The Mystical Way in Saint John of the Cross

From rational to “face to face” knowledge

Abstract

The phenomenological analysis of the mystical experience witnessed by John of the Cross in his Spiritual Canticle shows two concrete forms of knowledge, expressed as “drawing of faith” and “drawing of love”. Klaus Hemmerle, for his part, proposes a fassendes Denken and a lassendes Denken based on two ways of understanding the cognitive process. Both thinkers identify the relationship between these forms of knowledge and how the mystical experience allows access to knowledge that pure reason alone is not capable of achieving.