When the Head Bends
How the theologian becomes a mystic S1:S5
Welcome back to the final session of Semester One of The Altar of Moriah Academy. We have been together for eleven weeks. We have read Ratzinger slowly, inhabited Augustine, traced the Eucharist from Ignatius to Aquinas with Newman in our hand, and learned from Chesterton how to write what we have come to see. That is a lot of ground.
This week is different. This week is shorter. The Academy will return, but this particular five-session arc closes here. And the way a thing closes matters. A semester does not end with another lecture. It ends with what the lectures were always for.
So this week, we put down what we have built. And we let it become something else.
If you’re new to The Altar of Moriah, welcome. My name is Corné Gieselbach. I’m a theologian, author, and Chair of the Undergraduate program at TheosSeminary, with a PhD candidacy in historical dogmatics beginning this October. I publish every Monday. Paid subscribers receive every post alongside behind-the-scenes and workshop content. Free subscribers receive bi-weekly essays. If this piece resonates, consider subscribing to support the work.
Session Five closes the semester by turning. Our guide is St. Thomas Aquinas, the most precise theologian the CHurch has produced, and the most adoring. Our texts are Summa Theologiae III, q.73, a.3, and his Adoro te devote.
