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What A Saint Am I! : The Self-Canonization Of Madame Jeanne-Marie Guyon In The Quietist Controversy Of Seventeenth-Century France, Jennifer Marie Lior Blacke

Dissertations and Theses

At the center of the heated Quietist Controversy in late seventeenthcentury France was Jeanne-Marie Guyon, whose writings and teachings on inner prayer were similar to those of recognized Catholic mystics. Unlike celebrated mystics, however, Mme Guyon expounded a doctrine which seemed to concentrate not only on holy indifference, but on herself as the sole mechanism by which others could attain union with God. A careful reading of the writings of Mme Guyon reveals a woman obsessed with herself --her salvation, her martyrdom, her popularity, and her superiority. Such a description corresponds perfectly with the suggestions of her foremost persecutor, the …