Cem anos de confusão: da invasão à capitulação da mística no século XVII francês

Abstract

By a convergence of unusual factors, but historically understandable and well known, the beginning of the XVIIth century watches, in France, the appearance of, in the words of Henri Bremond, a series of “mystical invasions”. These invasions configured a Catholic spirituality centered on the experience of an intimate relationship of the subject with God, which, not infrequently, seemed to place “in brackets” the value of instituted mediations and abstract theological reflection. In this context, and over the course of “100 years”, a fierce terminological debate arises about the “legitimacy” and “importance”, within the Catholic theological building, of the “experimental science of the afterlife issues”; that is to say, of a “mystique” that becomes a noun (after had been an adjective), precisely in this century. This article, based on an epistemology of love in line with the Garcian style of writing texts about mystique, aims to present some of the most salient episodes and participants in such debate that marked, as few, the understanding of this noble aspect of the Christian life. This article deals with them around three stages: a) The mystical invasion; b) the mystical apocalypse; and c) the capitulation of mystique.