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The image of love as a burning flame is so widespread in the history of Christian literature as to appear inevitable. But as this dissertation explores, the association of amor with fire played a precise and wide-ranging role in Bonaventure's understanding of the soul's motive power--its capacity to love and be united with God, especially as that capacity was demonstrated in an exemplary way through the spiritual ascent and death of St. Francis. In drawing out this association, Bonaventure develops a theory of the soul and its capacity for transformation in union with God that gives specificity to the Christian desire for self-abandonment in God and the annihilation of the soul in union with God. Though Bonaventure does not use the language of the soul coming to nothing, he describes a state of ecstasy or excessus mentis that is possible in this life, but which constitutes the death and transformation of the soul in union with God. In this ecstatic state, the boundaries between the soul and God--between active and passive, mover and moved, will and necessity--are effectively consumed in the fire of union. This dissertation offers a new approach to the role of affect in Bonaventure’s theology through three lenses: his elaboration of the soul’s union with God as inspired by the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite; Bonaventure’s conception of synderesis or the soul’s natural affective “weight” or inclination to God; and the ecstatic death of the soul that Bonaventure describes in the Itinerarium mentis in Deum and which is witnessed in the body of St. Francis in the Legenda Maior. This dissertation argues that Bonaventure’s “affective" gloss on the Dionysian corpus was not an interpolation but a working out of the Dionysian conception of eros. In elaborating the soul’s natural motion to the good, moreover, Bonaventure situates divine desire within an Aristotelian cosmos. And as the manifestation of this desire in Francis’s dying body makes evident, for Bonaventure affectus plays at the boundary of body and spirit and names a force that is more fundamental than the distinction between the corporeal and incorporeal.

This thesis investigates the role of practical activity in the union of the soul and God in Meister Eckhart. Since Eckhart’s attitude toward temporal works is highly inconsistent, the thesis begins by examining the complex and intimate relationship between God and the temporal order in Eckhart’s discussions of creation in principio. Next it considers the creation of man and how he, through the natural function of the intellect interacting with the created order, is transformed into the image of God. Finally it examines the relationship between the intellectual and practical acts and considers the possibility of a union between God and the soul which takes place in practical activity in Eckhart’s thought. Throughout, the thesis makes reference to Eckhart’s creative use of the term indistinctum (indistinct) and its Middle High German equivalents with respect to God, the soul, and the union between the two.

Plotinus (3rd century C.E.) and Afdal al-Din Kashani (12th century C.E.) each posit that the highest human goal is to become aware of the ultimate unity of reality. Both are rational mystics, and each describes a rigorous moral and intellectual training through which alone a human can achieve the goal. Seldom studied as a field in itself, rational mysticism offers a vision of philosophy that combines reason, intuition, virtuous practice, and mystical awareness. The relatively young discipline of feminist philosophy is both a response to what its practitioners see as male prejudice in past and present philosophical theories and an attempt to forge new, inclusive theories. Plato and Aristotle, among others, are called to account for their alleged contributions to the philosophically common representation of women as less rational than men, and to the development of philosophical and theological paradigms reflecting a male perspective. Since Plotinus and Kashani both owe much to Plato and Aristotle, including significant elements of how they conceptualise human nature and the nature of ultimate reality, it might be expected that they would incur the same criticisms. So far, however, little feminist attention as such has been paid to Plotinus and the rational mystics of the Islamic tradition, and almost none to Kashani. My examination of these two figures is an attempt to rectify this neglect. In addition, for the first time in a feminist historical critique of this kind, a diversity of feminist perspectives is taken into account. Thus, the question 'Is rational mysticism compatible with feminism?' will be seen to yield a somewhat different answer according to which group of feminists is in view. In offering a revisionist interpretation of Plotinus and Kashani, I aim first to establish which of their theses are consistent with feminist theses; second, to determine whether the consistency of theses is significantly affected, in Kashani's case, by the additional influence of Islamic religion; and third, to identify which group or sub-group of feminists could find in rational mysticism resources for reconstructive work in philosophy. I thereby aim to enrich the understanding of both rational mysticism and feminism.

Mysticism can be examined from various viewpoints: historical, theological, sociological, and psychological. This study primarily examines the philosophical status and implications of mysticism, an issue investigated many times, particularly over the last four decades. Walter T. Stace's work in the early sixties is regarded as a hallmark in the field. The topics covered in this thesis are epistemological, metaphysical and religio-ethical and deal with mystical knowledge, its object, and its method. The characteristics of mystical knowledge, its objectivity or subjectivity, its object/s, its logical status, the way/s it is presented in the language, and its method/s of acquisition are investigated. This study is primarily epistemological, since the central issue is the status of mystical awareness in human knowledge. / Since this is a philosophical reflection on mystical experience, the primary sources are mystical writings, mainly from Christian classical mystics, and philosophical writings about mysticism, mainly from twentieth-century Western philosophers. Again since it is a 'philosophical reflection' on 'mystical experience,' this study employs two methods: a historical survey of mystics' ideas, and philosophical reflection on mystics' reports or analysis of contents of mystical text. Since the focus of the study is Stace's account of mysticism, his ideas will be examined in detail. Reference to other mystics and philosophers will be primarily for elaboration, comparison and criticism of Stace's analysis. Instead of merely criticizing Stace's arguments and convictions, this study also offers an alternative account and presents a consistent philosophical analysis of mysticism.

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Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 1978.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1993. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 17).

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-162). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Lyon, 1969. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-188).