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Desiring God implicitly: ‘worldly union desires’ and openness to God

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2018

JULIAN PERLMUTTER
JULIAN PERLMUTTER*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9BS, UK
*
e-mail: jfp41@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

‘Interested non-belief’ in God is now a common attitude, and one religious outlook such non-believers should take seriously is the Christian contemplative tradition. Drawing on C. S. Lewis, I identify the familiar phenomenon of ‘worldly union desire’: elicited by worldly things, and aimed at union with some beauty or goodness therein. I examine specifically Thomas Merton's contemplative outlook, arguing that by his lights worldly union desires manifest a desire for God and aid spiritual openness. Merton's picture extends any purely secular value in worldly union desire-experiences, giving union with God – and the spirituality aimed at this goal – a deep existential appeal for non-believers.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 55 , Special Issue 3: Religious Experience and Desire , September 2019 , pp. 419 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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