The spiritual senses: Perceiving god in western christianity

Abstract

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 analyses 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 recovered for contemporary theological anthropology and philosophy of religion.