The Genealogy of Mystical Traditions

Christian mystical theology developed through several historically coherent traditions from the patristic period through the medieval era and into early modernity, until the Quietist Controversy at the end of the seventeenth century and the triumph of the Enlightenment, which took a generally negative attitude toward the mystical element in Christianity. The chapter traces main genealogies of mystical theology, including eastern and western patristic traditions, medieval monastic, Franciscan, German, Flemish, French, Italian, and English traditions, and early modern Protestant and Reformed Catholic genealogies, especially from Spain and France.

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Abstract

This chapter is designed as a broad road map of the development of Christian mystical theology down to the Quietist Controversy at the end of the seventeenth century and the triumph of the Enlightenment, which took a generally negative attitude toward the mystical element in Christianity. It follows the main genealogies, or historically coherent traditions of mystical theology, from the patristic genealogies of east and west, through the medieval genealogies (monastic, Franciscan, German, Flemish, French and Italian, English), concluding with the early modern genealogies (Protestant and Reformed Catholic, especially of Spain and France).