Feeling as the Bond Between Soul and Body in St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love

Abstract

This essay makes an important contribution to Stein scholarship by examining the work of Saint John of the Cross on feelings, which express and help make manifest the unity of body and spirit. Stein’s last work focused on John of the Cross, and many interpreters see this as a mystical work that speaks about the possibility of spiritual union with God. Often the life of feelings is not discussed in such treatments. This paper unpacks the centrality of feeling for the Spanish mystic and for Edith Stein’s reading of John of the Cross’s work.