Program / Course 20: Spiritual Theology / Lesson 1.4
What you will learn
- Describe the three ways of purgation, illumination and union and where the pattern came from.
- Explain why writers used stages to describe the spiritual life and what they hoped to teach.
- State the main criticisms made of stage models, from Protestant, Orthodox and pastoral perspectives.
- Use stage language with caution, as a map and not as a measuring rod.
The big idea
Many Christian writers have described growth in prayer as a path with stages. The most famous scheme speaks of three ways: the purgative way (turning from sin), the illuminative way (growing in understanding and virtue) and the unitive way (loving union with God). The scheme helped teachers recognize where beginners and the advanced were, and what dangers each faced. Its critics say that real lives do not move in tidy steps, that the scheme can breed pride or anxiety, and that grace cannot be placed on a ladder. Most careful writers have used stages as a rough guide only.
Key terms
- Purgative way
- The first stage in the traditional scheme, in which a person turns from sin, learns repentance and begins to control disordered desires.
- Illuminative way
- The second stage, in which a person grows in understanding of Christ, in virtue and in prayer.
- Unitive way
- The third stage, in which a person is joined to God in a loving communion that the writers describe as a gift beyond ordinary effort.
- Dark night
- John of the Cross’s phrase for periods in which God seems absent and familiar consolations are removed, so that faith and love are purified.
- Consolation and desolation
- In Ignatian language, experiences of spiritual comfort and spiritual dryness or heaviness.
- Mystical theology
- In the tradition, the study of the knowledge and love of God that goes beyond ordinary reasoning. It does not mean strange experiences.
- Perfection
- In older spiritual writing, fullness of love and not freedom from every fault. Meanings differ by writer.
Background
Early Christian teachers already spoke of progress. Paul distinguishes between those who can take milk and those who can take solid food (1 Corinthians 3:2 and Hebrews 5:12-14). Origen, in the third century, read the Song of Songs and the journey of Israel as pictures of the soul’s ascent. Evagrius of Pontus, a desert writer of the fourth century, described a path from practical life (the struggle with passions) to the contemplation of creation to the contemplation of God. Gregory of Nyssa described the life of Moses as a journey from light to cloud to darkness, in which the soul learns that God is beyond grasp.
The three ways took their familiar form in the Middle Ages, drawing on the writings of a sixth-century author who wrote under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, mentioned in Acts 17:34. His real identity is unknown, and scholars call him Pseudo-Dionysius. He spoke of purification, illumination and perfection. Medieval writers such as Bonaventure took up the scheme, and later Teresa of Avila described the soul’s progress through seven dwelling places in The Interior Castle. John of the Cross described the dark night. Catholic manuals of spiritual theology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries organized all of this into a system.
The scheme has always had critics, and some of the most thoughtful critics are in the tradition itself. This lesson sets out the model, then the objections, then the sensible way to use both.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The purgative way
Beginners are described as struggling with sin and with scattered attention. Their work is repentance, the keeping of the commandments, regular prayer and the control of disordered appetites. Cassian’s teaching on the eight thoughts, studied in Module 2, belongs here.
The writers insist that this stage is never left behind completely. Even the saints continue to repent.
Step 2: The illuminative way
A person who has grown in repentance and steadiness is described as growing in light. They know Christ more clearly through Scripture and prayer, and virtue becomes more natural. Meditation on the Gospels is typical of this stage in the Western manuals.
The danger named here is spiritual pride: a person may begin to think they have arrived.
Step 3: The unitive way
In the unitive way, the writers speak of a loving communion with God that is more gift than achievement. Teresa describes the highest dwelling places as a spiritual marriage. Orthodox writers speak of theosis. Both insist that this is not a feeling to be pursued but a grace to be received, and that it shows itself in humility and charity, not in unusual experiences.
John of the Cross held that on the way a person may pass through a dark night, in which consolations are withdrawn so that faith and love can grow purer. He did not teach that all suffering is a dark night, and he warned that depression and sin should not be mistaken for it.
Step 4: The criticisms
Several objections are made. First, Protestant writers, following Luther, note that justified believers are at once righteous in Christ and still sinners, so the Christian is always both beginner and beloved child. A ladder suggests the gap with God narrows by effort, which Luther’s theology of the cross questions.
Second, many Orthodox and Catholic writers observe that real lives do not run in a line. A person can be advanced in prayer and a beginner in patience. Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun of the nineteenth century, taught a little way of trust and rejected a model of dramatic ascent.
Third, pastors note that the scheme can produce anxiety or pride. Some people measure themselves against the stages, and some spiritual directors have placed people in a stage on thin evidence. Many writers advise that no one should declare their own stage.
Step 5: A sensible use
Most careful teachers treat the three ways as a description of tendencies and not as a program. They also treat the sequence as overlapping: repentance continues, illumination deepens and union is glimpsed early in small ways. A student can use stage language to understand old texts and to recognize common patterns, while declining to rank themselves or others.
The Gospel image behind the scheme remains useful: the seed grows, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain (Mark 4:28). The farmer does not make it grow.
- Do I tend to measure my spiritual progress, and by what standard?
- Which of the three ways sounds closest to what I am working on now?
- What does it mean to be both a beginner and a beloved child?
