Eschatology

Mystical experience offers a foretaste of heaven, linking eschatology and mysticism. Five examples illustrate this: Gregory the Great on Benedict's final vision of the world in God's light; twelfth-century Victorines on mystical union leading to configuration with Christ and compassionate care; Bernard of Clairvaux on the blessed awaiting full union with God until bodily resurrection; Julian of Norwich on reconciling sin with the belief that all is well; and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on divine presence in matter and humanity's evolution toward Christ. Jean-Yves Lacoste's phenomenology of prayer clarifies these intersections.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Mystical experience is a foretaste of heaven and so eschatology and mysticism are related. Five examples of this relationship are Gregory the Great’s account of Benedict’s final vision of the world in the light of God, the twelfth-century Victorines’ explanation of how mystical union leads to configuration with Christ and so to compassionate care for others, Bernard of Clairvaux’s theory that the souls of the blessed do not have full union with God until they are reunited with their bodies and their fellow Christians at the final resurrection, Julian of Norwich’s struggle to understand how all can be well when there is sin, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s vision of the divine presence in matter and of the responsibility of humanity to evolve toward the fullness of Christ. These intersections of mysticism and eschatology are elucidated by Jean-Yves Lacoste’s phenomenology of prayer.