The Spiritual Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity

by Paul L. Gavrilyuk (Editor), Sarah Coakley (Editor)

Is it possible to see, hear, touch, smell and taste God? How do we understand the biblical promise that the 'pure in heart' will 'see God'? Christian thinkers as diverse as Origen of Alexandria, Bonaventure, Jonathan Edwards and Hans Urs von Balthasar have all approached these questions in distinctive ways by appealing to the concept of the 'spiritual senses'. In focusing on the Christian tradition of the 'spiritual senses', this book discusses how these senses relate to the physical senses and the body, and analyzes their relationship to mind, heart, emotions, will, desire and judgement. The contributors illuminate the different ways in which classic Christian authors have treated this topic, and indicate the epistemological and spiritual import of these understandings. The concept of the 'spiritual senses' is thereby importantly recovered for contemporary theological anthropology and philosophy of religion.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Christian, History, Church History

338 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2011

Reviews

[Andrew Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

The spiritual senses, as they have been called by various Christian writers over the centuries correspond to the five physical senses of the body. These spiritual senses are not physical but they are very real. This book is a collection of essays that gives us a survey of this line of thinking starting with Origen (roughly second century C.E.) and ending with theologians influenced by logical positivism. The quality of the essays is uniformly high and they give a good overview of the scope of thinking about the spiritual senses. The chapters on the lesser-known writers Alexander of Hales and Thomas Gallus turned out to be among the most interesting as they were particularly strong in inverting the value hierarchy of the spiritual senses over the physical where spiritual sight was the farthest from God and touch the closest. For many medieval writers, spiritual touch, taste and touch were privileged. Anyone interested in the history of Christian spirituality can profit from this volume.

[Dominico Bertolucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is inpiring and shows that it is a lot to do yet in this subject not only for theologians but philosophers as well.


I can say only this: Tolle et lege!

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coakley suggests that “ our visual perceiving and our sensual response might be affected by our moral fibre, our spiritual maturity or the depth of our scriptural engagement..”(TSS. 55)

[LA · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an incredibly helpful book for me. Each author is relatively accessible if one has a basic grasp on theological language, but they were all quite intentional with explaining certain fundamental principles.
All the essays are concise and to the point.
Pay attention to the footnotes for further readings...