Cataphasis, Visualization, and Mystical Space

Cataphatic mystical theology, often dismissed through medieval binaries of power, gender, and literacy, should be re-examined as a practice of active spatial projection, navigation, and annotation. Drawing on pre-modern Christianity and modern space theories, mystical theologies can be understood as fundamentally spatial or geometrical phenomena. Applying this model to Hildegard of Bingen's major works, Scivias and Liber divinorum operum, reveals that her images construct complex spaces of enclosure—from Mary's womb to the cosmic egg to God's Wisdom. While these images remain static allegories in the earlier work, they gain mobility and depth in the later, demanding a more spatialized hermeneutics. Space thus proves a useful category for understanding cataphasis and the limits of apophasis today.

Study at a glance

Abstract

To grasp the legitimacy of cataphatic mystical theology, it is important to move beyond medieval binaries of power, gender, and literacy. Instead, cataphasis and visionary mysticism should be re-examined as practices of active spatial projection, navigation, and annotation. Historical instances from pre-modern Christianity and modern space theories suggest various ways to reconceive mystical theologies as fundamentally spatial, even geometrical, phenomena. This model is applied to Hildegard of Bingen’s major works, Scivias and Liber divinorum operum. In both texts, Hildegard’s images construct complex spaces of enclosure, from Mary’s womb to the cosmic egg to God’s unfathomable Wisdom. But where her images remain static allegories in the earlier work, in the later they manifest greater mobility and depth, demanding a more spatialized hermeneutics. The example of Hildegard’s visionary mysticism suggests that space is a useful category for understanding the nature of cataphasis and the limits of apophasis today.