Abstract:
An important genre of the theological area, spiritual autobiography is currently undergoing a
rediscovery process, because of recent research on this topic. Written by important mystical
personalities belonging to different Christian traditions (such as Saint Silouane the Athonite or
Saint John of Kronstadt for the Orthodox area, Saint Teresa of Avila for the Catholic one and
Dag Hammarskjöld for the Lutheran one), spiritual autobiographies can constitute a valuable
source for the understanding of their authors’ thinking and perception of fundamental topics
such as ecumenism. Being aware of this aspect, we will start from a case study, namely that of
Dag Hammarskjöld, and we will try to see how this category of texts can be used in order to
understand the attitude of the authors of spiritual autobiographies and their motivation in the
ecumenical space.
CONTRIBUTION : The research helps the reader to see how the spiritual autobiographies can be a
source of understanding the ecumenism of mystical vocations, using as example Dag
Hammarskjöld’s Markings.
Description:
Rev. Iuliu-Marius is
participating in the research
project, ‘Political Theology’,
directed by Dr Tanya van Wyk,
Department of Systematic and
Historical Theology, Faculty of
Theology and Religion,
University of Pretoria.
