Edward Howells | Ripon College Cuddesdon (original) (raw)
Papers by Edward Howells
Religions
Desire is central to John of the Cross’ treatment of the mystical ascent to God. He holds that Go... more Desire is central to John of the Cross’ treatment of the mystical ascent to God. He holds that God is desire and that there is a meeting between human and divine desire in the state of union with God, which is the goal. But it is less clear how this desire is to be understood against John’s programmatic negation of desire on the spiritual journey in both its sensory and spiritual forms, according to his negative theology. He regards the lack of satisfaction of desire, which he expresses in terms of darkness and emptiness, as the main manifestation of desire in the process of spiritual transformation. The question arises as to where he locates the meeting between human desire and divine desire, when they seem to be only opposed to one another. The answer lies in the gradual uncovering, through this process, of what is happening beneath the presenting experience of desire, in the human soul’s constitution as the subject. Desire is transformed, but in a way that can be affirmed only at...
In the previous chapter, Peter Tyler has argued that Teresa of Avila is working firmly in the Dio... more In the previous chapter, Peter Tyler has argued that Teresa of Avila is working firmly in the Dionysian tradition. He shows her many debts Jean Gerson. The resonance between the two writers is striking. A genealogy of influence can be identified: Teresa acknowledges Francisco de Osuna's Third Spiritual Alphabet; 1 Osuna cites Gerson, particularly on the experiential and affective nature of mystical theology; 2 and in turn Gerson cites Dionysius, repeatedly mentioning his Victorine interpreters, Hugh and Richard of St. Victor. 3 There are other routes, in addition, that this 'affective Dionysianism' would have found its way to Teresa, via sixteenth century Spanish mystical literature. Luis M. Girón-Negrón mentions as Dionysian influences on Teresa not just Osuna but also John of Avila, Luis de Granada, Peter of Alcántara, and Bernadino de Laredo. 4 In the background, further mediating figures
The chapter argues that Teresa of Avila provides a critical treatment of several connected issues... more The chapter argues that Teresa of Avila provides a critical treatment of several connected issues: the relation of history and theology, of nature and grace, and of human activity in relation to the divine initiative. These questions arise first in Teresa’s response to what she regards as the direct intervention of God in ecstatic states which disorientate her. Her autobiography or Life can be read as an attempt to reconcile such interventions with the ordinary progress of human living, making a critical approach to these questions. Over time, Teresa develops her theoretical understanding, reaching a mature view only in her later Interior Castle. But the relation of human activity and divine intervention, once recognised in this work, can be seen taking shape in the narrative of the Life (if not in Teresa’s early treatment of union), and it enables us to tease out the careful relation between the divine and human partners that Teresa develops in moving, in the Life, from ecstatic st...
Eckhart Review, 1998
On the face of it, S1.John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart do not have very much in common. Eckh... more On the face of it, S1.John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart do not have very much in common. Eckhart lived from about 1260 to some time in the late 1320s in Germany; John of the Cross lived in Spain in the mid to late sixteenth century. Eckhart was a Dominican and an academic master; John was a Carmelite (of the Discalced branch of the order) who spent only a brief spell at university. When we consider their thought, Eckhart is what is known as a "speculative" mystic, cC?ncemedwith pushing forward the boundaries of what we say and know about God; while John is the emotional poet who has given us, most famously, a highly psychological description of the states and experiences of "the dark night of the soul." Yet behind these different exteriors, Eckhart and John of the Cross have much more in common than separates th~m. Eckhart and John of the Cross belong to what can only be described as the same tradition, the late medieval tradition of mystical writing. This is first of all a matter of the genre of the writing: Eckhart eschews the style of the scholastic disputation and the Latin language for his more daring theological. statements, Jurning instead to the vernacular middle-high-German and the sermon. John of the Cross, similarly, uses the poem-always in Spanish and not Latin-to describe the heights of his thought, and then comments on the poem, almost as if it were a biblical text. This change from the university or scholastic styIe, and from the monastic style of writing also, signals other changes in. the ·ideas that late medieval mystics like Eckhart and John of the Cross were' most concerned with. The immediacy of contact between the individual soul and God,·usually called -"unionwith God," is stressed to the extent that the soul has at least one foot ~l~e.aqyin heaven while still living this life. Not only is the soul already with God in a relationship like the beatific vision, but it is able to combine this with the ordinary actions of every day on earth. For these reasons, Bernard McGinn and other scholars regard late medieval figures like Eckhart and John of the .. Cross as rooted in very much the same soil.1 In addition, John's short spell at the university of Salamanca meant that on a more general level he shared with Eckhart the same schohlstit background of thought from Augustine to Aquinas, and in this respect he too was a "medieval" thinker, in spite of the changes of "the Renaissance" in art and music which spelt the arrival of "early modernity" in other areas in the sixteenth century.2 Whether John actually read Eckhart is a harder question to answer. The likely answer is "nolf,3 but the similarities in their thought are striking, not just in the concern for immediate
