ABSTRACT

The following essay stems from an ongoing theological retrieval of the fourteenth century Brabantine contemplative, Jan van Ruusbroec (1293-1381) whose mystical theological synthesis of love, or minne, can be counted amongst one of the best reflections on love within the Catholic tradition. While principally rooted within the domain of systematic theology, this retrieval bears a distinctly interdisciplinary character, as it is situated amid a renewed focus on love in theology and philosophy of religion discourses. Specifically, I engage in a constructive-critical encounter with the French phenomenologist and Catholic philosopher of religion, Jean-Luc Marion, his “erotic” phenomenological reduction and appeal for a univocal conceptuality of love. To facilitate the encounter, I must bring into consideration that which Ruusbroec’s minne presupposes in primarily gauging its intrinsic theological relevance. In a secondary manner, retrieving Ruusbroec must engage with critical questions as to its contemporary contextual plausibility.