The darkness of God : negativity in Christian mysticism / Denys Turner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Turner, Denys, 1942- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mysticism.

Negative theology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 278 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Summary:

For the medieval mystical tradition, the Christian soul meets God in a 'cloud of unknowing', a divine darkness of ignorance. This meeting with God is beyond all knowing and beyond all experiencing. Mysticisms of the modern period, on the contrary, place 'mystical experience' at the centre, and contemporary readers are inclined to misunderstand the medieval tradition in 'experientialist' terms. Denys Turner argues that the distinctiveness and contemporary relevance of medieval mysticism lies precisely in its rejection of 'mystical experience', and locates the mystical firmly within the grasp of the ordinary and the everyday. The argument covers some central authorities in the period from Augustine to John of the Cross.

Contents:

The allegory and Exodus

Cataphatic and the apophatic in Denys the Areopagite

The God within : Augustine's Confessions

Interiority and ascent : Augustine's De trinitate

Hierarchy interiorised : Bonaventure's Itinerarium mentis in Deum

Eckhart : God and the self

Eckhart : detachment and the critique of desire

The cloud of unknowing and the critique of interiority

Denys the Carthusian and the problem of experience

John of the Cross : the dark nights and depression

From myustical theology to mysticism.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-511-88448-6

1-139-93025-7

0-511-58313-3

1-139-93371-X

1-139-92949-6

0-511-00195-9

1-139-93691-3

0-511-95994-X