Mystical Theology and its Relevance for Today's Theology: Some Historical Observations

Although a convergence between theology and mystical literature can be observed in recent years, it is not always very clear what the relationship between the two is. That there has been a gap between the two, for several centuries, is obvious. A passage in Teresa of Avila’s work is a sign of this, as are the difficulties the Jesuit Balthasar Alvarez encountered during his lifetime. However, there are older models—such as those by the twelfth-century Carthusian Guigo—in which there is an organic connection between the two. The cause of the problem may lie in a misunderstanding of the status of both, namely that the rational, investigative activity of theology on the one hand and the receptive surrender to God of mystical contemplation on the other are regarded as mutually exclusive. However, if one assumes, as John of Ruusbroec does, that the contemplative can be situated on the level of being, namely of the direct contact between God as Creator and the human person as creature, and not on the same “level” as the faculty of reason or intellect, then this misunderstanding disappears, and activity (including intellectual activity of theology) and contemplation can go together well. In particular, the model of the personal encounter between God and the human person can be helpful in this regard.