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Divine Nothingness, Ecstasy and Self-transcendence in the Evangelical Pearl

Van Nieuwenhove, Rik

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Abstract

This article considers a key topic from medieval theological anthropology by examining how ecstasy and self-transcendence relate to divine nothingness. It discusses this topic by examining a spiritual classic written by a female author and published in 1538 but largely forgotten, namely, The Evangelical Pearl, which encapsulates central themes from Jan van Ruusbroec and Meister Eckhart and passes them on to the modern age. This contribution argues that divine nothingness elicits a theological-anthropological response of ecstasy and self-transcendence, which is best understood as a disposition of radical recollection, dispossessiveness and gratuitousness of one’s memory, intellect and will. The final part of this paper considers the question whether our author’s negative theology of nothingness is vulnerable to Luther’s criticism of apophaticism and its alleged lack of Christocentric grounding.

Citation

Van Nieuwenhove, R. (2022). Divine Nothingness, Ecstasy and Self-transcendence in the Evangelical Pearl. Medieval Mystical Theology, 31(1), 33 - 40. https://doi.org/10.1080/20465726.2022.2084840

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Jun 23, 2022
Publication Date 2022
Deposit Date Jul 21, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Medieval Mystical Theology
Print ISSN 2046-5726
Electronic ISSN 2046-5734
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 31
Issue 1
Pages 33 - 40
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/20465726.2022.2084840

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.




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