Episode 74: Christina van Dyke discusses gender and medieval mysticism
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What time period and regions does medieval mysticism cover?
Hey, Matt Teichman here from Elucidations. Before we get going today, I just thought I'd ask if you're a fan of the show to maybe go to our iTunes page and leave a rating and a review, and that way more people can discover it. All right, thanks.
Hello, welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I'm Matt Teichman, and with me today is Christina Van Dyke, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of Gender Studies, and Executive Director of the Society of Christian Philosophers at Calvin College. And she is here to discuss gender and medieval mysticism. Christina Van Dyke, welcome.
Thank you, Matt.
All right. So medieval mysticism is probably not a philosophical movement that most people are familiar with. What's the general sort of like time period and location we're talking about when we talk about medieval mysticism?
Right. So one thing, as soon as you start talking about medieval mysticism, that's important to make clear is that it's not a sort of unified movement that took place from this year to that year and involved just these people. It's more that over the course of the 11th century through sort of mid-14th century, 15th century, you have a number of people in a number of different places in Europe who are sort of having common experiences and talking about similar things. And we tend to lump that all together and talk about the medieval mystics as though we're sort of a coherent movement. And that's, you know, obviously doing injustice to how complex and how diverse the different sorts of views were. But that said, roughly from the 11th century really through maybe mid 15th century, you have a growing number of people and especially women who are interested in talking about direct union with God and the kind of experience you can have of that in this life.
So at this point in time, pretty much everybody assumes that we'll get some kind of union with god in the next life but the whole kind of thrust of mysticism is that you have people who are working to try to achieve that sort of union in this life or who have you know experiences or visions of that kind of union that they then share with others
So what exactly does union with God mean in this context? Does it mean like I have a conversation with God or does it mean that I see God for the first time? What exactly is this union talk getting at?
Yeah, well, that's a great question because it means so many different things at so many different points in time. And in fact, there are even two different strains of mysticism that you can distinguish right off the bat that have really different answers about what kind of union of God you're looking for. So, for example, for some people, union with God is the ultimate goal of human nature, but what it ultimately requires is the complete loss of self. So the kind of union of God that you have in that tradition isn't, hey, I'm walking with Jesus, or hey, I can see God face to face, or now I know God in a way I didn't know God before. It's the kind of radical merging with the divine that involves a total loss of self.
How do apophatic mystics describe the union with God?
And so those are sometimes called apophatic mysticism. It's sort of unspeakable, literally sort of apophatic, unspeakable mysticism. And the idea is, if you still think you know something about God, you've got a long way to go yet. Because ultimate union with God surpasses any kind of knowledge. The only thing that we really mean when we talk about union with God is the union of our will.
So that sounds like it's somewhat in the tradition of what's called negative theology, which I guess I would gloss as the idea that... God is so radically different from what we know in this world, there's nothing we can even really coherently say about God. There's nothing we can sort of know in the way that we know everyday facts.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so apophatic mysticism is really closely tied with sort of theological tradition of, well, I mean, what people like Aquinas end up talking about analogical predication for, right?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What time period and regions does medieval mysticism cover?
0:00–4:00
2
How do apophatic mystics describe the union with God?
4:00–6:52
3
What is affective (or “effective”) mysticism and how does it differ from apophatic mysticism?
6:52–10:59
4
Why were women drawn to mysticism as a philosophical outlet in the Middle Ages?
10:59–15:24
5
How did the rise of universities shape the development of both mystic strands?
15:24–18:50
6
What does the medieval debate on self‑knowledge look like from scholastic, apophatic, and affective perspectives?
18:50–22:24
7
How do mystics use personal experience to answer questions about self‑knowledge and the divine?
22:24–25:47
8
What are the implications of the effective tradition’s emphasis on bodily fulfillment for modern philosophy of mind?
25:47–29:50
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