L’expérience mystique nous dit-elle quelque chose sur l’ordre du réel? L’exemple de Thérèse d’Avila

Abstract

Since mystical experience is subjective, lived as a face-to-face encounter with God, the question arises as to the extent to which it can tell us something objective about the order of reality. By analysing the mystical experience of Teresa of Avila, we will examine whether it presents a potential for rationalisation, communicability and reproducibility, since these are key attributes for assessing the epistemic value of an experience. Although Teresa of Avila’s mystical experience exceeds the field of proof in the strict positivist sense, the article argues that it nevertheless constitutes a significant experiential datum. Without directly proving the attributes of God as conceived by the Christian tradition, Teresa of Avila’s mystical experience supports the metaphysical conception according to which a transcendent first principle grounds reality and can manifest itself through human subjectivity.