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology, Feb 25, 2020
Philosophy, Theology and the Jesuit Tradition : ‘The Eye of Love’
Since Pierre Hadot's Philosophy as a Way of Life, published in English in 1995, 1 there has been ... more Since Pierre Hadot's Philosophy as a Way of Life, published in English in 1995, 1 there has been growing interest in the notion of the 'spiritual exercise' as a way to understand premodern philosophical texts. Hadot suggests that these texts should be read primarily as teaching not 'dogma' or 'theses' but 'ways' or 'exercises', by means of which the reader is transformed, ethically and spiritually. 2 In his book, After Augustine: the Meditative Reader and the Text, Brian Stock traces this approach through Augustine and texts of the medieval period. He says, 'it would be fair to say that Christian thinkers in late antiquity and the Middle Ages shared the search for wisdom with the ancients. They cultivated the interior life. They engaged in a variety of spiritual exercises that emphasized self-control and meditation.' 3 Many of the texts that we call 'spiritual classics' today are in this category. Implicitly or explicitly, they contain a demand to engage actively in certain tasks for their appropriation, towards personal transformation. To think of these texts in terms of 'spiritual exercises' is a useful way to pinpoint this element of active engagement. In this chapter, I would like to propose a way of approaching the reading of such texts using Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises as a model. By referring to these texts as 'spiritual classics' I am simply adopting the name that spiritually transformative texts from the past are commonly given today. I do not intend to discuss how to define a 'classic' text, though I am informed by David Tracy's treatment. 4 The question of precisely which texts should be included, and which excluded, I am also putting to one side. My focus is on how the notion of 'spiritual exercises' can guide the reading of these texts, and with what benefits. Ignatius
Religious Studies
John of the Cross presents a spiritual journey of desire in which desire changes from a painful y... more John of the Cross presents a spiritual journey of desire in which desire changes from a painful yearning for an infinite other, always out of reach (human desire), to the satisfaction of desire in mutual love and rest (the goal of union with God, conforming human to divine desire). John asserts a continuity of desire between these two states, and that it is possible for human desire to grow from one into the other. Yet they are very different. John's treatment of desire and how he asserts this continuity are assessed through a critical reading of his Spiritual Canticle.
Religions
Desire is central to John of the Cross’ treatment of the mystical ascent to God. He holds that Go... more Desire is central to John of the Cross’ treatment of the mystical ascent to God. He holds that God is desire and that there is a meeting between human and divine desire in the state of union with God, which is the goal. But it is less clear how this desire is to be understood against John’s programmatic negation of desire on the spiritual journey in both its sensory and spiritual forms, according to his negative theology. He regards the lack of satisfaction of desire, which he expresses in terms of darkness and emptiness, as the main manifestation of desire in the process of spiritual transformation. The question arises as to where he locates the meeting between human desire and divine desire, when they seem to be only opposed to one another. The answer lies in the gradual uncovering, through this process, of what is happening beneath the presenting experience of desire, in the human soul’s constitution as the subject. Desire is transformed, but in a way that can be affirmed only at...
In the previous chapter, Peter Tyler has argued that Teresa of Avila is working firmly in the Dio... more In the previous chapter, Peter Tyler has argued that Teresa of Avila is working firmly in the Dionysian tradition. He shows her many debts Jean Gerson. The resonance between the two writers is striking. A genealogy of influence can be identified: Teresa acknowledges Francisco de Osuna's Third Spiritual Alphabet; 1 Osuna cites Gerson, particularly on the experiential and affective nature of mystical theology; 2 and in turn Gerson cites Dionysius, repeatedly mentioning his Victorine interpreters, Hugh and Richard of St. Victor. 3 There are other routes, in addition, that this 'affective Dionysianism' would have found its way to Teresa, via sixteenth century Spanish mystical literature. Luis M. Girón-Negrón mentions as Dionysian influences on Teresa not just Osuna but also John of Avila, Luis de Granada, Peter of Alcántara, and Bernadino de Laredo. 4 In the background, further mediating figures
The chapter argues that Teresa of Avila provides a critical treatment of several connected issues... more The chapter argues that Teresa of Avila provides a critical treatment of several connected issues: the relation of history and theology, of nature and grace, and of human activity in relation to the divine initiative. These questions arise first in Teresa’s response to what she regards as the direct intervention of God in ecstatic states which disorientate her. Her autobiography or Life can be read as an attempt to reconcile such interventions with the ordinary progress of human living, making a critical approach to these questions. Over time, Teresa develops her theoretical understanding, reaching a mature view only in her later Interior Castle. But the relation of human activity and divine intervention, once recognised in this work, can be seen taking shape in the narrative of the Life (if not in Teresa’s early treatment of union), and it enables us to tease out the careful relation between the divine and human partners that Teresa develops in moving, in the Life, from ecstatic st...
