Spiritual Journey

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What must be done to reach eternal life, to come into the inheritance of the Son that will be shared with those who attain to God as their end? Theologians in the thirteenth century, whether "scholastic" or "spiritual", were much concerned with the journey to God as beatifying end, and in their writings displayed considerable variety in teaching the way to God, and in teaching the final state itself. The course will consider the theologies of journey of such scholastics as Albert the Great, Bonaventure, and Aquinas, and of such spiritual authors as Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch of Brabant, and Marguerite Porete. While treatises and systematic writings will receive their due, attention will also be paid to the treatment of journey, discipleship, and human flourishing in thirteenth-century preaching and exegesis, and in visionary accounts.