WE ARE VERY SORRY TO ANNOUNCE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED 

The Compassion of the Mystics

Led by Prof Bernard McGinn

Tuesday 9 April

6.30 - 9.00 pm

Cost £15 Concessions £10

Light refreshment provided

Compassion as intellectual, affective, and active sympathy for others is rooted in the Hebrew Scripture’s account of God’s loving kindness for his people and in the New Testament picture of Jesus. Compassion became a central virtue in Latin Christianity, especially among the mystics. This is evident in the new forms of apostolic mysticism found in Western Europe beginning in the thirteenth century. Using Francis of Assisi and some of his contemporary “holy women” of the Low Countries and Germany, this talk will probe the contours of true compassion. It will close with a look at the seventeenth century mystic Francis de Sales, who is both an exemplar and a theorist of the nature of compassion.

Bernard McGinn is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelly Professor emeritus of the University of Chicago, where he taught for thirty-four years before retiring in 2003. Since his retirement he has continued to teach, lecture and write. His major work is a history of western Christian mysticism under the general title The Presence of God, seven volumes of which have been published between 1991 and 2017.

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