Ecstasy (Catholic Encyclopedia article)
Augustin Poulain · 1913
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Description
Supernatural ecstasy is a state holding two elements while it lasts, one inward and unseen, one bodily and visible. A Catholic Encyclopedia entry explains the inward half: the mind fastens on a religious subject while the senses fall quiet, shutting out outer sensation. Considerable trouble follows in waking such sensation, whether the ecstatic wills it or others try to quicken the organs.
Hagiology attests ecstasies granted to many saints, and even today's free-thinkers hesitate to deny facts on so solid a base. They no longer try, as their eighteenth-century forebears did, to explain them away as fraud. Instead they seek natural causes at any cost, since their principles deny the supernatural, a move the entry notes with dry logic.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Augustin Poulain |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 1913 |
| COLLECTION | REFERENCE |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 9 KB |
| LICENSE | PUBLIC_DOMAIN |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | New Advent — Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) |