On the representation of a dialogue with God

Mystical dialogue would seem to elude analysis, in that there are no witnesses. Catherine of Siena, a 14th-century Dominican “tertiary”, revealed her mystical experience to her confessor and secretaries, who set down her account and edited The Dialogue of Divine Providence, constructing a representation of the phenomenon based on what she told them. “A soul” (that of Catherine) engages in an exchange with God. He desires a renewal of His Church, and invites the world to take up a dialogue with Him. Is this a case of “ventriloquy”? No. This is God expressing Himself, in dialogue with a mystic. For us, the representation of this dialogue with God contains an “invention of the Other”. Keywords: dialogue; mysticism; Christianity; ventriloquy; communication