Pathways to God

God is determined to reach out and have a relationship with every person, and does so through various means – music, nature, symbols, art, poetry, liturgy, dreams. That is a core belief of Sr Janet Ruffing, Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministerial Leadership at Yale University. She elaborated her thesis in All Hallows College Dublin, on Tuesday 11 October, in a lecture entitled Imagination: A Pathway to God. It was the inaugural memorial lecture for the late William Johnston SJ, renowned author on Christian and Eastern mysticism. Her talk was based on reserach interviews conducted with selected people who have had spritual experiences in the ‘cataphatic’ mystical tradition – namely experiences of God as mediated through nature, music, liturgy etc. Listen here to a wide-ranging interview with her by Pat Coyle. Janet begins by explaining what she means by ‘imagination’.