The direction of desire : John of the Cross, Jacques Lacan and the contemporary understanding of spiritual direction / Mark Gerard Murphy.
Murphy, Mark Gerard.
2023
BF175.4.R44 M87 2023
Available Online

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Title The direction of desire : John of the Cross, Jacques Lacan and the contemporary understanding of spiritual direction / Mark Gerard Murphy.
Author Murphy, Mark Gerard.
ISBN 9783031331077 (electronic bk.)
3031331079 (electronic bk.)
3031331060
9783031331060
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33107-7
Imprint Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
Language English
Description 1 online resource
Other Standard Identifiers 10.1007/978-3-031-33107-7 doi
Call Number BF175.4.R44 M87 2023
Dewey Decimal Classification 150.195
Summary A deeply engaged inquiry into the possibility of mystical spiritual direction today - the true topic of the book is ourselves, our spiritual fate. Furthermore, Murphy ruthlessly analyses how mystical experience is caught in the global capitalist commodification - if you really want an authentic spiritual experience, you should begin with a critique of capitalism. Professor Slavoj Zizek, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, UK Through a powerfully illuminating reading of Jacques Lacans anti-experientialist psychoanalytic practice, Murphy uncovers the cultural forces which reduce spirituality to superficial notions of wellbeing. Dr Edward Howells, Associate Tutor at Ripon College Cuddesdon and Associate Member of Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, UK This book examines Lacanian psychoanalysis and Christian mystical theology demonstrating the formers potential for reinvigorating spiritual direction. The author outlines how current methods of spiritual direction become saturated with self-help psycho-pop methodologies, and that desire has therefore been foreclosed in these practices. He suggests that the root of this is a focus on positive affective experientialism, which means spiritual direction must focus on emotional wholeness, healing and positivity. Finally, he argues that a new dialogue between John of the Cross (a mystic whose writings on spiritual direction formulate part of the core of the Catholic spiritual tradition) and Jacques Lacan can open the way for a spiritual direction beyond the confines of experientialism. The book concludes that we can only escape the experiential commodification of spiritual direction by critiquing the drive to experience in and of itself. This novel work will appeal in particular to students and scholars of psychoanalysis, religion, philosophy and critical theory. Mark Gerard Murphy is Lecturer at St Marys University, Gillis Centre, Scotland, where he convenes courses on ethics, philosophy, and mystical theology and spirituality.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Online resource; title from PDF title page (SpringerLink, viewed October 12, 2023).
Series Palgrave Lacan series.
Available in Other Form Print version: 9783031331060
Linked Resources Online Access
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Intro
Acknowledgements
Praise for The Direction of Desire
Contents
About the Author
Abbreviations
Part I: The Loss of Mystical Desire in Christian Spiritual Direction
1: Foreword
Introduction
References
2: The Shift in Spiritual Direction
The Question
Psychology, Spiritual Direction and Experientialism
The Change in Desire through Experientialism. Key Terminology and Concepts
The Reception of Lacan in Theology
The Absence of Lacan in Pastoral Theology and Spiritual Direction
Current literature on Juanist Spiritual Direction

Plan and Methodology of the Book
Visual Representation of the Argument
Methodological Considerations
Outline of The Argument The Loss and Recovery of Mystical Desire in Spiritual Direction
John and Lacan
The Experiential Paradigm and Spiritual Direction
Introduction
William James and Experientialism
Rudolf Otto and Experientialism
The Rise of Positive Affective Experientialism
The Therapeutic Injunction to Enjoy
Self-Knowledge
Self-Help and Modern Spiritual Direction
Spiritual Directors and the Current Misuse of Desire in Spiritual Direction

The Spiritual Injunction to Enjoy
Emotional Warmth in Modern Spiritual Direction
Summary
References
Part II: Recovering Mystical Desire in Spiritual Direction: A Juanist-Lacanian Approach
3: Desire in Pre-modern Spiritual Direction
Spiritual Direction Before Experientialism
Recap of Argument
The Desert Fathers and Mothers
Austere Spiritual Direction
Denys Turner's The Darkness of God
Peter Tyler's Return to the Mystical
The Possibility of Moving Beyond the Experientialist Paradigm in the Modern Context of Spiritual Direction
Framing the Problem

Toward a Radical Spiritual Direction
John of the Cross, Spiritual Direction and Desire
John's Early Life
John's Studies and Vocation
John's Meeting with Teresa of Avila and Crises
John's Escape
Final Years
The Texts
Sayings of Light and Love
The Ascent of Mount Carmel
The Dark Night
The Spiritual Canticle
The Living Flame of Love
The Special Counsels
The Reception of John's Texts
Early Reception
Modern Reception
John's Spiritual Direction: Sources and Foundations
The Biblical and Philosophical Foundations of John's Spiritual Direction

John's Understanding of the Intellect Affect and the Self
The Mystical Theological Foundations of Juanist Spiritual Direction
Purgation and Illumination
Unitive Stage
John's Specific Writings on Spiritual Direction
John's Spiritual Direction in The Sayings of Light and Love and The Living Flame of Love
John's Ethics of Spiritual Direction
The Quality of the Guide
Detecting the Passive Night
Reading John's Spiritual Direction Through the Linguistic Turn
The Mystical Speech of Juanist Spiritual Direction
Strategies of Unknowing in John of the Cross

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