Organised by the Mysticism & Lived Experience Network

The M&LEN is seeking papers for a series of sessions that will explore the complex and layered engagement of medieval mystics and holy persons with time. Far from adhering to a single temporal framework, these figures moved fluidly between past, present, and future; between cyclical liturgical
rhythms and the linearity of sacred history; between the clock-bound hours of the Church and the timelessness of union with the divine. Mystical experience frequently defied or suspended ordinary time perception, enabling saints to inhabit what Richard Kieckhefer has called transtemporality—a state in which historical and eternal time intersected.

In mystical encounters, Christ may appear in a specific moment of the mystic’s present while bearing the marks of the Passion or Nativity, thus
merging divine timelessness with human history.

We invite papers that examine how medieval holy persons—whether visionaries, anchorites, prophets—understood, narrated, negotiated between, or embodied diverse modes of time. We are especially interested in how mystical or hagiographical texts reflect simultaneous and often contending temporalities: visionary retrojection to the time of Christ’s life; prophetic anticipation of the Last Judgment; ecstatic union with an atemporal God, or the multitemporal experience of the anchorhold.

We welcome papers on subjects including, but not limited to:

• The transhistorical nature of mysticism
• Transtemporality and mystical union
• The use of linear and cyclical time in mystical writing
• Anchoritism and enclosure as a mode of temporal dislocation
• The temporality of relics and their power to transcend time
• Mysticism and queer or non-normative temporalities
• Liturgical time as a spiritual framework for mystical experience
• Tensions between earthly time and divine timelessness
• Memory, commemoration, and the making of sacred history
• (Dis)Engagement with current social, historical, and political conditions and crisis
• Childhood, maturity, and old age in mystical and hagiographical texts

We seek proposals for 15-20-minute papers, exploring these subjects from any discipline, region and medieval period. Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words along with a short bio to Einat Klafter and Philip Liston-Kraft at lifeandmystics@gmail.com by Monday, 22 September 2025.

Source : Mystical Theology Network