The Mystical Science of the Soul

Download or read book The Mystical Science of the Soul written by Jessica A. Boon and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ultimately, I propose that considering internalization as embodiment is a critical methodological shift in understanding mystical methods in general, and especially for probing recollection mysticism in depth. The inner man as opposed to the outer man is a Pauline and Lutheran commonplace that is too frequently taken out of context, leading historians of the Renaissance in general, and of Spanish Renaissance religion in particular, to value references to internal (or mental) methods of spirituality as an improvement over external (or bodily) rituals. This book takes its cue from the recent 'cognitive turn' in medieval studies that complicates studies of the body in religion by focusing on the embodied aspects of cognition, claiming a continuum between body and soul rather than a hierarchy. I argue that medieval theories of cognition made the divorce of the body from the soul impossible for a Galenic doctor, even one who spoke of the body and the world with contempt, and by implication impossible for his Castilian audience. Without serious consideration of Laredo's reliance on an embodied soul rather than on a body-soul dualism, therefore, no proper assessment of the unitive stage of recogimiento ... can be made."--Introduction, p. 6-7.