"Mystical Revelation": On and around L'Abandon à la Providence Divine

One little known mode of revelation these days is "mystical revelation,"to which there were many appeals in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, principally among Quietists and Semi-Quietists. This paper focuses on one such appeal, that made in L'Abandon à la Providence divine by the writer conventionally known as Jean-Pierre de Caussade. The essay seeks to use phenomenology in order to describe mystical revelation and to see to what extent its notion of "pure love"can be defended. A partial defense can be launched by way of Peter Lombard's Distinction 1.17 in his Sententiae, namely that the Holy Spirit animates the loving soul. A weak form of Quietism can be defended; however, one can see a stronger form of it that has emerged in contemporary phenomenology itself.

Duke Scholars

Author Kevin Hart Divinity School