https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58377 2026-04-28T04:55:02Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58401 Title: “The soul’s growth is not like the body’s growth” : Teresa of Jesus’ fourfold path for mystical transformation Authors: Camilleri, Charló Abstract: The path of interiority in beholding divine revelation is central to mysticism, particularly in theistic traditions. This article tries to present Teresa of Jesus’ doctrine on mystical transformation which leads towards ecstatic union. To express this path the Spanish Carmelite mystic makes use of various universal metaphors, symbols and similes. Recent studies have shown that Teresa is an interesting case of a mystic who portrays similarities to, if not influence from, Sufi mysticism. To start with, it is well established that Teresa hails from a converso family; moreover, scholars, like Américo Castro, identified both Judaic and Islamic connections in her mysticism due to the insistence on self-consciousness, introspection and didactic characteristics of morisco religious discourse. Castro argues that until Teresa there was no Spanish Christian literary discourse which displayed these characteristics, apart from the well-known Augustine’s Confessiones, widely available to Spanish readers, and which affected Teresa in both her introspective mystical experience as well as her confessional and didactic kind of writing. Within this framework López-Baralt goes as far as to show direct influences of Sufism on Teresa’s mysticism while Éric Geoffroy is more cautious in his approach. He points out that “the fact that a doctrinal theme has been loved and expressed in a prior religion or mystical system does not automatically mean that a later one has borrowed it: beyond dogmas and human psychospirituality, experience is certainly one.” This is conceivable, notwithstanding the distinctive characteristics of both Christianity and Islam and their underlying essential difference which shapes both their respective exterior religious practices (exoteric) as well as their inner mystical dimension (esoteric), as elucidated by Macnab. Acknowledging that “Spain was for many centuries a nursery of Sufism” and that Christianity is “pre-eminently the religion of Love,” Macnab concludes that in mysticism “the similarity of the language and conceptions of whoever follows the way of divine Love, whatever the denomination of the lover may be.” In the case of mystical Christianity and Sufism, one should consider the singular flourishing of the latter within the Spanish and Andalusian context, and this “to such an extent that it is impossible to avoid the conviction that the voices of the Arab Sufis, or their echoes, should have reached the ears of Juan de la Cruz and Saint Teresa.” Raynold Nicholson also points out the possible Christian mystical or Neoplatonic, Gnostic, Hindu and Greek ideas at the origins of Muslim Sufism. Anyhow, it is nonetheless irrelevant for the scope of our study, to delve into the question of who influenced who, and to what extent! Irrespective of possible mutual influences and inspirations, the scope of the present paper is that of presenting the mystical path as explained by Teresa of Avila, focusing on metaphors, symbols and imagery common also to Sufism. 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58399 Title: Melita Theologica : volume 69 : issue 2 Editors: Micallef, Martin Abstract: 1/ Joseph Carola - Making Patristics Pertinent: Theological Echoes and Anticipations from John Henry Newman’s 1833 Mediterranean Tour -- 2/ Martin Micallef - Redemptive Deification in the Commentary on the Gospel of John by Cyril of Alexandria: An Examination of Doctrinal Presuppositions -- 3/ Robert D. Miller - History, Folklore, and Myth in the Book of Judges -- 4/ Charlò Camilleri - “The Soul’s Growth is not Like the Body’s Growth:” Teresa of Jesus’ Fourfold Path for Mystical Transformation -- 5/ Nicholas Joseph Doublet - A Historiographical Reading of the Pontificate of Benedict XV (1914-1922) in the Last Decade -- 6/ Salvino Busuttil - Retrieving the Tradition: Salvino Busuttil, “Morality and Economic Development,” Excerpts from Melita Theologica 17/1 (1965): 19-24 -- 7/ Guidelines For Contributors 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58389 Title: Retrieving the tradition : Salvino Busuttil, “Morality and Economic Development” Authors: Busuttil, Salvino Abstract: When, nearly ten years ago, I first started studying philosophy, I remember asking one of my tutors over lunch what philosophy was actually all about. “Imagine,” he said referring to the table in front of him, “that this table had no legs.” “I am imagining,” I said. “Good. Imagine now that it had no surface and no sides.” I looked hungrily at the dishes on the table - at which point, my professor, rather uncharitably said, “Imagine now that there was nothing on the surface. What remains?” “Nothing,” I replied, eyeing the dishes even more hungrily. “Good,” he said. “Now you know what philosophy is all about.” 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58386 Title: A historiographical reading of the pontificate of Benedict XV (1914-1922) in the last decade Authors: Doublet, Nicholas Joseph Abstract: Tragic indeed were the times during which Giacomo della Chiesa is called to the Papacy. His pontificate takes its cue from the tragic moment of a Great War that Europe found itself immersed in, and that would, in many ways, change its face. Although one of the shortest pontificates of the twentieth century, the role of the Holy See at this key moment in history is determinative in forming a Church that is ready to courageously take its place in a world in transformation; an age marked by fluidity, a time of crisis that truly ushers in the contemporary age with its totalitarian claims. Benedict XV died an untimely death on the 22nd January 1922. Aided by his closest collaborators, through his efforts for peace, he regained a respectable place for the Holy See on the international scene, now recognized by many as that moral authority it is called to be, in consonance with its vocation. The aim of this historiographical review continues to be that of bringing together a survey of the way in which different historians have approached the pontificate, life and action, of Benedict XV. Therefore, it remains largely limited to those themes that the authors have presented as being determinative to the Holy See’s political, diplomatic and ecclesial action in this period which sees its re-emergence as an international key player from a situation of dire isolation. 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z