Moral development in the light of spiritual pedagogy and St John’s mystagogy

Abstract

During the Spanish Golden Age there was a confluence of exceptional mystical figures. They inherited a spiritual and mystagogical legacy with Christian roots which focused on contemplative life, meditation and experienced-based inner life as a counterpoint to a rationally structured theology. In this scenario, we will analyse the spiritual pedagogy (and especially mystagogy, based on the idea that mystical experience is the source of moral fecundity and personal transformation) of St. John of the Cross as a mistici maioiri, who was inspired by both contemporary and remote influences from other spiritual traditions belonging to the same category. Following this author and other thinkers mentioned in his works, we will present Mysticism and Ethics as two expressions of human accomplishment that are only legitimised and based on the existence of their relationship, and that can give birth to a proposal of comprehensive life experience nowadays.

KEY WORDS: Mystagogy, mysticism, ethics, spiritual pedagogy, asceticism, love.