Theology and Mysticism | David Tracy

A mystical element affects all three of the major types of theology: fundamental, systematic and practical. Fundamental theology’s crucial notion of reason is deepened by mystical contemplation and apophasis. Systematic theology’s naming of God as Infinite Trinitarian Love is deepened by a mysticism of infinity, love and Trinity. Practical theology is strengthened by explicit attention to the prophetical-mystical character.
David Tracy, is the Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Catholic Studies, and Professor Emeritus of Theology and the Philosophy of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School and the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought. A noted Catholic teacher, scholar, priest and theologian, Tracy earned his licentiate and doctorate in 1964 and 1969, respectively, at the Gregorian University in Rome. He taught at Catholic University of America from 1967 to 1969, when he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His courses there focused on a wide variety of courses in contemporary theology, in philosophical, systematic and constructive theology and hermeneutics, and on issues and persons in religion and modern thought-as well as others in the university’s Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1982 and has lectured in universities and colleges around the world, including Scotland, where he delivered the prestigious Gifford lectures which were established to promote and diffuse the study of natural theology. His publications include Blessed Rage for Order (1979), The Analogical Imagination (1981), Plurality and Ambiguity (1987), On Naming the Present: Reflections on God, Hermeneutics, and Church (1994) and two books of his essays (forthcoming, 2019) He is currently writing a book on God based on his Gifford lectures, “This Side of God.”