- How do I tell the difference between spiritual dryness and neglect?
- Who in my life could help me see my own patterns without flattering me?
- What do I fear a stage model might say about me?
Examples
A beginner who is no beginner
A woman who prayed daily for thirty years discovers that she cannot forgive a family member. A spiritual guide tells her that this is a purgative task inside a mature prayer life, not a failure. The stages overlap. (A constructed example.)
A misused scheme
A young man reads about the unitive way and decides he is in it because he has had a few strong experiences of peace. He stops confessing his faults and becomes impatient with others. The tradition would call this a mistaking of consolation for union, and would advise him to seek the counsel of a wise guide. (A constructed example.)
The little way
Thérèse of Lisieux, who died in 1897, wrote that she was too small to climb the stairs of perfection and would rather be carried by God, like a child lifted in an elevator. She did not reject the tradition. She offered another way of describing trust.
Different perspectives
Catholic
Catholic spiritual theology has treated the three ways as a central teaching. Teresa and John of the Cross are Doctors of the Church. Catholic writers also warn against self-diagnosis and say a spiritual director’s judgment is needed, and the Catechism does not present the three ways as defined doctrine.
Orthodox
Orthodox writers describe a similar pattern of purification, illumination and theosis, especially in the Philokalia and in the monastic tradition. They stress that these are not steps one completes, and that the ascent depends on a guide and the life of the church.
Lutheran and Reformed Protestant
Luther’s phrase simul justus et peccator, at once righteous and a sinner, resists a ladder of ascent. Reformed writers speak of growth in sanctification and of the lifelong struggle against sin, but they decline to measure a person’s closeness to God by stages. They emphasize the believer’s continuing need of the gospel.
Wesleyan and Pietist Protestant
Wesley spoke of a way of salvation that includes new birth and growth toward perfect love, which is a stage-like model. Pietist writers also valued inward progress. Other Protestants criticize these models for encouraging self-examination that can become anxious.
Scholarly view
Scholars of mysticism debate whether the three ways describe actual experience or are a literary scheme laid over varied lives. Many hold that the scheme is useful for teaching, but that individual saints do not fit it neatly.
Why it matters
Almost every serious book on the spiritual life uses stage language, and a student who has not met it will find old texts confusing. Knowing the scheme and its critics also protects against two mistakes: the pride of thinking one has arrived and the discouragement of thinking one is nowhere. The tradition’s best teachers hold the map loosely.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The three ways are a ladder that every Christian must climb in order.
Correction: Most writers describe overlapping tendencies. People can be advanced in one area and a beginner in another, and repentance never ends.
Misunderstanding: Union with God means ecstatic experiences.
Correction: The great teachers say the opposite. They warn that unusual experiences are neither necessary nor reliable signs, and they judge union by humility and charity.
Misunderstanding: The dark night means any hard time.
Correction: John of the Cross described a specific purification of faith and love. Ordinary sadness, depression or sin should not be mistaken for it, and a person in distress should seek care.
Misunderstanding: Protestants reject any idea of spiritual growth.
Correction: Protestant traditions teach growth in sanctification. They resist models that make the believer’s standing before God depend on rank.
Knowledge check
Name the three ways and give a one-line description of each.
The purgative way is turning from sin and learning repentance. The illuminative way is growth in understanding, virtue and prayer. The unitive way is a loving communion with God that the writers describe as gift. They are tendencies that overlap, not sealed stages.
Who was Pseudo-Dionysius, and why does he matter here?
He was an unknown Christian writer of about the sixth century who wrote under the name of Paul’s convert in Acts 17:34. His threefold language of purification, illumination and perfection shaped medieval and later spiritual writing. His real identity is not known.
What objection does the phrase simul justus et peccator raise?
It says the Christian is at once righteous in Christ and still a sinner. That challenges any picture in which a person leaves sin behind in neat stages. Luther and others used it to keep attention on God’s mercy and not on the believer’s rank.
How should a student use stage models sensibly?
As a rough map for understanding texts and common patterns, with overlap and exceptions expected. The student should avoid ranking themselves or others, and should seek counsel from a wise guide before drawing conclusions about their own condition.
Think it through
- What do you gain and lose by thinking of the spiritual life as a path with stages?
- When have you mistaken a good feeling for spiritual maturity?
- Why might Thérèse have found the image of a staircase unhelpful?
- Which criticism of stage models do you find strongest?
Independent assignment
Weighing the model
In your notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Summarize the three ways in your own words. Then write two paragraphs: one on what the model helps a person see, and one on what a critic from another tradition would say against it. End with a sentence stating how you will use stage language in the rest of the course. Do not share this with anyone.
Further study
- Gregory of Nyssa, Dogmatic Treatises, etc. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 5) Read selectively for the early Eastern teaching on the soul’s growth toward God.
- Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church Read the chapters on the way of union for the Orthodox account.
- John Cassian, The Conferences Read a conference on prayer to see an early account of degrees of prayer.
- Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ Read selectively on the inner life and humility.
- Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will Read for Luther’s account of the believer’s dependence on grace.
- Mark 4:28 The seed grows by itself, first the blade, then the ear.
- Hebrews 5:14 Solid food belongs to those of full age.
- Philippians 3:13 Paul forgets what is behind and reaches forward.