Material Mysticism

WITH

Matthew J. Milliner

Material Mysticism is devoted to Christian spirituality as it intersects with physical stuff: contemporary art, art history, matter, practice, and place. Each month, through articles and interviews, this contemplative vernissage explores the surprising solidity of spiritual life: the thrilling collision of theology with things.

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Welcome to Material Mysticism! Below are a few guiding insights that frame this column:

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
—Colossians 1:17

“He is all, and he is no thing.”
—Dionysius the Areopagite, The Divine Names

“God is in all things everywhere.”
—John Scotus Eriugena, De Divisione Naturae

“The whole of You fills all things, yet You are completely outside of everything.”
—Symeon the New Theologian, Hymns of Divine Love

“As long as a thing has being, God must be present to it.”
—Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae

“I must go from all things to God.”
—Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of the Godhead

“I saw that God is in all things.”
—Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

“All things which God hath made are in that respect the offspring of God. . . . He likewise is actually in them, the assistance and influence of his Deity is their life.”
—Richard Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity

“Things that are very close are easy to overlook. But he is not ‘close’ to us, he is the closeness itself.”
—Tomáš Halík, Patience with God

“Only by turning to what can be seen and touched do we learn to see the God who cannot be seen. Christianity is an affair of things.”
—Robert Louis Wilken, The First Thousand Years

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About the Author

Matthew J. Milliner

Matthew J. Milliner is professor of art history at Wheaton College. He is the author of The Everlasting People (InterVarsity Press, 2021) and Mother of the Lamb (Fortress Press, 2022).

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