The Spanish Mystics: Ecstasy and Communion with Peter Tyler: Christian Scholars, #2

By Wise Studies and Peter Tyler

In these four talks, Peter Tyler explores the factors that contributed to the rise of mystical writing in 16th Century Spain. He traces the particular history of the Peninsula that shaped the milieu within which mysticism flourished at this time.

 

One of the most popular and approachable Christian saints of all time, St Teresa of Avila (1515 – 1582) is justly celebrated as one of the key writers in the Christian mystical tradition. Yet her popularity belies the struggles she had to overcome in her own lifetime, to have her mystical approaches accepted by the wider church. Peter looks at how her life and struggles influenced her mystical teaching, especially as found in The Book of the Life and The Interior Castle.

 

Peter explores the author of the Dark Night of the Soul, St John of the Cross (1542 – 1591). His teachings on the spiritual life are remarkably light and beautiful. Peter places John's life and teaching within the context of 16th Century Spain and explores questions such as: 'How can God be known in this life?' and 'How far does knowledge of God lead to annihilation of the individual personality?'

 

Peter Tyler is Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spirituality at St Mary's University, Twickenham. He is also the Founding Director of the Centre for Initiatives in Spirituality and Reconciliation (InSpiRe). His own work has been on the borderlands of psychology, theology and philosophy. He is a registered psychotherapist and his work can be followed on the insoulpursuit blogspot.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wise Studies
• Release date: Oct 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201594039

Book preview

Wise Studies presents The Spanish Mystics: Ecstasy and Communion with Professor Peter Tyler. At Wise Studies we are committed to illuminating the texts and teachings of the world’s great contemplative traditions.

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Session One 

Mystics of the Golden Age: The Context of 16th Century Spain

In this first talk we explore the factors that contributed to the rise of mystical writing in 16th Century Spain. We trace the particular history of the Peninsula that shaped the milieu within which mysticism flourished at this time. We also look at how ‘mystical theology’ had been developed in Europe at this period and where this influenced the writings of the Spanish mystics.

Introduction

Welcome to this new course, my name is Peter Tyler, and I'm delighted to share the experience, the teaching, the learning and the wisdom from the group of people we call the Spanish mystics, and I've called this course The Spanish Mystics; Ecstasy and Communion.

And what we're going to do, we're going to take a little journey to sixteenth century Spain, and in this first talk, I'm going to tell you a little bit about the context of this wonderful period - it's often called ‘the golden century,’ the Siglo de Oro. And then after that we're going to have two more presentations on two of the greatest of the Spanish mystics – one is Teresa of Ávila, known to many of you, and the other is John of the Cross, perhaps a little bit more mysterious, but certainly well worth studying. 

But before we look at their teachings, I wanted to spend a little time talking about the context of the Spanish mystics. 

‘The past is another country, they do things differently there...’ 

And this is very much the case with sixteenth century Spain. For the historians amongst you, we're talking about the period from about the middle of the fifteenth century - so from about the 1450’s - to the end of the sixteenth century. The English poet W. H. Auden in his poem Spain, wrote of that

‘arid square, that fragment nipped off from hot Africa, soldered so crudely to Europe.’ (Auden 1979: 53)

And when he was writing a review of John of the Cross’ books in the 1950’s, he entitled his review

‘An oddball, in an odd country at an odd time.’ (Auden 1973)

Now, perhaps Auden was being a little bit facetious there, but there is an otherness to Spain, Spain is the exceptional case with regard to Europe. And part of this arises from the unique history of the country with respect to the rest of the continent. 

Shortly after the revelations of the  Prophet Muhammad and the beginning of Islam, in 711 a combined force of Arabs and Berbers from the Magreb crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and defeated the last Christian Visigothic kings of Spain. The invading forces quickly captured Seville, Cordoba and Toledo, and by 714, much of the north of Spain had been occupied. The new government of Spain promised freedom of worship to both Jews and Christians, although as people of the book they would have to pay a tax for this. And combined with the unpopularity in the form of Visigothic kings, the two groups quickly established themselves in an atmosphere of reconciliation. 

By 1085, the so called Christian Reconquista - reconquest of Muslim Spain –reached a significant turning point, when the ancient capital of Toledo was retaken by Alfonso VI. The king, like his fellow Muslim viziers, respected the rights of his co- religionists in the city and laid the foundations for a great school of translators to arise in the city under the later king Alfonso X, el Sabio or ‘the Wise.’ This school of translators at Toledo set a template for exchange of learning and wisdom, that carried on right into the early modern period. The final period of the Muslim government of Spain, ended in 1492, when the small kingdom of Granada, in the south of Spain, fell to the monarchs we know as Los Reyes Católicos, the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492. This date, 1492, is significant, and in a way marks the end of the Middle Ages, it also marks the end of almost eight hundred years of Muslim, Christian and Jewish interaction on the peninsula, which continues to fascinate and challenge scholars to this day. 

So, this is the background to the period that we're talking about, the sixteenth century Golden Age, and it's a time of great change, not unlike our own. A quite diverse society, as I say, of Muslims, Christians and Jews, not exactly living together in complete harmony, but certainly living in what we often call today, Convivencía, ‘living together,’ would change, quite suddenly into a homogeneous society, a new Christian kingdom. 1492 is also connected in the popular imagination with the discovery of America and the voyage of Columbus, it has also left a great scar in the identity and imagination of the Jewish community, for it is the year when the Catholic Monarchs also ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. 

The Expulsion of the Jews

The expulsion of the Jews in 1492, had its origins from the late fourteenth century onwards, when a series of natural disasters and friction between the newly triumphant Christians and their Muslim vassals, led to a wave of pogroms and massacres. This resulted in two decisive acts for the future of the group we know as the Spanish mystics, the formation of the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, and as I've said, the expulsion, or forced conversion, of Spain's Jews in 1492. The Jewish community at this time was given a few months to either convert to Christianity, or to leave forever their beloved homeland. Many Jews left at this point, often taking their keys to their houses with them, which had been handed down the generations and still owned by Jewish families. But a lot also converted to Christianity, and this group became known as the ‘New Christians,’ as opposed to those who had maintained their Christianity throughout the Islamic period, who were referred to as the ‘Old Christians.’ 

After 1492, this newly triumphant Spain, this newly emerging Spain, had to face a new set of challenges. The first was 1500 - some of us will remember the year 2000 and the millennial bug and how we were all a bit worried that airplanes would drop out of the sky at that time - a similar sort of apocalyptic hysteria grips Europe around 1500, and at this time the Cardinal Primate of Spain, Cardinal Cisneros, decided that it was important in this new era, now that the Muslims had been conquered, and the Jews had been expelled, that the Christians of Spain