Augustine's Mystical Legacy: Eckhart, Cusanus, and Women Mystics

Sponsoring Organization(s)

American Cusanus Society

Organizer Name

Sarah Powrie; Donald F. Duclow

Organizer Affiliation

St. Thomas More College; Gwynedd Mercy Univ.

Presider Name

Sarah Powrie

Paper Title 1

A Modicum of Time: Augustine's Elusive Presence in the Sermons of Meister Eckhart

Presenter 1 Name

Sean Hannan

Presenter 1 Affiliation

MacEwan Univ.

Paper Title 2

Nescio quod Nescio: A Cusan Reading of Augustine's Confessions

Presenter 2 Name

Samuel J. Dubbelman

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Boston Univ.

Paper Title 3

The Presence and Role of Augustine in Late Medieval Women Mystics

Presenter 3 Name

Willemien Otten

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Chicago Divinity School

Start Date

10-5-2018 1:30 PM

Session Location

Bernhard 205

Description

This panel examines the legacy of Augustine's thought in the medieval mystical tradition. The panelists address the fruitful tension between rational and spiritual perception in Augustinian spirituality, and explore the ways that later medieval writers renegotiated this tension. Samuel Dubbelman highlights the theme of “learned ignorance” in Augustine's Confessions, and identifies the ways that Nicholas of Cusa deploys this term to register the incommensurability between finite human understanding and the infinitude of divine wisdom. Sean Hannan probes how Meister Eckhart uses Augustine's attention to temporal measure as a way to reflect upon the fullness of eternity within the immediacy of the present moment. Willemien Otten examines the subtle Augustinian resonances informing the visionary experiences of late medieval women women mystics.

Donald F. Duclow