What Did Vladimir Lossky Mean by ‘Mystical Theology’?

Abstract

Abstract What did Lossky expect his readers to understand by ‘mystical theology’? For when his Mystical Theology was published (in 1944), ‘mysticism’, or la mystique was very much in the air. Von Hügel had begun a trend, picked up by Heiler and Otto, and in Catholic circles by Bremond, Poulain, and Saudreau; Baruzi’s influential book on St John of the Cross discussed the problem of ‘mystical experience’. The ‘mystical’ was a category used by Balthasar and Daniélou; and then, just after Lossky’s book, Stolz, Gilson, and Bouyer wrote about it (Bouyer exploring its patristic origins). All this time Lossky was engaging with the mystical in his thesis on Eckhart, seeing in something beyond conceptualization, grasped by experience. In his Mystical Theology, Lossky expects such a pre-understanding of the mystical, but sees it as the deeper meaning of Church dogma, and associates it with sacramental experience.