Syncretism and Idiosyncrasy: The Notion of Act in Thomas Traherne’s Contemplative Practice
The writings of the seventeenth-century priest and mystic, Thomas Traherne, provide readers with instructions on how best to mirror God's act-like nature. Traherne's formulation of God-as-act is expressed in both the Commentaries of Heaven and Centuries of Meditation, where his understandi...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2014
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| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2014, Volume: 28, Issue: 1, Pages: 16-28 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The writings of the seventeenth-century priest and mystic, Thomas Traherne, provide readers with instructions on how best to mirror God's act-like nature. Traherne's formulation of God-as-act is expressed in both the Commentaries of Heaven and Centuries of Meditation, where his understanding of God draws upon both Neo-Platonic and Aristotelian understandings of ‘act,’ while reiterating Christian and biblical conceptions of an ever-creating deity. By drawing the Christian, scholastic, and Neo-Platonic traditions together, Traherne demonstrates his propensity for sycncretic eclecticism. His elaboration of how to attain to his unique notion of God-likeness is drawn from personal experience. Traherne relates his contemplative progress in the Centuries, where he describes for the reader's benefit the seven steps that led him to the beatific vision. The stepwise structure of Traherne's direction resembles the instructions of St. Ignatius and the Neo-Platonic Christian mystics to their exericants and novices. However, Traherne's method differs from St. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises in its celebration of all creation over any particular object or person. Unlike the Neo-Platonists, Traherne's practice does not seek the ecstatic, but insists on the contemplative's lucidity throughout their spiritual progress. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frs035 |