Modern Mystics: Etty Hillesum course
We often think that mysticism is a thing of the past, that the great mystics like Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich or Teresa of Avila are resigned to times long gone, and that mysticism died in the Reformations, the Enlightenment, or the Quietist Controversy.
However, there are important mystical elements of all major world religions today including Christianity, and many 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century figures exemplify mysticism.
This series looks at three figures who have been described as modern or postmodern mystics and who are known to greater and lesser extents: Zilpha Elaw, Etty Hillesum and Teilhard de Chardin.
This second session of our Autumn 2024 series on Modern Mystics explores the life and theology of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch-Jewish mystical writer murdered in the Shoah (Holocaust).
While unknown within her own lifetime, the writings of Etty Hillesum have come to be regarded as among the most significant theological and spiritual works of the 20th century. Drawing from a range of religious traditions, including Christian mystics such as Meister Eckhart and Angela of Foligno, Hillesum’s writings include diaries produced at the Westerbork camp before she was murdered.
About the course leader
Brian Robinette is Associate Professor in Theology at Boston College, having previously been Associate Professor at Saint Louis University.
Robinette works on a range of topics related to the modern study of religion and how spirituality and mystical theology fits into modernity.
As well as many articles, he is the author of Grammars of Resurrection: A Christian Theology of Presence and Absence (2009) and The Difference Nothing Makes: Creation, Christ, Contemplation (2023).
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