The Eye of the Storm
Mystical Theology in Dialogue with Teacher Education
Keywords:
religious education, mystical theology, teacher education, religious literacy, religious experience, interdisciplinarity, HadewijchAbstract
In this interdisciplinary paper we explore ways in which medieval mystical theology can inspire religious education teachers in their work in the classroom. One of the major challenges to them is to (help to) understand the tension between religious literacy and religious experience. By using an experiential and imaginative rather than a rational theology, based on the work of the mystics, we hope to clarify this tension. Firstly, we describe the “hermeneutical storm”: a metaphor to understand the complexity of the religious learning process in the context of friction between worlds. Teachers bear witness and need to stand firm at the centre of this clash. Secondly, we present medieval mysticism as a frame of reference to deal with this situation that challenges the modern urge for rational control. We discuss the historical context of the democratization of mystical theology, the multiple genres and the imaginative language mystics use to guide their students during their personal development, exemplified by Hadewijch’s mystical experience as an interplay between Love and Reason. This imaginative theology can offer contemporary religious education teachers insight into the “hidden presence of God” when faced with hermeneutical storms in the classroom and can help them in clarifying the tension between religious literacy and experience.
Downloads
References
Ghiloni, Aaron J. 2013. “On writing interdisciplinary theology.” Practical Theology 6 (1): 9–33.
Grimmitt, Michael. 1987. Religious Education and Human Development. The Relationship Between Studying Religions and Personal, Social and Moral Education. Great Wakering: McCrimmons.
McGinn, Bernard. 1991. The Foundations of Mysticism (The Presence of God. A History of Western Christian Mysticism, 1). New York: Crossroad Publishing.
McGinn, Bernhard. 1998. The Flowering of Mysticism. Men and Women in the New Mysticism (1200–1350) (The Presence of God. A History of Western Christianity, 3), New York: Crossroad Publishing.
Faesen, Rob. 2004. “Was Hadewijch a Beguine or a Cistercian?” Cîteaux 55: 47–64.
Fraeters, Veerle. 1999. “Visioenen als literaire mystagogie. Stand van zaken en nieuwe inzichten over intentie en functie van Hadewijchs visioenen.” Ons geestelijk erf 73: 111–30.
Hadewijch. 1980. The Complete Works (The Classics of Western Spirituality, translated by Columba Hart, with preface by Paul Mommaers). New York: Paulist.
Howells, Edward, and Mark McIntosh, eds. 2020. The Oxford Handbook of Mystic Theology. New York, Oxford University Press.
Metz, Johann Baptist. 1998. A Passion for God: The Mystical-Political Dimension of Christianity. Mahwah (NJ): Paulist Press.
Mommaers, Paul. 1977. Wat is mystiek? (Spiritualiteit, 12). Nijmegen: B. Gottmer.
Mommaers, Paul. 2004. Hadewijch. Writer – Beguine – Love Mystic. Leuven: Peeters.
Newman, Barbara. 2003. God and the Goddesses. Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Pollefeyt, Didier. 2020. “Hermeneutical learning in religious education.” Journal of Religious Education 68: 1–11.
Roebben, Bert. 2016. Theology Made in Dignity. On the precarious role of theology in religious education. Leuven-Paris-Bristol (CT): Peeters.
Roebben, Bert. 2023. Religionspädagogische Kartographie. Münster: Lit-Verlag [open access: https://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/978-3-643-15322-7].
Roebben, Bert, Maike Domsel, Barbara Niedermann and Sander Vloebergs. 2023. “Colliding worlds in the religious education classroom. The promise of performative teacher education in times of transition,” in Educating Religious Education Teachers. Perspectives of International Knowledge Transfer, ed. Jenny Berglund, Bert Roebben, Peter Schreiner and Friedrich Schweitzer. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht [open access: https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/detail/index/sArticle/58294].
Vloebergs, Sander. 2021. “Dancing between heaven and earth: understanding sacred dance from a mystical-theological perspective.” Louvain studies 43 (4): 352–71.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Sander Vloebergs, Hubertus Roebben
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
