Great to get the chance to read Jean Gerson again today in preparation for tonight's lecture - Here is the relevant extract from my 'Return to the Mystical' (Continuum 2011) which I will be referring to tonight...
best wishes
Peter
Jean Gerson
Unlike
Gallus and Hugh of Balma, of whom we know very little, Gerson’s life is well
documented and accounted for. If he is known at all today Gerson is most often
cited as one of the main architects of resolving the split in the medieval
church between two, and later three Popes: the so-called ‘Great Schism’ of 1378
- 1417. As an advocate of ‘conciliar’ policy Gerson is seen as a leading
exponent of a non-monarchical view of ecclesiology that stresses the power of
councils to determine Christian doctrine, even over the heads of popes and
patriarchs (see Morrall 1960). During a lifetime of academic research the
Chancellor was particularly concerned with reconciling the affectus and intellectus
amongst his students, or as he calls it the theologia
mystica and the theologia
speculativa, and to this end wrote two treatises on the theologia mystica which both started as
lectures to his Paris students: the first
Speculative Treatise (Theologia Mystica Speculativa) presented in autumn 1402 and the second
Practical Treatise (Theologia Mystica Practica) given five years later
in 1407.[1] Although a noted intellectual Gerson had
trouble reconciling his academic life of the mind with his affective life of
prayer. It seems that the tradition of the theologia mystica which he
embraced[2]
enabled the troubled Chancellor to find some peace in his life (which he
communicated to his students). After many tumultuous years the tired Chancellor
was finally able to spend his last ten years in Lyon, teaching children
catechetics and embracing the meditative life he had so long yearned for.[3]
In the Tractatus Primus Speculativus of the De
Mystica Theologia, the Chancellor begins by asking: ‘whether it is better
to have knowledge of God through penitent affectus or investigative intellectus?’(GMT:
1, Prol.1).[4]
After much discussion Gerson makes it quite clear that he will employ the now
familiar unknowing and affective mystical strategies within his discourse. Thus
in Section 27 he declares:
Thus
we see that it is correct to say that as contemplatio is in the
cognitive power of the intelligence, the mistica theologia dwells in the
corresponding affective power. (GMT: 1.27.7)[5]
Therefore ‘knowledge of
God through mystical theology is better acquired through a penitent affectus
than an investigative intellectus’ (GMT: 1.28.1). In this passage Gerson
contrasts a theologia mystica that depends upon strategies of unknowing
and affectivity to the cognitive or speculative knowledge acquired through the theologia
speculativa. Clearly Gerson’s strategy differs from Dionysius’ in his
emphasis on the purification of the affectus ‘through the fervour of
penance in compunction, contrition and prayer’ (GMT: 1.28.2) for Gerson makes
fine distinctions between the ‘purified affectus’
and the ‘sordid i.e. unpurified affectus’
(sordidis affectibus) corrupted by the ‘sensual habits of adolescence’ (qui
corruptos adhuc habent sensus ab adolescentia). For Gerson the eros of
affectus is not an unqualified force for the good as it was in the
original text of Dionysius, it may be tainted by the ‘sordid affectus’ of youth.[6]
He rests with
Hugh of Balma’s definition of the theologia mystica as ‘extensio
animi in Deum per amoris desiderium’: ‘The extension of the animus in
God through the desire of love’ supplemented by the definitions: ‘sursum
ductiva in Deum, per amorem fervidum et purum’,‘a raising movement in God,
through fervent and pure love’ (GMT:1.28.5) and ‘cognitio experimentalis
habita de Deo per amoris unitive complexum’, ‘cognition experienced of God
through the embrace of unitive love’ and, following Dionysius DN.7: ‘Theologia
mystica est irrationalis et amens, et stulta sapientia, excedens laudantes’: ‘The
mystical theology is irrational and beyond mind and foolish wisdom, exceeding
all praise’. He later returns to this in GMT: 1.43.2, ‘mistica theologia est
cognitio experimentalis habita de Deo per coniunctionem affectus spiritualis
cum eodum’: ‘theologia mystica is
an experimental cognition of God through the union of the spiritual affectus with him’ – ‘as the blessed
Dionysius states this takes place through ecstatic love’.
