Sharing divine ideas: the theological trajectory of Mark A. McIntosh

Abstract

The late Rev. Mark A. McIntosh, PhD, was well-known as a spiritual theologian and a scholar of divine ideas tradition. In his roughly thirty-year career as a priest and professor of systematic, historical, and spiritual theology, McIntosh remained focused on articulating his developing theological vision. In this retrospective of McIntosh’s theological writings, I organize McIntosh’s theological trajectory into three main stages focused on communicating the mutually nourishing unity of spirituality and theology, attuning Christian laity and theologians to the mystical dimension of doctrine and, finally, to enriching this dimension via a recovery of the divine ideas tradition. Throughout these stages, McIntosh hoped to instill his readers with a robust understanding and a deep love for all creation, a disposition he saw as increasingly urgent in the church and in the world.