Commitments to Medieval Mystical Texts within Contemporary Contexts

Why do we, as contemporary scholars within the field of Christian spirituality, privilege the reading of medieval mystical texts as a critical mainstay of our focus? How do we define  their  historical (dis)continuity with our contemporary contexts and their ability to uniquely address relevant issues for readers today? These  meta-questions on the meaningfulness of our  scholarship seek to encourage critical reflection on our distinct approaches to the medieval texts: historical, literary, theological  hermeneutical, and  interdisciplinary praxis-based approaches, as well as on our scholarly and personal relations to others (academy, Church and society) mediated by such texts. At the intersection of questions of meaningfulness mutually   interacting with our diverging methodologies, this conference aims to provide a fruitful, dialogical forum in which we may better encounter strengths and/or weaknesses of our own presumptions in reading these mystical texts.

Contact:

Satoshi Kikuchi [email protected] 

Catholic University of Leuven

Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

Sint-Michielsstraat 4 box 3101

3000 Leuven, Belgium