Therefore, for
Gerson, the theologia speculativa resides in the potentia
intellectiva whilst the theologia mystica resides in the potentia
affectiva. Speculative theology uses ‘reasoning in conformity with
philosophical disciplines’ (GMT: 1.30.2). Theologia mystica, on the
other hand, needs no such ‘school of the intellect’ (scola intellectus).
It is acquired through the ‘school of the affect’ (scola affectus) and
(following Gerson’s importance attached to the purfication of the affect)
through the exercise of the ‘moral virtues’ that ‘dispose the soul to
purgation’ (GMT: 1.30.3). This is acquired through the ‘school of religion’ (scola religionis) or ‘school of love’ (scola amoris). The acquisition of the theologia
mystica does not therefore require great knowledge or extensive study of
books but may be acquired by ‘any of the faithful, even if she be an
insignificant woman or someone who is illiterate’ (a quolibet fideli, etiam
si sit muliercula vel ydiota) (GMT:
1.30.5). Concurring with St Bernard, Gerson suggests speculative theology can
never be complete without mystical theology but the contrary can be the case:
we all must acquire this ‘affectivity’ to reach right relationship with God.
Therefore ‘the language of mystical theology is to be hidden from many who are
clerics or learned or who are called wise in philosophy or theology, so it can
be conveyed to many who are illiterate and naïve, provided they have faith’
(GMT: 1.31.1). At this point, as with Dionysius, Gerson employs the strategy of
concealment for the ‘language of mystical theology’ is ‘to be hidden from many
who are clerics or learned or are called wise in philosophy or theology’ (GMT:
1.31:1) lest they ‘tear apart with the teeth of dogs what they do not
understand’. As he states at the end of section 42: ‘To explain these matters
an endless succession of words could be added, but for experts these few words
will suffice, for the inexpert no words will ever suffice for full
comprehension’ (GMT: 1.42.9). It is an ‘irrational and mindless wisdom’ (‘irrationalis
et amens sapientia’ 1.43:3) going beyond reason and mind and translating
into the affectus.
We are once
again in the place of the Wittgensteinian Blick
at the interface of ‘saying and showing’ and we find this symbiotic
relationship between the unknowing of intellect (‘they all agree that they have
come to know that they know nothing’ GMT: 1.34.3) and the ‘wisdom’ of the affectus. The affectus, once purified, possesses all the passionate force of
Dionysius’s ecstatic eros: ‘Love takes hold of the beloved and creates
ecstasy, and this is called rapture because of the manner in which the mind is
lifted up’ (GMT: 1.36.1) and again ‘love ravishes, unites and fulfills’ (GMT:
1.35.3). In conclusion, for Gerson, ‘the school of prayer (scola orandi) is
more praiseworthy, other things being equal, than the school of
learning/letters (scola litteras)’.
[1] Note
the importance of Paris for the evolution of the theologia mystica
[2] As
well as the Victorines, he quotes Balma as a work that should be read by all
students and devotes a lengthy part of the treatises to commentary on
Dionysius.
[3]
Gerson is one of the first theologians to write directly in colloquial French
so that all the faithful can understand his teaching. His insistence on
‘everyday manners of talking’ will be something we shall see he has in common
with Teresa of Avila in Chapter Six.
[4] My
translation: an cognitio Dei melius per penitentem affectum quam per
intellectum investigantem habeatur.
[5] Et cognoscamus quoniam, appropriate loquendo,
sicut contemplatio est in vi cognitive intelligentie, sic in vi affective
correspondente reponitur mistica theologia.
[6]
Gerson seemed to have a problem with the sexual lifes of his penitents. See On the Art of Hearing Confessions translated
in McGuire 1998.
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