Divine Drunkenness, Mystical Madness

Why was such language once so common? Why has it nearly vanished?

Stained glass window in Canterbury Cathedral (photograph by Fr Lawrence Lew). The apostles under the Spirit’s influence were thought to be—not to put too fine a point on it—blotto.

A toping trope

Readers who spend any extended amount of time with premodern Christian literature will not fail to come across, sooner or later, references to the “drunkenness” …