Talk:Mystical theology

message: The information in this article should simply be added to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mysticism and then this article removed.199.48.195.232 (talk) 09:58, 26 February 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I've just done a minimum to create a short lead section, and add just a little context. Yes, it makes sense to introduce subsections to clarify different perspectives. Charles Matthews (talk) 09:19, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: How can we improve this article?

message: Bernard McGinn (1991) The Presence of God:  A History of Western Christian Mysticism; Crossroads Publishing Co, NY (in 4 vol):  "...the term mystical theology antedated the coining of the word mysticism by over a millenium..." p. xiv vol. 1.
The first volume,  Foundations of Mysticism, is 343 pp. long with nearly 100 pp of notes, 40 pp. Bibliography.  If you can wade through something that long it is readable.--Margaret9mary (talk) 19:45, 7 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mystical theology and mysticism 

message: I've redirected the page to :Christian contemplation, which treats the topic more substantial. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 13:18, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Redirect 

message: I've moved a substantial amount of information from :Christian contemplation to :Mystical theology. See Talk:Theoria (Eastern Orthodox Churches) for the history of this information. Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 04:04, 7 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Moved info from [[Christian contemplation]] 

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thread_title:  External links modified (February 2018) 

message: Why is there a picture of St Francis in the Roman Catholic section? He is not otherwise mentioned in this article. 2601:602:A000:3100:701A:1B84:EED:A889 (talk) 19:57, 10 March 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  St Francis? 

message: I believe there is a mistake by editors and in the article that "mystical theology" is limited the theology of extreme mysticism, which is I admit the easy impression to get from some treatments of it. As has been pointed out, that is better handled by e.g. the Christian mysticism page. 
Instead, Mystical Theology is that branch of theology (distinguished from systematic or scholastic theology etc) which is concerned with the self-disclosure of God and its affect, devotion and experience of humans: the heart not just the head. 
I am not denying that "Mystical Theology" is sometimes used for the theology of extreme mystical states: indeed, I suspect that for (e.g., Greek) Orthodox writers this is the primary or even exclusive meaning. But its focus in the West is, I believe, broader than this, being perhaps more interested in the devotional life of lay-people in pews more than of ascetics in mountains, if that makes sense. (With no disrespect to those Saints intended.)
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology  puts it well:
So, for example, we should class Erasmus as a Mystical Theologian despite his being highly academic, because of his teaching on encountering Christ in the Gospels (his Method of True Theology) and being imprinted by it (his philosophia christi): however, he is far from the immoderate ecstatic saint we might associate ineffable mysticism with.  (We might note von Hugels "Mystical Element of Religion: As Studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and Her Friends" in this regard too.) (We can note here Pseudo-Dionysius' Mystical Theology where our intellectual conceptions of God progressively run out of steam the closer we come to God.) 
Now I am not saying that the article is wrong by limiting itself from the Greek historical definitions that continually circle back to mysticism (rather than daily devotional life), but that it is limitation that does not match some Western uses of the term (in theology or academia)   
So I would like (us) to flesh out the current entry more with this kind of consideration, and pehaps even move the non-theological mysticism more to its proper articles elsewhere? Rick Jelliffe (talk) 01:30, 29 November 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I have revised the lead, and added citations. Rick Jelliffe (talk) 06:29, 29 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Difference between mysticism and mystical theology