The second issue of Viridarium is dedicated to the “God of mystics”. Given its nature as a private
direct encounter with the Supreme Being, all mystical experiences
should have similar features, independently of space and time
variables. Yet all these experiences are almost only accessible through
texts and therefore through language, revealing similar differences in
the field to those found in religions or forms of art. Can we construct
a “grammar” of mysticism?
Although not claiming to answer this
question, the book attempts to make a substantial contribution in the
right direction by comparing some of the most significant forms of
world mysticism.
The essays in the book are by Pietro Citati, Enzo
Bianchi, Victoria Cirlot, Amador Vega, Alessandro Grossato, Carlo
Saccone, and Ezio Albrile.

Knowledge and descriptions of
mystical experience raise a paradox. At its most profound, mystical
experience involves plumbing the abyss of interiority, the encounter
and union with God – right up to the total emptying of self or, what
some mystics call “dark night” and “nothingness”. Yet for us there is
no other way to gain knowledge about this experience than through
language. A study of the expressive means used to make it known is thus
indispensable. At times mystical writing has achieved great poetic
results: classic examples are Al-Hallâj, St John of the Cross, or
Angelus Silesius. But if we wish to draw on the innermost core of this
experience, we cannot stop short at the purely literary dimension. What
then is the specific nature of mystical language? Edited by Francesco
Zambon, this book with eight essays by writers and specialists from
various backgrounds attempts to answer this question.
The first
two essays are on the forms of Eastern mysticism: the experience of a
personal God in Hinduism (Grossato) and the theology of beauty in the
works of the great Persian poet Rumi (Saccone). They are followed by a
study on astral mysticism in gnosis and hermeticism in late Antiquity
(Albrile). A series of essays then considers European mysticism, with a
special focus on the Middle Ages and the Baroque Age: they thus tackle
the mysticism of embodiment in Christian thought (Haas), the concept of
“violent charity” in Richard of St Victor (Citati), modes of describing
the invisible in the work of Hildegard of Bingen (Cirlot), and the
language of excess in Angelus Silesius (Vega). The book ends with an
essay by Enzo Bianchi on interior spiritual experience and its
importance for religious life today.

CONTENTS

Franceso Zambon
Introduction

Alessandro Grossato
La via indù al Dio personale

Carlo Saccone
Mistica islamica e teologia della bellezza: il Bel Testimone (“shahed”) nel poeta persiano Rumi (XIII secolo)

Ezio Albrile
La Porta del Tempo. Misticismo astrale tra gnosi ed ermetismo

Alois M. Haas
Mistica dell’incarnazione

Pietro Citati
L’amore violento

Victoria Cirlot
La visibilità dell’invisibile nell’opera di Ildegarda di Bingen

Amador Vega
Il linguaggio dell’eccesso nella mistica tedesca: Angelus Silesius

Enzo Bianchi
Vita interiore, vita spirituale nell’occidente cristiano

Information
e-mail: ufficio.editoriale@cini.it