HIST-308 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: El Greco, Spanish Mystics, Titian
11 Apr 2020
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John interprets his own ecstasies in excruciating detail. Like teresa, he takes the reader from active self purgation to higher levels of passivity. John further explains that the influx of god into the infused contemplative is not an entirely pleasant procedure. It turns out that divine wisdom is not only night and darkness but also pain and torment. This might be surprising since god could be described via happiness and light. The light of god appears as darkenss to the soul. John says appealing to the psuedo dionysius he says that god"s light hits us as a ray of darkness. John even drags in aristotle in support of his mystical negative theology: the dark depths of sin. Sin is the moral dimension of john"s darkness. Infused contemplation thus reveals that the depths of sin make the human soul the furthest thing from the divine. Acknowledging our lowness is the key to getting closer to god.
