Catholic Mystical Theology .............................................................

Lecture 34

We follow up now with a further lecture on Catholic theology in the

modern period picking up on the doctrine of grace, which we discussed

in our previous lecture. We’re now going to look at the upper reaches,

as it were, of the experience of supernatural grace in Catholic theology.

C

atholic mystical theology is concerned with the higher stages of the
supernatural life. It should not be confused with much later academic
theories of mysticism, which are not speci¿ cally Christian or
theological. It is called mystical theology, not mysticism, because it belongs
to a tradition of reÀ ection derived from the Mystical Theology by Pseudo-
Dionysius (Saint Denys, as he was known in the West). He calls this treatise
Mystical Theology because it concerns what is unknown and essentially
hidden from us. Catholic mystical
theology, therefore, concerns states of
the soul in which it is supernaturally
elevated beyond its own powers
or faculties.

The most important representatives
of Catholic mystical theology are the
Spanish mystics of the 16th century,
Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of
the Cross. Teresa provides the classic
form and vocabulary for mystical theology. In Teresa’s mystical theology,
the consciousness of God comes to us by grace, not through our own effort.
For Teresa, the inward ¿ nding of God is not an act of understanding or
intellectual vision but a prayer of love.

Teresa combines mystical theology with an Augustinian inward turn. Like
Augustine, she describes the soul as an inner space, an interior castle, a sort
of inner building of the soul, which one must enter to ¿ nd God. For both
Augustine and Teresa, the essence of prayer is desire for God.

The most important

representatives of Catholic

mystical theology are the

Spanish mystics of the 16th

century, Saint Teresa of Avila

and Saint John of the Cross.