The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys
Andrew Louth
Abstract
Scholars of the patristic era have paid more attention to the dogmatic tradition in their period than to the development of Christian mystical theology. This book aims to redress the balance. Recognizing that the intellectual form of this tradition was decisively influenced by Platonic ideas of the soul’s relationship to God, the book begins with an examination of Plato and Platonism. The discussion of the Fathers which follows shows how the mystical tradition is at the heart of their thought and how the dogmatic tradition both moulds and is the reflection of mystical insights and concerns. Th ... More
Keywords: Platonism, God, soul, Christian spirituality, mystical theology, dogmatic theology
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 | Print ISBN-13: 9780199291403 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2007 | DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199291403.001.0001 |
