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Document Details : Title: Verberent te niete in eenicheit der minnen Subtitle: De vergoddelijkingsleer van Jan van Ruusbroec in Vanden blinkenden steen Author(s): VANDENBROUCKE, Michiel Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 93 Issue: 2 Date: 2023 Pages: 91-131 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.93.2.3292478 Abstract : Although the fourteenth-century Brabantine mystical writer John of Ruusbroec (1293-1381) rarely mentions deification explicitly in his works, it is nonetheless a central theme in his mystical thought. This article is the first of two articles dealing with John of Ruusbroec’s doctrine of deification as it is present in his treatise The Sparkling Stone (Vanden blinkenden steen). A historical-theological contextualisation of Ruusbroec’s writing on deification shows how he writes in a time where deification is increasingly seen as a problematic theme withing theological circles. Ruusbroec, however, stands firmly in the ‘tradition of deification’ and sees the need for unambiguous and clear formulations when dealing with the theme. Furthermore, a terminological and theological-conceptual analysis of explicit and implicit references to deification in The Sparkling Stone makes it possible to provide a representative image of Ruusbroec’s doctrine of deification as it is present in his whole oeuvre. On the basis of a discussion of the terms eenicheit (unity) and eeninghe (union), onderscheet (distinction) and anderheit (alterity), intrecken (drawing in) and uutvloeyen (flowing out), and of Ruusbroec’s anthropological model, it becomes clear how Ruusbroec’s doctrine of deification entails that the relationship of the deified human person with God is not only modelled on the divine relationship which is the Trinity, but also entails a full participation of that human person in this love relationship of the Trinity. Lastly, it becomes clear in this article that, for Ruusbroec, the person who is deified in the fullness of his or her being, is the one who introduces reciprocity in the relationship between the human person and God. |
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