Spiritual Marriage and - Durham e-Theses - Durham University

motivated and sustained by his contemplative-mystical piety what if anything can the
Reformed Church learn from him today? A typical pattern for those of the Reformed
tradition who become interested in the practice and study of Christian spirituality is to
bemoan the lack of models and resources within their heritage. It is not uncommon to
find Reformed Christians searching the lives and writings of the spiritual giants of the
Roman Catholic tradition because of its rich spiritual reservoir of resources. There is
often a feeling of embarrassment that the Reformed tradition is devoid of similar
resources and that there appears to be an emphasis on the overly intellectual or
cognitive without any great sensitivity to the affective. However, this thesis has
demonstrated that contemplative-mystical piety while richly present within the
Western and Roman Catholic tradition is not absent from the Reformed tradition.
Therefore, the challenge is to recover the lost heritage of piety within Reformed
theology that in itself is certainly not exclusive of patristic and even medieval piety.
Not only does the Reformed tradition include many historical examples of
contemplative-mystical piety, as Isaac Ambrose and his fellow Puritans demonstrate,
but also perhaps more importantly Reformed theology supports and actually
encourages the cultivation of “soul recreation” that delights and enjoys God with both
head and heart. It is hoped that this thesis might provide some impetus to, and help
in, retrieving and nourishing the holistic Christianity that so characterized the faith of
the Reformed tradition.