Calvin’s Mystical Thought in Comparison to Pseudo-Dionysius

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· 저자명 : 주종훈

초록

In Reformed academic circle, mysticism or mystical theology has not been a major research area. So, there are not many who attempted to interpret Calvin, a forerunner of Reformed theology, in light of mystical theology. However, although we could not regard Calvin as mystic, it is certain that there are mystical aspects in Calvin’s thought. So, it is necessary and even significant to probe the mystical thought in Calvin’s writings in order for Reformed tradition to keep practicing the divine presence in the liturgy as well as daily life.
This article does not attempt to argue that Calvin was a mystic. Rather, with help of the methodology of mystical theology, it strives to prove that Calvin’s thought could be interpreted as a strand of mystical tradition. At the same time, this article tries to prove that Calvin’s mystical thoughts are distinctive by arguing that his mystical thought is not like the traditional speculative mysticism such as Pseudo-Dionysius.
Calvin has the same goal and structure of mystical experience as previous mystical tradition: union with God and a hierarchical structure between human and God. Although he had critical and even negative perspectives on traditional mystical thoughts, Calvin did not deconstruct the previous Eastern and medieval Western paradigm of mystical tradition. Rather, being influenced by mystical tradition, Calvin responds to the mystical theology or mysticism by developing his own mystical theology rooted in the experience of the Triune God. For Calvin, the Holy Spirit is crucial in bonding humans and God as a Reformed distinctive aspect of mystical experience.

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