The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 2 (of 2)Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Religion
The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 2 (of 2)
Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Catherine, of Genoa, Saint, 1447-1510
And if we would briefly define the main point on which Catherine holds
views additional to, or other than, those other four, we must point to
her Purgatorial teaching, which has received but little or no direct
suggestion from any one of them, and which, whatever may have been its
literary precursors and occasions, gives, perhaps more than anything
else, a peculiarly human and personal, original and yet still modern,
touch to what would otherwise be, to our feeling, too abstract and
antique a spiritual physiognomy.
CHAPTER XI
CATHERINE’S LESS ULTIMATE THIS-WORLD DOCTRINES
INTRODUCTORY: CATHERINE’S LESS ULTIMATE POSITIONS, CONCERNING OUR LIFE
HERE, ARE FOUR.
We have now attempted, (by means of a doubtless more or less artificial
distinction between things that, in real life, constitute parts of one
whole in a state of hardly separable inter-penetration,) a presentation
of Catherine’s special, mental and psycho-physical, character and
temperament, and of the principal literary stimulations and materials
which acted upon, and in return were refashioned by, that character;
and we have also given, in sufficient detail, the resultant doctrines
and world-view acquired and developed by that deep soul and noble mind.
The most important and difficult part of our task remains, however,
still to be accomplished,--the attempt to get an (at least approximate)
estimate of the abiding meaning, place, and worth of this whole, highly
synthesized position, for and within the religious life generally and
our present-day requirements in particular. For the general outline of
the Introduction, (intended there more as an instrument of research
and classification for the literature and history then about to be
examined, than as this history’s final religious appraisement,) cannot
dispense us from now attempting something more precise and ultimate.--I
propose, then, to give the next four chapters to an examination
of Catherine’s principal positions and practices, the first two,
respectively, to “the less ultimate This-World Doctrines”; and “the
Other-World Doctrines,” or “the Eschatology”; and the last two to “the
Ultimate Implications and Problems” underlying both. The last chapter
shall then sum up the whole book, and consider the abiding place and
function of Mysticism, in its contrast to, and supplementation of,
Asceticism, Institutionalism, and the Scientific Habit and Activity of
the Mind.
Now I think the less ultimate spiritual positions, as far as they
concern our life here below, which are specially represented, or at
least forcibly suggested by, Catherine, can reasonably be accounted as
four: Interpretative Religion; a strongly Dualistic attitude towards
the body; Quietude and Passivity; and Pure Love. I shall devote a
section to each position.
I. INTERPRETATIVE RELIGION.
1. _Difficulties of the Subjective element of Religion._
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