The Mystical Element of Religion

Baron Friedrich von Hügel

1852-1925

Originally published 1908

One of the most ambitious works of religious philosophy ever written. Taking the life of Saint Catherine of Genoa as his lens, von Hügel examines the nature of religion itself — arguing that authentic religion requires the harmonious interaction of three elements: the institutional, the intellectual, and the mystical. Two volumes, fifteen chapters, from an Austrian baron who never earned a degree yet received Oxford's first honorary Doctorate of Divinity awarded to a Catholic since the Reformation. "God is always previous."

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Source: gutenberg.org · Modernized for readability

✦ Table of Contents · 16 Chapters

1 Introduction → 2 The Three Chief Forces of Western Civilization → 3 The Three Elements of Religion → 4 Catherine's Life, Up to Her Conversion → 5 Catherine's Life from 1473 to 1506 → 6 Catherine's Last Four Years, 1506 to 1510 → 7 Catherine's Doctrine → 8 Catherine's Remains and Cultus → 9 Battista Vernazza's Life → 10 Psycho-Physical and Temperamental Questions → 11 The Main Literary Sources of Catherine's Conceptions → 12 Catherine's Less Ultimate This-World Doctrines → 13 The After-Life Problems and Doctrines → 14 The First Three Ultimate Questions → 15 The Two Final Problems: Mysticism and Pantheism → 16 Summing Up of the Whole Book →