Gabriel Jaramillo: Mystical Theology in Gregory of Nyssa and Ibero-Latin-American theological work

Theology as an exercise in constant elaboration and in dialogue with the signs of the times, needs to be renewed permanently to respond to the urgent challenges of a postmodern culture that is increasingly disenchanted and wounded. This paper will show the progress of the doctoral research carried out by the author at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogotá (Colombia), titled: Contributions of the mystical theology of Gregory of Nyssa in Homilies on the Song of Songs and Life of Moses, for the elaboration of a conceptual framework that contributes to the renewal of theological work today.From the theological thought of Gregory and his mystical approach, this investigation wants to contribute to the renovation efforts already promoted by the Second Vatican Council and present in Ibero-Latin-American contextual theologies, following the double renovating dynamism: ad fontes and a giorno. For this reason, it will be presented in a synthetic way: 1) the problem assumed by the research about the crisis of the theological work, 2) the hermeneutics of Paul Ricouer as the research method, in order to appropriate the world of the texts and the possibilities of understanding that open to the theologian himself, and 3) the possibility of developing a conceptual framework that contributes to the renewal of theological work from the categories: mystery (μυστήριον), mystagogy (μυσταγογία), mysticism (μυστικά), darkness (σκότος), concatenation (ακολουθία) and epektasis (επέκτασις).