03 — The Mystical Theology

Essai sur la théologie mystique de l’Église d’Orient (Paris: Aubier, 1944), delivered first as lectures in occupied Paris and translated in 1957 as The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, is the book on which Lossky’s reputation rests and probably the single most influential work of Orthodox theology written in the twentieth century. This section treats the book itself — its origin, structure, and argument — and the thesis that gives it its title.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (emigration)

What This Section Covers

The first file is about the book as a book: how it came to be written, what is in it chapter by chapter, how it is put together, what kind of work it is (an essai, not a dogmatic manual), and how it reached the English-speaking world.

The second file is about its governing thesis — that in the Eastern tradition dogma and mystical experience are not two things but one, so that “there is no theology without mysticism” and none of the Church’s dogmas is a mere formula. This is the claim that made the book famous, the claim that gave a generation of Western readers their picture of Orthodoxy, and the claim that has drawn the most searching criticism from Lossky’s own side.

Both files treat the book as Lossky’s work and say so. The doctrines it expounds — the monarchy of the Father, the uncreated energies, deification — are the Church’s; the architecture, the emphases, and the polemical frame are Lossky’s own.

Files

File Description
The Book of 1944 Origin in the wartime lectures; the twelve chapters and their order; the genre; the 1957 English translation and its reach
Theology and Mysticism Inseparable The governing thesis; what “mystical theology” means for Lossky; dogma as the condition of experience; the criticisms

See Also