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At 10:07 AM 9/1/99 -0700, you wrote: >Has anybody ever heard of a connection between female mysticism and the >apocalypse? A young scholar asked me about it pertaining to 17thc. >pietism, but that connection to me seems highly unlikely for medieval >mystics as mysticism was not concerned with worldly fears. > >Thanks i wd be less quick to dismiss the link. it's a little like saying that now that dante has purgatory he need not get apocalyptic. there's always room for apocalypse in xn culture, no matter what the focus. as De Lubac pointed out, by the time you get to full-fledged (pseudo-)dionysian celestial hierarchies, you begin to lose any distinctive xn flavor. the revelations of the mystic can, in fact, have some pretty powerful apocalyptic messages, all the more likely to become activated in periods when the mysticism spreads rapidly in the population. mysticism is often post-apocalyptic (shift from horizontal and temporal to vertical and spatial), but it contains the dynamics of the disappointment in it (pure mysticism is the booby prize,... what about all those lost souls?) > >A. Classen >Prof. Albrecht Classen >Dept. of German Studies >Mod. Lang. Buildg. 571 >Univ. of Arizona >Tucson, AZ 85721 >tel: 520 621-1395/7385 >fax: 520 626-8268 (new!!!) >e-mail: >[log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%