The Nous Society is a circle of friends centred on Christian mysticism. Our spirituality draws together three principal traditions, to which individual members may also add others:
- The Alexandrian/Dionysian tradition of the early Church
- Byzantine hesychasm
- European Renaissance mysticism/German mysticism
Beyond these traditions, the society is specifically connected to the spiritual heritage of two mystical circles of friends, the Flodberg Circle and the Bergman Circle, both mainly rooted in the German mystical tradition.
Theologians of particular importance to us include: Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Macrina and Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ephrem the Syrian, Isaac of Nineveh, (Pseudo-)Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, Symeon the New Theologian, Niketas Stethatos, Nikephoros the Monk, Gregory of Sinai, Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos, Dante Alighieri, Marguerite Porete, Meister Eckhart, the anonymous author of the Theologia Germanica, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Jacob Boehme, Robert Kirk, Georg Gichtel, John Pordage, William Blake, the anonymous author of A Watchful Mind, Sergius Bulgakov, Hjalmar Ekström, Linnea Hofgren, Dag Hammarskjöld and Bengt Hoffman.
The podcasts Den fördolda världen (The Hidden World) and Hjärtats bön (The Prayer of the Heart) have emanated out of the Nous Society, and they offer a good insight into the mystical theology that permeates the society.
Organisation
The organisation of the Nous Society draws inspiration from several sources, not least the Friends of God movement, which was active in the wake of Meister Eckhart. In more recent times, we have found inspiration in the Bergman Circle and the Flodberg Circle, which were organised precisely as circles of friends.
Our aim is to share the mystical life as a circle of friends. To make this possible on a stable footing, however, we have surrounded the circle with a formal organisation through which people can become acquainted with us and our spirituality.
Following the Alexandrian/Dionysian tradition of the early Church, we divide our mystagogy into three pedagogical stages:
- Purification/separation – for those seeking membership
- Illumination – for members
- Perfection/union/deification – for those who enter the circle of friends
The first two of these three stages are bound up with the formal organisation that surrounds the circle of friends. Our pedagogy rests on the idea that, rather than leaving one stage behind for the next, one adds each stage to the others until one knows all three together.
You are welcome to get in touch with us!