John of the Cross’s “Dark Night” and Our Quest for Justice and Transcendence

Benedict Shoup is a doctoral candidate in systematic theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is currently writing a dissertation on the pneumatology and contemplative methodology—basically, the spiritual theory and practice—of the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic, John of the Cross. I met Benedict this past summer at a conference in Adelaide, Australia, where he gave a great talk on the ways John of the Cross’s mystical vision informs and potentially empowers seekers in our modern world.