Catherine of Siena on persons created in God’s image: Basis for a spiritual path

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Catherine of Siena on persons created in God’s image: Basis for a spiritual path
 
Creator Villegas, Diana L.
 
Subject Christian spirituality; theological anthropology Catherine of Siena; image of God; spiritual growth; spiritual transformation; image of God; memory, understanding and will; three powers of the soul; theological anthropology; Augustine’s anthropology; medieval spirituality; medieval women mystics.
Description The belief that persons are images of God offers powerful constructs for imagining and thinking about a spiritual journey. What about; who we are makes a relationship possible with God? What are the goals of a spiritual journey given who we are to God? Catherine of Siena’s wisdom regarding persons as images of God offers answers to these questions. This study presents a textual analysis of Catherine’s metaphor-filled rhetoric on this topic and shows how Catherine, an uneducated woman mystic appropriated the foundational systematic teaching of Augustine of Hippo on persons as images of God having memory, understanding and will. Catherine asserts that persons as images of God having these three powers of the soul are created out of God’s love with a capacity to love and to be in a relationship of love, first of all, with God. The spiritual journey essentially consists in transcending – through God’s redemptive love – all that obscures this created capacity.Contribution: This study contributes by highlighting the importance of theological anthropology – both as a theological tenet and as a belief – to the way persons imagine and live a spiritual journey. Furthermore, it shows how Augustine of Hippo’s formulations, foundational for Christianity, influenced a medieval mystic and can be relevant for spiritual practice today. Accordingly, this study concludes with suggestions about how this patristic and medieval understanding of persons can be appropriated for today’s spiritual life.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor University of the Free State provides funding for page fees
Date 2024-03-20
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Literary analysis; historical inquiry
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v80i1.9568
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 80, No 1 (2024); 8 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/9568/26638 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/9568/26639 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/9568/26640 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/9568/26641
 
Coverage Not applicable Middle Ages; patristic —
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Diana L. Villegas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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