Thinker in the Presence of God

After World War II, the Frisian Carmelite Titus Brandsma became best known as a resistance hero who had stood up for freedom of speech. His canonization in 2022 therefore received extensive media coverage. The fact that his critical views on National Socialism before and during the occupation resonated so deeply shows that he had developed into a public intellectual whose voice was heard even beyond the Catholic world. His philosophical interest in mysticism, in particular, attracted attention during the interwar period; in cultural and social life, he offered a voice all his own. This intellectual biography of Titus Brandsma sheds surprising light on a broader current that shaped the culture of those days: a fascination with mysticism that also characterized artistic and political thought. Moreover, with his Carmelite background inspired by Teresa of Ávila, Brandsma took an unexpected stance regarding Catholic renewal and its struggle with modern culture. Inigo Bocken (1968) is a research fellow at the Titus Brandsma Institute in Nijmegen, a professor of mystical theology at KU Leuven, and an associate professor of religious and cultural theory at the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies at Radboud University in Nijmegen.