Mystical Sermons Research Articles

Godsends: From Default Atheism to the Surprise of Revelation by William Desmond

Reviewed by: Godsends: From Default Atheism to the Surprise of Revelation by William Desmond Jeffrey Dirk Wilson DESMOND, William. Godsends: From Default Atheism to the Surprise of Revelation. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2021. xii + 297 pp. Cloth, $65.00 Godsends comprises an introduction and eight chapters, much of it a reworking of previously published material, but this is no mere compendium of what is available elsewhere. Desmond offers a "second think" that refreshes and challenges the reader. Each chapter begins with a brief creative offering—chapter 1 in prose, the rest in poetry. Then in chapter 6, this commitment to the creative in conversation with the philosophical explodes into "Dream Monologues of Autonomy: Variations on the Prodigal Son," in which Desmond offers "dreams" that "imaginatively redouble the more dutiful scholarly account that puts them [Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche] to the question." Desmond notes that "default atheism" is the state of "advanced intellectuals." At the same time, religion is booming in other quarters. As [End Page 812] ever, Desmond looks to the "in-between" as fertile ground for philosophical reflection. He seeks a companioning relationship of philosophy and theology in which to discover "the constitutive porosity between the human and the divine." Chapter 1 seeks to get beyond "Default Atheism" through a consideration of four hyperboles—"hyperbole" as what throws us above—of being, (1) "the idiocy of being" (the fundamental "thatness" of reality whatever that reality may be), (2) "the aesthetics of happening" (the flesh of being), (3) "the erotics of selving" ("our own 'to be' and the promise of the 'to be' beyond our own being"), and, finally, (4) "the agapeics of communication" ("self-relation" is not possible without "other-relation"). Throughout this book, Desmond seeks to recover a respectability for the contemplative life and for allowing religion and philosophy to speak to each other. There is covenant (chapter 2, "Solitudes: Thresholds between Selving and the Sacred"), prayer (chapter 4, "Mysticism and the Intimate Universal: On the Arnhem Mystical Sermons and Sri Aurobindo"), dream as window onto wisdom (chapter 6). In chapter 7, "Exceeding Virtue: On Aquinas and the Beatitudes," he discusses St. Thomas Aquinas's exposition of the Beatitudes in the commentary on St. Matthew and in the Summa Theologiae. Both Plato and Aristotle seem to suggest that virtue, rightly understood, is sufficient for happiness, but—Desmond observes, makarios exceeds eudaimonia. That excess Desmond discovers in the peace that comes to us as "a transcendence that descends," in other words as a godsend. In the final chapter, Desmond discovers the interior nature of "godsend" as word, idea, and story. What is the relationship of reason and revelation (and the faith inspired by revelation): parallel lines, a married couple, unmarried companions, opposites? Desmond concludes—as had Aquinas before him—that at the end of the day, reason too is revelation. That conclusion, however, is at odds with the modern concept of reason as what is immanently self-determined. Rupture occurs. Something from outside breaks in ("Surprise!") and "an infinity of mystery" seems just possible enough to generate wonder; reason is never the same again. In this context, he returns to the four hyperboles of being: what throws us above the immanent frame. The chapter—and the book—ends with a lyrical reading of Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation": a dawning as the sun goes down. Given his love of word-play—and I may have missed it—I am surprised that Desmond does not speak about the doubleness of the word "Godsends." He fully explores "God sends," but there is also "God's ends." He may have left that for the reader to discover and explore. Mimicking the world in which we live, Desmond creates myriad niches of rich ambiguity such that the reader is never certain what he discovers and what he provides in companionship with the author. If you have read none of Desmond's books, read this one because here he integrates the major themes of his work over decades. If you have read all of his books, read this one because he moves beyond his earlier works, [End Page 813] surmounting them with this synthesis. In addition, Godsends manifests compositional...

The Arnhem Mystical Sermons: Preaching Liturgical Mysticism in the Context of Catholic Reform, by Ineke Cornet

The Arnhem Mystical Sermons: Preaching Liturgical Mysticism in the Context of Catholic Reform, by Ineke Cornet

The Arnhem Mystical Sermons: Preaching Liturgical Mysticism in the Context of Catholic Reform. Ineke Cornet. Brill's Series in Church History and Religious Culture 77. Leiden: Brill, 2019. x + 400 pp. $204.