Eckhart Review, 1998
On the face of it, S1.John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart do not have very much in common. Eckh... more On the face of it, S1.John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart do not have very much in common. Eckhart lived from about 1260 to some time in the late 1320s in Germany; John of the Cross lived in Spain in the mid to late sixteenth century. Eckhart was a Dominican and an academic master; John was a Carmelite (of the Discalced branch of the order) who spent only a brief spell at university. When we consider their thought, Eckhart is what is known as a "speculative" mystic, cC?ncemedwith pushing forward the boundaries of what we say and know about God; while John is the emotional poet who has given us, most famously, a highly psychological description of the states and experiences of "the dark night of the soul." Yet behind these different exteriors, Eckhart and John of the Cross have much more in common than separates th~m. Eckhart and John of the Cross belong to what can only be described as the same tradition, the late medieval tradition of mystical writing. This is first of all a matter of the genre of the writing: Eckhart eschews the style of the scholastic disputation and the Latin language for his more daring theological. statements, Jurning instead to the vernacular middle-high-German and the sermon. John of the Cross, similarly, uses the poem-always in Spanish and not Latin-to describe the heights of his thought, and then comments on the poem, almost as if it were a biblical text. This change from the university or scholastic styIe, and from the monastic style of writing also, signals other changes in. the ·ideas that late medieval mystics like Eckhart and John of the Cross were' most concerned with. The immediacy of contact between the individual soul and God,·usually called -"unionwith God," is stressed to the extent that the soul has at least one foot ~l~e.aqyin heaven while still living this life. Not only is the soul already with God in a relationship like the beatific vision, but it is able to combine this with the ordinary actions of every day on earth. For these reasons, Bernard McGinn and other scholars regard late medieval figures like Eckhart and John of the .. Cross as rooted in very much the same soil.1 In addition, John's short spell at the university of Salamanca meant that on a more general level he shared with Eckhart the same schohlstit background of thought from Augustine to Aquinas, and in this respect he too was a "medieval" thinker, in spite of the changes of "the Renaissance" in art and music which spelt the arrival of "early modernity" in other areas in the sixteenth century.2 Whether John actually read Eckhart is a harder question to answer. The likely answer is "nolf,3 but the similarities in their thought are striking, not just in the concern for immediate
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology, Feb 25, 2020
Philosophy, Theology and the Jesuit Tradition : ‘The Eye of Love’
Since Pierre Hadot's Philosophy as a Way of Life, published in English in 1995, 1 there has been ... more Since Pierre Hadot's Philosophy as a Way of Life, published in English in 1995, 1 there has been growing interest in the notion of the 'spiritual exercise' as a way to understand premodern philosophical texts. Hadot suggests that these texts should be read primarily as teaching not 'dogma' or 'theses' but 'ways' or 'exercises', by means of which the reader is transformed, ethically and spiritually. 2 In his book, After Augustine: the Meditative Reader and the Text, Brian Stock traces this approach through Augustine and texts of the medieval period. He says, 'it would be fair to say that Christian thinkers in late antiquity and the Middle Ages shared the search for wisdom with the ancients. They cultivated the interior life. They engaged in a variety of spiritual exercises that emphasized self-control and meditation.' 3 Many of the texts that we call 'spiritual classics' today are in this category. Implicitly or explicitly, they contain a demand to engage actively in certain tasks for their appropriation, towards personal transformation. To think of these texts in terms of 'spiritual exercises' is a useful way to pinpoint this element of active engagement. In this chapter, I would like to propose a way of approaching the reading of such texts using Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises as a model. By referring to these texts as 'spiritual classics' I am simply adopting the name that spiritually transformative texts from the past are commonly given today. I do not intend to discuss how to define a 'classic' text, though I am informed by David Tracy's treatment. 4 The question of precisely which texts should be included, and which excluded, I am also putting to one side. My focus is on how the notion of 'spiritual exercises' can guide the reading of these texts, and with what benefits. Ignatius
Religious Studies
John of the Cross presents a spiritual journey of desire in which desire changes from a painful y... more John of the Cross presents a spiritual journey of desire in which desire changes from a painful yearning for an infinite other, always out of reach (human desire), to the satisfaction of desire in mutual love and rest (the goal of union with God, conforming human to divine desire). John asserts a continuity of desire between these two states, and that it is possible for human desire to grow from one into the other. Yet they are very different. John's treatment of desire and how he asserts this continuity are assessed through a critical reading of his Spiritual Canticle.