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Document Details : Title: Middelspraecke tusschen de godtsoeckende siele ende den rustwysenden leeraer Subtitle: Mystiek in navolging van Benedictus van Canfield Author(s): SCHEPERS, Kees Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 85 Issue: 3 Date: 2014 Pages: 195-216 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.85.3.3062093 Abstract : This contribution presents the critical edition of the anonymous and hitherto unknown seventeenth-century mystical text Middelspraecke tusschen de Godtsoeckende siele ende den rustwysenden leeraer ('Intermediating dialogue between the God-seeking soul and the rest-instilling teacher'). The text, a dialogue in two parts, is found in a manuscript recently acquired by the Ruusbroec Institute (Antwerp, Ruusbroecgenootschap, Ms. neerl. 36). The dialogue is characteristic for the almost feverish mystical climate in the seventeenth century, known primarily from capuchin authors and texts. It is particularly striking that the central tenets in this mystagogical dialogue are based on key concepts in the mystical teaching of Benet of Canfield. He developed his most controversial insights in the third part of his La Règle de Perfection / The Rule of Perfection, which is precisely the part the Middelspraecke refers to. The critical edition is preceded by an introduction. It contains a description of the manuscript, followed by a tentative assessment of the origin of the manuscript and the text (which involves a brief description of the seventeenth-century mystical milieu). In order to characterize the mystical spirituality some central concepts in the Middelspraecke are discussed in relation to Benet’s Règle. The introduction ends with a summary of the content of the dialogue. |
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