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IMC 2023: Sessions

Session 1721: To Be God with God: Mystical Networks and Entanglements, III - Mystical Communities in England and the Low Countries

Thursday 6 July 2023, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Mystical Theology Network / Protestantse Theologische Universiteit, Amsterdam
Organiser:Louise Nelstrop, St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford / Department of Theology & Religious Studies, York St John University
Moderator/Chair:John Arblaster, Institute for the Study of Spirituality, KU Leuven / Ruusbroecgenootschap, Universiteit Antwerpen
Paper 1721-aDeification in English Mystical Networks
(Language: English)
Louise Nelstrop, St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford / Department of Theology & Religious Studies, York St John University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Religious Life, Theology
Paper 1721-bTeaching How to Become God?: Learning Relations among the Middle Dutch Mystics of Groenendaal
(Language: English)
Michiel Vandenbroucke, Ruusbroecgenootschap, Universiteit Antwerpen
Index terms: Language and Literature - Dutch, Religious Life, Theology
Paper 1721-cSome Unknown Mystics in John of Ruusbroec's Network
(Language: English)
Rob Faesen, Institute for the Study of Spirituality, KU Leuven / Ruusbroecgenootschap, Universiteit Antwerpen
Index terms: Language and Literature - Dutch, Religious Life, Theology
Abstract

These sessions collectively explore themes of relationality and entanglement inherent to medieval mystical literature and theologies as well as the articulation and circulation of these ideas within textual networks and communities. Session I considers expressions of the relationship of deifying union between human and divine, as well as the relationship between Christ's humanity and divinity, in theological and devotional texts from the high and later Middle Ages. Session II casts a critical eye on the construction of mystical textual canons, and on the identities of individual mystics, considering textual, theological, and codicological perspectives. Session III engages mystical networks in late medieval England and the Low Countries in the 14th and 15th centuries, considering both 'major' canonical mystics, such as John of Ruusbroec and the so-called English mystics and their lesser-known contemporaries, as well as how mystical ideas and understandings circulated through community relationships.