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Revelation Insight
Great Spiritual Works
Great Spiritual Works
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For the first time, four of Jean Gerson’s treatises regarding the deeper aspects of “spiritual life” have been painstakingly translated and progressively placed in tandem of each other.
a) "De Probatione Spirituum” - “The Proving of Spirits”
b) Snares of the Devil
c) "De Distinctione Verarum Visionum A Falsis" - “The Distinctions between False and True Visions”
d) Practical Guide to Spiritual Prayer
Jean Gerson may be considered as on of the great reformers of the Church prior to Luther. Gerson, like so many other before and after him, had concern for the peace and well-being of the Church thereby embraced the call for theological reform. During his life, there was an increasing movement towards Scholasticism, which fanned the increasing role of theological speculation and innovation within the university resulting in men graduating with their degrees with students rallying blindly behind this or that theologian. Many of these same individuals ignored the Church's dire need for a return to humble devotion to a personal Lord, a devotion which many of the great Fathers has exhibited.
Through various lectures, Gerson discussed with his students and the laity such topics as the life and death of the soul, its weaknesses and its failings, the nature and cause of sin, and of what practical value such understanding might have. Gerson also discussed the matter of temptation, and concluded with his own theory on the spiritual life. Gerson outlines seven differences between mystical and speculative theology. The first and most fundamental difference is that each derives its information from different sources or subjects, with speculative theology being located in the intellective power and mystical theology being grounded in the affective. This was certainly a marked departure from the current methods used within the university, but Gerson persisted on the conviction that such a “mystical theology” would inspire his students and future leaders of the Church with a love for a personal God rather than a love for worldly gain. Gerson approached the reformation of theology as the key to reforming the Church, and therefore emphasized to his students the superiority of mystical theology over speculative theology.
Jean instructs us to turn our attention instead to the affective powers in the soul. Now if his understanding of the soul's ability to approach God through both knowledge and love and the reciprocal relationship of the cognitive and affective powers are correct, then one may spurn the intellective on to higher things through the ability of the affective powers to approach God through love. Gerson does not consider the effects of sin to be as profound in the affective as they are in the in the intellective powers.
Ultimately, he seeks to know God in a direct and immediate awareness, which leaves the individual with an experiential knowledge of God, a knowledge which is greater than any mental exercise may offer.
a) "De Probatione Spirituum” - “The Proving of Spirits”
b) Snares of the Devil
c) "De Distinctione Verarum Visionum A Falsis" - “The Distinctions between False and True Visions”
d) Practical Guide to Spiritual Prayer
Jean Gerson may be considered as on of the great reformers of the Church prior to Luther. Gerson, like so many other before and after him, had concern for the peace and well-being of the Church thereby embraced the call for theological reform. During his life, there was an increasing movement towards Scholasticism, which fanned the increasing role of theological speculation and innovation within the university resulting in men graduating with their degrees with students rallying blindly behind this or that theologian. Many of these same individuals ignored the Church's dire need for a return to humble devotion to a personal Lord, a devotion which many of the great Fathers has exhibited.
Through various lectures, Gerson discussed with his students and the laity such topics as the life and death of the soul, its weaknesses and its failings, the nature and cause of sin, and of what practical value such understanding might have. Gerson also discussed the matter of temptation, and concluded with his own theory on the spiritual life. Gerson outlines seven differences between mystical and speculative theology. The first and most fundamental difference is that each derives its information from different sources or subjects, with speculative theology being located in the intellective power and mystical theology being grounded in the affective. This was certainly a marked departure from the current methods used within the university, but Gerson persisted on the conviction that such a “mystical theology” would inspire his students and future leaders of the Church with a love for a personal God rather than a love for worldly gain. Gerson approached the reformation of theology as the key to reforming the Church, and therefore emphasized to his students the superiority of mystical theology over speculative theology.
Jean instructs us to turn our attention instead to the affective powers in the soul. Now if his understanding of the soul's ability to approach God through both knowledge and love and the reciprocal relationship of the cognitive and affective powers are correct, then one may spurn the intellective on to higher things through the ability of the affective powers to approach God through love. Gerson does not consider the effects of sin to be as profound in the affective as they are in the in the intellective powers.
Ultimately, he seeks to know God in a direct and immediate awareness, which leaves the individual with an experiential knowledge of God, a knowledge which is greater than any mental exercise may offer.
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