The Arnhem Mystical Sermons: Preaching Liturgical Mysticism in the Context of Catholic Reform. Ineke Cornet. Brill's Series in Church History and Religious Culture 77. Leiden: Brill, 2019. x + 400 pp. $204.

The Arnhem Mystical Sermons: Preaching Liturgical Mysticism in the Context of Catholic Reform, edited by Ineke Cornet

The Arnhem Mystical Sermons: Preaching Liturgical Mysticism in the Context of Catholic Reform, edited by Ineke Cornet

The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism (1350–1550)

The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism (1350–1550)

The Glory of the Virgin: The Mariology of the Incarnation in Two Early Modern Castilian Mystical Sermons

The Glory of the Virgin: The Mariology of the Incarnation in Two Early Modern Castilian Mystical Sermons

Christological Aspects of the Mystical Union with God in John of Ruusbroec and the Arnhem Mystical Sermons

This article presents how John of Ruusbroec and the anonymous author of the sixteenth-century Arnhem Mystical Sermons treated the issue of the immediate union of the human person with God. Ruusbroec attempted to express that there is no qualitative difference between the mutual love of the Father and his Only-Begotten-Son on the one hand, and every good person on the other. This by no means implies that a fusion occurs between Christ and the person, because union occurs through a continuous, inner, present coming of Christ in the person. The Arnhem Mystical Sermons treated this issue equally carefully, though with slightly different emphases. The Arnhem Mystical Sermons describe deification through the indwelling of Christ in the human person, but indicate as well that no human person can have the experience of the manners of knowing, loving and enjoying Christ’s soul, precisely because of the unicity of the hypostatic union.

The Three Births of Christ and the Christmas Liturgy inThe Temple of Our Soul,The Evangelical Pearland theArnhem Mystical Sermons

The Three Births of Christ and the Christmas Liturgy in<i>The Temple of Our Soul</i>,<i>The Evangelical Pearl</i>and the<i>Arnhem Mystical Sermons</i>

The Incorporation of Ruusbroec's Spiritual Espousals into the Sixteenth-Century Arnhem Mystical Sermons. A Comparative Textual Analysis

AbstractThe anonymous Arnhem Mystical Sermons (Royal Library, The Hague, ms. 133 H 13), copied around 1560–1575 in the St. Agnes convent in Arnhem, is the largest sermon collection that has no other corresponding compilation. Till now, no concrete sources had been identified. This article elaborates on my discovery that one sermon (111) has incorporated a part of Ruusbroec's Spiritual Espousals with significant adaptations. This article provides a detailed analysis of the similarities and modifications, thereby showing the continuity and discontinuity with the fourteenth-century Ruusbroec and relating these differences to the context of the sixteenth-century by showing parallels with other mystical works from the region of Arnhem, namely the Evangelical Pearl and the Temple of Our Soul.

Metaphors of Transcendence and Transformation in theArnhem Mystical Sermons(Royal Library, The Hague, ms. 133 H 13)

Metaphors of Transcendence and Transformation in theArnhem Mystical Sermons(Royal Library, The Hague, ms. 133 H 13)

Bild, Bildlichkeit und Ein-Bildung im Dienst von Glaubensvermittlung und Einübung religiöser Praktiken in drei Eucharistiepredigten der zweiten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts (›Engelberger Predigten‹, Engelberg, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 336, Eb 3–5)

The study discusses the deployment of visualisation strategies which serve both the mediation of faith and the acquisition of religious practices. It is based on a series of mystical sermons on the Eucharist which originated in a 14th century monastic context. The focus lies on images evoked by linguistic means – the so called figurae-forms. Just as painted images, they may be embodiments and actualisations of the concept they stand for. Thus, they can ensure a function of representation. The study distinguishes, following Jean-Claude Schmitt, between imago, imaginatio and ›imaginaire‹ – a term based on conceptions of collective thought. By means of these categories the study examines the interactions and interferences the sermons are calculating on.