this process.
{"title":"Psalm 22 LXX in Origen’s commentary on the Song of Songs","authors":"P. Decock","doi":"10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18820/23099089/actat.sup33.4","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines three distinct ways of reading Psalm 23(LXX 22), first in the Targum, then in the liturgy of early Christian initiation, and finally in Origen’s commentary on the Song of Songs. The Targum focuses on God’s protective presence in Israel’s history and looks forward to the salvation to come. Reading the psalm in the context of Christian initiation draws out the contextual possibilities of the text. In his interpretation of the Song of Songs, Origen seeks elements of spiritual progress after the stage of initiation. The “inebriating cup” points to a strongly affective dimension of this process.","PeriodicalId":39489,"journal":{"name":"Acta Theologica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68184976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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